How Monitoring Tools Can Drive Greater Performance 

Happy employees = happy customers;
And more productive employees = more profitable companies.

We’ve found that one way to help make these equations a reality is to focus on the ease of use of the technologies that your employees use. Employees who experience less friction with the technology they use every day tend to be happier at work. Companies that can monitor their systems and ensure employees are working at peak efficiency are most likely to provide an atmosphere in which those employees can succeed.

One example of this type of tool is AppNeta network monitoring software that offers IT departments a “single pane of glass” to monitor systems and uncover any problems that may exist in their network. Because, at the end of the day, our customers want to make sure that their end user customers are getting a wonderful experience. More productive employees lead to more profitable companies.

Simple, Yet Powerful

AppNeta succeeds due to its simplicity: it simulates user experience while combining diverse types of monitoring that is viewable on a single dashboard.

AppNeta monitors the end-user experience to ensure our customers are getting optimal results from their technology solutions. For example, how is their email functionality? Is it running at the appropriate speed? Is the Salesforce application loading fast enough to be frustration free?

Just a short while ago, businesses installed software within their own networks. It was deployed centrally from their data centers, and IT could put its arms around everything that that user was doing and promise that it would all work great. And if it didn’t, the trouble was something easily identifiable, because it was something that the company owned that was not working properly.

Today, apps are often in the cloud and employees are working remotely. When a problem suddenly arises, it’s not as easy to pinpoint because there are “blind spots” in the network, and it can take 10 times longer to sort out. For example, the problem could be the remote worker’s home Wi-Fi, or it could be a slow-down in the employer’s internet service provider, or the cloud provider isn’t meeting their SLA agreements – or any combination of factors that are no longer on-prem and directly under the company’s ownership.

AppNeta can pinpoint problems by simulating the end users’ actions while being very lightweight, using roughly one and a half percent of the network traffic to monitor. If a problem is detected, AppNeta goes into diagnostic mode where it checks more comprehensively to see whether a problem persists or if it was just a one-off blip.

Many common network problems are transitory. And if the problem goes away, then the alert goes away. Of course, it’s still in history and still logged, but the alerts clean themselves up when the problem resolves, which is beautiful.

A Transformative Tool

Although many companies use AppNeta to monitor the efficiency of their networks, often it initially finds its way into companies when they’re trying to ensure the success of a transformation project. For example, a company migrating Outlook to the cloud may want to ensure that its cloud provider delivers a certain quality of service level, as well as speed and reliability. AppNeta can help ensure a positive end-user experience and document any “breach” situations so that a company can negotiate refunds or better service.

While it may be initially brought in to diagnose or prevent a specific problem, soon the IT department realizes the potential of the product, particularly for improving the customer-facing experience as well.

Broadcom acquired AppNeta at the end of last year. As a Broadcom partner, we are overly excited to be able to include AppNeta within our portfolio. Melillo is very much a personal, hands-on solutions consultancy, which complements AppNeta; their existing customers are used to — and want — attention from a small, boutique company, and they will continue to receive exactly that from us. Our customers who already were using AppNeta are excited that Melillo can now support that product. And of course, we’re delighted because this is a fantastic opportunity for us to now offer and support what we consider the winning product in this space.

To talk more about AppNeta or any of the points I’ve mentioned reach out to me on LinkedIn or at getinfo@mjm.com