Over the last decade, automation has become a key driver of efficiency, innovation, and competitive advantage. Today, over 75% of large enterprises use automation across mission-critical IT and business operations, aiming to improve customer and employee experiences.¹ However, while automation adoption accelerates, many organizations struggle to achieve the technology’s full potential, as they’re often hampered by fragmented toolsets, siloed initiatives, and the lack of a cohesive automation strategy.² To address these challenges, leading organizations have established Automation Centers of Excellence (COEs) to guide the planning, development, and implementation of automation initiatives across the business.

A fragmented approach to automation creates “islands of automation” – isolated pockets of automation scattered  across different areas of the business.

The current state of enterprise automation
Many organizations began adopting automation to address specific business use cases, implementing solutions for particular problems without defining a broader strategy. This fragmented approach creates “islands of automation” – isolated pockets of automation scattered across different areas of the business. While these initiatives yield some near-term benefits, their limited focus was not designed for large-scale implementation, diminishing the overall ROI of automation to the business.³

Common challenges that result from this unconnected approach include:

• Duplicated efforts and inefficient resource allocation: Without a cohesive enterprise strategy, automation initiatives are often misaligned with broader business objectives. Teams may invest in disparate solutions, leading to operational inefficiencies and reduced ROI.
• Inconsistent standards and best practices: Lack of a centralized consulting group for automation best practices results in siloed initiatives, widening the automation gap and resulting in more islands of automation.
• Limited scalability and reusability: The absence of an established governance structure prevents organizations from operationalizing automation initiatives at scale, leading to missed cost savings and higher maintenance costs.
• Difficulty in measuring overall impact: The lack of common KPIs and metrics hinders opportunities to optimize processes, streamline workflows, improve efficiency, and effectively communicate the impact of automation initiatives.⁴

Additionally, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) has introduced new complexities to the automation landscape. These technologies have powerful capabilities that can enhance automation, such as intelligent decision-making and adaptive processes. However, as companies strive to integrate these technologies into their automation frameworks, they face challenges that can lead to underutilization and missed opportunities.

For example, existing automation processes often require significant restructuring to accommodate AI and ML capabilities, leading to potential disruptions in operations. Likewise, the complexity of integrating these advanced technologies with legacy systems and automation tools can increase the number of siloed implementations.

Addressing these challenges requires organizations to take a holistic strategic approach. Ideally, this approach should simultaneously address technological integration, process redesign, and change management – goals an Automation COE is uniquely suited to support.

Benefits of an Automation Center of Excellence
In essence, an Automation COE serves as a centralized force for coordinating, standardizing, and optimizing automation efforts across the enterprise. Its key objective is to maximize the impact of an organization’s automation initiatives beyond the immediate needs of a single team or department, promoting the technology as a strategic cross-enterprise investment that drives greater agility, faster innovation, and increased engagement.

The COE acts as the thread that ties the organization’s entire automation strategy together by providing guidance, best practices, training, and support to teams across the business. By utilizing a structured approach to managing the complexities of modern automation, it ensures automation initiatives deliver measurable business value and positions the organization to take advantage of future technological advancements.

The COE acts as the thread that ties the organization’s automation strategy together by providing guidance, best practices, training, and support to teams across the business.

For technical leaders, establishing an automation COE aligns with the strategic objectives of digital transformation, operational efficiency, and innovation.⁵ Determining which COE model to adopt depends on the individual needs and goals of the business. However, organizations can quickly establish a COE and prioritize automation projects based on impact and feasibility by establishing a standardized approach and methodology.

Key benefits of an Automation COE include:

• Strategic alignment: A COE ensures that automation initiatives are aligned to overall business objectives and priorities, focusing resources on the most impactful areas and reducing the proliferation of automation for its own sake.
• Best practices: A COE can develop best practices and guidelines to improve the quality, reliability, and maintainability of automation across the organization.
• Knowledge sharing and collaboration: There is nothing inherently wrong with individual teams or departments taking the lead on automation initiatives. A COE adds value by facilitating the exchange of ideas, expertise, and lessons learned between teams and departments. Increased cross-functional partnerships can lead to innovative solutions and reduce inefficiencies.
• Scalability: A COE can support the development of reusable automation that can be easily adapted across the business.
• Governance: A COE can provide a framework for managing automation-related risks, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, and maintaining proper controls and documentation.
• Talent development: A COE can provide growth and upskilling opportunities, attract top talent, and develop foundational skills needed to drive successful automation adoption across the organization.
• Improved decision-making: A COE can establish consistent metrics for evaluating the impact of automation initiatives, enabling better decision-making and resource allocation.

