Automation Archives - IT Glue https://www.itglue.com/blog/category/business-enablement/operational-efficiency/automation/ Truly Powerful IT Documentation Software Wed, 04 Sep 2024 10:06:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 https://www.itglue.com/wp-content/uploads/cropped-logomark-itglue-black@4x-32x32.png Automation Archives - IT Glue https://www.itglue.com/blog/category/business-enablement/operational-efficiency/automation/ 32 32 How to Create Network Diagrams Automatically https://www.itglue.com/blog/create-network-diagram-automatically/ Thu, 09 May 2024 14:58:44 +0000 https://www.itglue.com/?p=16141 Efficiency and clarity are more crucial than ever in network management. Network diagrams are vital for comprehending and managing complex networks, showing how different components connect. Traditionally, these diagrams were manually made, a process prone to errors and to becoming outdated as networks changed

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Efficiency and clarity are more crucial than ever in network management. Network diagrams are vital for comprehending and managing complex networks, showing how different components connect. Traditionally, these diagrams were manually made, a process prone to errors and to becoming outdated as networks changed. Now, automated tools for creating network diagrams have changed the game. They save time, increase accuracy and improve how we see and document networks. In this blog, we’ll explore how IT Glue’s Network Glue not only makes network diagramming easier but also provides significant advantages through its advanced features.

What are automated network diagram tools?

Automated network diagram tools are software solutions designed to create network diagrams without manual intervention. These tools automatically discover network devices, map network topology and generate up-to-date network diagrams. This capability is crucial for IT administrators and network managers who require real-time insights into their network infrastructure.

How does automatic network diagram creation work?

The process of automatic network diagram creation involves several key steps:

  • Discovery: Software scans the network to identify all connected devices, such as routers, switches, servers and endpoints.
  • Topology mapping: It then creates a visual representation of how these devices are interconnected.
  • Device enumeration: Each device’s details, like IP addresses, hostnames and device types, are catalogued.
  • Link analysis: The software examines network links to determine connectivity and bandwidth utilization.
  • Diagram generation: Finally, it compiles this information into a comprehensive network diagram.

These steps ensure that the network diagrams are always current, reflecting the live status of the network, which is essential for effective network management and troubleshooting.

Benefits of automatically creating network diagrams

Automating the creation of network diagrams is a transformative approach that significantly enhances network management. By shifting from manual to automated processes, organizations can expect a multitude of benefits. This section outlines the key advantages of automating network diagram creation, highlighting how it can streamline operations and enhance overall network management.

  • Time savings: Eliminates the labor-intensive process of manual diagramming.
  • Accurate representation: Ensures diagrams are always current, reducing the risk of errors.
  • Visibility: Provides clear insights into network architecture, aiding in troubleshooting and optimization.
  • Documentation: Serves as up-to-date documentation of the network infrastructure, important for planning and audits.
  • Consistency: Maintains uniformity in diagram formats and labeling across documentation.

From saving time to ensuring accurate and consistent documentation, the advantages are clear. Embracing this technology not only simplifies the management of complex networks but also supports more strategic planning and efficient problem resolution. As networks grow and change, having up-to-date and precise diagrams is indispensable for any organization committed to robust network management.

Key features and functionality of automated tools

Automated network diagram tools are equipped with a variety of features designed to streamline network management. These tools address some of the most common challenges faced by IT professionals today by ensuring that network diagrams are both accurate and easy to maintain. This section outlines the key features and functionalities that make automated tools essential for modern network management.

  • Real-time updates: Continuously monitors and updates diagrams to reflect network changes.
  • Customization: Allows customization of diagrams for better clarity and relevance.
  • Integration: Works with other IT management tools for seamless operations and enhanced data utilization.

The features of automated network diagram tools — real-time updates, customization, and integration — dramatically enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of network management. By leveraging these tools, IT professionals can ensure that their network diagrams are not only up to date but also tailored to meet the specific needs of their organization and fully integrated with their overall IT infrastructure. This leads to better-informed decisions and a more robust understanding of the network’s structure and performance.

IT Glue Network Glue: A solution for network diagram automation

Network Glue, part of IT Glue’s suite of solutions, stands out as a leading tool in automated network diagramming. It not only automates the entire process but also integrates seamlessly with IT Glue’s comprehensive documentation platform. This integration provides IT teams with a centralized view of their network and documentation, enhancing operational efficiency and decision-making.

Why businesses should consider IT Glue Network Glue

Choosing Network Glue for network diagram automation allows businesses to leverage advanced discovery capabilities, detailed and dynamic visualizations of network topology, and robust integration with documentation tools. These features make it an indispensable tool for enhancing network management practices.

