Softek Case Study
Solutions at Work
SOFTEK QoS SOLUTION
GIVES AUTOZONE
A TECHNOLOGY TUNE UP
BUSINESS NEED
ISSUES
SOLUTION
BENEFITS
AutoZone data center
management needed
a way to proactively
evaluate whether their
current business
processes were
completing and
performing to
expectations
Using manual methods,
there was no timely way
to simply measure and
monitor many diverse
business-critical
processes running on
a wide variety of
platforms
Using Softek EnView
and Softek Server
Monitor software—
the Quality of Service
solution from Softek—
AutoZone customized a
scorecard to report on
key business processes
•Timely monitoring and
reporting of key
business processes
from a common console
•Ability to proactively
measure system
availability, response
time and customer
satisfaction
•Cost-effective
performance
management and
capacity planning
AutoZone Scorecard. The Softek Quality of Service solution provides AutoZone with a customized scorecard that enables
them to monitor and evaluate key business processes as well as server resource utilization and performance.
Softek Server Monitor tracks key parameters of the IT
infrastructure such as CPU, disk, memory and network
activity and consolidates the data into one common
reporting mechanism to help AutoZone cost-effectively
manage performance and capacity planning.
“Although AutoZone offers thousands of parts and accessories in its stores, we believe our best product is customer
service,” says Jim Etzkorn, vice president of IT, AutoZone.
“We created our shopping experience with the customer
in mind. Many of our services are free of charge, such
as diagnostic services, repair guides and tool loans. We’re
constantly changing our stores to offer the newest and
most exciting products. And customers always know
when they enter our stores they’ll find a great selection
of quality merchandise at low prices.”
ENABLES AUTOZONE TO BRING DATA FROM
Recently, AutoZone discovered they had no effective
tracking mechanism to watch dozens of key business
applications. To ensure that various processes had
completed properly there were scores of manual systems
in place that depended on many individuals in the
organization.
IN ADDITION, SOFTEK ENVIEW DELIVERS A
POWERFUL REPORTING CAPABILITY THAT
OTHER PARTS OF THEIR IT INFRASTRUCTURE
INTO THE SOFTEK ENVIEW SCORECARD.
For example, Softek EnView monitors and reports on the
business activity of the AutoZone call system, an internal
system that monitors call activity and abandon rates for
telephone sales. Softek EnView displays the results
collected by the call system along with measurements
from dozens of other business processes, so AutoZone
can quickly and easily assess lost business opportunities
due to abandoned calls.
A leader in IT for its industry, AutoZone was the first in its
vertical market to enable its stores to order merchandise
electronically. An early innovator on the web, AutoZone
offers online browsing, ordering and vehicle repair
“We needed a vendor and platform independent solution that would enable
us to integrate heterogeneous infrastructures into one efficient subsystem.
The Softek solution let us do that.”
“AutoZone’s manual processes were so complex and
labor intensive, it was nearly impossible to be timely,
much less proactive,” says Jeff Prater, account executive, Softek. “They knew they had to make a change to
maintain their commitment to customer satisfaction.”
To manage the complexity of tracking so many different
business processes, AutoZone knew they had to repair
their internal monitoring engine. Softek EnView and
Softek Server Monitor were the software tools they
evaluated and purchased. These products work together
to produce a customized AutoZone “scorecard” (see
screen at left) which gives the IT, customer service and
operations departments a visual tool to evaluate how
the various business processes are operating. Now
AutoZone has the measurement tools to ensure system
availability, response time and customer satisfaction.
Not only was AutoZone faced with a multitude of business processes that needed monitoring, but a mixed
IT environment with multiple platforms running a variety
of hardware. “We needed a vendor and platform independent solution that would enable us to integrate
heterogeneous infrastructures into one efficient subsystem,” says Jeff Nix, IT systems director, AutoZone.
“The Softek solution let us do that.”
guides. Using Softek EnView, an
early warning system that lets
organizations measure the
performance, availability and
response of its critical business
processes, AutoZone is able to
measure end-user experience.
“The Softek Quality of Service
solution monitors our applications
just like end users see them,” says
Mike Lovelace, IT operations
manager, AutoZone. “With results that mirror true enduser experience, we can improve user satisfaction.”
The Softek Quality of Service solution has also helped
AutoZone contain costs. “Once we began monitoring our
outsourced check verification processes we realized we
were paying for services we were not receiving. Softek
EnView and Softek Server Monitor provided the measurement statistics to pinpoint the error and resolve the issue
quickly,” says Lovelace.
Softek Case Study
Solutions at Work
AutoZone, Inc. is the number one auto parts retailer in
America, primarily focusing on do-it-yourself customers.
They sell auto and light truck parts, chemicals and
accessories through more than 3,000 AutoZone stores in
the United States and Mexico. They also sell automotive
diagnostic and repair software through ALLDATA, diagnostic and repair information through alldatadiy.com
and auto and light truck parts through AutoZone.com.
SOFTEK QUALITY OF SERVICE SOLUTION
The Softek Quality of Service solution is powered by
Softek EnView and Softek Server Monitor.
Softek EnView is end-user–based Quality of Service
monitoring software intended to reduce downtime and
improve system-wide performance. Softek Server Monitor
software measures server performance and enables
proactive capacity planning.
Together they help Global 3000 enterprise customers:
• maximize efficient utilization of server and
storage resources
• improve system availability, response time
and customer satisfaction
• easily correlate performance information
with data from other sources
• monitor legacy, client/server, e-commerce
and web-based applications
• resolve availability issues before they impact
the end-user experience
• give advance notice of peak use or
system overload
Softek EnView Reporter is the data analysis and report-generating
engine that enabled AutoZone to customize their scorecard.
ABOUT SOFTEK
Softek provides companies the power to see, manage and protect their information. Since 1996, Softek solutions
have helped more than 700 enterprise customers improve data and application availability while reducing the risk,
cost and complexity associated with optimizing multi-vendor storage infrastructures.
Softek Storage Solutions Corporation became an independent company in March 2004, following a management
led buy-out from Fujitsu Ltd. The company is well funded by a world-class investment syndicate of Investcorp,
Columbia Capital, Needham Capital Partners and Updata Partners. Softek maintains a strategic relationship with
Fujitsu Ltd. through OEM and traditional sales activities. Company headquarters is located in Sunnyvale, California.
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© 2004 Softek Storage Solutions Corporation. Softek is a trademark of Softek Storage Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and
product names are the property of their respective owners.The information in this document may be superseded by subsequent documents. ss-ATZ-ENV-080604