Customer Story

IIC-INTERSPORT International Corporation GmbH

IIC-INTERSPORT's IT department fuels hypergrowth by optimizing Microsoft 365 operations and enhancing hybrid work experiences with OfficeExpert TrueDEM.

Customer
INTERSPORT International Corporation GmbH (IIC)
Industry
Retail
Region
Global
Topic
Digital Experience Monitoring Microsoft 365 & Microsoft Teams

Challenges

End-to-end visibility: Managing remote users and knowing the details of their remote setup (hardware, software, ISP…)
Data collection: Collecting and storing all necessary data for precise, faster troubleshooting
Troubleshooting: Service desk needing a long period of time to troubleshoot issues and often needing additional external support

Results

Monitoring Improved, proactive monitoring of the end-to-end user experience for every Microsoft Teams call with precise metrics for understanding and evaluating performance
Remote troubleshooting Easier triage of user performance issues and faster pinpointing of the issue on the end-user device, network path, or Microsoft Teams application — providing employees with the digital means and support they need to do their job
IT support Service desk can now independently troubleshoot basic information and quickly provide feedback to users, greatly improving the employee experience and maintaining productivity and motivation

Having the Right Technology Infrastructure in Place

IIC-INTERSPORT International Corporation GmbH, headquartered in Bern, Switzerland, is the driving force behind the globally renowned INTERSPORT Group, commonly known as INTERSPORT. With a sprawling network of more than 5,400 sports retailers across 42 countries, INTERSPORT has established itself as one of the global leaders in the sporting goods retail industry.

Hybrid work is an essential element in the day-to-day operations of various INTERSPORT establishments, including stores, distribution centers, offices, and home offices. To ensure seamless collaboration and productivity, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams have been adopted with enthusiasm. It is critical for INTERSPORT to maintain high performance and reliability in the hybrid work setup, as this directly impacts end-user satisfaction, which ultimately drives the overall success of the business.

These requirements underscore the importance of reliable equipment for every user in any hybrid work environment. A poorly maintained infrastructure not only slows down work, but also puts valuable data at risk. In addition, you need to shed light on a few black boxes, such as performance problems and outages on Microsoft’s side, in order to find out the root cause of the issues. To ensure that the technology works seamlessly and there is minimal disruption to the business, IT leaders at INTERSPORT have to consider the following key points:

  • Understand which devices are underperforming while using Microsoft Teams
  • Ensure that there are minimal interoperability issues no matter the workplace employees choose: INTERSPORT’s offices, home office, or even on the road
  • Alert the right people if there are vulnerabilities likely to arise from any platform
  • Use predictive analytics to cut costs and achieve overall equipment effectiveness
  • Speed up root cause analysis by helping process engineers make accurate connections between cause and effect
  • Evaluate workplace hardware by reassessing which devices they need, which ones they can do without, or upgrade them
  • Manage remote employees’ network and connectivity issues

These are key challenges in supporting the organization in the event of degraded Microsoft 365 workload performance, poor end-to-end user experience, and troubleshooting Teams call quality issues.

This underscores the need to monitor, as well as gather data and insights so that INTERSPORT can prepare for — and quickly respond to — any issues.

For this reason, INTERSPORT started using OfficeExpert TrueDEM in May 2022 after a thorough evaluation in their Microsoft 365 production tenant.

In the hybrid workplace, the most crucial consideration is our people. But the more critical element is ensuring the technology works seamlessly and there is minimal disruption to work.

Jicky Li | Senior Manager IT at IIC-INTERSPORT International Corporation GmbH
panagenda IIC-Intersport Customer Success Story showroom image

Opening Up Data Insights ‘End-to-End’

Ultimately, one of INTERSPORT’s biggest challenges stemmed from the same source: the lack of end-to-end visibility across all digital touchpoints involved when issues arose, despite the various tools and onboard tools available from Microsoft. With OfficeExpert TrueDEM, INTERSPORT now runs a monitoring solution giving the IT Team the complete, end-to-end digital visibility that it had been looking for. It provides visibility into the user experience and performance of Microsoft 365 services from the organizational level down to the individual user, such as sub-par home internet connections with insufficient bandwidth, security protocol challenges, call quality issues, device incompatibility, and more. This visibility was the sorely needed key to opening up the black boxes, accessing contextual data, allowing proactive analysis and faster identification of problem areas, which in turn enables agile, reliable and cost-effective operation of Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365.

