Matt Peters has spent greater than a decade working for cybersecurity distributors. He was a staff lead at Verify Level, climbed the company ladder to VP of worldwide operations at FireEye, and spent over 4 years at Expel, a managed detection and response agency, as chief product officer.
Peters says a shocking widespread thread ran via all these experiences: IT groups had been annoyed as a result of expectations round expertise hardly ever matched up with actuality.
Organizations demand plenty of their IT departments. In accordance to 1 ballot, practically a 3rd of employees on the common firm financial institution on a response from IT inside an hour. Roughly the identical proportion count on assist with any new device that their employer requires they be taught.
In these challenges, Peters perceived alternative. Together with Peter Silberman and Mase Issa, each ex-Expel colleagues, Peters based Fixify, an IT assist desk platform with an automation twist.
Fixify connects to current IT ticketing methods, like Jira and ServiceNow, to routinely categorize tickets and determine drawback “hotspots.” Utilizing AI, Fixify tries to determine the foundation causes of issues, then recruits IT analysts that it employs to diagnose and resolve the issues.
“Fixify is designed for tech-centric organizations between 100 and a pair of,000 staff that care about offering a high-quality IT assist desk expertise, however aren’t capable of put money into the employees and tech stack required,” Peters stated. “We cost an annual subscription primarily based on the variety of staff a buyer has. For a corporation with 750 staff the associated fee can be $9,000 monthly, or about the price of one full-time assist desk analyst.”
Peters says that Fixify makes use of a sentiment evaluation device to gauge the tone and urgency of incoming requests. This not solely helps with triage, he says, however offers analysts an concept of what to anticipate and learn how to reply.
“By monitoring sentiment from the begin to the shut of a ticket, we will monitor the person expertise and shortly spot when further consideration is required,” Peters added.
As analysts work via tickets, Fixify clients — and their very own IT staff — can assist in the event that they select. Fixify routinely updates ticket statuses to make sure stakeholders stay on the identical web page.
From Fixify’s admin dashboard, clients can specify which classes of tickets they need analysts to prioritize. They’ll additionally view efficiency metrics (e.g. time to decision) and recommendations to proactively deal with points, in addition to file requests to delete delicate data from Fixify’s platform. (By default, Fixify retains knowledge for 12 months topic to “buyer wants and contractual obligations.”)
“Our objective is to handle round three-quarters of the client’s ticket quantity from begin to end – not simply re-route them,” he continued. “Our AI assists IT analysts by suggesting subsequent steps primarily based on every buyer’s particular processes. In addition they determine related instruments for every process by analyzing the ticket context and playbook directions.”
IT groups have proven a willingness to embrace automation as they discover themselves stretched thinner and thinner. In a December 2023 Digitate survey, 90% of IT decision-makers stated they plan to deploy extra automation, significantly in features like finance and buyer help, within the subsequent 12 months.
The concept of high-tech IT outsourcing isn’t new. A number of startups are attempting the concept, together with Primo (which focuses particularly on {hardware}), Fleet (which additionally has a {hardware} bent), and Wizeline.
However there’s a lot of cash within the section. Avasant Analysis’s 2023 IT Outsourcing Statistics survey discovered organizations elevated their annual IT outsourcing budgets by 8.1% final 12 months. Deloitte projected whole spending on IT outsourcing to succeed in $519 billion by 2023 — a 22% tick up from 2019.
Buyers appear taken with Fixify’s automation angle — maybe due to automation’s potential to spice up productiveness whereas decreasing overhead.
This month, Fixify closed a $25 million Sequence A spherical co-led by Costanoa Ventures, Decibel Companions, and Paladin Capital Group with participation from Scale Enterprise Companions. Mourad Yesayan, managing director at Paladin, plans to hitch Fixify’s board as a part of the deal.
“The broader tech slowdown has truly created a few alternatives for us,” Peters stated. “This sequence A funding gives funding for the foreseeable future – and definitely via the anticipated uptick within the economic system that many economists are predicting.”
Arlington, Virginia-based Fixify, which launched in 2023, has raised $32 million thus far. The agency’s near-term focus is rising its 41-person workforce and buyer base, which at the moment stands at 15 corporations.
