The modern corporate world is changing. Many companies have established a new normal operation. Systems and applications that were otherwise completely under internal control are increasingly outside the corporate environment. In-house business software is now SaaS-based or resides in the cloud. Remote work, collaboration and digital collaboration platforms are now firmly in place. According to a recent C-level flash survey by PwC, home offices are expected to be used 22% more often in the future than before. Video calls will continue to be used more and coworking tools will be integrated even further into the daily workflow.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to ensure the digital user experience with conventional solutions. Reliable applications and services, as well as fast devices for end users to work remotely, play a major role. Microsoft guarantees 99.9% uptime for M365, but that doesn’t mean every end user will have excellent response time. There are many factors at play that can lead to a poor user experience. An end user may have an outdated router in their home office or a slow ISP connection. Often, slow response times or poor performance are not caused by the business software itself. In the home office or on the road, users rely more on voice and video calls via Teams or similar tools. This increases the pressure on IT support departments to understand and effectively resolve the root causes of poor performance.
Endpoint Performance Monitoring (EPM) at a glance
Such examples show why it is so important to collect user experience data at the source endpoints as well. Only when devices and systems are also monitored on the user side can IT support gain a holistic view of application performance for cloud services. To proactively improve the user experience, you have to start at the endpoint. Endpoint monitoring is the magic word and includes:
- Computer speed and available memory
- Headset and audio device performance
- Home network speed
- Internet service provider (ISP) performance and routing
- Performance and response times of cloud services
Success driver Endpoint Performance Monitoring
The EPM software is deployed on users’ endpoints, runs in the user context, and does not require admin privileges. Real-time and historical data, such as network speeds and application performance, is collected directly from the endpoint device and transmitted to a central application. This provides IT support with comprehensive insight into the user experience. As a result, IT issues can be proactively resolved and the user experience can be efficiently improved. Old and unsupported headsets can be identified and replaced. Dashboards indicate which users are experiencing poor connectivity on their home network or slow ISP response times. With efficient root-cause analysis, user issues can be resolved with fast response times before they become chronic problems and degrade productivity and morale.
While competitiveness and building a competitive advantage is the most commonly cited motivation for digital transformation, there are more and more companies that recognize that a digital enterprise must also make optimizing performance and user experience a priority. Optimization starts at every single endpoint, especially “at home,” where end-user productivity depends on IT having a clear understanding of the performance at hand and being able to fix problems in a timely manner.