To discover firsthand how IT Glue’s Network Glue can transform your network diagramming tasks into a streamlined, automated process, we invite you to learn more by watching this on-demand webinar on successful network diagramming and documentation. For a deeper dive into Network Glue’s capabilities and to start using this powerful tool, visit the Network Glue product page.

Embrace the future of network management with IT Glue’s Network Glue and turn the complexity of network diagramming into a straightforward, automated task that supports your business’s growth and technological advancement.

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Documentation Automation: How it Works & Key Benefits https://www.itglue.com/blog/documentation-automation/ Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:13:13 +0000 https://www.itglue.com/?post_type=blog_posts&p=11136 Automated documentation boosts productivity and delivers a range of other benefits to your organization by minimizing human interaction. Learn how.

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Over the years, documentation has become a critical part of IT management. With everything from device information to internal SOPs, documentation is essential in delivering structured information about an IT ecosystem. However, creating and maintaining these records is no easy feat. Without documentation automation, you will be spending too much time organizing complex information and generating usable data.

When you automate this process, you can save valuable time that can be spent on other revenue-generating tasks. In this blog, we shall explore the various aspects of documentation automation and how it can help you can boost organizational efficiency.

What is documentation automation?

Document automation refers to the process of capturing valuable information from your IT environment and transforming it into knowledge for reuse. You can do this with the help of various smart templates. With effective implementation, automated documentation can help in the creation of accurate, high-value, critical documents that ensure the success of your organization.

By automating your documentation system, you can boost efficiency in the knowledge management process and reduce inaccuracies that may lead to various risks.

What is documentation automation software?

documentation automation software equips you with the technology required to automate the documentation process. Proper documentation requires a lot of time and effort to create. Considering the evolving needs of organizations in today’s IT environment, manual documentation can be a slow and painful process.

Automated documentation software exists mainly to overcome this challenge. Using various documentation templates, you can speed up the process of document creation throughout your IT network. In addition to ensuring high accuracy, this software also saves a lot of time and gets complex documentation done in a matter of minutes.

What are the core criteria for documentation automation?

There are certain requirements to be considered before you decide to automate your documentation. Do you have a structure for your documents? If not, you need to create one. You need to have a structure or template to automate your documentation. This template should have standardized fields applicable to all documents. Once you have created a structure, you can proceed with automation documentation through integrations, API and network discovery tools.

How does documentation automation software work?

Once you connect your documentation software with your IT environment, you can create rules to read and document account data. For other third-party tools in your network, you can use the RESTful API in the documentation tool for integration. Once everything is integrated, your documentation tool will start gathering information for documentation.

With templates, you can identify the exact information that needs to be documented during a process. For instance, if you are using the tool to document new device information, you can create a template with fields for device type, operating system, capacity, department, etc. Whenever new endpoints are added to your IT network, this tool can capture all the required information.

How does automation improve documentation?

Automation can improve your documentation process in various ways. From improving control over the process to reducing the time taken to create and store documents, automation can go a long way in contributing to your business growth.

Let’s check out some of the ways in which automation can improve IT documentation:

Simplification of tasks

IT documentation is a complex process. Everything from compliance processes to creating standard operating procedures (SOPs) requires a lot of effort and paperwork. With automation, you can simplify the whole process and do it more efficiently.

Minimized risk of human error

By reducing manual effort in documentation, you can significantly eliminate the possibility of human errors. This also reduces the possibility of inaccurate information from being used in critical decisions.

Increased speed & precision

When you automate the documentation process, you can also improve the speed and precision of document creation. Automated documentation takes only a fraction of time compared to manual documentation.

Reduced variability

Consistency is the key when it comes to knowledge creation. Automation can deliver that and more. With automated documentation, you can ensure consistency throughout your documents and significantly reduce variability.

Improved scalability

Since automation documentation is quick, accurate and simple, it is also easy to scale. You can add a new process to the IT environment and start documenting them instantly. All you have to do here is to create some additional rules and templates.

Listen to our webinar to learn how automated documentation can shape up your MSP’s future.

What are the organizational benefits of documentation automation?

When you automate the documentation process, it requires almost zero human interaction. This is where you derive the most value from documentation. By removing technicians from manual documentation, you can save a lot of valuable time and allow them to focus on other core tasks. This boosts your overall productivity.

Besides higher productivity, automation can also deliver a range of other benefits to your organization. Let’s take a look at them one by one.

