EPISODE 053 - Organisation: How do I use automation effectively?

Michael Seidl: Welcome to a new episode of the Get Shit Done in IT podcast. My name is Michael Seidl and our topic of today is how do you use automation effectively? the one who knows me a little bit better should know that that's one of my favorite topics because we do a lot of automation. I do my business with it. Today we want to just have an overview of how to use automation right, was it the basics? there might be or there definitely will be a lot more aspects I don't mention today because we only have 10-15 minutes around. But if you're interested and if I have the feeling I missed too much today, we will have maybe some kind of series of a few episodes. But let me know what you think if you want to hear more details of the topic. Let me know and then we will do some more recordings about. But today we talk about the basics. So how do you use automation effectively? And the first one is to identify your recurring tasks or to-do's. And it's not only for you, it's for your whole company. And it's not only for the IT department, it's for every department. So see what you often do, see maybe where you have a lack of quality because automation is not only to save time, it's also to increase your quality and the outcome. Okay. So you have to identify your recurring tasks, what you often have to do, maybe more people have to do or involving and where you can improve. improve your quality. And then the other hand, it's a little bit like we did it. But that's maybe my mindset. I always think about how can I automate stuff that makes it on the other side sometimes complicated, not in this episode. We founded the company a few years ago and I like to do automation with customers. like to...

Michael Seidl: think about possibilities, how to solve something I like to think about or create ideas or solutions in the specific circumstances of the customer, because every customer is a little bit different, a little bit more different. They're using this tool, they're using that system, they're using that whatever. that's what I like to do, what I love to do, what we love to do here at Automator. What we don't love is all the other stuff that comes with the business. So especially for my part as I'm the business owner, I need to take care about the bookkeeping and invoicing and all the funny stuff. And that was my intention. how I decided what I want to automate. Because when I can automate it, then I do not have to do it by myself. And that was a huge point. That was my reason to find the pain points. I just don't like to do myself. So I had two options to find someone who likes to do it. But I want to keep my company simple, small and very specific. Yeah, I don't want to have to all those. overload and everything. of course, at the beginning, it's not so easy to find and of course, to pay someone else to do all those stuff. So the only decision or the only way to solve this was to automate all those stuff. some, maybe one or two processes we automated from the very beginning was our invoicing system and our project summary stuff. So basically, of course, we do our daily routines, our stuff, we note every to do and we write our hours we build to the customer. And then the end of the week, at least my understanding of being a good consultant is to send a summary of what we did, what is the outcome, what are the next steps, are we waiting for something. And this was always something

Michael Seidl: forgot and I haven't done it. I not done it in a good quality. So we created a system, the same system we need to write down our to-dos. What we did is the same source of sending those summary and this is automated. So once a week we send those things automatically to all our customers and contacts. So no, no consultant needs to be think about sending it. just needs to turn the switch on and then the mail goes out automatically based on the input during the week. The second one is we are sending out all the invoices once a month. And this was definitely something I don't want it to do by myself. The first one or two months I did. And then the pain point was huge enough. And at the beginning, we just sent, I don't know, five, six invoices per month. So not much, but I spent, I think two, three, four days in some. to have a solution what is automatically sending the invoices to our customers once a month. So I just need to turn on the switch and just do some controls sometimes. But mainly, our invoicing system is completely automated. So no double hourly. So we don't need to track our hours on different systems. There's one system, and we grab the information, and we send the invoices. So we decided to mainly in our decision, but it depends on the company. we have been a new company and my mindset is very automation-like or based. and every time I see a pain point, I don't want to do by myself, I do the automation. And of course, sometimes with more effort than it saves, but in the long time, it saves a lot. It increases standard and it saves time. for the invoicing system, as I said, at the beginning of three years, we sent five, six invoices per month. No return of investment. But right now, the same system, a little bit adopted, is sending 50, 60, 70. So seven zero invoices per month. And that's a huge saving in time and of course, increase of quality.

