Fixify blends automation and human analysts to tackle IT problems
Reading Time: 3 minutesMatt Peters has spent more than a decade working for cybersecurity vendors. He was a team lead at Check Point, climbed the corporate ladder to VP of worldwide operations at FireEye, and spent over four years at Expel, a managed detection and response firm, as chief product officer.
Peters says a surprising common thread ran through all these experiences: IT teams were frustrated because expectations around technology rarely matched up with reality.
Organizations demand a lot of their IT departments. According to one poll, nearly a third of staff at the average company bank on a response from IT within an hour. Roughly the same percentage expect help with any new tool that their employer requires they learn.
In these challenges, Peters perceived opportunity. Along with Peter Silberman and Mase Issa, both ex-Expel colleagues, Peters founded Fixify, an IT help desk platform with an automation twist.
Fixify connects to existing IT ticketing systems, like Jira and ServiceNow, to automatically categorize tickets and identify problem ‘hotspots.’ Using AI, Fixify tries to identify the root causes of problems, then recruits IT analysts that it employs to diagnose and resolve the problems.
‘Fixify is designed for tech-centric organizations between 100 and 2,000 employees that care about providing a high-quality IT help desk experience, but aren’t able to invest in the staff and tech stack required,’ Peters said. ‘We charge an annual subscription based on the number of employees a customer has. For a company with 750 employees the cost would be $9,000 per month, or about the cost of one full-time help desk analyst.’
Peters says that Fixify uses a sentiment analysis tool to gauge the tone and urgency of incoming requests. This not only helps with triage, he says, but gives analysts an idea of what to expect and how to respond.
‘By tracking sentiment from the start to the close of a ticket, we can monitor the user experience and quickly spot when extra attention is needed,’ Peters added.
As analysts work through tickets, Fixify customers — and their own IT workers — can lend a hand if they choose. Fixify automatically updates ticket statuses to ensure stakeholders remain on the same page.
From Fixify’s admin dashboard, customers can specify which categories of tickets they want analysts to prioritize. They can also view performance metrics (e.g. time to resolution) and suggestions to proactively address issues, as well as file requests to delete sensitive info from Fixify’s platform. (By default, Fixify retains data for 12 months subject to ‘customer needs and contractual obligations.’)
‘Our goal is to manage around three-quarters of the customer’s ticket volume from start to finish – not just re-route them,’ he continued. ‘Our AI assists IT analysts by suggesting next steps based on each customer’s specific processes. They also identify relevant tools for each task by analyzing the ticket context and playbook instructions.’
IT teams have shown a willingness to embrace automation as they find themselves stretched thinner and thinner. In a December 2023 Digitate survey, 90% of IT decision-makers said they plan to deploy more automation, particularly in functions like finance and customer support, in the next 12 months.
The idea of high-tech IT outsourcing isn’t new. Several startups are trying the idea, including Primo (which focuses specifically on hardware), Fleet (which also has a hardware bent), and Wizeline.
But there’s lots of money in the segment. Avasant Research’s 2023 IT Outsourcing Statistics survey found organizations increased their annual IT outsourcing budgets by 8.1% last year. Deloitte projected total spending on IT outsourcing to reach $519 billion by 2023 — a 22% tick up from 2019.
Investors seem taken with Fixify’s automation angle — perhaps because of automation’s potential to boost productivity while lowering overhead.
This month, Fixify closed a $25 million Series A round co-led by Costanoa Ventures, Decibel Partners, and Paladin Capital Group with participation from Scale Venture Partners. Mourad Yesayan, managing director at Paladin, plans to join Fixify’s board as part of the deal.
‘The broader tech slowdown has actually created a couple of opportunities for us,’ Peters said. ‘This series A investment provides funding for the foreseeable future – and certainly through the expected uptick in the economy that many economists are predicting.’
Arlington, Virginia-based Fixify, which launched in 2023, has raised $32 million to date. The firm’s near-term focus is growing its 41-person workforce and customer base, which currently stands at 15 companies.
Ref: techcrunch
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