Ask HN: What manual processes would you automate in your company? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What manual processes would you automate in your company?

#41

Post by wslh » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 4:14 PM UTC

SonicSoul wrote: post #29

skyyler wrote: post #9

I'd love to take the time to change the way our IT department functions. They don't automate anything. They don't virtualize. They don't believe in rack mounted servers. We have 30 tower servers sitting on a specially built shelf, taking up most of a room. It's absurd but I have so much other shit to do that I can't justify completely disrupting their entire workflow

the way we solved it was getting the COO to approve us taking ownership of infrastructure and transitioning into AWS. That way we have a pretty flexible license where we can spin up servers and manage them ourselves. Certainly time overhead but at least now we don't have to email and pray. This also sends a strong message that if they don't try hard enough they can lose projects and therefore their worth at the compa…

I wonder how the organization puts limits to the AWS usage. For example, do you need approvals for increasing the AWS usage? Is there a limit for those approvals that require a new contract with Amazon?

Re: Ask HN: What manual processes would you automate in your company?

#42

Post by herghost » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 4:14 PM UTC

Afforess wrote: post #6

Security. 90 day passwords, with multiple internal sites & servers each needing unique ones? I don't understand why we don't have automated client certificates and auto-generated ssh keys.

The 90 day password thing is pretty universal in my experience, but to be fair NIST has only very recently changed their recommendation on this so you can understand business' reticence to ease off on it.

As for the multiple internal sites and servers thing...well, from a security point of view I totally agree with the requirement for separate passwords but it sounds like you're in need of a proper identity management solution - which isn't really fair to blame security for - it's not usually the security function who are going to implement and own this sort of thing.

Re: Ask HN: What manual processes would you automate in your company?

#43

Post by chadgeidel » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 4:16 PM UTC

xiaoma wrote: post #22

Dealing with US banks from abroad. It took an absurd amount of effort to get an account opened and after over a month, I still don't have debit cards.

I'm pretty sure this is a "feature" not a "bug" due to regulation. I'm not saying it's bad or good (I understand why).

Re: Ask HN: What manual processes would you automate in your company?

#44

Post by rrhyne » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 4:16 PM UTC

beaver6969 wrote: post #15

charlieegan3 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like it - have you got any?

Not yet - will hopefully pick up a few from this thread!

You should automate the discovery of startup ideas by posting a thread here every few days.

Re: Ask HN: What manual processes would you automate in your company?

#45

Post by BjoernKW » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 4:16 PM UTC

Johnny555 wrote: post #18

I'd get rid of the manual process of driving to the office every day and replace it with collaboration tools to let people telecommute full time. We actually use such tools, but have a "no remote workers" policy. Occasional work from home is fine, just not full time.

Can you tell what the reason behind that policy is? Whenever I hear something like this I like to challenge it by the following:

Working remotely should be the default, not the outlier.

If your organisation requires personal presence something in your organisation is broken (management processes, the way people interact, obsolete tools etc.). Fix that instead of patching what's broken by mandating personal presence.

Chances are not only will your employees be happier but you'll also uncover potential for optimisation.

Re: Ask HN: What manual processes would you automate in your company?

#46

Post by Raphmedia » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 4:17 PM UTC

migueltarga wrote: post #31

pknerd wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This guy already did this: http://www.businessinsider.com/programmer-automates-his-job-...

Yup, but I'll need to automate my mug too..

Caffeine pills dispenser at your desk. Everyday at 9h it gives you a pill.

Re: Ask HN: What manual processes would you automate in your company?

#47

Post by deedubaya » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 4:17 PM UTC

rch wrote: post #38

Phone screens, for recruiters and applicants. Basically I want both sides to be faithfully represented by conversational AI, inclusive of demeanor, domain knowlege, and general aptitude.

Shameless plug of a tool I built which might help you with this, especially if you're hiring developers.

It'll automatically research the applicants who apply to your open position and collect github profiles, repos, and do it's best to rate them appropriately.

https://www.hireloop.io

Re: Ask HN: What manual processes would you automate in your company?

#48

Post by krapp » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 4:17 PM UTC

rrhyne wrote: post #44

beaver6969 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not yet - will hopefully pick up a few from this thread!

You should automate the discovery of startup ideas by posting a thread here every few days.

That would be a quick way to get banned.

Re: Ask HN: What manual processes would you automate in your company?

#49

Post by Pica_soO » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 4:17 PM UTC

Robotics & PLC Programing:

Automate DEA state creation from CAD-Cell Descriptions, state-transfers and all-state-covered-automated-proofing- im so sick of all those forgotten states and the blame that usually gets shifted towards the moving actors aka robots.

Re: Ask HN: What manual processes would you automate in your company?

#50

Post by ratsbane » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 4:20 PM UTC

yev wrote: post #25

ythn wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my work we just have a Jenkins job that fires the current CEO first thing in the morning

Dude, simple cron job is enough.. 30 8 * * * /fire/ceo/now

I'd make it event-driven. /usr/sbin/hire --ceo starts a setTimeout(function() {`/usr/sbin/fire --ceo`}, 'INTERVAL 60 DAY') (And that is a weird bit of pseudocode, indeed.)