Increased productivity

IT automation facilitates time management and allows your technicians to focus on other critical tasks. This frees them up from spending too much time on boring, repetitive tasks. With this additional time, they can develop a deeper understanding of customer networks and streamline key operations. By shifting technician focus away from common, mundane tasks, you can boost productivity and efficiency in your organization.

Lower costs

In this age of remote work and hybrid work environments, MSPs are pressured to quickly adapt to their clients’ changing digital infrastructures. This requires them to cater to new service requests. As a result, costs increase drastically. With automated documentation, MSPs can streamline the documentation process and identify ways of cost savings without compromising the quality of their service delivery. This allows them to invest in the right technological tools and grow their business even further.

Better service quality

Automation has the power to reduce the workload of technicians while improving the quality of their services. Automation solutions give them the tools necessary to handle more complex tasks and help their staff monitor and manage networks more efficiently. The same goes for automated documentation as well. With automated documentation, you can streamline your service delivery process and ensure better quality.

Competitive advantage

When you automate your manual processes, you can gain a competitive advantage in your industry. Automation tools allow you to reach new and bigger customers without compromising personalization or quality. MSPs that take advantage of automation can simultaneously scale by updating their knowledge base, keeping their clients’ networks safe and reaching new targets.

Embrace documentation automation with IT Glue

IT Glue is a leading player in the industry when it comes to automated IT documentation. As a leading cloud-based documentation platform, IT Glue comes with over 45+ integrations, an open API and an automated network discovery tool. This allows you to boost efficiency in your process, eliminate human errors and bring down your costs significantly.

IT Glue’s SOC 2-compliant documentation platform features an immutable audit trail, network discovery, diagramming and more. All these features are fully integrated and linked with all your documentation.

To know more about how IT Glue can automate your documentation process, request a demo.

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How Smart Documentation Can Keep Your Business Running During Holiday Season https://www.itglue.com/blog/how-smart-documentation-helps-during-holiday-season/ Thu, 25 Nov 2021 16:45:52 +0000 https://www.itglue.com/?post_type=blog_posts&p=11093 In this article, we'll explore how smart documentation can keep your business up and running even during the most demanding time of the year.

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While the holiday season is all about spending time with family and having fun, it is also the most demanding time of the year for those running a business. If you are running an MSP, you are most likely juggling celebrating, shopping, traveling, entertaining and a whole lot more while also trying to keep your business running to close out the year in the black.

In addition to holiday activities, you may also have to deal with multiple challenges on the business front, including approving vacation leaves for employees and consequently having a smaller team on hand to manage higher than usual service requests and to finalize budgets for the new year

If you don’t want to be overwhelmed during this holiday season, the best solution you can employ is smart documentation. In this article, we’ll explore how smart documentation can keep your business up and running even during the most demanding time of the year.

1. Provides automation

Documentation helps decrease dependency and makes the process more self-reliant. Therefore, the chances of delays or things going off track can reduce. When you automate the documentation process, your team can do more with fewer resources and manage service requests even with fewer technicians. Most importantly, automation makes the process more efficient and the time saved can be utilized elsewhere. During the holiday season, resource allocation could prove to be a huge issue. When your processes get more efficient, your team can manage tasks more effectively and keep your business running smoothly.

2. Helps with prioritization

Creating checklists and documenting upcoming tasks will help you prioritize better, enabling you to complete important tasks on time. Hence, you will have less workload during the holiday season. Planning is a critical part of dealing with challenges. Documentation helps you plan ahead and deal with challenging scenarios effectively.

Technicians can easily take up their tasks based on priority and manage their workload effectively. When you plan ahead and prioritize tasks, you can also create contingency plans to minimize losses when things go out of control. This is essential if you want your business to run smoothly even when you are not there.

3. Standardizes process

MSPs often support multiple clients. Internal IT departments, on the other hand, support multiple departments within their organization. Without a standard process, technicians will follow random solutions when fixing things, which creates a possibility of confusion for other technicians who happen to work on a similar task. Documentation will ensure a standard procedure for each task. Even when someone is on leave, clients or other team members won’t have to suffer.

With a documentation tool, you can create standard operating procedures (SOPs) and share them with your team members. High-end documentation tools like IT Glue can also provide you with a standard template to easily capture your SOPs and illustrate them with screenshots or other reference images.

4. Maintains consistency

When you document your processes, it brings consistency to your operations. Without consistency, you are likely to face many issues when dealing with IT problems. This becomes a crucial factor during holiday seasons when you are running short of resources. If you are unable to attend to client requests, it can lead to dissatisfaction and can affect your business adversely in the long run.

