HOW WE WORK
ROBUST SUPPORT, ALERT MONITORING AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES
When you're looking at data solutions it’s easy to be blown away by marketing and brand messages. Even so, like a new car, a shiny bonnet can be impressive but it’s what’s under the bonnet that really matters. When you start looking under the bonnet, the reality can be very different to expectations which is why we think it’s important to explain the reality of Datitude’s service.
OUR TEAM CULTURE AND CORE VALUES
It's worth mentioning Datitude’s team culture and core values first. We believe the best decisions are made when an organisation’s data is easily accessible and understood and Datitude was founded on the simple premise - insight should drive action. Without this, data has little value.
Datitude’s co-founders and directors have used their skills, knowledge, and learnings from decades of experience in multi-channel retailing, business and technology, to guide and lead the business. We’re proud of our team of highly talented developers, data geeks and engineers powering Datitude’s platform and services.
A high-performance and service driven culture has been instilled from the beginning, built on the fundamental principles of a mindset which values:
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right first time and, if its not, finding and addressing the root cause
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thinking like a user and valuing the voice of the customer
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robust systems and processes
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learning and continuous improvement
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a low tolerance for poor quality.
OUR SUPPORT SERVICES
Our support function is the cornerstone of our service delivery and provides an easy, single point for all users to contact us with any query, issue, or service request. Datitude has a small, perfectly formed and highly knowledgeable support team and a business-wide view of issues and requests which are understood, prioritised and resolved promptly.
The team takes a root cause analysis approach to all support issues. It means we make sure any issues are properly understood and appropriate actions are put in place to resolve the root cause. It also means we don’t use sticking plasters to close support tickets prematurely or influence service delivery metrics.
We use Atlassian software extensively to ensure our work management systems are robust, fit for purpose and most importantly, our service delivery is well managed, within service levels.
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Jira is our helpdesk management system - clients raise support tickets by email or in their portal and all tickets are responded to promptly
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Weekly review meetings ensure priorities are managed appropriately
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Confluence (Atlassian’s web-based business wiki) is fully integrated with Jira and enables easy collaboration with clients
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GDPR “right to be forgotten” requests are logged, actioned on a weekly cycle, and provide a fully auditable trail.
OUR MONITORING AND ALERT SYSTEMS
Even if we do say it ourselves, we’ve built an impressive system to automatically monitor the health of the infrastructure and the data! It comes from being around the block a few times and never wanting to be on the back foot.
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Our alert system framework uses Zabbix to trigger alerts when issues are detected
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Alerts are monitored and responded to appropriately, with Jira used to manage issues through to resolution, as well as client communications
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Alerts, including response management, are discussed daily at a morning meeting to ensure they are being addressed correctly
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Where possible, we create self-healing processes. For example, if an alert is triggered by a late running process in a source system, jobs are configured to automatically re-run that process later in the day.
OUR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Something else we pride ourselves on is the continuous improvement of our application with regular updates and new features, releasing these to our clients as part of our standard service offering. Ideas for new features are driven by feedback from our clients and partners, as well as the team’s experience.
Our tech development process uses an agile methodology, with fortnightly sprints defined using Jira. Development, test, and staging environments are deployed to provide professional software cycle management and Cypress (our front-end testing tool) is used for automated testing.
Software updates are typically released automatically without downtime. If downtime is necessary, it is minimal, planned, and performed out of hours.
As part of a release, clients are provided with updated guidance notes and, if required, briefing and training sessions.
THE DATITUDE DIFFERENCE
We’re proud of what we do and how we do it. We know we can (and do) make mistakes and, when you’re working with technology things don’t always go to plan, but we think we’re amongst the best in the business. The difference with Datitude is, when we talk the talk, you can be confident we can also walk the walk. To see what people say about Datitude's service and solutions, take a look at our testimonials.