When using Microsoft 365 in the cloud, it is easy to blame Microsoft or the network whenever there is an issue occurring, because it is difficult to determine where the source of a service delivery problem lies along the path from user to Microsoft.

OfficeExpert TrueDEM enhanced INTERSPORT’s visibility so that they could see the data from a user computer all the way up to the Microsoft cloud, which helps them with faster troubleshooting and better understanding of the issue.

We had no easy way to collect such data before we started using OfficeExpert. Nowadays, if an Internet Service Provider has service problems, we can see that easily. We can have an isolated look at the real user simulation scores of the Microsoft workloads for the users that use the respective ISP. They may have a really bad experience at that time, but we know that all other users and the Microsoft 365 cloud are doing well.

Jicky Li | Senior Manager IT at IIC-INTERSPORT International Corporation GmbH
panagenda IIC-Intersport Customer Success Story runners image

Troubleshooting Faster with Full Context

Modern hybrid workplaces bring together a complex roadmap of in-office teams, remote workers, as well as external partners and customers.

The increasing diversity of devices, locations, and digital touchpoints is adding complexity and was forcing the INTERSPORT Service Desk team to look in more places to find the root cause of quality and performance issues like glitchy video, poor quality audio and video, dropped calls, and slow upload and download speeds. Lack of access to reliable historical data for post-mortem analysis (after a problem has occurred) further complicated the help desk team’s ability to respond quickly.

With OfficeExpert TrueDEM, INTERSPORT is now able to quickly detect inconsistent quality of remote network connections, incompatible devices and drivers, especially for their remote employees. This not only speeds up troubleshooting, but also reduces costs and complexity. Downtime due to equipment malfunction, poor performance, or poor connectivity is easily managed with less effort.

The insights provided by OfficeExpert TrueDEM and the resulting ability to respond to problems immediately makes a night and day difference between a hybrid workplace that works and one that doesn’t.

Now, we have all that with OfficeExpert TrueDEM. Proactive monitoring of end-to-end user experience for all our users for every single Microsoft Teams call, no matter if scheduled, channel or adhoc – and that even without involving the user. The wealth of data we have about the endpoints, hardware, drivers, ISPs and Microsoft cloud performance enables us to not only identify the area of responsibility easily. We are able to take action and improve our users’ setup and corporate infrastructure to make sure working is fun with Microsoft 365.

Jicky Li | Senior Manager IT at IIC-INTERSPORT International Corporation GmbH
panagenda IIC-Intersport Customer Success Story retailer image

Stronger Than Ever

IT is often underestimated in businesses, but INTERSPORT International Corporation’s IT department has proven its importance. They have succeeded in eliminating productivity barriers and equipping their team across the globe with top-notch tools and experience. As a result, they have made a significant contribution to the company’s success.

By utilizing OfficeExpert TrueDEM, the company has streamlined its operations, improved visibility and troubleshooting into Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams performance, enhanced hybrid working experiences, and boosted overall productivity. As INTERSPORT Group continues to grow its business, OfficeExpert’s adoption will undoubtedly play a crucial role in their triumph.

Their approach to technology has become a model for other businesses, highlighting the significance of investing in the best resources and tools. With the IT department’s continuous efforts, IIC-INTERSPORT International Corporation GmbH will undoubtedly remain a leader in productivity and innovation for years to come.

About IIC-INTERSPORT International Corporation GmbH

IIC-INTERSPORT International Corporation GmbH is an international sports retail group based in Bern, Switzerland. It is the brand management and purchasing company of the INTERSPORT Group, commonly known as INTERSPORT. With a retail turnover of over EUR 12 billion and more than 5,400 associated retailers in 42 countries, the INTERSPORT Group has the worldwide leading position in the sporting goods retail market.

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