Increasing or gaining more business during the holiday season might be difficult but losing it is in our own hands. Documentation will ensure that you stay consistent and keep your clients happy even with the shortage of manpower or other resources.

How IT Glue can help

IT Glue is a smart documentation solution that provides a documentation roadmap for MSPs and IT departments to make their work easy and efficient. IT Glue can also act as a central hub for all your data and processes. Documentation can promote a culture of smart work, help individuals to follow a consistent approach towards their daily tasks, decrease dependency and standardize processes across teams, which in turn ensures minimum loss of focus and productivity.

IT Glue’s SOC 2-compliant documentation platform features an immutable audit trail, multifactor authentication and next-generation password management engine, all of which are fully integrated and linked with all your documentation. All these exciting features can help you run your business smoothly during the holiday season.

Learn more about how IT Glue can help run your business by requesting a demo.

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Leveraging Automation to Upscale Your MSP https://www.itglue.com/blog/leveraging-automation-to-upscale-your-msp/ Fri, 08 Oct 2021 15:49:49 +0000 https://www.itglue.com/?post_type=blog_posts&p=10833 In this blog, we’ll discuss the importance of automation in today’s digital transition and how you can leverage it to upscale your MSP business.

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We are currently in the midst of a major digital transition where businesses are relying on new technological solutions to gain a competitive advantage. Among the many digital transitions accelerated by the pandemic, automation is a key one. Automation allows your MSP to free up resources from mundane tasks and enables you to focus on core tasks that matter. This enables businesses to scale properly without adding any additional resources.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the importance of automation in today’s digital transition and how you can leverage it to upscale your MSP business.

Need for Automation in Scaling Your Business

Scaling your MSP is different from growing it. You need to understand this key difference if you want to compete effectively in a crowded MSP market. While you can certainly grow your MSP simply by acquiring more customers and gaining more revenue, if you simultaneously add extra resources and increase your operational costs, it doesn’t exactly count as scaling.

Effective scaling requires lowering or maintaining operational costs while growing your business. To make this happen, your operations need to become efficient. This is where automation can help you. By automating a range of routine tasks, you can free up multiple hours of your technicians’ time that can be spent on core tasks that can boost your revenue.

When your MSP becomes more efficient, you can handle more work without the need to invest in additional resources. Besides, you can also complete many tasks parallelly with the help of automation. This helps you save time and money in the long run.

How to Start Automation in Your MSP

Successful automation starts by identifying processes where you spend more energy than you should. For instance, manually discovering all devices and adding them to your network can be extremely difficult. This is especially true if you have a growing IT environment where new devices are added periodically. By replacing this process with a tool that automates device discovery, you can prevent technicians from wasting their valuable time and streamline this workflow.

Similarly, you need to find the right tools that can automate all the redundant processes in your MSP. If you manage to do this, you can easily serve more clients without increasing operational costs. Most importantly, you don’t even have to say no to a client due to inadequate capacity.

Significance of Documentation Automation

If you are worried about how to get started with automation in your MSP, you need to get your documentation in order first. Manual documentation can be quite exhausting and cumbersome. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. By automating your documentation, you can collect valuable information about your critical processes.

When your information is up to date and readily available, your technicians can perform their tasks much more efficiently. With a robust documentation automation tool, you can even integrate your IT tools, such as RMM and PSA, to get key inputs about various IT tasks. This provides a great deal of value to your MSP and changes your perspective on how to get things done in a timely manner.

How IT Glue Can Help You

IT Glue is a leading cloud-based documentation platform that can help you automate the entire documentation process with integrations and open API. With this robust tool, all your mission-critical information can be easily accessed at any time.

IT Glue’s SOC 2-compliant documentation platform features an immutable audit trail, multifactor authentication and next-generation password management engine, all of which are fully integrated and linked with all your documentation.

To know more about how IT Glue can help scale your MSP, request a demo!

Request Your Demo Here!

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The Best Documentation Automation Software https://www.itglue.com/blog/best-documentation-automation-software/ Wed, 25 Nov 2020 21:27:41 +0000 https://www.itglue.com/?post_type=blog_posts&p=8653 Want amazing documentation? Of course you do. Do you also want amazing documentation that is easy to create and then use to improve the way you do your job?

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Want amazing documentation? Of course you do. Do you also want amazing documentation that is easy to create and then use to improve the way you do your job? Absolutely.

So how do you get there? We all know that documentation takes time and effort to create, and we also know that the more manual effort you have to put into it, the less you’re going to document.

