Service Request Management (SRM)

A service request is a formal or informal request from a user, customer, or authorized representative for a predefined service. To initiate the process, a user submits a service request, which then follows established workflows for handling and fulfillment. Service requests are routine and predictable, often follow established processes or workflows to resolve, and can include both IT and non-IT issues.

Service Requests vs. Incidents

Service requests are distinct from incidents, and it’s worth taking a moment to highlight their differences:

• Service requests are a type of user requests initiated by users and reflect requests for routine or predictable tasks, those that are neither interruptions nor problems. Service requests typically follow a defined request process to ensure efficient handling and fulfillment.
• Incidents are unplanned interruptions or reductions in the quality of an IT service. These almost always require an emergency response by IT teams, as these disruptions threaten normal service and come with a cost (e.g., a payment portal is down, resulting in lost revenue). In many cases, an AIOps platform is used to detect, correlate, and respond to incidents in real time—enabling faster root cause analysis and resolution.

Where service requests fit in ITSM

Service requests fall under the broad umbrella of IT Service Management (ITSM), which itself is designed to handle predictable, routine requests for IT services. According to ITIL 4 (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), the globally recognized standard framework for ITSM, service request management is recognized as a key practice alongside incident management, problem management, and change management.

Ultimately, the goal of service request management is to have a structured process to handle predictable, repeatable requests. Organizations rely on a well-defined service request process and continuously optimize service request management by analyzing workflows, metrics, and user interactions to improve efficiency and user experience. This will improve overall service quality and user satisfaction, so service request processes need to be refined for continuous improvement.

What is ITSM?

ITSM stands for IT Service Management and is the processes, policies, and activities that organizations use to improve the delivery of IT services and align those services to business outcomes. Some have called ITSM the process of turning IT services from a cost center into a value center. The IT department and IT team are central to managing service requests, supporting business needs, and ensuring service delivery through structured processes.

Under ITSM, IT teams fulfill requests in a timely, consistent way. This boosts service team efficiency, freeing up resources for other, more pressing issues. Nearly every organization that implements ITSM uses the ITIL as its framework. Under this framework, service requests fall under the Service Operation stage and, more specifically, Request Fulfillment. The IT service desk and a robust service request management system are essential for efficient request handling, streamlining processes, and integrating best practices. This includes:

• Logging and categorization
• Approval (including appropriate routing)
• Fulfillment, where requests are resolved according to predefined procedures
• Closure and feedback

IT Governance in Service Request Management

IT Governance is the framework that ensures IT services (including service request management) are aligned to business outcomes, comply with internal policies, and deliver value. It defines who is responsible for what, sets metrics, and ensures transparency across IT. In SRM, strong IT governance means service requests are handled consistently and auditable while maintaining security, compliance, and risk management standards. This foundation underpins ITSM frameworks like ITIL, so automated workflows and AI-driven processes align with overall organizational controls.

Although the focus of this blog will primarily be on IT service requests, it’s important to note that service request management can exist both within IT and non-IT processes. The most common service requests span departments such as HR, finance, IT, and marketing, including tasks like time-off management, purchase order approvals, password resets, and content creation. Being able to fulfill requests efficiently is crucial for improving service delivery and customer satisfaction. Here are some examples of both types of service requests to illustrate this difference.

Common IT Service Requests

• New password or password reset requests
• Request access permissions (e.g., databases, cloud storage, or internal tools), where users often submit requests to access critical systems
• Software access requests for specific applications or tools
• Hardware procurement requests for laptops, monitors, etc.
• Account setup for new employee onboarding
• Software installation and updating
• Requests for specific information, either from reports, metrics, or even raw data files

Usually, the IT service desk handles these requests and tracks requests to optimize resource allocation throughout their lifecycle to ensure transparency and accountability.

Common Non-IT Service Requests

• PTO or leave requests
• Purchase order approvals for office supplies, equipment, software, etc.
• Facilities, maintenance, and repair requests
• Service needs from other departments, like marketing or HR

Meeting user expectations is essential when handling non-IT service requests, as clear communication and efficient workflows help ensure employee needs are met and satisfaction remains high.

Service request management (SRM) is the structured process used to handle service requests. Most of the time, these requests come from internal employees and customers, but sometimes they can include external vendors or other partners. Because requests only include routine tasks, SRM only handles routine, predictable activities, not unexpected incidents or problems.

