Pitt Ohio Express Narrows the Gap between IT and the Business with Tango/04.

1. tory
S uccess S
Industry Sector: SCM Solution Area: Technology
The Company
Pitt Ohio Express reduces the gap between IT
and Business thanks to a ‘big eye opener’:
Tango/04 solutions
About the Company
Looking for an Integral View
Pitt Ohio Express is a service Pitt Ohio Express’ main objective when they decided to implement Tango/04 solutions was
organization dedicated to consistently to consolidate their disparate monitoring solutions into a single view and then be able to
providing high-value transportation monitor critical processes and applications.
solutions to their customers. The
company continues to grow every
year and in 2009 their revenue was Dave Wunderley, Systems Specialist of Pitt Ohio Express, said: “Before Tango/04 we didn’t have
231.5 million dollars. Headquartered a map for internal monitoring, how stuff was performing, what was up, we didn’t have a
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pitt Ohio top-to-bottom view of the business services all the way down to our infrastructure. We had a
Express began operations in 1979 couple of things here and there, some internal processes we did to check stuff, but we didn’t
and currently has more than 2,800 have an integral infrastructure monitoring tool, a unified vision, so we were really looking
employees. for some way to monitor everything, particularly the bottom levels. Then the idea was to
find a way to roll that up to a service level, which would just give us great benefits.”
The Problem The first step was to replace the disparate solutions being used by various teams and to
Pitt Ohio Express needed to consolidate the monitoring activities into a single solution that would offer everyone at Pitt Ohio
consolidate their disparate monitoring Express the possibility to understand the relationship between the technical elements and the
solutions into a single view and applications. In other words, they would be able to understand how a technical incident affects
therefore be able to monitor critical business results. Therefore,
processes and applications. Tango/04 immediately replaced
the various different tools that
were being used, including:
The Solution Solarwinds, which could only
provide alerts regarding a
Tango/04’s VISUAL Message Center
limited number of problems,
such as routers being down;
AceLive, which was used to
examine Network details;
and Edgesight, which also
only provided very limited
information.
“The problem was that
internally, we didn’t have
a good process where Pitt Ohio Express monitors their Windows Health with clear and easily
understandable dashboards.
everything was mapped up.
So, other than the people
who had been working at Pitt Ohio Express for a while, who knew how the systems worked,
nobody was able to really understand everything, since we didn’t have that on paper, we
didn’t have any documentation, we didn’t have any database tracks… I think that was

2. All Pitt Ohio Express’ remote locations have connectivity back to
corporate. A dashboard allows them to see at a glance if any of the
terminal locations are experiencing problems. With only a mouse click
anyone can drill down to the specific location to pin point the problem.
probably the biggest challenge, getting a view that actually made sense from top to bottom,”
said Wunderley, and explained: “through this project we’ve already worked out (creating
a high-level/low-level view system), how they lay out, and how they affect each other. So
even in this early stage it definitely helps me to understand things. Seeing it mapped out
in the SmartConsole and working through it, and creating a process of how we did it, tied
everything together working with the other groups. This is going to roll up to other team
members, and other groups, and business. So, once we get all the stuff here and see it from
a top to low level, it’s going to help in many areas.”
Benefits
One of Pitt Ohio Express’ main objectives was to be able to have clear visibility of everything
that was going on in the company. They have only implemented the first phase of the project
(Technology), but have already successfully achieved their first goal: they now have a very clear
picture of their whole infrastructure.
Regarding this, Wunderley said: “The biggest benefit for us is not just having a monitoring
solution and being able to see what’s causing problems in real time. Before Tango/04 we
didn’t have any order, any documentation, or
any idea of what functionality we needed to do
at a service level… this project kind of forced us It was a good way to reduce
to do that, and it was a great benefit for the
the gap between the areas.
company.” Then he added: “The fact is that
we are forcing ourselves to actually look at the
systems, how they interact with each other,
how they tie together, what affects what, and it gives us a view, not just to us in Infrastructure,
but to our Business Group, our Operations Group, all the way to our executives. So anyone can
look at it without having to know IT, and they can get a good idea of what is the problem, if
something is down, what isn’t working, what is the cause.”

