AiThority Interview With John Prestridge, SVP at EasyVista

Know My Company

How do you interact with technology, especially Artificial Intelligence on a daily basis?

As with most technology professionals, I interact with a number of technology solutions and mobile applications for information and management (Marketing Automation, Analytics, Sales Automation, Email Communications, social media, social messaging, project management and more).  Of course, AI is being integrated into every software we use to augment our experiences with better context, recommendations, and relevancy.  I guess the best example of AI that most people use everyday is Google.  The powerful combination of Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) makes it so easy to locate the information I need.

What drove you to head EasyVista’s Global Marketing?

I have had a long career and a deep passion for matching the needs of the business with technology software solutions that make a difference.  I wanted to be part of a global software company that is dedicated to bringing innovation to the market.  Today, businesses are faced with the reality of having to achieve digital transformation or be disrupted by digital-first companies.  This requires new thinking around how to use technology to better engage employees and connect with customers. EasyVista has a vision for helping organizations navigate digital transformation with a strong product strategy around intelligent service automation that helps companies.

Can you briefly describe the functionality of EasyVista’s solutions and how can it assist enterprises in becoming more efficient?

EasyVista offers Intelligent Service Automation solutions that empower its customers to improve efficiency in managing technology, supporting users and connecting with their customers. The powerful combination of our proven ITSM and Intelligent Knowledge Management Platforms enable organizations to improve the efficiency of delivering technology solutions across the enterprise, better engaging employees with best-in-class self-service and driving continuous connections with customers. Our solutions are designed with a focus on people-first user experiences that make engaging with technology easier.

How can businesses of all sizes leverage from EasyVista’s products Service Manager & Self Help?

Service Manager: EV Service Manager was designed as software for today’s digital-first business landscape. It is a versatile, powerful and easy way to manage service delivery for organizations of any size. Knowing that IT has more of an opportunity than ever to support digital transformation across a company, an integrated ITSM tool like Service Manager is paramount to sustained success. The EV Service Manager platform achieves this by supporting even the most complex requirements, while bringing a new level of simplicity, agility, and mobility required to make service management easy to use and easy to deliver, regardless of company size.

Self Help: Similarly, Self Help is capable of supporting businesses of all sizes, thanks to its ability to dramatically reduce requests and increase user satisfaction by empowering its users to solve their own issues, sans the constant need of service desk support. Using EV Self Help, organizations can improve adoption of IT self-service, resulting in significant benefits, including time saved and costs decreased. Additionally, users will have a more engaging and dynamic way to leverage knowledge to help themselves, the same way they would interact with a human — with Q&A or more conversational decision making.

What would be your opinion on the current business trend of integrating Artificial Intelligence in everything?

AI is a transformational set of technologies that will make every application smarter.  In most cases, it’s about augmenting the user’s experiences, which enhances the value of the software.  The use of AI will drive new levels of productivity and effectiveness for employees, in addition to providing the business new insights that will support improved business planning and execution.

How does EasyVista focus on product delivery considering the rise in technology prices and rapid changes in business trends?

EasyVista delivers its products in a SaaS delivery model that drives efficiency and speeds the delivery of innovation to all customers.  Our SaaS delivery platform enables us to meet the performance, availability, security, and compliance needs of our global customer base.

How do you differentiate EasyVista from other similar service providers?

EasyVista differentiates itself on the foundation of a proven platform, deep domain experience and forward-thinking, knowledgeable executives – all of which work towards constantly advancing the world of IT, intelligent service automation and digital transformation. For over 20 years, EasyVista has continually refined its platform as the technology in the service management industry has evolved. Through modular workflow processes, ITIL PinkVerified best practices, and trusted cloud delivery, EasyVista differentiates itself through an all-encompassing, customizable approach to delivering meaningful service across the enterprise.

How does EasyVista infuse AI to strengthen its platform/products/solutions?

EasyVista is integrating Intelligent Automation across its platform with a focus on improving the user experience.  In our latest release, we will offer a technology that enables the configuration and deployment of virtual agents across the enterprise to better engage employees and connect with customers from any location, like websites, applications, messaging platforms and more. These virtual agents can easily be informed to handle responses for IT, HR, Facilities, or other types of requests with intelligent knowledge flows. We are excited about the power of natural language processing, Machine Learning, and other intelligent automation capabilities in our ITSM and Self Help platforms.

How important is it for your professional role to stay updated with EasyVista’s technological evolution?

As the Chief Marketing Officer, it’s imperative that I be up to date with EasyVista’s technological evolution but also stays abreast of future innovations as we work to integrate the latest in technological advances like AI.

How will EasyVista adapt and integrate its technology to intelligent assistants/chatbots?

EasyVista has already elevated its technology to ensure modernized, purposeful and user-driven service technologies like chatbots and virtual assistants are included in its service offering. We’ve done this through our acquisition of Knowesia, which enables us to offer a codeless way to model and deliver intelligent knowledge processes that can be integrated with virtual assistants or chatbots to enhance the self-help experience. Knowles is best known for its innovative approach to modeling knowledge and procedures into decision trees.

Which events and webinars would you suggest to our readers as being the best in grasping information on emerging technologies?

My primary advice is to use Google and start to research and read on topics that interest you.  Below are some awesome events and a resource site I like that focus on future technology.

Microsoft Ignite (Event)

Google Cloud (Event)

AWS re: Invent (Event)

Gartner Symposium (Event)

Accenture Technology Labs (website)

Where do you see AI/Machine Learning and other smart technologies heading beyond 2025?

In 2025 and beyond, we will not be talking about AI, rather it will be in everything.  AI will make every technology solution and device smarter. AI will be viewed as less artificial and more just the expected experience when engaging with companies, complex processes, or applications. The ability for humans and machines to communicate will be much easier and virtual agents will exist to make everything easier.

What start-ups are you keenly following?

I keenly follow non-startups like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft as they are leaders in big innovations for the digital-first world and, of course, I follow startups that are in the service management software market.

I personally have an interest in following startups in AI, IoT, and Fintech. I routinely use a list like the one below to keep abreast of what’s hot.

What would have been your ideal alternative career choice?

My career started as a civil engineer that quickly evolved into software development.  Over my career, I have had the pleasure of developing software to solve problems (roadway design, geological modeling, chemical process automation, and more), leading technology adoption (ERP, ITSM, and more) within a global enterprise, and leading the delivery of solutions to the market.  It’s hard to see myself not involved in tech in some way, but I would like to do more to help non-profits leverage tech to drive efficiencies.

Could you tell our readers about a piece of professional advice that changed your life?

As a young engineer, I had a mentor who once told me that the intersection of passion and aptitude is greatness.  I have always applied this to my career as a make sure that I not only have an aptitude for something but also have a passion.  This makes getting up and going to work every day a joy!

Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read.

Daniel Heimlich

Thank you, John! That was fun and hope to see you back on AiThority soon.