Adelaide startup Licorice has developed an AI-scheduling solution to enhance efficiency and cost savings for IT service providers. The company has been awarded an Accelerating Commercialisation grant of $391,838 under the Entrepreneurs’ Programme to help complete core functionalities and achieve global first sales.
Why the innovation matters
If you use a computer in a workplace, you have an IT support provider, either internally through an IT department or outsourced. Efficient service delivery is essential to ensure that clients receive timely and accurate support for their technical needs. The traditional triage model, however, often leads to delays and frustration for clients with lower priority tickets. By introducing a new system that utilises AI-scheduling, Licorice aims to improve the overall experience for IT service providers and their clients.
How it works
Licorice’s AI-scheduling system integrates and interfaces with existing Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) software like ConnectWise, ServiceNow and Atlassian’s Jira. It records client tasks and utilises an AI that can automatically match an incoming request to the appropriate IT engineer and resources. The AI also calculates the time needed for the task and automates the scheduling of appointments. For Licorice users, it is like a UX/UI overlay to their existing ITSM system, making adoption easy. It also ingests the users’ past ticket clearance history, so it has the data required by the AI to make informed decisions about scheduling.
Zoom out
Licorice’s AI-scheduling solution has the potential to have a significant impact on the global IT industry. There has been limited innovation in the ITSM sector, and Licorice has devised a solution that will improve outcomes without causing huge interruption by adopting the technology. In addition, the technology can be applied to optimise other complex scheduling tasks; think healthcare, transport and contractors, making the market potential for the Licorice technology even larger than IT.
The magic is
Licorice has arrived at a new paradigm for IT services that delivers guaranteed appointment slots, reduced average work backlog, for an overall reduction in management overhead, and an increase in captured billable work for the ITSMs that use the software.
The founder, Samantha Glocker, has previously built and exited an IT support company where she first identified the potential of developing the technology behind Licorice. The team comprises highly regarded industry experts and several industry-leading angel investors from the US and Australia.
Value capture
Licorice captures value by selling to IT service providers on a per-seat basis, generating recurring revenues. As the company’s market penetration increases, they intend to release additional modules for tasks like Project Management and Inventory Management, increasing the per-seat revenue.
What could go right
The Accelerating Commercialisation project will provide the funding required to quickly deliver on pilot customer expectations and meet the conditions of VC investors to demonstrate customer adoption. Once reoccurring revenue is flowing and growing, a large funding round will be pursued so the company is sufficiently capitalised to expand and capture the market.
The bottom line
Licorice has developed a unique and innovative solution to address the inefficiencies in the traditional triage model of IT service delivery. Gartner research indicates that $6.1 billion (USD) is spent annually on ITSM solutions and there are 12.2 million IT Support Engineers globally. Licorice’s market opportunity is Big with a capital B, and I believe they have the right strategy and team to do it.
Working in partnership with the Australian Government to deliver the Entrepreneurs’ Programme, myself and the i4 Connect team look forward to supporting Licorice’s commercialisation journey during their Accelerating Commercialisation project and beyond.
