How to approach

automation in
application support
and maintenance
Think big, but start small. A step-by-step approach Automation: The game changer
starts with breaking down end-to-end processes
into small bits and beginning automation with & the involved challenges
simple but high-impact use cases Implementation of automation in application
support and maintenance helps tackle issues like
manual error-prone processes, high cost, and
Application support and maintenance teams face limited resources, and enables enhanced efficiency
multiple challenges on a daily basis due to the and productivity. However, automation in application
complexities involved in their operations. support comes with its own set of challenges:

Automation can help change this state by bringing in

newer efficiencies. Automation helps operations to
People
be more predictive and preventive in an
ever-evolving environment. It not only helps Inability to identify use cases – Identification of
eliminate human errors and drive faster resolution use cases for automation can be a
of incidents but also enables the teams to focus on time-consuming exercise that needs involvement
specialized tasks instead of routine and repetitive from multiple teams
issues, thus helping prevent boredom in the team
and keeping them motivated. Dependency on individuals due to lack of
documentation – In the absence of proper
Challenges hindering effective documentation, knowledge typically resides with
couple of individuals. Overlooking some critical
application support and aspects will lead to the entire use case to fail in
maintenance the production environment

The application environments today are Lack of involvement – People consider

heterogeneous and most systems used for automation as a yet-another organization
supporting and maintaining applications are initiative. Identification of use cases, doing POC,
reactive and focus on fixing current issues. This testing, implementing it, change management,
leads to multiple challenges (See Figure 1) and lack etc. can be time-consuming activities. Motivating
of alignment to business goals. everyone to contribute towards automation can
be a challenge but people involvement is critical
to the success of automation

Process

Lack of unified processes across the organization

– Basic processes have to be implemented before
People Process Technology embarking on an automation journey

Business Complexity – Every business process

Need to Low customer may have multiple variants. Automating each
Complex IT
improve satisfaction variant might be difficult and may not give the
landscape
productivity Repeated desired ROI
leading to
and efficiency tickets delays in
People without Wrong approach taken for automation – The most
issue
dependent proper common approach taken for automation is to look
resolution
Multiple teams information for plug and play options or look through the
Continuous
and lack of partner ecosystem for automation solution. If
deployment
ownership something is not available or doesn’t completely
Reactive
Team retention solve the problem, it’s written off
operations
and motivation rather than
Absence of central governance – Automation is not
predictive
the job of just the support team. There has to be a
and
central team governing and encouraging
preventive
automation across multiple teams. Multiple teams
Figure 1: Challenges in application support and maintenance might have to come together to make it possible.

2
 Technology The apt approach to automation
So, how do we approach automation? First and
Ever-changing IT landscape – Multiple releases
foremost, we need to understand that automation is
happening every now and then, new applications
a journey which has to start from within. The starting
getting added, addition of SaaS applications, etc.
point lies in existing tools and infrastructure. It is
can make automation challenging
essential to start with simple but high-impact use
cases. The focus should not be on automating
High degree of customization – Customizations,
end-to-end process, but breaking it down to pieces
especially in ERP environments, always increase
and beginning automation with small steps. For
the complexity when adding anything new in the
example, before a support engineer deep dives into
application
the system to investigate the issue, automation can
help him/her gather the basic information by
Considering automation as one-time activity –
traversing through multiple related transactions and
Once automation is done, people become compla-
applications. Even better would be to update the
cent. It’s important to remember that automation
ticket with all the information gathered, even before
is a journey and not a one-time activity. Continu-
he/she starts working on the ticket.
ously training and retraining the models, looking
at value delivered and identifying new automation
opportunities is the key

Self-help tools for issues Chat bots to resolve Service request automation RPA based automation to
like password resets “how to’ issues using Orchestrator reduce manual activities
Bots to correct the data Chat bots for enquiries Automation of requests based
and re-initiate the and status updates on workflow approvals, e.g.,
process access to certain
Bots to generate required applications, folders, etc.
reports themselves
User
(based on authorizations)

Self-help Cognitive ITSM Applications

tool chat bot
Platform to correct the Chat bot to gather all Based on the information in Anomaly detection and
data and re-initiate the the information ticket, check the knowledge automated resolution of
process from user at the time of bank and provide possible issues before they are
Platform to generate ticket creation, thereby solutions raised by users
required reports saving time and efforts Based on the information in Proactive monitoring of
Support themselves, based on ticket, connect to systems/and issues like IDOC failures,
organization authorizations gather all the technical batch job failures, file
information needed to help transfer, etc
resolve the issue thereby Automation routine tasks
saving time and efforts like generating reports,
Go a step further by using OCR and sending them at
technology to read the stipulated time.
documents attached in the Automation of other
ticket and gather all the routine tasks like, pre and
information related to post validations, system
the data start and stops, etc

Figure 2 explores how automation can be enabled at each level of support ecosystem

To summarize, take a step-by-step approach. Start part of organization’s DNA and involve larger
small but think big. It will give confidence to the groups/ teams.
organization and make the journey easier. It is
important to remember that automation is not a job Lastly, automation should not be seen as a mission to
of one particular individual or group. It has to be a reduce manpower. Instead, it should be seen as a way
important to remember that automation is not a job to help humans do more value-added jobs and leave
of one particular individual or group. It has to be a repetitive and mundane jobs to bots.

3
About the Author

Anmol Srivastava
Strategic Manager,
Wipro HOLMES™

Anmol is an automation consultant helping experience across multiple applications including

organizations embark on their automation journey. In ERPs, and knowledge of AI, helps him define
his 18+ years’ experience, he has played multiple customized automation solutions for customers.
roles in Consulting, Solution Architecture, Program
Management and Service Delivery. Anmol’s extensive
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