Precious time saved at Dundee Precious Metals

Company

Dundee Precious Metals is a Canadian-based, international mining company with operations in Bulgaria and Namibia as well as development projects in Serbia and Ecuador. The IT department is divided into three teams: Operations, Architecture, and Security – with an operational team in each location. Together, the teams manage 1,400 user accounts worldwide.

Challenge

More value-adding activities, less daily grind

At Dundee Precious Metals, employee on- and off-boarding are successfully managed with SAP SuccessFactors and ServiceNow. Yet, the IT operations team realized that a lot of their resources were tied up in time-consuming, repetitive tasks which could be automated. The goal was to free time for strategic projects and value-adding activities.

Stay in control of complex systems

PowerShell scripts had proven to be helpful, and there were enough PowerShell-savvy colleagues to drive automation forward. However, visibility of script performance was poor while executing scripts via the command line. What was the output? Was the script successful? There was room for optimization. The IT infrastructure was cleverly designed and let data flow across applications via a REST API. The question remained, how to monitor and stay in control of this, and how to scale up automation? One of the IT experts had heard about ScriptRunner and proposed taking a closer look.

Solution

This is how monitoring empowers the administrators

Monitoring within ScriptRunner means that all executed scripts are logged and have a history to look at. Failure or success of actions become visible immediately. No matter if actions are scheduled, triggered manually, or via a connected system like ServiceNow. Without logs and reports, troubleshooting means poking about in a fog. Now, script execution is right out in the open: "We're in control and we are able to act. If a script doesn't perform, we immediately see the result in the ScriptRunner Portal. This empowers us to target the problem in no time," Martin Nikolov, Senior Infrastructure Solution Architect, explains. He values the monitoring functions within the software: Live Monitor, Reports and Statistics. Thanks to the latter, he can pinpoint the efficiency gains. In just half a year, the hours saved amount to over 1,000 hours already.

Once per month, employees at Dundee Precious Metals share successful projects. Martin Nikolov, Senior Infrastructure Solution Architect, recalls: "I showed my success, the numbers are solid. One user can be provisioned in a minute with ScriptRunner, and that is just one example of many use cases we implemented."

What else can be deployed in a minute?

No question, the implementation team in Chelopech does not stop at user provisioning. The team is driving automation forward. Ideas are collected within the IT department, but also beyond – any idea from their colleagues is welcome. The next use case that is already in a beta phase is provisioning virtual machines in their Hyper-V infrastructure. With this automation in place, they can deploy new VMs in a minute. The same is true for virtual disk provisioning, which took at least an hour when done manually. This pays out for a company with many data centers.

ServiceNow and ScriptRunner – integrating service requests

Why and how did Dundee Precious connect ServiceNow with ScriptRunner? "How" was easy: Via REST-based ScriptRunner Connectors. "Why"? This empowers users to independently trigger actions and solve their requests within ServiceNow. Service requests are not just turned into another ticket but become elegantly automated self-services. Some examples: Within ServiceNow, a user can now check for conflicting objects and invoke actions like "validation check", "check for duplicates", or "create mailbox". And if an action requires a parameter, it can be entered on the spot in ServiceNow, without personally accessing any of the target systems. What's more, ScriptRunner actions are flexible. These days, companies are dynamic and changing. The interface remains untouched, the processes are stable, and all changes underneath can be easily implemented by adjusting a script. Alterations of business processes and structural changes are very simple to cover with ScriptRunner.

Perfect example – requests to move users within the company

Several service requests are currently being reviewed for their potential to be automated. For Martin Nikolov, user movement scenarios are a good example. "Just think about all the demands we need to cover, all the things that need to be changed when a user is moved: user profile attributes, descriptions, location, signature, access management and so on!" Automation makes every move among departments easier.

Result

For the IT experts at Dundee Precious, automating with ScriptRunner means that they can save an enormous amount of time. They were able to delegate tasks, and now employees using ServiceNow can easily trigger actions and solve problems themselves, without losing time. Fewer tickets, happier colleagues! The IT department is pleased: On the one hand, their performance of daily tasks has improved significantly. On the other hand, monitoring and reports enable them to track and trace all actions. They are always in full control of script execution and troubleshooting has become much easier. Future, structural changes will be easy to implement through ScriptRunner. Organizations grow and change, and ScriptRunner empowers administrators to create or transform scripts wherever change is needed.

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