The key to having great documentation that adds value to your business is to automate as much of it as humanly possible. Let’s take a look at how to do that.

We’re going to assume that you’re planning to document in IT Glue. I may be a little biased, but IT Glue is by far the most mature product on the market, and quite frankly if you take documentation seriously you wouldn’t use anything else.

IT Glue has a lot of built in automation, in our 30+ native integrations, and all the integrations that other companies have built using our RESTFUL API. Then, we have Network Glue, which automates network discovery, documentation and diagramming.

Our partner base is pretty engaged as well, and has created a variety of scripts to help automate even more things, and on our Git repo you can find tools to help you build your own automation. Not bad, right?

What’s more, because we’re the industry standard, other companies have built tools to help get automate even more documentation. We ran a webinar series with Liongard where we talked about this.

There’s a lot of valuable things to document, so what you really want to focus on is finding a tool that gives you options. Look for a documentation system that is comprehensive, lets you document as much as possible, and lets you automate as much as possible. Doing it manually just doesn’t make sense anymore.

To learn more about automating documentation with IT Glue, why not check out our API Whitepaper.

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Driving Agility: Integrations and Automation https://www.itglue.com/blog/driving-agility-integrations-automation/ Mon, 29 Jun 2020 18:03:15 +0000 https://www.itglue.com/?post_type=blog_posts&p=8037 An agile organizations relies on tight-knit teams that work together seamlessly. When it comes to IT, the same needs to be true for your tech stack.

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In this second installment of Driving Agility, the focus will be placed on integrations and automation. When faced with unexpected events, the ability to respond quickly and do more with less is often an important part of survival. Obviously, when things are automated, much of the heavy lifting and tedious processes are taken care of.

IT Glue has the highest number of integrations of all IT documentation platforms, so rather than considering all of them, we’ll take a look at two brand new integrations we’ve released that bring a level of automation that isn’t found elsewhere.

Professional Service Automation (PSA) Integration 

As an MSP, your team has to juggle multiple clients and end users. Keeping all the balls in the air requires a solid way to manage contacts. An effective PSA serves this purpose, but one with deep integrations with your documentation platform—even better. IT Glue’s integration with BMS hits the mark. Now when a ticket is received, documentation in IT Glue is automatically pulled up within the BMS interface, including contextual information, such as the Configuration, Organization, Contact, and Location, and also documentation related to a given ticket, like SOPs and passwords.

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) Integration and Automation

Creating and executing scripts through an RMM (“automations”) reduces manual processes to a single click of the mouse. We just released a feature that now allows VSA users to execute automations right within the IT Glue interface, eliminating the need to toggle between windows.

Let’s take a look at some scenarios where these integrations would especially prove their immense value.

Scenario 1: Economic Recession

Interruptions in the market lead to unpredictable cashflow and a high likelihood of having to reduce expenses through layoffs. When your team shrinks, there’s no time for long, drawn out workflows, and you need everyone to be able to pick up the slack.

Say, for example, if a ticket is received and opened by an inexperienced technician. This individual doesn’t have the depth of knowledge and experience that’s ideal, but may have been retained because they’re new and annual compensation was comparatively insignificant to the budget. While this inexperience may have inhibited their ability to service the ticket, but because of the integration between BMS and IT Glue, step by step instructions stored in IT Glue on how to troubleshoot the end user’s issue are automatically pulled up in BMS, and the inexperienced technician can simple follow the step by step instructions.

Scenario 2: Natural Disaster

Consider the following scenario, which might sound familiar. The threat of a widespread viral infection forces the government to mandate the immediate closure of businesses and that all citizens should self-quarantine indefinitely.

Now that many of your clients are working remotely, additional security measures need to be in place to compensate for the security vulnerabilities from end users working from home and accessing company files and platforms. Maybe you need to quickly ensure all software is up-to-date or install additional security applications. Remotely logging into each device and completing these tasks is time consuming and labor intensive.

Through the integration between VSA and IT Glue, all that needs to be done is for a create and execute a script that will accomplish this automatically. Making these updates on an end users device becomes as easy as navigating to the workstation and clicking the button to execute the automation.

These are just a couple examples of how integrations and automations enhance your MSPs ability to function during challenging times. The list of situations where these integrations come in handy are endless.

IT Glue is an award-winning documentation platform used by over 150,000 individuals in 50+ countries. It brings together all of your IT information, striking a perfect balance between structured and flexibility. It’s a must-have for any IT professional.

Yes, I’d like a demo!

