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This series will cover three things you should look for in your APM provider. The first blog in the series, “look for proven results” posted last week. Check in next week for the finale of the series!
On the advice of my last blog we narrowed the APM solution provider field down. Now we’re only considering those with good bodies of work and proven results in the field. That is a good sign of the providers’ ability to meet your needs in the short term. For certain technology solutions, that would be enough – you could purchase the best solution available, and that would be it. However, an APM investment is different. It requires a relationship between the vendor and customer built on trust and proven results. APM solutions are long-term investments. It’s important to make sure the vendor can meet your company’s technology and business objectives not just this year, but for the next five, ten or twenty years.
This blog post covers the second critical factor when evaluating APM providers. A good APM vendor will have a viable long-term roadmap and investment strategy.
Long term roadmap
The provider may have a good plan for today. But do they have a plan for tomorrow as well? Here are some good questions to ask: Does the provider have a long-term roadmap? What is their overall strategy? If the company has areas besides APM, how does APM fit as part of their overall solutions?
For instance, it’s good to have predictive analytics today – but thinking five years into the future, it will be critical to have prescriptive analytics as well. Is your prospective vendor adopting capabilities today that are moving towards a prescriptive analytics approach? Some other examples to consider – machine learning is an excellent technology, but are they building towards incorporating AI? If they have a cloud platform, is it a holistic cloud architecture strategy that incorporates edge data collection, processing and long-term technology investments? Or is it just another buzzword on their marketing brochures?
For these questions, it’s also critical to consider whether their vision makes strategic sense. A long-term roadmap is an excellent area to assess the provider’s overall APM vision. Anyone can put together a marketing slide highlighting the cloud, or IIoT, or blockchain, or whatever favored technology of the day. However, it takes actual investment of time, money and human capital to make those capabilities a reality, and a long-term roadmap should plausibly map out those steps in a reasonable timeframe. By looking through the long-term roadmap, it’s possible to get a sense of what a company’s strategic vision is, and whether that lines up with your requirements.
Is your APM provider building from predictive to prescriptive analytics? To see our roadmap and the successes our company has achieved, visit our website.
Viable investment strategy
With so much hype around APM, it’s no surprise that there are a huge number of startups and small companies. These businesses offer new, exciting and slickly-marketed solutions. However, be cautious around players are entering the space for the first time – while they may bring fresh perspectives, they potentially lack the experience to sustain a decades-long commitment. Look for companies that have a serious investment strategy and compelling strategic vision.
Schneider Electric Software, now AVEVA has a long term track record of success, with decades of experiences in APM and a clear roadmap to the future. Our recently-completed merger with AVEVA perfectly complements our existing capabilities and is another example of our strong and successful investment status. To learn more about our APM capabilities, visit our website.
