Key benefits
Gained end-to-end view of systems across more than 40 teams
Reduced latency time between applications and database, increasing overall performance.
Reduced mean time to recovery (MTTR) for database issues, improving operational efficiency
Swisscom is Switzerland’s leading telecom provider, serving more than 60% of the country’s mobile and broadband markets. With AppDynamics as part of its omnichannel strategy, Swisscom is on track to deliver 100% customer service quality across online, in-store and call center touchpoints.
“AppDynamics has not only made each team more accountable, they are also more invested in what happens outside their agile teams, which is a big cultural shift.”
Guido de Simone
Senior Project Manager/Lean Agile Leader, Swisscom
Challenge
Achieve visibility across application, network and database processes to break down silos, improve performance and build a world-class omnichannel customer experience.
Solution
AppDynamics delivers end-to-end performance visibility that enables Swisscom to identify and address issues in real-time rather than hours, allowing for faster, more efficient customer-centric services.
Results
Swisscom strengthens their trusted partnership with online, in-store, and call-center customers by improving service speed thanks to reduced latency times and MTTR.
“It’s been a revelation to see all the ways in which we can cut inefficiencies and improve the way we work.”
Pranjal Pandey
Product Owner, Swisscom
Challenge
Breaking down barriers to omnichannel excellence
Connectivity is vital to Swisscom customers. More than 60% of the country’s telecom market relies on Swisscom’s WIFI and broadband services to work, play, buy, and educate themselves each day. That’s why the company’s top priority is to be a trusted partner who improves people’s lives with 100% service quality.
For Swisscom Senior Project Manager/Lean Agile Manager, Guido de Simone, achieving the 100% service goal meant delivering the right performance at the right time across every channel. Swisscom serves customers online, in-store, and through its call center, and de Simone’s goal is to get all these pieces working together seamlessly as the company doubles down on omnichannel experiences.
“It’s not enough for a service to just work,” he says. “Each application and customer channel needs to deliver functionality, stability, and performance. That requires our teams to have an end-to-end view across those channels and the IT systems they are built on.”
The challenge, until recently, was that Swisscom had more than 550 people across 40 different teams working in silos in the omnichannel Large Solution (based on SAFEe-Scaled Agile Framework). Each agile team performed well, but when issues arose it was difficult to pinpoint the cause, especially when issues touched on the operations of multiple departments or teams. While agile teams had an in-depth understanding of their specific services and performance situation, they had limited insight into how their efforts fit into Swisscom’s broader omnichannel performance, for example the end-to-end view on performance quality.
Swisscom responded by setting up a “performance omnichannel task force” to bring visibility, accountability, and a change in mindset to the way its teams work together. The first step? Break down the silos between them with an end-to-end application performance management platform.
End-to-end insights deliver 100% quality
Replacing siloed systems with AppDynamics, Swisscom gained an end-to-end view of its services, network, database and processes and eliminated barriers to its omnichannel ambitions. Swisscom had three goals when modernizing its systems and providing a unified performance monitoring approach. Starting with improved visibility into data and performance, its agile teams were inspired to collaborate and share insights across workgroups.
“We previously had limited insight into our performance, which meant inefficiencies crept into our processes and bled over into the customer experience. With AppDynamics, we now have a global picture of our performance across every team and project through the task force, which leads to more informed decision-making and a higher standard of service across channels,” says de Simone.
Equally important for de Simone was the ability to benchmark and set accountability for the more than 550 team members and developers which are working in the Large Solution. By making application performance visible, Swisscom ensured every team knows what’s on their plate and understands how their efforts fit into the big picture.
Finally, Swisscom complemented its technology transformation with a change in mindset. Specifically, a greater focus on collaboration and the open exchange of insights. Its microservices team, DevOps engineers, and infrastructure team use AppDynamics to share insights and enhance each other’s performance, rather than just their own.
“We can quickly spot and address bottlenecks at the source. For instance, if 90% of the performance issues we catch in AppDynamics occur in the database, we simply focus our efforts there."
Pranjal Pandey
Product Owner, Swisscom
“My task force brings together developers, database teams and hundreds of other employees under an agile framework. Communication is at the heart of making that structure work,” says de Simone. “AppDynamics has not only made each team more accountable, they are also more invested in what happens outside their agile teams, which is a big cultural shift.”
The combination of AppDynamics and a more proactive approach to application management helped Swisscom spot performance issues in record time. Where it previously took hours to pinpoint issues, the company can now address these almost instantly. This advantage has proven particularly valuable for the common understanding of performance between Swisscom’s database and network cloud team.
“It’s been a revelation to see all the ways in which we can cut inefficiencies and improve the way we work,” says Swisscom product owner, Pranjal Pandey. “We can quickly spot and address bottlenecks at the source. For instance, if 90% of the performance issues we catch in AppDynamics occur in the database, we simply focus our efforts there.”
“At a time where every second counts for customers and where every experience can make or break our relationship with them, we wanted to reinvigorate the way we deliver our service and achieve 100% quality. AppDynamics has given us a platform to help with this.”
Guido de Simone
Senior Project Manager/Lean Agile Leader, Swisscom
Milliseconds make all the difference
While individual teams on the Swisscom omnichannel task force reported strong performance before using AppDynamics, the big win was how quickly they saw opportunities for further improvement by joining forces and sharing data insights. This realization paid big dividends in customer engagement where milliseconds of downtime can equate to millions in lost revenue and a negative customer experience.
For instance, when the Swisscom website and call centers experienced lag time responding to customer queries, but monitoring the company’s applications, database, and network operations in isolation revealed no issues. Only by analyzing performance across all three domains at once did Swisscom find the culprit – its network received too many queries and was overwhelmed. With that insight, the task force reduced network latency from six to eight milliseconds to two milliseconds — a threefold improvement.
“Six milliseconds may not sound like a lot, but when you have 2,000 calls per page for each user — a customer shopping on the website or a call center agent helping a customer or an in-store agent working on a transaction – those milliseconds add up quickly in our customers’ eyes,” says de Simone. “The speed with which we can serve customers also impacts how many people we need in our call centers, how we manage their time, and a number of other internal decisions, so this insight was critical to our success from the inside out,” he adds.
More insight, fewer headaches
At the operational level, Swisscom reduced both its mean time to identify performance issues (MTTI) and its mean time to recovery (MTTR). End-to-end insight into application performance helps teams to detect issues more proactively, which not only means they are resolved faster but also reduces the burden of data monitoring and administrative labor.
Swisscom also tapped AppDynamics Professional Services for support as it continues to develop and grow its omnichannel offering. “The support team is technically sound so when there’s a unique challenge to solve they help us find a solution, which is hugely appreciated,” says Pandey. “If we raise an urgent ticket, the whole team comes together to address the issue.”
“This is a pivotal moment for Swisscom,” adds de Simone. “At a time where every second counts for customers and where every experience can make or break our relationship with them, we wanted to reinvigorate the way we deliver our service and achieve 100% quality. AppDynamics has given us a platform to help with this.”
"It’s not enough for a service to just work. Each application and customer channel needs to deliver functionality, stability, and performance. That requires our teams to have an end-to-end view across those channels and the IT systems they are built on."
Guido de Simone
Senior Project Manager/Lean Agile Leader, Swisscom
About Swisscom
Swisscom is the leading provider of communication, IT and entertainment in Switzerland, with more than 6 million mobile subscriptions. It has more than 19,000 employees and has built a reputation for innovative services and sustainable business practices.