3. Step by Step: A Sure Path Lead by Currently, everyone at Pitt Ohio Express can look in one place to see what is happening with
the Customer himself their Infrastructure, and they will all get the same information. Wunderley didn’t hide his
enthusiasm with the project: “I think in a year or two, it will really be a big eye opener for
Pitt Ohio Express decided to make the company.”
Tango/04 solutions part of their
overall IT strategy for monitoring He also explained the importance of the solution in terms of alignment of the different
their complete technology platforms. departments of the company: “Sometimes IT
In order to make this goal possible, and Business don’t see eye to eye, the same with
they decided to take a phased It will really be a big eye opener IT and Operations, or any other business group.
approach to their implementation, But this project is a good way to reduce the gap
so they started at the infrastructure for the company.
that there is between the areas and it will help
level, following this with processes us put it all together.”
and applications.
Some other benefits mentioned by Wunderley included the possibility to react quickly and act
Wunderley explained: “The initial
proactively in case of incidents: “Now I can see in my Blackberry if there are any problems right
project was to bring Tango/04 to the
away, I don’t have to walk in the next day and find out just then. Since we are still working on
scenario, and start working from a
a low level, not everyone can see this kind of benefits yet, but I’m sure that once we finish the
low level to a high level. We started
project and anyone can view it, it’s going to be perfect. Speaking on a low level, the tool is really
with low level of infrastructure,
helpful already.”
then applications, and services.
Afterwards we wrapped up the first
Currently, the solution is used by the Infrastructure team and one of Pitt Ohio Express’
group of applications we selected,
Business Unit, the Business Servers Group. Wunderley explained: “Basically they are
made sure everything was working,
between our group the Infrastructure team, and Business. They are an Applications team, so
made sure there was all to be
they are the ones in charge of managing the applications. We haven’t expanded the solution
expected, and now we have to wait
to another level yet, that’s going to be in another phase.”
for the management and the other
groups to view it. It is very important
for us to get a solid foundation in Next phases of the project
place, start using it, and make sure
it’s working as we expect.”
“Speaking for our Management, we are definitely looking forward to seeing the high
level view, and right now we are actually working on other things, like an uptime for the
Pitt Ohio Express wanted to take internal Web location. We are basically working on a view for Operations Management,
ownership of the solution in their so if there’s a problem with the network, or
environment so that they could something goes down they don’t have to
continue changing it, updating it, and wonder what’s going on or find out later on; Tango/04 solutions help
making it evolve in order to always instead, they’ll have a nice view where they
be able to take into account changes
with the visibility, over all
can just see, they can pull up and look at all
in their systems. With that purpose, the terminals from one page and say all these through the business, not just
they took special interest in learning terminals are up, they’re running, there’s no applications.
how to use Tango/04 solutions: “After issues. So I’d say Tango/04 solutions help with
having an engineer on site for about the visibility, over all through the business,
a week installing the solution, we not just applications. That’s kind of our angle, that’s what we are trying to get,” said
learnt how to use it and then decided Wunderley.
to make it evolve by ourselves,” said
Wunderley reinforcing the concept
Pitt Ohio Express is starting to monitor processes now and will be moving into applications
of the ease of use and agility of the
monitoring after that. This project involves gaining the possibility to prove their application
product, and in order to explain the
availability and know how to make real improvements to it; it is also the phase that will get
successful knowledge transfer that
them the greatest visibility.
took place, he exemplified: “right
now what we are doing is organizing
and building up the processes so that
“I expect the more we roll this out, the more alerts we use all the way up to the
we can add any application or system
applications and the service levels, it’s only going to get better. In a while we’ll start
we want at any time. It doesn’t
seeing trending information, so if we see a problem with applications, we’ll be able to
matter who’s on the team, or what
go back and see that maybe they are not performing how we’d like, or if there’s an issue
the application is.”

4. Tango/04 Computing Group is that we can improve upon, or replace it, or whatever… we had never seen anything like
one of the leading developers of that!,” said Wunderley excited.
corporate monitoring and control
software for Technology, Security Finally, he concluded: “It takes a while to learn how to use the solution, but if you try not
and Business (BSM). Tango/04 helps to be overwhelmed, you learn, and I think it’s a great product, it’s very helpful. Maybe it’s
companies maintain the operating different for other business, who have all the information already mapped up. For them it’s
health of business processes, just running a monitoring solution and they’re done. We had all these processes that we
improve service levels, comply had to create, everyone thinks differently, it was a pretty big challenge, but right now I think
with security audits, increase everything is going great. I would definitely recommend the solution. Besides, Tango/04’s
productivity, and reduce operating team really worked with us, they were very helpful.”
costs aligning their IT departments
with their business objectives.
Tango/04 North America, was
founded in 2007 in Peterborough,
New Hampshire after many years
of success selling through a Partner
Network. Tango/04 North American
office has closed numerous deals
with important companies such
us: Nike, 3M, Dole, Henry Schein,
Barnes&Noble, Luxottica, Citigroup,
Cigna, Enterprise Bancorp, Rogers
Media, and many more.
Tango/04 Computing Group is one of the leading developers for monitoring software of Technology, Security/Compliance, and
Business Service Management (BSM). The group operates around the world through its vast network of Business Partners and has
more than 2,000 customers including companies such as: 3M, Alcampo, Arcelor, Banco Itaú, Bayer, BBVA, Boehringer Ingelheim,
Bridgestone, Citigroup, Capgemini, CC&G (London Stock Exchange Group), Coca-Cola, Danone, DIA, Dolce & Gabbana, Dole
Fresh Fruit, EDS, Euronet Worldwide, First Data, Fortis, GE Money, Gucci, Helvetia, Inditex, ING Nationale-Nederlanden, Liberty,
L’Oréal, Luxottica, MAPFRE, Manpower, Miele, Nestlé, Nike, Nissan, Pierre Fabre Ibérica, Prada, Random House Mondadori,
SEUR Geopost, Shell, Telmex, TNT, Tribunal Regional Do Trabalho, Yves Rocher, and Zurich, among many others.
Contact: www.tango04.com | info@tango04.net