Documentation Automation: How it Works & Key Benefits
BY IT GLUE | December 02, 2021
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?
A 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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