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How to do More with Less https://www.itglue.com/blog/do-more-with-less/ Fri, 22 May 2020 18:04:12 +0000 https://www.itglue.com/?post_type=blog_posts&p=7838 The first step to doing more with less is to recognize that there are things you simply have no control over. We all get 24 hours of time each day. If your customers are on lockdown and can't make money, your cash flow is going to take a hit.

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Everybody wants to do more with less. It’s one of those things that’s easy to say, not so easy to do. In normal times, we prefer to think in terms of doing more with more. Consider your personal life. It’s easier to think about getting a big raise than it is to think about cutting your monthly expenses. But that’s not how 2020 has been rolling so far. 2020 has been all about doing more with less, and doing things radically different from the norm, so let’s take a look at what that really means.

The first step to doing more with less is to recognize that there are things you simply have no control over. We all get 24 hours of time each day. If your customers are on lockdown and can’t make money, your cash flow is going to take a hit. Yes, you can increase your marketing and sales efforts, but let’s assume you have no control and have to live in a world with a fixed amount of time and fixed or decreasing revenue.

#1 – Increase Efficiency

The number one way to increase productivity is to work more efficiently. Schools of thought like lean, or programs like Six Sigma, focus on extracting incremental improvements through rigorous examination of key repeated processes, the goal being to eliminate any inefficiency in the system.

A good way to conceptualize this is to think about the actual work you need to do – the stuff you get paid for. Everything else is what is known as the space between. That’s looking up passwords, asking teammates how to do something, or searching for information. That space in between is a source of inefficiency, and if you can reduce the space between, you’ll see your efficiency increase. Ultimately, the more closely your tools work together, the less space between you’ll have. The more you’ve got documented – and the ease with which you can find that documentation – plays a huge role in improving efficiency.

We’ve built our entire business on this – both in our product and in how we operate. When we say we cut your wasted time – that space between – by 50% or more, we mean it. And the best part is that we’re working hard to reduce the space between other key tools in your stack.

#2 – Look for Modern Solutions

One of the biggest challenges that we have is our collective hesitation to change our technology, even after it becomes dated. There’s a certain logic to it, because we like what’s comfortable, and new systems always come with learning curves. But sooner or later, your older, dated tech will be supplanted in the marketplace. But when it does come time to change your key tools, make that change strategic in nature, not reactionary.

That means understanding what you need from a given tool, and what each tool in that category can give you. For example, depending on how you use your PSA, you might not need the world’s most sophisticated one. To use documentation as another example, consider whether you’re buying it to “have documentation” or buying it to overhaul your operational efficiency. Knowing what you are trying to achieve makes all the different in the world when evaluating solutions.

Getting the right stack, with a special focused on removing friction and chokepoints, is an important part of doing more with less.

#3 – Build Momentum

One of the things about the above two points is that you’re sending a signal to your staff that you aren’t just going to ask them to work harder, or work longer hours, but that you’re going to support them in becoming more efficient. In the short run, you can always ask people to work harder. But in the long run, they’ll burn out and there will be turnover. It’s not sustainable. In the long run, you want your team to be more efficient and to get more done, but to achieve those goals without any increase in stress or anxiety.

Build momentum by way of improving processes and reducing wasted time, and your team should appreciate being able to get more done while simultaneously reducing stress. Once that happens, there will be more belief, and better buy-in for your efforts to improve. Don’t expect your team to believe it’s possible to do more with less until they see it with their own yes.

One of the things we’re doing at IT Glue to help you do more with less is continuing to build deeper workflow integrations to help you remove the spaces between that eat up your time and effort. We’ve improved our ConnectWise integration, and done some amazing things to bring about deep workflow integrations with Kaseya VSA and BMS. The Kaseya folks call it profit fuel, we just call it doing more with less. But whatever tool you use, take a look at our demo to get a feel for how IT Glue has helped over 8,500 partners do more with less these past six years.

Yes, I’d Like a Demo

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Feature Release: Execute VSA Automation in IT Glue https://www.itglue.com/blog/feature-execute-vsa-automation/ Thu, 14 May 2020 17:28:09 +0000 https://www.itglue.com/?post_type=blog_posts&p=7798 With this new feature, executing scripts has never been easier. Now technicians can execute VSA automation right within IT Glue.

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Adhering to the motto ‘do more with less’, technicians are always looking for ways to resolve tickets faster.

Automation is an attractive way to not only save time but also scale for growth through maximized productivity. Many MSPs choose to automate common IT processes by creating and executing scripts through their RMM (“automations”). This not only eliminates the manual process for technicians to remotely log into a computer to perform a task, but it also allows for auto-remediation to happen so that a ticket never lands on a technician’s desk, all while reducing instances of human-error.

