The daily function of the IT department in a business is often a necessary mystery to employees in other areas– they don’t really know what the IT department does, but they know it’s important.

Application Performance Monitoring is one of the many functions the IT department handles to keep things running smoothly. Without proper application performance management in place, the IT department isn’t able to do their job effectively. Here are some of the reasons application performance monitoring is so important.

What is Application Performance Monitoring?

Application Performance Monitoring or Management, collectively known as APM, is the software used by IT professionals to access the back end of a system and determine what’s wrong and how to fix it. In a nutshell, APM is a diagnostic tool that helps find a problem and highlights the best way to fix it.

For example, if you find that all of a sudden no one in your accounting department is able to process data in your invoicing system, but the sales department is having no trouble, APM could help solve this mystery.

Why APM Matters

Anyone with an educational background or work experience in IT knows that APM is important. However, it can be challenging to translate the concept into plain speech for those without the same experience. Here are some of the reasons APM matters, for those who need to know outside the inner sanctum of the IT department.

Acts as an Alarm System

Having proper APM in place can act as an alarm system, indicating that something is wrong before a peer or customer stumbles upon it. This feature helps the IT department take a proactive approach, rather than reacting to a complaint.

Think about it from a business perspective: when an issue arises do you want to know about it right away or wait until a customer complaint comes in? Is investing the money in APM preferable to losing money from disgruntled customers? The answer is obvious.

Helps Correct Performance Issues

How your systems work isn’t always a life or death scenario that could lose you customers. In fact, some issues won’t affect customers at all. Instead, they’ll directly impact employee morale and productivity.

Think about this scenario: it usually takes five seconds for your application pages to load for employees to get their work done. All of a sudden, it starts taking two minutes per page. Employees get (understandably) frustrated and the day’s work comes to a screeching halt.

While customers are merrily processing transactions and infusing the company with cash, think of the lost profits caused by having employees unable to keep the workflow moving forward. With APM in place, the IT department will be able to find and correct the problem much quicker than without.

Looks at the Bigger Picture

One of the most important aspects of APM is that it looks at the bigger picture, incorporating the various applications an organization uses to do their work, rather than bits and pieces. APM can see how everything is linked together– which is often a complex, tech-heavy process that can be hard to analyze– and identify problems across the board.

Essentially, APM goes beyond application troubleshooting and looks at the network in its entirety. This is essential for large businesses who have some customized application work to get things done. If you are in a large organization that handles specialty goods, the question is not about if you can afford APM, it’s can you afford not to have it?

The Ins and Outs of APM

If you have previously worked under the misconception that the IT department is made to handle advanced printer jams and ask you to turn your computer off and on again, you’re wrong. Having APM in place can help your IT department do their jobs well– identify problems, figure out how to fix them, and keep operations running smoothly.