Michael Seidl: That's the thing how to identify automation. So one is a pain point, the need of saving time, the need of increasing quality and identifying the reoccurring tasks or to do's you have in your environment and in your company. The next one is to define or find the correct tool to automate. course. There are plenty of tools out there. In our case, we decided to eat our own dog food and that's what we are best at. We use PowerShell and H-Automation. So everything what I told before, the project summary, the invoicing, also some CRM tasks and everything else. Everything what is done in the company is automated with PowerShell and H-Automation in our case. But I cannot understand that PowerShell is not for everyone because you... Maybe do not have the knowledge. You don't want to be a deaf side note. You can hire us to do that side note over. But I completely can understand if you don't like to use PowerShell, but luckily there are a lot of plenty tools out there. So Power Automate from Microsoft, N8n or Zapier or a lot of plenty tools. Most of them are not a very low code. So you have those activities, you connect to each other and you configure. Then you have the on top, you have the possibility to add some code, some enhancements, but that depends a little bit on the tools. you can decide what tool fits you and your needs best. And of course it depends if you're more Microsoft related, then you might prefer to power automate if it If it's not, then you maybe try N8n or Sapir or all the other tools out there. Okay. So that should be no recommendation. Otherwise for PowerShell and Azure Automation, course. it depends what tools you need, what tools you like. Maybe some of your systems already include some tools to automate, but then most of them are related to that one ecosystem. And I think that the most advantage of automation is

Michael Seidl: to integrate different tools to each other. So for example, in our case, we do project management in Notion. We are sending emails, of course, with Outlook or Microsoft Exchange online. And we do invoicing with a different system. And our CM system is also a different one. So that's the advantage of automation and have the integrations in other systems. Then it really makes sense. So I would not prefer to have a single one automation engine in each solution. It would make more sense to have one solution which integrates to your different systems. So you can connect them and have more benefits. And here we have something called sales bullshit bingo. What comes in my mind? I have a phrase, the low hanging fruits. On the other hand, I just hate those phrase. On the other hand, it makes sense. But it's just a sales bullshit thing for me. But it makes sense in that case. When you have your workflows and when you have your tools, then you need to do a run. You need to try it. Please take an easy process where you can learn and easily start and quickly see some return of investment or some improvements. So don't start with your most complex process ever, because then you will be frustrated because you're new to automation, you're new to a new tool. And then you have two new things you have to learn, you have to dive into and everything. And then you start with the most complex process that will not end very well. So start easy from the bottom. I had one phrase recently from a customer. Crawl, walk, run. So start easy, then stand up and walk. And then if you're good, then you can run. So start easily, see the advantages of the new tool, how to do the react with your processes. And then would be the best idea to start to identify a low, an easy task to start with new tools. And the third one is then to...

Michael Seidl: integrate or to take care about all your employees and your team members. So I have never seen any project beside automation or anything else. What was a success when someone on top decided alone and pushed everything to the others. So those projects, what are affecting not only a single person, It is affecting the whole company, every department like automation or AI. Then it's very important to integrate and to get all your employees or your key employees on board. Okay. Also from the beginning on to identify those processes from the decision to start with automation, keep them on board, get them on board by identifying your, your reoccurring tasks. get them on board, keep them on board. To decide the tools, you maybe have only a small group of key users, because some of the tools are not only for the whole company. Some tools can also be helped by a single employee to automate their smaller stuff. But be prepared not to have a shadow IT or something like this, but it makes sense to have your key employees on board. on the decision of the tools. So they might also want to automate something by theirself. It depends, of course. And in the end, train them, help them to start with those tools. Okay. Because otherwise they will not accept it. Because if someone is just enabling a license of automation or AI and telling everyone, here's the AI use it. You might be lucky that someone, will dig into and say, yeah, cool, I like it. But most of them will just create some funny images and that's it. That's not really a good use case. And those licenses mostly are very expensive. So you need to find a way to teach them to take them on hand and

Michael Seidl: join their journey to those new tools, to this new way to work. So from the beginning to the end, until the life cycle, get them on board, keep them on board, train them, engage them, tell them, learn them, teach them, whatever, to work with those new tools. Otherwise, save the money and do whatever you like, but at the end, If you don't do automation, if you don't do AI, I don't think your company will survive, but that's a different topic. So if you seriously want to start with automation or AI, get your company and the employees on board. Otherwise it will fail. So save the money and do something else. But if you want to do it really good, get your company, your employees, your departments on board and do it together. Otherwise it will not work. So that's it. 15, 16 minutes already. It was a long episode. So if you want to see more details about automation and all those processes in companies and so on, if you do a more part episodes, more part series, let me know. Best would be LinkedIn. And then I will plan and record some more detailed episodes about automation. But that's for now, so I wish you a happy Monday, stay productive and bye bye!