We did some bits and pieces automation on one of our projects over the last few months. It impressed some managers at our customer, who then asked to start a separate project to do end-to-end automation.
We just finished the first iteration. Now, once you have stuff set-up and configured, the following things happen every night:

• the application is built and packaged.
• The install elements: war, database dump, sql scripts, install instructions, release notes get copied to a release folder. The release is named by the timestamp.
• The application is installed and configured on a remote machine.
• The application is started on the remote machine.
• Some automated code review tools are run, and reports generated in a nice consolidated format.
• Junit tests are run on the deployed application, and code coverage reports are generated.
  

So, the next morning, when the team comes in, they know if some things broke. They can also spend 15 minutes running through the code review reports and test the application for sanity.

If a formal release needs to be made, that is also a single command : you just specify the tag name, and all of the above happens. In addition, source also gets tagged.

What's next: integrating canoo web test or some other similar tool with the deployed application, so that the nightly build can also do the sanity tests.

Finally, we are getting close to becoming the cool dudes of automation!

Just read the cover story of Business World of 6th Feb. They have rated the top 25 places to work at in India. Across industry sectors. Here are some excerpts I found interesting ( in that I've been trying to get some of these through at my workplace.) Here's some validation that these things do happen in India.

Many of the organisations in our list have unlimited sick leave, no attendance recording system and self-supervision as the norm.

True collaboration goes beyond employees setting the menu for the canteen… It requires an ability to share 'real power', as is reflected in RMSI's decision to empower employees to calculate their own performance bonuses.

Sasken prides itself on its 'single status' policy… All employees, including the co-founder, and eligible for the same travel benefits.

Amex… shares details of the salary ranges, how these were evolved and what comparator companies were used to determine them.

There is a direct relation between great places to work and superior financial performance…. During the period 1998-2002, an annually updated index of Fortune's 100 best companies to work for would have yielded a return of 9.86%, compared to -0.56% from the S&P 500.

(This one, of course, is US data)

At RMSI, when negotiating with those who leave, managers are forbidden from offering higher salaries as an incentive to stay back. At best, they can offer a different assignment or more responsibilities.

At JW Mariott, revenue and profit and loss figures are shared with all employees across levels, eve dishwashers.

At Aztec, to engage employees, CEO… sends out regular emails to them that are presonal, inspirational, and at times, even philosophical.

Sapient's senior-most bosses, its two managing directors, do not have their own rooms. Seriously. They do not even have their own cubicles or work stations.

At PSI Data Systems, employees were constantly kept updated of the company's true financial picture, orders that were in the pipeline and stragies that would change the company's performance. ( Even when the company was in the red.)