The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) represents Canada abroad through a network of more than 160 Embassies, Consulates and other offices in over 100 countries spanning the globe. DFAIT's users support programs and services to advance Canada's interests in diplomacy, trade, immigration, global security and consular matters. The mission-critical applications they depend on must perform optimally.

Since 1997, network managers at DFAIT have used Concord's eHealth, supplied and installed by Empowered, to manage and optimize network performance:

As WindowsNT and Outlook were rolled out globally, DFAIT studied the impacts on network usage, validating where bandwidth upgrades were required to maintain service levels;
As Internet usage exploded, DFAIT studied ways to prioritize mission-critical traffic, proving that router-based QOS mechanisms were effective in smaller sites, and that large, busy sites required dedicated WAN traffic shapers;
At the start of a new CRM initiative, DFAIT baselined all sites in the network, confirming that most sites could not deliver target response times, and that a CRM solution that used local replication would better leverage DFAIT's IT Infrastructure.

DFAIT's tool investment helped optimize network performance, and delivered business value. Yet in the face of limited staff, challenging new projects and competing priorities, the regular administrative tasks required to maintain the tool took low priority. DFAIT needed to keep its staff focused on results, rather than on the means and details of getting them. Yet without some minimum level of effort, the tool could not deliver the business value that DFAIT required to manage its network.

DFAIT turned to Empowered to maintain and administer the Concord tool. The EmpoweredCare™ solution included:

Bringing DFAIT's Concord installation up to a baseline configuration with full documentation;
Customized, automated processes that provide continuous monitoring of the status of the system, logfiles and database, and regular review of system status by Empowered;
Access to Empowered's Technical Assistance Centre (TAC), a single point of contact for anyone at DFAIT, where skilled professionals certified by Concord provide full support for the tool, 8am to 8pm, Monday through Friday;
Integration of EmpoweredCare into DFAIT's workflow processes, to keep the tool in synch with network changes;
Regular on-site liaison visits, focused on using the tool more effectively, and maximizing return on investment; and
Patches and upgrades, planned, scheduled and implemented by skilled professionals with the training, experience and practice required to run a production system.

Since DFAIT engaged Empowered to administer Concord:

DFAIT's team reclaimed 2 days per month and 20 minutes per day in time required for a skilled network analyst to monitor the tool, apply patches and upgrades, and do routine administration;
Staff time spent with management tools is now focused on using the information provided to solve problems, rather than wasted verifying the information, or worse, trying to make the tools work;
Regular maintenance has improved reliability of the tool, which has encouraged greater use, and the discovery of new ways to better manage more of DFAIT's IT Infrastructure;
Junior operations staff have simplified procedures to identify response time and other performance issues in real-time, while senior network planners benefit from more accurate data for managing network capacity; and
When performance issues do pop up, DFAIT has the solid information needed for swift diagnosis and resolution.

EmpoweredCare delivers the full value of DFAIT's investment in best-in-class performance management tools.

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