Log Management and Monitoring Solutions support modern digital services
The criticality of digital services, the multicloud and multivendor environment, as well as the mutual dependency of various systems, all had a hand in Vastuu Group needing a versatile monitoring solution that evolves with the business. Cinia’s monitoring solution enables Vastuu Group to monitor the status of its digital services and related platforms 24/7.
The solution’s flexibility and versatility are particularly important for the monitoring of a complex IT environment. At the end of the day, the most important measure of success is how well the services work for the end-user.
The Cinia Solution enables the measuring of service quality from the end-user perspective
Vastuu Group is a company owned by six associations operating in the construction industry. It manages and administers the largest register in the business in Finland. The company’s digital services ensure that as many parties operating in the construction business as possible can observe both the Act on the Contractor’s Obligations and Liability when Work is Contracted Out and the Act Governing the Use of Individual Tax Numbers and the Public Register of Tax Numbers within the Construction Industry
"We operate in a very complex environment. We offer many services to help our clients with the paperwork required by bureaucracy and to relieve the pain of administration involved with ensuring that all the finer points of legal provisions are observed. Some of our services, such as Valttikortti, are also used for very practical purposes at building sites, so it’s very important that they work reliably," says Vastuu Group's Head of Operations Max Bernoulli.
The service production platform is extensive, but each service must operate in real time, fast and, most importantly, reliably. The end-user's customer experience must be smooth, which is why Vastuu Group uses Cinia's log management and monitoring solutions.
"Cinia cEye measures and shows how our services work for our clients", he summarises.
Bernoulli believes that the measuring is highly important. If the functioning of the services is not measured from the perspective of the end-user, it is impossible to know how the service is really working.
"We can always talk about the speed or slowness of a service over a coffee break, but without measurements this is idle chatting, not real data. Cinia’s solution gives us factual data. When we know what the current situation is, we can improve service quality as necessary", Bernoulli thinks.
Reliability through Cinia´s Measurement and Monitoring Solutions
Vastuu Group's services typically involve many partners and various system interfaces.
"The diversity of the systems is absolutely one of our greatest challenges. The situation is further complicated by technology becoming obsolete, cut-to-size solutions and back-end systems that are implemented differently", Bernoulli lists.
Measurements are implemented in a decentralised way at various measurement points, making the results representative of actual application use. These are not conventional IT measurements, but quality assurance during production that serves the end-user in real time.
"If the service gets slower or faster, we see it immediately. We also see a clear correlation between the functioning of the back-end systems and the end-user’s customer experience. The reasons for some of the problems can be deduced, and some can be directly identified from how the system is working. The system can search data from various sources, which is also a positive feature", Bernoulli says.
He emphasises that, for the end-user, the most important quality of the service is its reliability.
"For example, if a construction supervisor needs to know the competence of people working on their site, they can check it in Taitorekisteri. There is no need to specifically order these data from anywhere, as they are immediately available through the service. It's also easy to maintain and administer the competence data, which means that the data will also be up-to-date", Bernoulli notes.
Good cooperation and joint development are key to success
Vastuu Group has a very ambitious approach to service development. According to Bernoulli, further development is ongoing, and minor features are added to the services at regular intervals. Services are also developed through data enrichment, which produces more specific information on any errors. A major service extension will be launched during spring 2019.
Bernoulli praises Cinia's customer orientation and speed.
"We have benefited greatly from Cinia developing services especially for our needs. At its best, we detect a need for a change, and a solution is ready and in our use in two weeks. This is something that not many larger companies can do. Our cooperation is smooth and continuous, and I recommend Cinia to all companies that use IT services."
Jari Vallin, Product Group Manager for Measurement and Monitoring Solutions at Cinia, also appreciates the importance of agile service customisation.
"New needs and situations are arising all the time in our modern world, and the concept of ‘complete’ does not really exist. This is why the production and iteration of new services is so important for us and our clients," Jari Vallin explains.
According to Vallin, Cinia’s operations are based on the principle of offering support to the users throughout the lifecycle of the service.
