It depends on the business process owner and what their agenda entails. With some it is easy to introduce automation by showing them the risks and benefits. Many are afraid of losing control and will be resistant to any improvement opportunities. When the risk/benefit approach fails with the process owner, it will usually work with the next level of management.

Many times, it is the process owner that goes to IT asking for an automation solution,

When that relationship is not there, the IT team needs to take the initiative.

The best practices I find work best are the following:

Identify risks associated to the current process

Identify risks to the process owner and users by continued use of the current process

If there is a good relationship between IT and the process owner, that is usually enough to proceed with automation solutions

If not, the next steps will be required:

Engage process users and user management for feedback and support

     Without process users supporting you, task will be much harder to achieve (but not impossible)

Determine the benefits of automation to the process

Determine the benefits of automation to the process owner

Present findings to process owner and make owner part of the solution finding process