IT service administration (ITSM) is now a core fixture of enterprise IT technique. But for many workers, getting assist nonetheless means elevating a ticket and ready. In line with Jake Stauch, co-founder and CEO of Serval, that’s not a coincidence. It’s a symptom of legacy ITSM instruments that have been designed to handle requests fairly than resolve them.
In line with him, it is a dynamic that has persistently underdelivered on the true promise of ITSM automation and, because of this, enterprise service administration.
Serval is an AI-native enterprise service administration platform backed by Sequoia Capital, with a $1 billion valuation. Lower than two years outdated, it has already landed enterprise prospects together with Normal Motors and Fox Company — and its founding premise is that the automation downside on the coronary heart of ITSM has by no means been correctly solved.
Talking on Bloomberg’s Tech Disruptors podcast with analyst Anurag Rana, Stauch made the case that the trade has been measuring itself in opposition to the flawed benchmark for years.
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Monitoring Requests Was By no means the Purpose — Resolving Them Was
Stauch’s argument begins with an easy remark: the absolute best consequence of any worker assist request is instantaneous decision. Not logged. Not assigned. Resolved. As Stauch factors out:
“The world doesn’t want a greater ticketing system”
He provides that: “Actually you could possibly construct a nicer ticketing system, however that’s not likely what the issue is. It’s delivering a greater expertise. And the absolute best expertise for workers is that once they make a request, that request is instantaneously resolved.”
Whether or not it’s a password reset, a laptop computer substitute, an utility entry request, or an HR coverage query — Stauch argues the expertise to automate all of it exists in principle. The explanation it not often occurs in apply comes down to 1 factor: ITSM automation is genuinely onerous to construct.
His illustration is straightforward to image. An worker sorts into Slack or Groups that they’ve spilled water on their keyboard and want a substitute. In most enterprises as we speak, that message turns into a ticket, assigned to somebody, who logs right into a separate procurement system and manually locations an order. A number of individuals, a number of methods, vital lag.
“Out of your perspective, you probably did one factor – you typed out a sentence – and you then’re going to get no matter it’s that you just’re asking for,” Stauch stated, describing what he believes the method ought to seem like. He explains:
“There must be no guide effort round that.”
The productiveness argument is equally direct. Stauch notes the worth isn’t simply in liberating up IT assist employees — it’s in unblocking the workers ready on them. “For those who’re needing a password reset, you’re in all probability blocked from doing one thing. For those who’re making an entry request to a sure utility, you’re in all probability blocked from doing a little a part of your job.”
He frames the top objective as unlocking significant work — getting individuals again to what they have been employed to do, fairly than ready in IT queues.
Why Legacy ITSM Distributors Can’t Repair This — Even When They Attempt
The plain query is why established enterprise service administration platforms haven’t already solved the automation downside. Stauch’s reply is structural, and he applies it effectively past any single vendor.
He argues that platforms constructed earlier than the present technology of AI face a basic constraint: their structure predates the instruments that might make deep automation accessible, and their current buyer base makes radical change practically unattainable. He summarizes:
“Whenever you’re coping with a legacy structure, it’s powerful to make an in a single day shift”
“You’ve acquired an enormous buyer base that may’t make that shift, that may’t improve all of their methods and dependencies in a single day. And so that you’re form of caught — supporting a buyer base that’s supplying you with life, however you possibly can’t make radical adjustments to the product”, Stauch factors out.
It’s a sample he sees throughout legacy ITSM and pre-AI enterprise software program broadly. The price and complexity of configuring these platforms has begun to outpace the pace at which organizations really want to alter.
“Your course of goes to alter a lot sooner today than it’s going to take to implement plenty of these legacy software program options,” he stated. “The implementation, the fee to configure, begins to eclipse the tempo at which corporations wish to make adjustments and roll out new automations.”
He additionally factors to a utilization hole: many enterprises are paying for capabilities they haven’t been capable of implement — not as a result of the options don’t exist, however as a result of deploying them requires vital advisor time and technical effort. For a lot of groups, ITSM automation stays largely theoretical.
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The Hidden Multiplier: Why Scale Makes It Worse
For big enterprise IT groups, there’s a 3rd dimension that usually goes unacknowledged: IT complexity doesn’t develop in proportion to headcount — it grows exponentially.
Stauch makes use of a community analogy. Every worker added to a company creates a brand new connection level — to functions, units, and workflows. IT points emerge when these connections break. He instructed host Rana:
“Each time you add a node, you’re rising exponentially the quantity of issues that might go flawed”
Giant enterprises additionally carry many years of layered expertise: cloud methods operating alongside on-premise infrastructure, instruments acquired by means of mergers, and departments that have been by no means totally built-in. “You’ve acquired many, many generations of tooling, none of which has been totally changed. The complexity simply by no means ends in these massive orgs.”
Ultimate Takeaways
Stauch’s core argument is that enterprise service administration has been measured in opposition to the flawed metric for too lengthy. Ticket volumes and response occasions inform you how the method is operating — not whether or not workers are being unblocked rapidly. When ITSM automation is troublesome to construct and keep, all of these metrics can look cheap whereas the underlying expertise stays irritating.
For IT and repair administration leaders, the sensible query isn’t simply which platform to make use of — it’s whether or not their present setup makes automation genuinely accessible. The choice is a system that also requires costly configuration work each time a course of adjustments.
The structural constraints dealing with legacy ITSM distributors are additionally value factoring into any modernization roadmap. Incremental AI options layered onto older structure are unlikely to shut the hole between what enterprise service administration guarantees and what it delivers each day.
Whether or not AI-native approaches resolve that hole – or ultimately face their very own model of the identical implementation downside at scale – is a query the trade is just starting to work by means of.
FAQs
What’s ITSM automation?
ITSM automation makes use of software program to deal with IT service administration duties. These embody password resets, entry requests, or machine provisioning. However with out guide intervention. Moderately than a assist agent finishing every step by hand, an automatic workflow triggers the appropriate actions the second a request is made. The objective is quicker decision and fewer administrative overhead.
What’s enterprise service administration?
Enterprise service administration extends ITSM ideas into the entire group, together with HR, authorized, and finance. The thought is that any staff fielding common worker requests can profit from the identical structured method utilized in IT assist.
What’s legacy ITSM?
Legacy ITSM refers to IT service administration platforms constructed earlier than the present technology of AI. Usually within the early 2000s. Whereas many have added AI options, their underlying structure was not designed with automation on the core. This could make vital adjustments pricey and time-consuming to implement.
What does “AI-native” imply within the context of ITSM?
An AI-native ITSM platform is constructed from the bottom up with AI as a core a part of the way it works. Not bolted on after the actual fact. This usually means the system makes use of AI to generate and handle automated workflows. The choice is counting on guide scripting or consultant-led configuration.
Why do massive enterprises have larger ITSM challenges than smaller corporations?
IT complexity doesn’t scale evenly with headcount — it grows exponentially. Each new worker creates new connection factors throughout units, functions, and colleagues, which means extra potential factors of failure. Giant enterprises additionally carry years of collected expertise from acquisitions and legacy methods. This provides layers of complexity that smaller organizations merely don’t face.
For a deeper dive into the present state of ITSM, discover our Final Purchaser’s Information to Service Administration & Connectivity!