Within IT specifically, key aspects of SRM can include:

• Logging and tracking requests through a centralized system
• Categorizing and prioritizing requests by type and urgency
• Automating workflows to reduce manual effort and maintain consistency, in some cases using agentic workflows 100% autonomously
• Maintaining communication with users about their request status to keep everything transparent
• Assessing user satisfaction after requests are fulfilled and fielding feedback for continuous improvement

In most companies, this is a team effort between service desk agents (human and AI), specialist teams and departments, and self-service portals. The service desk team is responsible for managing incoming requests, making sure requests are logged, tracked, and resolved through established workflows.

Leading organizations today rely on intelligent automation to modernize Service Request Management (SRM), streamlining every step—from submission to resolution. By automating routine tasks, improving triage accuracy, and enabling smarter fulfillment, modern SRM platforms improve response time and drive user satisfaction.

1. Specialized Service Requests

Not all requests are created equal; some require more expertise, unique workflows, or cross-departmental collaboration. Non-standard requests are outside of the normal requests and need tailored attention to get resolved. These can come from departments like marketing, finance, HR, or facilities and often involve complex requirements or sensitive information.

A request management system supports this process by allowing clear tracking, prioritization, and communication throughout the entire service request workflow. So you can handle both standard and non-standard requests with equal ease and drive continuous improvement in service quality and business performance.

2. Smart Evaluation and Ticket Triage

Traditional ticket routing often relies on static rules, which can miss the nuances of real-world scenarios. AI-powered ticket triage solutions now analyze each request in context, considering factors like urgency, complexity, and agent expertise. IT teams use smart triage tools to efficiently manage and prioritize incoming requests, ensuring that resources are allocated where they are needed most. This ensures every ticket is routed to the most suitable agent or team, improving both speed and accuracy. For straightforward requests, intelligent assistants can even resolve issues autonomously, freeing up human agents for more complex challenges.

3. Request Fulfillment and Real-Time Collaboration

What is Request Fulfillment?

Within the ITIL framework, Request Fulfillment is the specific ITSM stage that is responsible for managing the lifecycle of service requests. This stage is specifically designed to:

• Provide a structured, repeatable process for handling routine requests
• Improve user satisfaction by ensuring that services are delivered within set timeframes
• Streamline workflows and automate routine tasks where possible
• Provide a common framework and definition of terms for consistent reporting and continuous improvement tracking
• Enable a simple request fulfillment process for routine and low-complexity requests, ensuring efficiency and clarity

Within the request fulfillment process, critical requests and high-priority requests are identified based on urgency and impact, and are handled promptly to ensure service efficiency and effective resource allocation.

Once a request is routed, intelligent agent assist tools can support agents with real-time recommendations, relevant knowledge articles, and next-best actions. For requests that require cross-team collaboration, some solutions can automatically initiate “swarming” by bringing the right experts together in collaborative channels, accelerating resolution times.

4. Flagging Redundant Requests

Redundant requests—duplicate or unnecessary service requests—can quickly drain resources and slow down service delivery. These often occur when users are unaware that a request has already been submitted, or when they request services that are already available through existing channels. Left unchecked, redundant requests can overwhelm service teams, create confusion, and reduce overall productivity.

Automating the request fulfillment process can also help identify and flag redundant requests before they reach the service desk, allowing teams to focus on genuine needs. By proactively managing redundant requests, organizations can improve user satisfaction, streamline service delivery, and ensure that resources are dedicated to fulfilling requests that truly add value.

5. Resolution and Continuous Improvement

After a request is fulfilled, AI-driven solutions can automatically summarize the case, log outcomes, and even suggest knowledge base updates based on the interaction. This not only ensures a consistent record but also helps organizations learn and improve over time.

By leveraging intelligent agent assist technology, organizations can dramatically reduce manual triage, accelerate resolutions, and deliver a more seamless service experience, all without increasing headcount.

Given the scale involved in fielding routine requests across your enterprise, whether from employees, customers, users, or third-party partners, SRM isn’t something you can manage on your own. The best and most efficient organizations use an ITSM ticketing system to log, track, manage, and resolve all requests. 

A typical ITSM ticketing system will provide centralized logging and tracking, the ability to build and automate workflows, performance tracking, tools for maintaining SLA compliance, and full visibility into requests across the organization. This results in: 

• Reduced manual effort across the service request team, freeing up time for other tasks and improving productivity
• Reducing lost requests and having a complete history accessible for each request
• Proactively identify bottlenecks, improve processes, and automatically monitor compliance with SLAs
• Full transparency and accountability across the organization, which can help build trust among teams
• Create a smoother, more reliable experience for all parties involved (especially when you use self-service portals, Agentic AI, and other autonomous solutions)

With the addition of intelligent agent assist technology, organizations can further streamline ticket triage, automate repetitive tasks, and provide agents with real-time recommendations. These enhancements not only accelerate resolution times but also help maintain high service quality as demand grows.

