How Cribl gave employees the power to automate their own work
Cribl's IT team didn't go looking for Serval. Once they found it, they couldn't stop using it—or sharing it.
PJ Barry
PJ Barry
Director, IT Support and Engineering
Director, IT Support and Engineering
Leo Guzman
Leo Guzman
Senior Manager, IT Engineering
Senior Manager, IT Engineering
Alex Pannier
Alex Pannier
Senior IT Systems Engineer
Senior IT Systems Engineer
Ana Monroy Zolano
Ana Monroy Zolano
Information Technology Engineer
Information Technology Engineer
"I've been in IT for almost 30 years. I don't remember ever watching a technological leap happen right in front of my eyes — until that call. By the end of it, I was scraping my brains off the wall."
"I've been in IT for almost 30 years. I don't remember ever watching a technological leap happen right in front of my eyes — until that call. By the end of it, I was scraping my brains off the wall."
"I've been in IT for almost 30 years. I don't remember ever watching a technological leap happen right in front of my eyes — until that call. By the end of it, I was scraping my brains off the wall."
PJ Barry
PJ Barry
PJ Barry
Director of IT Support and Engineering, Cribl
Director of IT Support and Engineering, Cribl
Senior Manager of Enterprise
Security, Together AI
How Serval Helped
How Serval Helped
How Serval Helped
$
$
$
K+
K+
K+
Saved in labor and engineering effort over six months
Saved in labor and engineering effort over six months
Saved in labor and engineering effort over six months
+
+
+
Hours saved over six months
Hours saved over six months
Hours saved over six months
min
min
min
To build an automation that took consultants three weeks
To build an automation that took consultants three weeks
To build an automation that took consultants three weeks
Company Name
Company Name
Cribl
Cribl
Industry
Industry
Cloud and Data Management
Cloud and Data Management
IT team
IT team
Alex Pannier, Senior IT Systems Engineer
Alex Pannier, Senior IT Systems Engineer
PJ Barry, Director, IT Support and Engineering
PJ Barry, Director, IT Support and Engineering
Leo Guzman, Senior Manager, IT Engineering
Leo Guzman, Senior Manager, IT Engineering
Ana Monroy Zolano, Information Technology Engineer
Ana Monroy Zolano, Information Technology Engineer
Meet Cribl
Meet Cribl
Cribl is the AI platform for telemetry. It helps organizations, including half of the Fortune 100, bridge the gap between AI ambition and infrastructure reality through pipelining and data qualification for telemetry coming from IT and security systems. With a vendor-agnostic approach, Cribl is one of the fastest-growing companies in the observability space.
Cribl is the AI platform for telemetry. It helps organizations, including half of the Fortune 100, bridge the gap between AI ambition and infrastructure reality through pipelining and data qualification for telemetry coming from IT and security systems. With a vendor-agnostic approach, Cribl is one of the fastest-growing companies in the observability space.
Cribl is the AI platform for telemetry. It helps organizations, including half of the Fortune 100, bridge the gap between AI ambition and infrastructure reality through pipelining and data qualification for telemetry coming from IT and security systems. With a vendor-agnostic approach, Cribl is one of the fastest-growing companies in the observability space.
Behind the scenes, a three-person IT engineering team is responsible for maintaining the systems, automations, and integrations that keep the business humming.
Behind the scenes, a three-person IT engineering team is responsible for maintaining the systems, automations, and integrations that keep the business humming.
Behind the scenes, a three-person IT engineering team is responsible for maintaining the systems, automations, and integrations that keep the business humming.
The Problem
The Problem
Good enough, until it wasn't
Good enough, until it wasn't
Cribl's IT team wasn't in crisis. That was almost the problem. Their small IT engineering team of three were experienced builders. Before Serval, they owned the complex workflows that kept the business running: onboarding, offboarding, and more. But every new automation took days of engineering effort across multiple complex systems. Once something was built, it had to be maintained.
The team was spending more time keeping up than moving forward.
Cribl's IT team wasn't in crisis. That was almost the problem. Their small IT engineering team of three were experienced builders. Before Serval, they owned the complex workflows that kept the business running: onboarding, offboarding, and more. But every new automation took days of engineering effort across multiple complex systems. Once something was built, it had to be maintained.
The team was spending more time keeping up than moving forward.
Cribl's IT team wasn't in crisis. That was almost the problem. Their small IT engineering team of three were experienced builders. Before Serval, they owned the complex workflows that kept the business running: onboarding, offboarding, and more. But every new automation took days of engineering effort across multiple complex systems. Once something was built, it had to be maintained.
The team was spending more time keeping up than moving forward.