While these benefits highlight the strategic value of an automation COE, establishing one is not without its challenges. A primary obstacle is driving alignment across the business, a critical factor that can impact the COE’s effectiveness. Let’s examine how to foster collaboration between the COE and diverse stakeholders throughout the enterprise.⁶

Establishing an Automation COE
Building an Automation COE is a strategic initiative that requires careful planning, executive support, and cross-functional collaboration. The following guidelines provide a blueprint for a solid foundation for a COE, ensuring it is well-positioned to drive automation success across an organization.

To get started:

1. Determine your goals and objectives: Define the reasons for establishing an automation COE. Establish long-term goals and specific objectives that align with the organization’s overall strategy. Consider current challenges, top priorities, and ideal future state. Outline why a COE is needed and what metrics will be used to measure success.
2. Obtain executive sponsorship: Gain support for top-level leadership to ensure the COE has the necessary resources, authority, and visibility within the organization. Establishing early buy-in can help validate and refine the COE’s vision, provide greater visibility, and overcome potential obstacles.
3. Engage with stakeholders early: Involve key stakeholders from different departments in the planning and design of the COE. A COE does not need to be “top down” – rather, it should incorporate views from people and teams across an organization. Use early engagement to ensure the COE’s structure and objectives align with diverse business needs.
4. Assess the current automation landscape: Conduct a thorough audit of existing automation efforts, tools, and capabilities across the business. Look for redundancies and areas of opportunity that can inform the COE’s strategy and priorities.
5. Build a cross-functional team: Bring together a diverse team with expertise across domains such as IT, operations, analytics, product management, and project management. Include both technical and business team members to ensure a well-rounded approach to automation initiatives.
6. Create standardized best practices and processes: Develop a consistent approach for identifying automation opportunities, evaluating their potential impact, and implementing solutions, including best practices and frameworks for process analysis, ROI calculation, and change management.
7. Establish clear KPIs and success metrics: Define clear, measurable indicators of success for the COE and individual automation projects. These should include cost savings, time saved, customer satisfaction improvements, and ROI.
8. Develop a communications plan: Create a plan for regularly sharing COE progress, success stories, and impact with stakeholders to maintain visibility, garner continued support, and encourage broader adoption of automation.
9. Foster a culture of continuous improvement: Encourage ongoing learning and innovation within the COE and the greater organization. Track progress against key metrics, regularly review and update processes, stay informed of emerging trends, and actively solicit feedback from stakeholders to drive continuous enhancement of automation efforts.

As organizations progress through these steps, it’s important to remember that establishing an automation COE is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process of continuous improvement and refinement.⁷ The landscape of automation technologies and use cases continues to evolve rapidly, and a COE needs to be agile enough to adapt to those changes. Regular assessment and adjustment of the COE’s structure, processes, and priorities will ensure it remains effective and aligned with the organization’s evolving needs. With this foundation in place, let’s consider the broader implications and future outlook for automation COEs in the enterprise.

The future of automation in the enterprise
Establishing an automation COE represents a strategic imperative for enterprise organizations that seek to harness the technology’s full potential. A well-implemented COE can transform fragmented “islands of automation” into a cohesive, enterprise-wide automation ecosystem by centralizing expertise, standardizing practices, and fostering collaboration.

As technical leaders navigate this transition, it’s crucial to focus on driving alignment with business units, preparing employees for the future of work, and consistently measuring and communicating the value delivered by automation initiatives. With the right approach, an Automation COE can become a powerful engine for innovation, efficiency, and competitive advantage in the digital age.

For more information on PagerDuty’s automation standardization and center of excellence solution, visit pagerduty.com/solutions/automation-coe.

^{1https://www.pagerduty.com/assets/2024/State%20of%20Digital%20Operations%202024.pdf
2https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/your-questions-about-automation-answered
3https://www.pagerduty.com/solutions/automation-coe/
4https://www.pagerduty.com/assets/eBook-the-value-of-implementing-an-automation-coe.pdf
5https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/Why-CIOs-need-to-establish-an-automation-CoE
6https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/automation/how-to-build-automation-center-of-excellence
7https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-establish-an-automation-center-of-excellence/}