While ITSM software and other technologies out there help to accelerate and improve service request management, no tool, not even autonomous agentic AI, operates in a vacuum. Any technology needs to be integrated into a process guided by proven best practices. Here are a few that our customers have leveraged to deliver a seamless, efficient service experience at scale.

Categorize and prioritize tickets

As soon as a service request comes in, you need to know what type of issue you’re dealing with and how high a priority it is. Intelligent agent assist solutions can help automate this process, making it easier to route requests efficiently.

Modern SRM tools accept requests from a variety of channels like self-service portals, chatbots, email, and more. Intelligent assistants can automatically capture and categorize incoming requests, ensuring accurate tagging (such as priority, department, or status) right from the start. This reduces manual effort and helps teams respond faster. Collecting user feedback at the submission stage can also help improve categorization and enhance future service delivery.

Provide self-service and knowledge base access

When it comes to simple, routine tasks, 60% of users prefer self-service options to contacting a human representative. Providing intuitive self-service portals and a robust knowledge base both empower users and reduce agent workload.

Automate low-level tasks

Free up your team for higher-value work by automating repetitive, low-complexity tasks. Agent assist technology can handle common requests, such as password resets or access provisioning, with minimal human intervention.

Define SLAs and track KPIs

Make sure everyone is clear on what “good” looks like. By establishing service-level agreements (SLAs) and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs), you can maintain accountability and improve consistency.

Train support teams across departments

More and more employee portals are becoming cross-functional in nature. For example, a single employee portal can route requests to IT or HR, depending on the nature of the requests. It can be helpful for support staff to have knowledge of all departments to more efficiently field and route requests.

Continuously review and optimize processes

It’s important to regularly assess and refine service request workflows as new information becomes available. This can improve efficiency, user satisfaction, and overall performance. (Note: if you implement Agentic AI in your SRM processes, this will happen autonomously.)

Invest in autonomous solutions

Modern AI-powered agent assist tools can proactively recommend next steps, summarize cases, and even facilitate collaboration for complex requests, helping teams resolve tickets faster and more accurately.

Change management is key in service request management, especially when service requests involve changes to IT services, systems, or business processes. Integrating change management with service request management ensures all changes are properly assessed, planned, and implemented with minimal disruption to business as usual.
Effective service request management relies on seamless coordination between request fulfillment and change management. This integration helps organizations optimize service delivery, minimize risks, and continuously improve their service management processes. By prioritizing user satisfaction and proactively managing change, organizations can adapt quickly to evolving needs while maintaining efficient and reliable service request workflows.

Service request management software helps organizations fulfill service requests more efficiently than traditional, manual approaches. Core features include ticketing, routing, SLAs, analytics, reporting, and more.

The best SRM software also integrates with other ITSM modules (incident management, problem management, change management, etc.) to seamlessly manage the entire ITSM process.

Next-generation SRM software minimizes the need for manual intervention by leveraging AI and workflow automation to handle service requests in real time. Additionally, intelligent agent assist capabilities further enhance this process by providing human agents with real-time recommendations and automating routine tasks. Together, these capabilities lead to faster, more consistent service delivery.

Throughout this blog, we’ve talked about agentic AI and its ability to autonomously handle many aspects of the service request management process. Not only does agentic AI accelerate human action through chat-based interfaces and real-time responses, but it can also orchestrate AI agents to perform requested tasks with minimal human intervention.

How Agentic AI Improves Request Handling

Traditional approaches to request handling involve assigning predetermined tags to tickets, often assigned by a human agent, and rigid, rule-based routing based on those tags and other ticket attributes. While this is an improvement over manual processes, its categories are inflexible, and it struggles to prioritize more than one dimension of values.

Next-gen ITSM platforms that leverage agentic AI can handle requests faster and more autonomously by reading service requests and automatically categorizing them based on user intent. AI agents can then route the request to the person best positioned to address the issue or resolve the ticket themselves through automated workflows if the issue is straightforward enough.

When organizations need a human to be involved in the process, whether due to corporate policies or SLA requirements, Agentic AI can act in a collaborative capacity, surfacing insights and making recommendations to the human service provider. This enables the best of both worlds: speed and comprehensiveness from the AI, plus the ingenuity and decision-making of the human agent.

Future Outlook: Autonomous Service Request Management

Going forward, we anticipate agentic AI advancing to the point of offering more nuanced, sophisticated autonomy to optimize day-to-day operations. This includes predictive request fulfillment, AI-driven optimization of automated workflows, and cross-functional service automation beyond IT.

Want to learn more about the use of agentic AI in service request management? Schedule an AI demo, and we’ll show you how it works.