01. Automated workflows were already in place, but they were time-consuming to build, hard to maintain, and impossible to hand off to anyone without technical expertise
01. Automated workflows were already in place, but they were time-consuming to build, hard to maintain, and impossible to hand off to anyone without technical expertise
01. Automated workflows were already in place, but they were time-consuming to build, hard to maintain, and impossible to hand off to anyone without technical expertise
02. New ideas were always there. The bandwidth wasn't.
02. New ideas were always there. The bandwidth wasn't.
02. New ideas were always there. The bandwidth wasn't.
They needed a fast and reliable way to build automations so they could focus on higher leverage projects.
They needed a fast and reliable way to build automations so they could focus on higher leverage projects.
They needed a fast and reliable way to build automations so they could focus on higher leverage projects.
The Solution
The Solution
A new way to build
A new way to build
Three weeks of consultant work. Twenty minutes in Serval.
Three weeks of consultant work. Twenty minutes in Serval.
Three weeks of consultant work. Twenty minutes in Serval.
The Serval relationship started with a referral from mutual contacts. PJ Barry, Director of IT Support and Engineering, took the call as a courtesy. His team had just finished a major implementation with a new ITSM platform. It was a months-long, expensive undertaking that had required outside consultants to build integrations. Switching to a new platform was off the table.
The Serval relationship started with a referral from mutual contacts. PJ Barry, Director of IT Support and Engineering, took the call as a courtesy. His team had just finished a major implementation with a new ITSM platform. It was a months-long, expensive undertaking that had required outside consultants to build integrations. Switching to a new platform was off the table.
The Serval relationship started with a referral from mutual contacts. PJ Barry, Director of IT Support and Engineering, took the call as a courtesy. His team had just finished a major implementation with a new ITSM platform. It was a months-long, expensive undertaking that had required outside consultants to build integrations. Switching to a new platform was off the table.
The demo changed that.
The demo changed that.
The demo changed that.
To show what Serval could do, the team asked a simple question: what's a problem that's been frustrating you lately? The answer was a connection between two of Cribl’s core tools, their support ticketing system and their company chat app, that should have been simple to set up but had taken outside consultants nearly three weeks to get right.
To show what Serval could do, the team asked a simple question: what's a problem that's been frustrating you lately? The answer was a connection between two of Cribl’s core tools, their support ticketing system and their company chat app, that should have been simple to set up but had taken outside consultants nearly three weeks to get right.
To show what Serval could do, the team asked a simple question: what's a problem that's been frustrating you lately? The answer was a connection between two of Cribl’s core tools, their support ticketing system and their company chat app, that should have been simple to set up but had taken outside consultants nearly three weeks to get right.
Serval built it in twenty minutes.
Serval built it in twenty minutes.
Serval built it in twenty minutes.
By the end of the meeting, the whole team was convinced. The director went back to leadership, in the middle of a budget cycle, with no money set aside, and made the case: most tools automate routine tasks. This one could do the thinking. Leadership said yes.
By the end of the meeting, the whole team was convinced. The director went back to leadership, in the middle of a budget cycle, with no money set aside, and made the case: most tools automate routine tasks. This one could do the thinking. Leadership said yes.
By the end of the meeting, the whole team was convinced. The director went back to leadership, in the middle of a budget cycle, with no money set aside, and made the case: most tools automate routine tasks. This one could do the thinking. Leadership said yes.
"The value in good automation tools is evidenced by how much companies were willing to spend in the old way of doing things. With Serval, you can simply talk to the system, explain what you need, and get great results very, very quickly. Except you don't have to incur those massive costs. That's a real no brainer."
"The value in good automation tools is evidenced by how much companies were willing to spend in the old way of doing things. With Serval, you can simply talk to the system, explain what you need, and get great results very, very quickly. Except you don't have to incur those massive costs. That's a real no brainer."
"The value in good automation tools is evidenced by how much companies were willing to spend in the old way of doing things. With Serval, you can simply talk to the system, explain what you need, and get great results very, very quickly. Except you don't have to incur those massive costs. That's a real no brainer."
PJ Barry
PJ Barry
Director of IT Support and Engineering, Cribl
Director of IT Support and Engineering, Cribl
The Results
The Results
Describe it. Build it. Move on.
Describe it. Build it. Move on.
Serval was connected to Cribl's core systems in minutes. Within hours, the team was getting value out of it.
The early wins came fast. They started with the tasks that had always eaten the most time: getting new employees set up, removing access for people who'd left, keeping hardware inventories up to date. These were processes the team had been managing for years, but building and maintaining them had always required significant engineering effort. With Serval, the same work now took hours instead of days, not because anyone worked faster, but because the team no longer had to write code at all. They described what they needed in plain language, and Serval built it.
Serval was connected to Cribl's core systems in minutes. Within hours, the team was getting value out of it.
The early wins came fast. They started with the tasks that had always eaten the most time: getting new employees set up, removing access for people who'd left, keeping hardware inventories up to date. These were processes the team had been managing for years, but building and maintaining them had always required significant engineering effort. With Serval, the same work now took hours instead of days, not because anyone worked faster, but because the team no longer had to write code at all. They described what they needed in plain language, and Serval built it.
