http://www.itskeptic.org/software-automation-wont-necessarily-lower-staff-costs Comments for "Software automation won't necessarily lower staff costs" en http://www.itskeptic.org/software-automation-wont-necessarily-lower-staff-costs#comment-6420 <p>In my experience, when technology managers evaluate claims of "reduces headcount" they understand that to mean "allows your staff to spend less time on manual labor and more time on value-producing tasks".</p> <p>I think it's laziness on the part of the automation vendors that promotes this simplistic view that automation allows you to actually reduce the number of people on payroll. Or perhaps its a deliberate and shrewd attempt by the vendors to trick corporate bean-counters.</p> <p>Either way, when I talk to technology managers they don't actually want less people... they just want the smart ones they have to spend their time on the laundry list of things that don't get done because they spend so much of their time stuck in the mud with tasks that should/could be automated. </p> <p>-Damon<br /> http://dev2ops.org</p> Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:32:25 +0000 Damon Edwardds comment 6420 at http://www.itskeptic.org http://www.itskeptic.org/software-automation-wont-necessarily-lower-staff-costs#comment-6355 <p>Brilliant post...</p> <p>Automation is becoming more and more misunderstood/misused like outsourcing...more companies (people) i come across are outsourcing problems which is bad.</p> Sun, 17 Jan 2010 09:32:14 +0000 Ramki B Ramakrishnan comment 6355 at http://www.itskeptic.org http://www.itskeptic.org/software-automation-wont-necessarily-lower-staff-costs#comment-6348 <p>So I agree but with slight refinement..</p> <p>I do believe software does seek to automate process and reduces manual labor in all facets of the workplace. In fact, to do the same work, you might need less people, but more highly skills/trained and cost more (so don't think its a saving). This is almost always masked by the inability for most organizations to transition in this manner (ie. skill transformation). </p> <p>Additionally, I think workloads just move to other processes and tasks. We spend time doing other things to replace the automated processes. Whether this is a result of not being able to transition skills and therefore redeploying staff to other processes of similar complexity is a simpler fix.</p> <p>Its a pretty similar ecosystem to many other aspects of business. Jobs get eliminated or changed and companies adapt. It most organization its not like we have the time a resources to do everything we need to do. Software based automation is just a way of moving resources from one place to another.</p> <p>$0.02</p> <p>Brad Vaughan</p> Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:32:01 +0000 buraddo comment 6348 at http://www.itskeptic.org