All fields are required.
Challenges
- Rapidly adapting to a remote and cloud-based work environment
- Expansion of Softcat’s operations to an international scale limited its visibility into the health and performance of the network across all sites
- Pursuit of operational excellence beyond basic service checks to a more sophisticated strategy
Outcomes
- Introduced user-friendly and intuitive dashboards
Enabled IT professionals of all skill levels to swiftly identify and rectify issues from any location - Proactive approach to incident management
Can now detect and communicate potential service disruptions before they escalate, which significantly reduced IT help desk inquiries - Achieved seamless scalability in their monitoring efforts
Enabled their growing network of offices to maintain consistent and effective monitoring capabilities
Embracing Innovation in IT Services During a Time of Global Digital Transformation
Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, UK, Softcat is a leading provider of IT infrastructure services and solutions to businesses and public sector organizations.
Challenge
Amid a rapidly transforming digital landscape, Softcat found itself at the crossroads of innovation and challenge. In a move to lead the market, the company pivoted from its conventional fixed circuits and desktop configurations to a fluid environment complete with laptops and cloud-based telephony solutions. This strategic shift was an embrace of the future of work—an era defined by agility, scalability, and remote capabilities.
Yet, with every leap forward comes a set of hurdles to clear. As Softcat’s footprint expanded beyond its headquarters to encompass an international network, the complexity of its operations grew considerably. With more than a dozen offices located across various countries, each served as a distinct node within its corporate network, with every office having its own set of requirements and expectations. The challenge was further compounded by the intricacies involved in monitoring SaaS and cloud environments, and SD-WAN services like Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN. Unlike the relatively flat landscape of on-premises solutions, the cloud was a new frontier, with data traversing a labyrinth of paths across the Internet.
In response, Softcat cast a wide net in search of a solution—a network-focused monitoring platform that could provide not just a cursory glance at service availability but a deep dive into the vital signs of the network’s health. Their vision was clear: a monitoring strategy that transcended basic service checks to embrace a holistic view of its digital ecosystem.
Solution
Softcat embraced ThousandEyes, and the team quickly achieved a new level of visibility with intuitive dashboards. These dashboards, with helpful color-coded indicators, offered a user-friendly interface that democratized the complexity of network and application performance monitoring. Regardless of their technical acumen, team members could now engage with the platform, quickly identifying and troubleshooting issues—a testament to the platform’s versatility. Recently, a member of the team rectified a problem using their mobile device, highlighting the agility ThousandEyes has brought to Softcat.
ThousandEyes equipped Softcat with the insights to foster a proactive stance toward incident response. Softcat was able to anticipate and communicate service disruptions, preventing unnecessary escalations. This forward-thinking approach yielded a substantial decrease in IT help desk tickets. Moreover, ThousandEyes test templates proved to be a game-changer, simplifying the replication of tests across Softcat’s growing number of offices. This consistency was the linchpin in scaling its monitoring capabilities, ensuring that as Softcat grew, its monitoring solutions kept pace, never missing a beat. In fact, a team member was able to triage and determine the root cause of an issue in just 10 minutes after receiving an alert from ThousandEyes.
ThousandEyes provided Softcat with a Digital Experience Assurance (DXA) solution that was both uniquely user-friendly and adaptable. In a world where business continuity hinges on the swift identification and resolution of network issues, ThousandEyes empowers Softcat’s IT team to proactively protect the company’s digital infrastructure from unnecessary disruptions. While major outages were rare for Softcat, the true value of ThousandEyes was evident in its ability to rapidly diagnose and mitigate problems. As such, ThousandEyes has become an essential asset in Softcat’s operational ecosystem.
See how the world’s largest enterprises and fastest-growing startups use ThousandEyes to transform their IT infrastructure and deliver exceptional digital experiences. Explore their stories and more here.
Start Monitoring Your Network