Case Study

How a Growing Restaurant Chain Scaled Infrastructure Operations With Itential

Thousands of restaurants. Hundreds of new openings each year. 75% less manual provisioning effort and more than 2,000 engineering hours reclaimed annually.

Challenge

A rapidly expanding restaurant chain needed to support hundreds of new locations each year while managing disconnected automation, inconsistent infrastructure standards, and manual handoffs across cloud, network, and security teams.

Solution

Itential connected existing Python scripts, Terraform modules, and service management processes into standardized workflows, bringing restaurant provisioning and infrastructure delivery into a shared, governed operating model.

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Impact

75% less hands-on provisioning effort. Approximately 2,100 engineering hours reclaimed annually. An estimated $168,000 in engineering capacity available for modernization and growth.

The Challenge

Every New Restaurant Added Another Layer of Work

For a large restaurant chain pursuing aggressive expansion, infrastructure operations had become a growing coordination challenge.

The networking team already used Python scripts to provision restaurant SD-WAN infrastructure. Cloud teams used Terraform to standardize some deployments. These tools automated individual tasks, but engineers still connected the steps themselves.

Requests moved between teams through tickets. Scripts solved local problems without a consistent approach to reuse. Cloud, network, and security teams worked with different tools and processes.

Every opening added more coordination, more opportunities for inconsistency, and more demand on a small group of specialists.

The organization needed to make infrastructure delivery repeatable across its growing footprint.

We had automation in place, but our people were still connecting the dots. As we grew, that coordination was becoming a bigger part of the job.

Infrastructure Leader

Restaurant Chain

The Solution

From Individual Scripts to Coordinated Infrastructure Delivery

The team started with the work that repeated at every restaurant opening, then applied the same pattern across the rest of its infrastructure delivery. Four connected pieces, all built on automation the team already had:

ServiceNow-Driven Store Provisioning

Approved service requests initiate provisioning workflows that pass the required information to existing automation and capture execution status. Engineers handle exceptions while routine requests follow a consistent path.

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Standardized Cloud Services

Reusable Terraform modules and workflows give teams a shared approach to common cloud deployments, reducing duplication and making standards easier to maintain.

Validation Built Into Execution

Checks within the workflow confirm that required provisioning steps have completed and surface issues for review. Validation becomes part of delivery, with a record of what ran and what needs attention.

Reusable Automation Across Teams

Workflow components provide a starting point for additional services. Teams can extend established patterns rather than create a separate process for every request.

Every restaurant opening now follows the same governed path, and the same workflow components carry over to the next service the team automates.

Why Itential

Why They Chose Itential

The team was not looking to replace its automation. Python scripts already provisioned restaurant SD-WAN infrastructure, and Terraform already standardized cloud deployments. What was missing was the layer that connected those pieces into one delivery process, so opening a restaurant did not depend on engineers stitching the steps together by hand.

Orchestration Built on the Automation They Already Trusted

Explore the Platform

Build on What Already Works

The organization chose Itential to connect its existing automation into complete operational workflows.

Preserve Existing Automation Investments

The team incorporated its Python scripts and Terraform modules into broader workflows, retaining the engineering work and expertise already embedded in those assets.

Connect Work Across Teams

Itential brought service requests, network provisioning, and cloud activities into a coordinated process, reducing the need for engineers to initiate each step or chase status across queues.

Establish Reusable Standards

Shared modules and workflow patterns gave teams a consistent way to deliver infrastructure. Improvements could be made centrally and reused across subsequent deployments.

Govern Execution as Operations Grow

Standardized workflows established a common process for approvals, execution, validation, and tracking – giving teams a foundation they could extend to additional services.

Itential let us take the automation we trusted and make it part of a complete process. Our engineers spend less time managing handoffs and more time improving how the work gets done.

Network Engineering Leader

Restaurant Chain

The Outcome

Less Manual Effort, More Capacity for Growth

75%

Reduction in Hands-On Provisioning Effort

Engineering effort per restaurant fell from an estimated eight hours to two across coordination, execution, and validation.

2,100

Hours of Engineering Time Reclaimed Annually

At approximately 350 restaurant openings per year, saving six hours per opening returns more than 2,000 hours to the team.

$168k

Estimated Annual Engineering Capacity Value

The reclaimed time represents approximately $168,000 in annual capacity available for infrastructure improvements, modernization, and other priorities.

The operational change extends beyond time savings. Teams work from shared standards, spend less time coordinating routine requests, and can improve a common process as requirements evolve.

The value is in what our engineers can do with that time. We can put more attention into improving reliability and supporting growth because routine delivery takes less effort.

Technology Leader

Restaurant Chain

Looking Ahead

What’s Next

The next phase extends the capacity gained through orchestration: helping teams respond to more requests, resolve exceptions sooner, and support continued growth through governed, agent-assisted operations.

Give Agents a Governed Way to Move Work Forward
With repeatable workflows in place, the next opportunity is to use agents to interpret requests, investigate exceptions, and initiate approved actions. The proposed approach builds on the governed execution processes already established in Itential. Agents would use context to determine the next step, while workflows apply the required permissions, approvals, and validation.
Turn Requests Into Action
An agent could interpret an infrastructure request, identify missing information, and select the appropriate approved workflow. Engineers would spend less time translating tickets into execution steps. For example, an incomplete restaurant provisioning request could prompt the agent to gather the missing site details before submitting the work for approval.
Investigate Provisioning Exceptions
When a workflow encounters a problem, an agent could review execution logs and relevant system status, summarize the likely cause, and recommend a next step. For known, low-risk conditions, it could initiate an approved recovery workflow. More complex issues would reach an engineer with the diagnostic context already assembled.
Check Readiness Before Opening Day
An agent could review provisioning status, validation results, and outstanding dependencies to identify restaurants that need attention ahead of opening. Teams could focus on resolving the gaps instead of manually assembling status across systems.
Identify the Next Automation Opportunity
Agents could analyze recurring exceptions and requests to highlight where a workflow change or reusable module would remove more manual work. Engineers would review and test those improvements before release.

We’ve made the work repeatable. Next, we want agents to help us understand what needs attention and move approved work forward, with our engineers in control.

Infrastructure Leader

Restaurant Chain