IT managers face a difficult juggling act in trying to maintain or increase service levels to other departments in the face of increasing infrastructure complexity and mounting financial scrutiny. In this environment, many are implementing, or at least considering, automated systems that can undertake time-consuming tasks such as inventory taking, patch application or software licence monitoring.This white paper aims to undertake a review of risks and benefits of implementing these systems compared to sticking with traditional manual processes. It also looks at the differences in return on investment (ROI) between so-called ‘point products' which handle only a specific function such as applying patch updates, and integrated management suites that offer several automated functions within a single package. Based on available research, our conclusion is that, for companies with an infrastructure base of around 200 PCs or more, automated systems have the potential to significantly enhance the IT department's ability to meet and exceed service level targets. Furthermore, this can be achieved with minimum risk to the business and at a cost that offers a highly attractive ROI. Finally, our analysis of point products versus integrated suites reveals that the latter offer superior ROI and ease of deployment and use, making them an all-round better choice for IT managers that currently have no automated infrastructure management systems in place.