Serval was connected to Cribl's core systems in minutes. Within hours, the team was getting value out of it.
The early wins came fast. They started with the tasks that had always eaten the most time: getting new employees set up, removing access for people who'd left, keeping hardware inventories up to date. These were processes the team had been managing for years, but building and maintaining them had always required significant engineering effort. With Serval, the same work now took hours instead of days, not because anyone worked faster, but because the team no longer had to write code at all. They described what they needed in plain language, and Serval built it.
6-month operational impact | 54 workflows
6-month operational impact | 54 workflows
$600K+
$600K+
$600K+
COMBINED OPERATIONAL SAVINGS
COMBINED OPERATIONAL SAVINGS
COMBINED OPERATIONAL SAVINGS
7,000+
$550K
$70K
200,000+
hours saved
labor savings
engineering costs avoided
successful workflow runs
7,000+
$550K
$70K
200,000+
hours saved
labor savings
engineering costs avoided
successful workflow runs
And that's before accounting for the workflows still being built.
And that's before accounting for the workflows still being built.
And that's before accounting for the workflows still being built.
"We went from idea to working automation in under an hour. Someone says 'wouldn't it be nice if...' — and an hour later, that's a thing that actually happens."
"We went from idea to working automation in under an hour. Someone says 'wouldn't it be nice if...' — and an hour later, that's a thing that actually happens."
"We went from idea to working automation in under an hour. Someone says 'wouldn't it be nice if...' — and an hour later, that's a thing that actually happens."
PJ Barry
PJ Barry
Director of IT Support and Engineering, Cribl
Director of IT Support and Engineering, Cribl
What’s Next
What’s Next
From IT team to entire company
From IT team to entire company
With the hardest work handled, Cribl began extending Serval beyond the IT engineering team.
First to the people who handle day-to-day employee support. Then to the interns, who created several automations while experimenting with the tool that moved into long-term production. Then to finance and legal.
With the hardest work handled, Cribl began extending Serval beyond the IT engineering team.
First to the people who handle day-to-day employee support. Then to the interns, who created several automations while experimenting with the tool that moved into long-term production. Then to finance and legal.
With the hardest work handled, Cribl began extending Serval beyond the IT engineering team.
First to the people who handle day-to-day employee support. Then to the interns, who created several automations while experimenting with the tool that moved into long-term production. Then to finance and legal.
Finance
Finance
Vendor contracts are monitored automatically, with alerts sent to the right people at 90, 60, 45, and 30 days out. Renewals kick off from a single chat message..
Vendor contracts are monitored automatically, with alerts sent to the right people at 90, 60, 45, and 30 days out. Renewals kick off from a single chat message..
Vendor contracts are monitored automatically, with alerts sent to the right people at 90, 60, 45, and 30 days out. Renewals kick off from a single chat message..
Legal
Legal
Routine data updates that previously had to be done record by record, are now handled automatically. Offboarding is enforced consistently, with no missed steps.
Routine data updates that previously had to be done record by record, are now handled automatically. Offboarding is enforced consistently, with no missed steps.
Routine data updates that previously had to be done record by record, are now handled automatically. Offboarding is enforced consistently, with no missed steps.
Support
Support
Approvals that used to take hours now arrive in under a minute.
Approvals that used to take hours now arrive in under a minute.
Approvals that used to take hours now arrive in under a minute.
While automation requests used to pile up faster than the team could build them, Serval has given IT engineers the time to focus on higher value work across the company.
While automation requests used to pile up faster than the team could build them, Serval has given IT engineers the time to focus on higher value work across the company.
While automation requests used to pile up faster than the team could build them, Serval has given IT engineers the time to focus on higher value work across the company.
"Companies build automations and never account for the cost to maintain them. With Serval, we can help someone build something, give them ownership, and it doesn't take up IT resources anymore."
"Companies build automations and never account for the cost to maintain them. With Serval, we can help someone build something, give them ownership, and it doesn't take up IT resources anymore."
"Companies build automations and never account for the cost to maintain them. With Serval, we can help someone build something, give them ownership, and it doesn't take up IT resources anymore."
PJ Barry
PJ Barry
Director of IT Support and Engineering, Cribl
Director of IT Support and Engineering, Cribl
Takeaway
Takeaway
Serval moved Cribl’s team from asking can we automate this? to why haven't we automated this yet? That's the kind of change that compounds.
"We find a new use for Serval every day. We find a capability we didn't know it had."
"We find a new use for Serval every day. We find a capability we didn't know it had."
"We find a new use for Serval every day. We find a capability we didn't know it had."
PJ Barry
PJ Barry
Director of IT Support and Engineering, Cribl
Director of IT Support and Engineering, Cribl
What will you build?
What will you build?
What will you build?