Case Studies

FINANCIAL SERVICES/Case Study #1

Pan-African Micro Lender

Qualica’s Microlending micro finance software solution enabled a leading Pan-African micro lender to work efficiently and profitably in the remotest parts of Africa.

The biggest challenge to any micro lender working across Africa is the widely variable IT environment. Qualica’s VeriLend financial software overcomes the client’s challenges of poor connectivity, intermittent electricity supply and lack of local support with its ‘distributed model’– which functions in a connected or disconnected model.

This microlending software provided all offices with up-to-date loan information, and capital could be invested into the company, instead of into expensive IT equipment.

“VeriLend’s biggest strength is that it is a solid, stable solution that overcomes communication issues. Connectivity remains a major issue through Africa... VeriLend enables us to work offline where necessary, and then synchronise the data with Head Office at a later stage.” Business Development Manager, Micro Lender

UEM/Case Study #1

PruProtect

PruProtect sells life insurance to the UK market. The PruProtect website is key to the company’s success. It needs to be customer-centric, fast, responsive and available 24/7.

Qualica’s UEM system ensures high availability with high-frequency end-user monitoring of mission-critical web applications. PruProtect pulls its own reports from the UEM system, interpreting them and using the information to better its applications and plan for the future.

“We have had two recent instances during which the UEM tool has been exceptionally beneficial,” says Nick Brown, PruProtect’s development manager. “It enabled us to pick up potential problems very early, allowing us to resolve them quickly, with minimal impact.”

UEM/Case Study #2

SuperSport

SuperSport is the largest sports portal in Africa. It wanted to understand how its customers were experiencing the online services it delivered because this has major implications for the perception of its brand.

To gain proactive insight into how users were experiencing the performance of its online offerings, SuperSport invested in Qualica’s User Experience Monitoring (UEM).

Proactive problem solving is now possible, ensuring that visitors do not turn to alternative sites because of poor experience. There has also been an increase in positive brand perception.

“The UEM tool enables us not only to see problems, but to understand the ‘how’ and ’why’ as well. We can drill down into the data to discover why content is served slower in one city than another, for example. Observing customer experience is hugely important. If our site doesn’t load in time, users will go elsewhere – and we want them to stay with us.” - Johan Huyser, Technical Manager at SuperSport New Media

UEM/Case Study #3

Discovery Vitality

The Power of Vitality is a wellness program being set up in the US by SA-based Discovery Holdings Limited. Discovery needed to monitor the online experience of both sets of customers in the US.

Qualica’s solution uses scripts to mimic customers’ interactions with online applications and websites. For the Power of Vitality website, Discovery provided the information required for testing and Qualica developed the scripts.

Major benefits include a direct line of sight into what customers are experiencing, powerful reporting and real-time measurements.

“We can react quickly… if anything is going wrong. We see the problems before our clients do.” - Andre Nel, Head of Application Infrastructure for Discovery Health

UEM/Case Study #4

Investment Management House

A large investment management company needed to ensure that client experiences in the online channel match the performance standards and culture that the company is renowned for.

The client required comprehensive and multifaceted monitoring of its clients’ experiences.

Multiple scripts, representative of the most common user paths, were deployed on probes across different geographical locations.

The major benefits include significantly improved visibility and understanding of customers’ experiences.

“We use UEM to monitor all our online sites, including the public website, password- protected member website, and the tools available to selected clients. It provides us, at a click, with the monitoring information we need to know in real time,” says the client. “This immediacy is very important for us, especially during busy periods.”

UEM/Case Study #5

Internet Solutions

Internet Solutions (IS) deliver end-to-end connectivity solutions and related services to more than 80 percent of South Africa’s top businesses. IS required accurate, real-time network performance-monitoring statistics to understand the performance of its network, across all connectivity media.

Qualica’s performance monitoring system was deployed. This enabled metrics of network performance across geographic regions, differing connectivity media and a variety of Internet service providers.

IS is now benefitting from constant, objective measures of how both its networks and services are performing and how they measure against competitors.

“Internet Solutions recommends Qualica’s services to its blue-chip clients. We have walked the road with Qualica and their service has been superb,” says Royden Dall General Manager of Broadband Internet Solutions. “They are also a nice bunch of guys, and we’ve always had good service from the support desk.”

UEM/Case Study #6

Discovery

Discovery Health’s online service portal, Discovery World, is a critical part of its customer interface.

Discovery had no way to manage the links in its Internet connectivity chain, and the user experience was only ever as good as the weakest of these. It needed a way to remove uncertainty from the user’s experience of its online services.

Qualica’s solution used scripts to mimic a customer’s interaction with the site. Response times from the server to client computers in various external locations were measured and the network-performance was monitored and logged for analysis.

The company is now able to maintain good performance on the portal and customers are able to service themselves quickly and efficiently.

“Discovery’s relationship with Qualica has allowed us to supersede our performance benchmarks and to respond to our customers with a genuine, informed understanding of their experience of our site. Qualica has changed our ability to serve our clients and manage our online services,” says the client.