How Asian Paints Implemented a New ITSM Platform in 8 Weeks and Moved 80% of Tickets to Digital Channels
The Challenge
Asian Paints, one of Asia's largest paint manufacturers with 12,000+ employees, was running its IT service management on a legacy Matrix42 platform that had become a strategic liability. The system lacked meaningful reporting and analytics capabilities, preventing the IT team from measuring performance or identifying improvement opportunities. Automation was not possible, meaning routine IT processes required manual intervention at every step. Without visibility into operational metrics, the team could not build a business case for investment or demonstrate IT's contribution to the business. Previous platform implementations had been slow and expensive, creating institutional reluctance to replace the system despite its limitations.
The Solution
Freshservice replaced Matrix42 with an enterprise-grade ITSM platform featuring advanced workflow automation, comprehensive analytics and reporting, and seamless integration with the company's existing toolstack — including email, portal access, and Microsoft Teams. The implementation was designed for speed: an 8-week timeline with a simplified interface minimised the adoption barrier. AWS-powered infrastructure provided the scalability required for a 12,000+ employee operation. Workflow automation replaced manual process steps, while analytics dashboards gave IT leadership visibility into performance for the first time.
The Outcome
Implementation completed in 8 weeks — a pace 300-400% faster than previous platform deployments — removing the legacy reluctance to invest in IT improvement. Service ticket registrations increased 33% as employees gained accessible digital channels for submitting requests. 80% of tickets are now processed through digital channels, replacing the email and phone-based submissions that had previously dominated. Analytics dashboards gave IT leadership operational visibility that had not previously existed, enabling performance measurement and continuous improvement.
Strategic Takeaway
Asian Paints' ITSM upgrade illustrates how legacy platform inertia compounds: a system that lacks reporting cannot demonstrate its own inadequacy, so the case for replacement is always anecdotal. The 300-400% faster implementation speed breaks this loop — when the cost and risk of switching are credible, the conversation changes from "can we afford to upgrade" to "can we afford not to." The 80% digital channel adoption rate is the adoption result that validates the implementation approach: a simplified interface reduced the training and change-management burden that typically slows enterprise software rollouts. The 33% increase in ticket registrations is also a signal worth noting — it suggests that employees were previously suppressing requests because the submission process was too cumbersome, not that workload increased.
- Legacy ITSM inertia is self-reinforcing: a system without reporting cannot generate evidence of its own failure. Implementation speed (8 weeks vs historical norms) is often the decisive factor in breaking through organisational reluctance.
- Increased ticket registrations after deployment often signal suppressed demand, not increased problems. If employees were avoiding the old system, the new volume is a baseline correction — not a sign that IT workload grew.
- Digital channel adoption at 80% is a prerequisite for analytics-driven IT management. Paper-trail and email-based submissions are invisible to dashboards — organisations cannot measure what is not in the system.
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