Microland revolutionizes operational excellence through automation for a global energy leader

Overview

The client is one of the world’s largest oil field services companies with diverse equipment and service capabilities spanning the oil and gas industrial value chain. With a vast network of sites, including remote oil rigs, manufacturing plants, and corporate offices globally distributed, the company faced numerous challenges in maintaining seamless connectivity, collaboration, and technical support for its operations. Microland, a trusted provider of digital transformation solutions, partnered with the client to streamline its oil field services operations, improve service delivery, and elevate customer experience while positively influencing key contractual metrics.

Scope and Business Challenge

Facing a complex operational landscape with diverse technical and process-related challenges, the client requires a robust and efficient IT infrastructure automation to support its critical operations. They aimed to achieve significant efficiency gains while maintaining service quality and meeting service level agreements (SLAs).

Their existing IT processes were labor-intensive, relying heavily on manual ticket handling and troubleshooting, leading to:

• Slow Time to Resolution (TTO): Manual troubleshooting of network issues resulted in extended downtime and delayed service restoration.
• Inefficient Resource Utilization: IT staff spent a significant amount of time on repetitive tasks, hindering their ability to focus on more strategic initiatives.
• Difficulty Meeting Contractual Metrics: Manual processes made it challenging to consistently meet key contractual Service Level Agreements (SLAs) related to uptime and response times.

Microland Solution

Microland implemented a comprehensive automation strategy, leveraging a combination of technical bots, process bots, and targeted automation initiatives. Microland’s Intelligeni NetOps, a comprehensive automation platform that leverages a combination of RPA and AI.

These features automate critical network tasks, including:

• Event Correlation: Automatically identifying and resolving network issues like node and interface downtime.
• Ticket Assignment: Routing tickets to the appropriate IT personnel based on predefined rules.
• Time to Outage (TTO) Automation: Ensuring adherence to security protocols and tool onboarding processes.
• Configuration Management: Automating repetitive tasks like configuration updates and error correction.

The implementation of Intelligeni NetOps followed a phased approach:

• Phase 1: Initial Deployment (2022): Focused on establishing the core automation infrastructure with the deployment of initial 9 technical bots for tasks like auto-closure of specific network events.
• Phase 2: Feature Expansion (2023): Introduced advanced features like IP address location, F5 VIP lookup, and 4 TTO bots for automation for network devices, further streamlining troubleshooting and enhancing efficiency.
• Phase 3: Integration and Expansion (2024 - Ongoing): Integrated Intelligeni NetOps with existing IT management tools like SolarWinds for automatic attribute updates, site-level classification, and department updates. Additionally, migrated all automation workflows from a previous platform to ServiceNow, implementing about 7 ITSM process bots and creating a centralized and robust automation environment.

Business Benefits

Since its implementation, Intelligeni NetOps has significantly transformed the client’s IT operations, delivering impressive results:

• 40% Automation Efficiency: Over 40% of network tasks are now automated, freeing up IT staff from repetitive work. This translates to hundreds of hours saved per month.
• Significant Ticket Reduction: The Correlation Bot contributed to a 27% reduction in tickets by efficiently handling and prioritizing issues, resulting in improved service delivery and customer satisfaction.
• Substantial Time Savings: Ticket Assignment automation saved over 300 hours in Service Manager Layer operations, allowing teams to allocate resources more effectively and meet SLAs consistently.
• Improved TTO: Automated network troubleshooting processes have significantly reduced TTO, reducing downtime and ensuring improved service delivery.
• Enhanced Accuracy: Automation eliminates human error and ensures consistent execution of tasks, leading to improved network performance and reliability.
• Increased Productivity: By automating manual tasks, IT staff can dedicate more time to strategic initiatives and focus on complex problem-solving.
• Enhanced Contractual Performance: Automation has ensured consistent adherence to SLAs, improving contractual compliance with key performance metrics.
• Enhanced Operational Maturity: Stepping up the maturity curve, Microland has introduced new features and initiatives each year, expanding automation capabilities and driving continuous improvement.