Now VSA and IT Glue users can execute one of the most common RMM tasks, running automations, right within IT Glue. Nobody likes having to toggle between windows—and doing so when running routine, automated tasks just feels especially egregious. With this new feature, that’s no longer the case.

This also opens up the opportunity to empower junior technicians to be able to easily execute automations in a comparatively less technical interface, all while reducing the number of steps and clicks needed to do so.

For more information on this new feature check out the Knowledge Base article.

IT Glue is an award-winning IT documentation platform that brings together dispersed information and integrates with existing tools to provide a centralized, single source of truth. With over 150,000 users in 50+ countries, IT Glue is a must-have tool in any tech stack. Get a demo and see why!

If you found this article helpful, why not take a quick demo of IT Glue. We’ve saved our partners literally millions of hours of wasted time, and you should be taking advantage of our documentation platform, too.

Yes, I’d Like a Demo

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How to Reduce Stress in Your MSP https://www.itglue.com/blog/national-stress-awareness-day/ Tue, 06 Nov 2018 19:12:09 +0000 https://www.itglue.com/?post_type=blog_posts&p=4899 The less stress, the more success. It’s that simple, and yet statistics show it’s also incredibly difficult for businesses to achieve. We put together some key tips on how you can get started tackling stress in your own workplace.

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The less stress, the more success. It’s that simple, and yet statistics show it’s also incredibly difficult for businesses to achieve. The American Institute of Stress reports that job stress is the biggest source of stress for Americans, and outcomes include heart attack, hypertension and worse. 90% of Americans report some stress on the job, and 40% report extreme stress. On the other side of the border, one in four Canadians cite stress as the reason for leaving their job. If you run a business, managing stress matters.

Today marks National Stress Awareness Day, and it feels like there’s no better time than now to dive into how you can reduce stress in your own workplace. Don’t get me wrong – we can’t solve this problem overnight. But with sure-footed baby steps in the right direction, we’ll be on our way.

Communication

How well does your team communicate with one another? If there’s one thing a degree in Communication taught me, it’s the heavy weight that miscommunication has on our interactions with others.

Having a lack of communication, or struggling with miscommunication, can lead to a variety of repercussions all of which include high amounts of stress. Think about it this way. Miscommunication leads to mistakes. You can’t possibly carry out your processes without knowing the full scope of what you’re trying to accomplish, and doing so will only lead to problems.

Not only does communication in the workplace need to be clear, but it needs to be open, comfortable, and acceptable. Whether it’s about an on-going project, or the ability to handle a given workload, if your employees are under stress and the thought of talking about it with a colleague or boss only causes more stress, then how healthy is your work environment?

Consider how you can make the flow of communication stronger in your own office. Whether that involves leveraging internal social technologies like Slack, having morning stand-ups to discuss current pain points, or creating one-on-one meetings with employees to touch-in. If you’re not sure where communication is struggling, have a meeting with your staff to find out.

Set clear goals

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with a heavy workload. In fact, that workload is often the front-runner for creating stress in the workplace. So make sure you and your staff are working together to set clear goals and expectations that help facilitate prioritization.

No, we can’t get through a blog post without talking about documentation – it’s in our blood. But in all seriousness, when you document your overall company goals, department goals, and individual goals, and have it easily accessible for your staff, everyone becomes accountable for their own actions with a clear understanding of their expectations.

Sometimes the workload gets heavy. That’s inevitable. But if your goals aren’t clear it’s far easier to get caught up in the stress of looming tasks than it is to properly deal with them.

Create a positive employee environment

Listen to your staff
Have you ever asked your employees what they need to be able to do their job better, more efficiently, and with less stress? Maybe not everything on their list will be achievable right away, but if your employees don’t have what they need to do their job the best that they can be doing it, you’re missing out an opportunity for growth.

Get out of the office
When was the last time your team did something outside of the office? When was the last time you discussed something that didn’t revolve around the latest ticket? You spend so much of your time with colleagues, so prioritize fostering an enjoyable work atmosphere by setting aside time to connect outside of your day to day tasks. Everyone is busy, so start by creating quarterly outings where you and your staff can go and celebrate your successes and kick back a bit.

Recognize achievements
When everyone’s working hard to reach the goals set out for them, it goes without saying that recognition is crucial. Celebrate everyone’s achievements, because creating an environment where everyone feels appreciated for the work they’re accomplishing is going to go a long way to increase their motivation to keep succeeding.

