Improve quality of life and service with OpCon

Managing that complicated network is no small task. IT departments play big roles keeping everything running smoothly. Additionally, they service business user requests, create new applications and job schedules, develop analytics solutions, and so much more.

However, all that work comes at a cost: time and convenience. More than most, IT departments are subject to working off-hours and non-workdays to implement new features or install new hardware. They take laptops home with them to monitor their networks. They stay on call to help in the event anything inconvenient happens.

Getting time back with OpCon

OpCon, the workload automation platform powered by SMA Technologies, ties together those complex systems into one simple automated environment. It automates repetitive manual processes, increasing efficiency, reducing error, and saving considerable time.

That saved time doesn’t just make an IT department’s various responsibilities easier. The entire organization benefits from every hour of IT time saved—instead of just keeping up, they can get ahead.

Freeing up IT staff time allows them to take a more proactive, rather than reactive approach. They can work on higher-level project that add business value, affect customers and member, and contribute to the forward progress of the organization.

Improving quality of life and service

Working on higher-level issues gives staff more ownership of and pride in their work. That kind of emotional investment leads to higher job satisfaction, and with it, higher productivity.

But those hours saved are largely from the same tedious manual processes that require odd hours. New software deployments can be automated, cutting down on off-hours work. Automation continuously monitors workflow health and enables management by exception, reducing on-call requirements.

When automation unlocks the power of business users through OpCon Self Service, it frees IT from the grip of work. OpCon allows IT staff to feel less (what do you think about “chained” instead of married) married to their jobs. Instead, they’re free to enjoy their hard-earned nights and weekends.

Job satisfaction is contagious. Employees with healthy work-life balances and fulfilling work can be more patient and kinder, creating a positive, supportive work atmosphere. We can’t prove it, but we like to think that kind of culture extends to the customer-facing portions of financial institutions as well.

OpCon and Open Technology Solutions

Open Technology Solutions (OTS) is a credit union service organization (CUSO) that provides technology support for its three industry-leading credit unions. OTS operates several data centers and hosts key technologies, core systems, online and mobile banking applications, and the integration layer for individual products.

They started with the only available automation solution then on the market, which quickly proved insufficient. They compensated with 24/7 staffing to ensure continuous monitoring and support. OpCon gave them a true lights-out environment, eliminating the graveyard shift and reallocating staff to more strategic positions.

OTS also required fewer servers for automation and DevOps after moving to OpCon, simplifying their digital environment in more ways than one. Today, OTS continues to gain efficiencies as it deploys OpCon in new and innovative ways.

Simplifying things further

Although OpCon is a powerful automation platform, it’s built for simplicity and ease. Financial institutions that want to further minimize the tedious administrative duties of IT can leverage OpCon’s Managed Automation Services (MAS).

With MAS, OpCon provides your financial institutions with a team of expert automation engineers. In addition to handling administration, the team acts as your first line of support for any incidents. They also assist with consulting and development, meeting regularly to review existing automation, address service requests, and explore additional automation opportunities.

Automating for your people

Automation certainly helps to simplify a financial institution’s digital landscape. It also helps with speed, accuracy, and efficiency. But, because it improves the lives of the people who work with those systems, OpCon is also so much more than a workload automation platform.

OpCon empowers your financial institution’s people to take control of their own automation, but it also unlocks their potential. IT staff can regain their off hours and non-workdays to spend time with family and friends. Also, they can refocus their work energies on more strategic projects—even without opting for MAS.