ScriptRunner - A healthy dose of IT automation

"Although I only had initial experience with PowerShell before, I was able to get the first script running on day one of the installation and on day two the asset management was working as it should!" according to Team Client Management. From an IT perspective, ScriptRunner was the "power cure" in terms of IT processes and automation. After the initial successes, things continued to improve, the conclusion after around a year: good prognosis for IT health thanks to PowerShell Boost.

• Efficiency gains: tasks that previously took up to 30 minutes have been reduced to 20 seconds. The automated onboarding process alone saves a lot of time and resources.
• Increased security: The secure handling of login data/credentials and the standardized administration of users reduce the risk of errors and security breaches.
• Helpdesk more agile: The helpdesk team can take on many more tasks and solve problems themselves, which increases satisfaction and speed.
• User satisfaction: Both IT administrators and end users are very satisfied with the new system. Tasks that previously required a lot of manual effort are now automated, leaving more time for strategic projects.

Josefs-Gesellschaft gAG (or JG Group) is one of the largest Catholic providers of facilities for people with disabilities, hospitals and retirement homes in Germany. With more than 10,000 employees at 80 locations, there is a lot of work for the IT administration. Josefs-Gesellschaft can look back on 120 years of history.

Due to the size of the group of companies, there are various IT teams, with the hospital team focusing on the hospital information system (HIS) and the client management team on hardware and software, licenses, backups and cross-location collaboration, with a constant focus on security and automation.

Baramundi, Jira, Citrix, HIS, SQL server – How can this be brought together?

With 10,000 employees, the administrative workload is correspondingly high. In addition to the HIS, the JG Group uses the endpoint management software baramundi, Jira for helpdesk and requirements management, Citrix, SQL Server and M365.

Of course, the IT professionals had already been writing scripts for some time to speed up and simplify recurring tasks. At the Cologne site alone, scripts were written for 40 colleagues across the group to automate everyday tasks, but they were distributed across different servers.

Give us your scripts! Centralize instead of searching

"Long searches, duplicate work, several scripts for one task in circulation, old version of a script caught - There must be a better way," says Marcel Kober, Team Leader Client Management. He wanted a solution that would centralize all scripts and make them available to employees at all locations.

In addition to centralization, he was also interested in standardization, because even with the best guidelines and standards, in practice everyone created a user account in a slightly different way, e.g. during onboarding. In addition, small errors crept in again and again when creating by copying: missing information in the signature, too many or too few rights, incorrect group assignments.

Last but not least, the process was time-consuming, easily taking half an hour. Time that was lacking elsewhere. When he came across ScriptRunner, he had only limited experience with PowerShell, but knew what possibilities there were in terms of automation when various software products can receive and output information via REST APIs.

Little prior PowerShell knowledge – An easy hurdle to overcome

When he started in October, Marcel Kober had little prior PowerShell knowledge but clear goals in mind. His learning curve was steep, and he had the help of the freely available script collection, the 'Action Packs'. The clearly laid out scripts served him as a blueprint for his own use cases. He took these and developed them further to suit his own requirements.

Isn't scripting a lot of work? Certainly, but it's worth it! One of the first major use cases in the company was the creation of new users. What used to take over half an hour with ease is now done in 20 seconds. Thanks to ScriptRunner, an automated action can be triggered in client management by clicking on the corresponding tile in the ScriptRunner GUI. He sums up the success: "Users are happier because they now receive their email address without a long wait. It just works!"

His colleagues also appreciate the 'Action Packs' and are currently taking a closer look at the scripts available for Citrix and VMware, for example, as they see potential here for the JG Group, for example use cases such as the automated provision of guest systems in VMware or the release of USB sticks after being checked by the anti-virus solution.

Looking back, Marcel Kober is more than satisfied: "The implementation was easy! The asset management scheduling was up and running after just two days."

Use case: Asset export to the cloud, from baramundi to Jira

When it came to asset management and asset export, ScriptRunner became a fully integrated automation engine in the background, connecting and controlling two systems: Jira and baramundi. baramundi is used for software distribution and the management of all clients.

ScriptRunner pulls the required data from baramundi via REST-API and makes it available to Jira. The scripts are stored centrally in ScriptRunner, can be changed and adapted as required and, above all, run automatically and securely.

The integration with Jira has been a complete success. He is also satisfied with the use of ScriptRunner's integration functions to automate ticket creation and management in Jira in order to further improve operational efficiency.

The implementation of ScriptRunner went smoothly. Within the first two days, the IT team had automated its asset management processes and was working efficiently. Despite initial concerns, the switch to ScriptRunner brought significant benefits, efficiency gains, increased security and user satisfaction.

From a management perspective, the ScriptRunner implementation addressed critical governance challenges: standardizing PowerShell processes across 80 locations, reducing tool sprawl, and ensuring compliance in healthcare environments. The Enterprise-Grade PowerShell Automation Platform provided the visibility and control needed to manage automation at scale while maintaining security standards required by regulatory frameworks.

The script collection was very helpful when getting started, as the scripts contained in the 'Action Packs' can be adapted and further developed by any IT administrator to suit their own requirements. Within a few months, what seemed impossible was achieved - and automation will continue in the future, as other colleagues in the IT management team have long since recognized the possibilities.