“We now have the level of visibility necessary for IT to provide detailed and accurate reports to the partners. Being able to monitor our core services, which are critical to the business, and sit in front of our lawyers throughout the day, gives us a significant edge in the market. Effective use of technology is something that can make a real difference,”
David Lee, Infrastructure Manager, Bond Pearce LLP
Despite investment in systems such as HP Operations Manager and Microsoft Operations Manager, Bond Pearce had not progressed beyond basic monitoring. They had little visibility as to where the problems were occurring or to what degree service quality was impacting the business. This made it difficult to prioritise issues for quick resolution of service. There was a definite need for the Infrastructure Manager to be able to deliver critical application and user response time monitoring and reporting at a level acceptable to the business.
Solution and Results
Based on the responses to the RFP issued to 10 companies, Bond Pearce selected Ancoris, a specialist integrator of enterprise security, systems management and collaboration solutions, to help them address these key requirements. Ancoris recommended NetIQ AppManager to provide a comprehensive Service Level Management solution including:
- SLA report production
- E-mail alerts for system or application issues
- Enhanced helpdesk view
- Highly visible real-time performance graphs
- Job modification for critical alerts
- Trend analysis
- Traffic Light service map views
Ancoris began working with Bond Pearce in March 2009, and the implementation of NetIQ AppManager began in April. Bond Pearce initially deployed a core services package from NetIQ as a proof of concept with the potential to expand to a more advanced solution in the future. Within six months NetIQ AppManager was fully deployed across the firm's core infrastructure.
“We selected Ancoris based on their experience in the legal marketplace and the proposal they put forward,” commented David Lee, Infrastructure Manager, Bond Pearce. “NetIQ came across very strongly and Ancoris was not the only one to put NetIQ forward. We have had NetIQ AppManager in place for a couple of months now and the results have exceeded expectations.”
NetIQ AppManager allows the IT department to run simulations and proactively identify issues on the production systems. Using the service map functionality, they now have a traffic light view of how services are performing across locations. They can also run offline transactions by simulating network traffic and linking with NetIQ AppManager Response Time for Windows module. By monitoring user clicks and button pushes, they can develop benchmark activity records and compare these to the production environment.
