IIC-INTERSPORT International Corporation GmbH

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.