Nothing is certain but death and taxes…and digital transformations?

Listen, surely you can think of a handful of businesses that have no plans for a digital transformation—your local grocery store included—so we’re not going to make the case that 100% of organizations have grand plans to execute digital transformations, but according to the IT decision-makers surveyed in MuleSoft’s 2018 Connectivity Benchmark Report, 97% are either currently carrying out their transformation or planning to do so within the next three years (and we’re kind of assuming that the other 3% didn’t understand the question).

Because we’re an IT company, you don’t have to convince us that a well-oiled IT solution will be a critical component to these transformations—and we’re not alone in this mindset. One of the biggest takeaways to come out of this report is that the biggest business goal for 83% of IT decision-makers is to increase their IT’s operational efficiency.

But what does increasing IT’s operational efficiency entail? The answer is twofold: first, businesses need to overcome the cultural and technological challenges they currently face i.e. time constraints, legacy systems, company culture, etc; second, businesses need to carry out new initiatives. And Electric is the easiest and most accessible way to do both. Here’s how:

Electric Helps Companies Overcome Barriers To Increase IT’s Operational Efficiency

Do more with less: MuleSoft’s report reveals that 71% of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) say that their IT budget will not increase by more than 10%, or it will stay the same over the next year. And, to quote the report, “never has the term “do more with less” been so prophetic.” Electric helps you do more with less in a lot of ways, starting with cost. For less than the cost of an IT professional’s annual salary (who will need to be onboarded, have health insurance and take weeks to acclimate to your team), your company could have access to a team of IT experts at their fingertips. Beyond that, the research shows that organizations are currently spending 22% of their IT budgets each year on integrating different technologies. Keeping in mind that our entire company is focused on IT, we will always remain at the forefront of new technology—and cover the licensing fees.

Remove focus from the day-to-day: If you don’t actually work in IT, it may come as a shock that troubleshooting your WiFi connection isn’t an IT professional’s primary job. That being said, it’s not shocking that the surveyed ITDMs spend 63% of their time running the business rather than focusing on innovation and development projects. When it comes day-to-day troubleshooting requests and hardware issues, Electric doesn’t just handle it—we handle it in the most efficient way possible, so your IT team can go back to the jobs they were hired to do. Rather than have your team send one-off email requests about forgetting their password or not being able to connect to the 3rd-floor printer, anyone can Slack Electric with their request and our helpdesk will respond in 10 minutes or less. So, seeing as nearly all of the surveyed ITDMs said the number of projects they are being asked to deliver in their organization is increasing, having a best-in-class IT team standing by could be helpful. Just saying.

A different approach to ticket processing: Electric’s chat-based IT platform is a win-win for end users and IT teams, especially when it comes to processing tickets. Being Slack-based essentially means that we’ve eliminated the inconsistencies that come with communicating (a.k.a no more leaving Post-Its on your monitor). This also means that IT requests, no matter how small, don’t wind up in inbox limbo. And for the two-thirds of ITDMs that admitted that they were unable to deliver all of the projects asked of them last year, letting Electric takeover day-to-day tickets and processes allows you to focus on IT initiatives and work toward achieving overall IT efficiency goals.

Managing user access to applications: With organizations using 1,020 individual applications across their business on average (MuleSoft Connectivity Benchmark Report 2018), managing user access is becoming increasingly important—and time-consuming. Ensuring that correct access is granted (and revoked) when it needs to be is imperative to increasing employee efficiency, and making the most of your company’s resources. Whether it be removing users from a Google Group or making sure the marketing team can download Adobe Creative Cloud, Electric can not only handle this, we can automate it on your timeline.

Electric Helps Companies Work On Initiatives to Achieve IT Efficiency Goals

Modernizing Legacy Systems: ‘Legacy’ is such a loaded word. It sounds like it should be a good thing, but then again we all know that one person that got into an Ivy League school based on their ‘legacy’ status. When it comes to legacy systems within an organization, it’s really just a fancy way of saying outdated. So, it’s no wonder that modernizing legacy systems is the most important initiative for 36% of organizations (MuleSoft Connectivity Benchmark Report 2018). Electric helps organizations modernize legacy systems by introducing tested processes that we’ve developed based on the pain-points of other organizations (a.k.a 8,000+ end users). Once we implement these processes within an organization, our account managers will work closely with an organization to tailor a process to suit their specific needs.

Integrating SaaS apps: Modernizing legacy systems may be the most important initiative for organizations, but integrating SaaS apps is a very close second. Maybe this initiative sounds simple enough, but with the average organization using an average of 1,020 different, individual applications, company-wide integration across cloud and on-premises starts to sound a bit more complex. On top of the sheer number of applications that need to be integrated, factors like constant increases in end users and time it takes to make integrations happen only complicate the SaaS app integration process. Now that we have your attention (and have you really stressed out about app integration)—cue Electric. Whether you need a complete overhaul or just need to make sure that new hires and current employees have the access they need, Electric has you covered for those tasks—and just about everything in between.

Improving Employee Onboarding: According to the data we’ve been compiling since our inception, employee onboarding (and offboarding) is, by far, one of the largest pain points for businesses. That’s why we created Turbine, the completely automated solution to employee onboarding and offboarding. Turbine takes the headaches of employee onboarding and offboarding, computer setup and policy management and uses automated workflows to streamline the entire process. And, by the off chance that you have an onboarding/offboarding request that is outside of Turbine’s scope, our helpdesk will be standing by.

Consider this blog post to be an introductory course on how Electric can help you increase IT’s operational efficiency. And, if your company does not have a designated IT team or person, consider this blog post to be a wake-up call. Digital transformations are inevitable for the modern company and Electric is here to make sure you don’t get left behind—it all starts with scheduling a demo!