Streamlining issue remediation and optimizing the citizen experience
The VDSS IT team evaluated various application monitoring tools, including AppDynamics, but ultimately decided against it due to its cost. "We were primarily looking for a cost-effective solution that aligns with our ITIL strategy. Compared to other tools in the market, Applications Manager was rich in features while being affordable. So, we had the best of both worlds," says Lee.
After gaining full-stack observability, VDSS continued to uncover other capabilities that Applications Manager could bring to the table, including other modules like digital experience monitoring. "Within a year, we tripled the investment we made in Applications Manager and this gave us [an] edge, as we no longer [have] to guess the impact application performance has on our user experience," says Lee.
Before when facing issues, VDSS team members had to wade through information manually and it would take a lot of their valuable time. Applications Manager's real-time dashboards provide alerts that have helped them cut the remediation process down from days down to minutes. Lee vividly recollects when Applications Manager helped prevent a major incident in the Department of Child Support: "We were facing performance issues with our Department of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) application and wanted to understand what was going on. Applications Manager helped us gain visibility into specific errors occurring within the DCSE application. We were able to analyze the error patterns, trace the flow of transactions, and identify the underlying issues causing the errors."
Additionally, the team leveraged the product's digital experience monitoring capabilities to boost the impact of its other social welfare programs. The applications were experiencing intermittent issues such as unexpected errors and disruptions. With the help of the tool's real user monitoring capabilities, the VDSS was able to understand how real users were engaging with its applications and capture interaction metrics like page load times, form submission rates, overall response times, and more. This allowed the IT team to proactively identify and address performance issues, optimize user journeys, and swiftly resolve errors or disruptions. As a result, the applications remained highly available, reliable, and user-friendly, ensuring timely financial assistance to families in need.