Every publisher has a host of projects underway at any given time; the question is how to manage them to get the best ROI out of the whole set, not just individual projects. Automation tools promise to help, but getting the right tool is as important as starting the right project.Automation is a buzz word that is becoming more and more prevalent among my peers. The concept of automation is certainly nothing new; I’ve been pushing my team to automate for years. I believed it would help us to streamline IT operations and support the mission to grow our low-cost, reliable, environmentally-sound energy business. So, I started my journey to see what all this buzz was about.
I soon discovered that automation is a very broad topic. There are many services to automate, many different ways to do it and each vendor believes they hold the ultimate truth. Choosing the right tools, the right vendor and the right tasks to automate is quite a daunting task, and it’s easy to bite off more than you can chew.
Even though each vendor promised to automate the world for me, I approached automation in a different way. I wanted to maximize my returns on any investment in automation; however, I also wanted to minimize my risk and learn more about the technology.
I wanted this to be a metrics-driven exercise, as well as a learning experience, so I could intelligently invest time and resources as appropriate. I created a new concept called “Automation Portfolio Management.” An automation portfolio is a set of one or more automated processes to provide a lights-out service. As your portfolio returns on your investment, you measure its effectiveness and gain insight into how automation works, how best to implement it within your own organization, and what types of returns to expect. Automated Portfolio Management is the science of evaluating your automation portfolio and choosing the best areas to pad your portfolio for the greatest returns.
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