Business Challenge
A Fortune 1000 consumer goods manufacturing firm in St. Louis, Missouri had a need for consolidation of their network management platforms and the creation of a network management center structured around lines of business. The firm's clients (over 1200 retail stores) were aware of issues with the network and were calling the support team to report issues before the support team was even aware there was a problem. Clients were then dissatisfied with the levels of support provided and responsiveness of the support team. Knowledge of system issues is critical during particularly high-volume sales seasons, depending on what lines of business are affected by the system issues in question.
Solution
Oakwood Systems Group created an executive dashboard for the “Retail Systems” line of business. The dashboard monitors and alerts management of issues within the systems that support all retail operations based on the client's performance thresholds, which are defined around the line of business needs. Built around Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), the system includes RSS feeds from the retail information systems, an interface to the organization's help desk system, and a real-time system monitoring through MOM and management packs from various hardware vendors.
Benefits
Executive management at this Fortune 1000 company now has a current view of the status of their retail operations. The Internal Support Team offers faster response times and increased service levels to their clients – the Managers on Duty at over 1200 retail stores. Issues can be managed and escalated based on their impact to the retail operation.
This organization, with Oakwood's solution in place, has successfully aligned their IT system management with their business needs.