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I've completely had it with this!
Too slow. Too expensive. Too complex.
That's the IT world anno now.
And I'm all over it.
No, this is not an overstatement. This is the daily reality of companies investing millions in systems that ... just don't do what they're supposed to do. Get stuck. Raise more questions instead of providing answers.
I refuse to consider that normal.
A prospect said the other day:
"Our salespeople have to call our customers back. Not because they want to, but because Dynamics 365 is so slow that they sit and wait for minutes on their screen during the call.
So what happens?
Customer waiting.
Vendor promises to call back.
Customer is in meeting.
Momentum gone. Deal gone.
Hello!
And you may be thinking:
“Yes Hugo that's an extreme example.”
No way. This is the new normal.
Only ... this is not necessary at all!
Why Sciante? Because it wasn't working for met anymore …
I didn't start Sciante because I thought it would be “fun” to set up something new.
I started it because I was sick of all the slowness and unavailability.
Because everyone seemed resigned to it. No one said, "This can be faster. Better. Smarter."
So I started doing that myself.
About oil ...
We were on vacation in Sweden.
We were in the car and the oil light came on.
Add a liter of oil and go.
The next few days you involuntarily check the light to see if it comes on again. Because when that happens, you know something is wrong. That oil light stayed off but another light came on!
Look, 15 years ago there were hardly any good tools to reveal the real causes of delays, errors or disruptions. But I knew what was needed. So I started developing those tools myself.
And not just an oil signal light.
At Sciante we don't measure whether something is flashing, but why.
From malfunction light to control information
I had known for some time that things had to change in the IT world.
I did regularly wonder if I was the only one who believed that things could actually be done differently.
Back to the car: when an engine failure light starts blinking in earnest, there is often little you can do but pull over your sacred cow and wait for the ANWB.
That's not what the monitoring world looked like back then: malfunction lights aplenty, but no one to tow you off and no garage to fix the problem. And frankly: 15 years later, not much has changed.
Is everything going well? Fine.
But no one knows exactly why things are going well - or how long they will.
And as soon as something goes wrong, the big guessing begins.
Figuring out the real cause takes time, money and, above all, frustration.
And most systems were - and are - not even in monitoring.
You don't even have all those lights.
Compare ... there is some rattling in the back and from 0 to 60 in never ever, but it still drives, so why have an expensive repair.
I solved that with Sciante.
With us you get reliable measurements that tell you immediately whether you have a problem and how to solve it. Just real-time information and therefore timely scheduled maintenance so you don't end up standing by the side of the road.
That's the way it should be.
Slow, expensive and complex - how everything is connected to everything else
In IT, inertia, high cost and complexity are rarely separate issues. They belong together like three annoying cousins at a family party: you can invite one, but the three of them always show up.
Take slowness. An application that doesn't perform nicely slows down processes, creates wait times, lowers productivity.
Naturally, people start thinking up workarounds.
Or postpone tasks.
Meanwhile, extra resources run in the cloud or external help is called in - and that costs money. Box office!
So high costs often come from slow systems. And the solutions people choose - an extra layer of software, a workaround, a new tool - often make the system even more complex. More links, more dependencies, less overview. Something about slowness?
And then complexity. It not only makes your applications slower and more expensive, but also harder to fathom. The more layers, systems and exceptions, the harder it becomes to see where things are really going wrong. And the more complicated the problem seems, the more expensive the solution often turns out to be.
You see, that's how you keep spinning in a vicious circle.
Fortunately, there's good news too!
If you tackle one of the three at the root, the rest often follows naturally. Remove the bottleneck that slows down your application, and your people work faster. Less frustration, fewer errors, fewer ad hoc fixes. You need less capacity - so costs go down. And because you clean up the system, it becomes more manageable and manageable.
That's exactly why at Sciante we always look for the real cause. Not sticking band-aids, but making the system healthy.
Back to the cousins, put one in its place and the other two suddenly behave better too.
And another thing: data is NOT the new gold
Data is often called the new gold.
But most companies are rather sitting on a pile of ... old iron.
Data that no one still knows where it came from or why it is important to keep.
Good data is rare. And that's exactly what makes it valuable. Because only with reliable, up-to-date and relevant measurement data can you really improve something.
Take a slow application. If you only see that it is slow, but not why, you can only guess. Is it the database? The network connection? Someone just generating a 300-page report? Without good measurement data, you're sleuthing in the dark.
But once you have high-quality data - sharp, timely and at the right level - things suddenly become clear. You see patterns, deviations, bottlenecks. You not only recognize the symptoms, but you can pinpoint the cause. And that makes all the difference.
Instead of generic solutions (“more memory,” “faster server,” “new license”), you can take targeted action. You save time, money and frustration.
At Sciante, that's why we bet heavily on data quality. We don't just measure ‘something’, we measure what really matters - at the right time and with the right focus.
Because only then can you really turn data into gold.
You feel it chafing - and I know where
It chafes. You've been feeling that for a while.
The system falters more often than you care to.
Costs add up quickly without a clear explanation.
And when something goes wrong, it takes hours to find the cause - if you find it at all.
You're not alone.
Many companies struggle with the same questions.
When is slow enough to be worrisome?
When are costs too high?
How much complexity is still workable?
Or ...
When does acceptable actually become unacceptable.
When are you hell-bent on it?
You don't have to solve this puzzle alone.
In an informal conversation I look with you.
No jargon, no sales pitches. Just a clear analysis of where you stand - and what could be improved.
Schedule a call.
And discover how fast, simple and cheap it can actually be.
That there are solutions to the delays, rising costs and other headache moments.
I can promise you in advance: it will make you happy.
Just like the growing group of IT managers and CIOs with whom I am working in the meantime.
Make an appointment. Then together we can take the first step towards faster, cheaper and less complex.
It is my mission to make your IT faster, cheaper and less complex.