Can you improve your business processes?

Workplace stress can arise in a lot of different ways, whether it stems from social or environmental factors, or simply how you go about accomplishing your everyday business processes. If there’s friction in these processes, there’s bound to be stress too. Think of how your processes can be smoother, more efficient, and more streamlined, and all of your employees are sure to benefit. It should come as no surprise that we’re big believers in the following:

Documentation
Can documentation reduce stress? That’s a no-brainer in more ways than one. The constant search for information itself is a stressor, and having good documentation reduces that completely. Whether it’s internal processes or client information, the more you have documented the less stress you’ll have accessing that information and carrying out tasks.

Automation
Stressed about not having enough time? Automation is all about saving you time. If you can reduce the number of mundane tasks to complete by leveraging automation, you and your team have more time to get the rest of the work done.

The harsh reality is that there’s an endless list of workplace stressors we could get into which only highlight that a day like National Stress Awareness day certainly shouldn’t be limited to 24 hours. So extend it, because there are also just as many solutions as there are stressors. Make stress awareness a consistent part of the day-to-day culture at your company, and the benefits are bound to ripple throughout it.

If you’re interested in learning more about IT Glue, and how our app helps your organization battle stressors like time waste and communication, sign up for a demo today.

Yes, sign me up for a demo!

IT Glue™ is a proven, best practices-driven IT documentation platform packed with features designed to help you maximize the efficiency, transparency and consistency of your team. With so much of your business productivity lost each day in search of vital information, let IT Glue secure this information and start Freeing Minds™.

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How Automation is Changing the MSP Landscape https://www.itglue.com/blog/automation-changing-msp-landscape/ Tue, 30 Oct 2018 22:43:58 +0000 https://www.itglue.com/?post_type=blog_posts&p=4838 Automation isn’t just trendy tech anymore, it’s a necessity if you’re looking to scale your MSP. If you don’t start leveraging it now, you simply won’t be able to keep up.

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Want to speed up a process? Automate it. Want to make a process more accurate? More streamlined? Automate it. Want to save time from all your mundane tasks so that you can focus on growing your business? Automation lets you accomplish that.

Automation isn’t just trendy tech anymore, it’s a necessity if you’re looking to scale your MSP. If you don’t start leveraging it now, you simply won’t be able to keep up. In fact, it’s been changing how best-in-class MSPs run their companies for some time now. Here’s how.

Managing your applications

Think about the number of devices you have to document – how many applications you use, how much technology you’re responsible for. You need the ability to manage all of these endpoints and platforms, alongside providing consistent uptime and ensuring all the necessary information is up-to-date in a secure and central location. Automation is allowing you to do this, and with greater ease than ever before.

The reality is there’s so much for you to keep track of, that continuing to carry out these responsibilities manually is far too labor intensive. That’s why being able to build integrations between different platforms is so important. Doing so, you can connect everything you manage to one another, and automate the process of importing information into one central location like IT Glue.

Optimizing business processes

Fewer steps
Automation changes the way you complete processes. In other words, when you start leveraging automation you can dramatically reduce the number of steps it takes to complete a task, and the number of people responsible for carrying those steps out.

Fewer mistakes
When tasks are automated, or information automatically documented, you reduce the risk for error. It’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of other tasks and end up making simple mistakes with large repercussions. By streamlining and automating processes, you ensure that those happen less frequently – something your clients are sure to love.

Less time
Above all, automation allows you to save time – and what you can then do with that time leaves you with endless opportunities for growing your business. Think about the amount of mundane and repeatable tasks you complete on a daily basis. When you no longer have to focus your time and energy on those tasks, you can take on larger projects that focus on scale.

Documentation Automation

Documentation doesn’t have to be a dreaded time-consuming task. Instead, with automation, a lot of it is done for you. What’s even better is that we’re not just here to tell you how awesome automation is without offering you the tools to take advantage of it. By leveraging integrations we’ve already built for you, alongside our open API, you can automate a ton of your documentation, making your processes not only more efficient but also less time-consuming.

So, are you ready to start leveraging, or improving how you leverage automation in your MSP? We’re ready to get you started. Sign up for a demo today and find out exactly how IT Glue can help you automate your processes to build efficiency and scale.

 Yes, sign me up for a demo!

IT Glue is a platform for IT documentation and automation. Using IT Glue, you can organize your documentation in a standardized manner, so that all mission critical information is at your fingertips. With our open RESTful API, partners can automate many routine processes, and build integrations that we may not currently offer.

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