About PEDCO
PEDCO is a leader and trusted partner for driving digital transformation and organizational excellence by using their Applied SAFe platform.
Executive Summary
In the past decade, the scaled agile framework SAFe has seen a tremendous success in software development organisations and grew into other organizational units. PEDCO applied the SAFe framework to industry customers as well as to regulated institutions. The core idea is that these organisations are not only capable of incorporating SAFe in their processes, but in fact profit incredibly in terms of increased productivity, reduction of compliance effort and improved time to market. To further enhance adoption and support, PEDCO has decided to integrate a virtual assistant into its training offerings, which also aids partners in delivering the consulting component.
About the Customer
About PEDCO - Leaders in Agile Transformation and Excellence:
- PEDCO is renowned for guiding organizations through digital transformation and agile adoption, particularly in regulated sectors.
- They offer specialized solutions such as Agile and SAFe process optimization, and compliance services.
- PEDCO collaborates closely with partners to deliver top-tier consulting services.
- PEDCO's expertise ensures seamless transitions, and aligning teams with innovative practices and technologies.
- Organizations can rely on PEDCO to boost operational efficiency, accelerate growth, and secure sustainable success.
Customer Challenge
Challenge 1
Addressing Varied Knowledge Levels and Misconceptions: Potential clients often have varying levels of understanding or existing misconceptions about what SAFe is and how it can benefit their organization. PEDCO needed to educate the market, aligning their services with client expectations, and dispelling myths or incorrect assumptions about SAFe. Tailored communication was necessary to ensure that prospects have a clear and accurate understanding of the value and process of implementing SAFe with PEDCO’s assistance.
Challenge 2
Overcoming Resistance to Change in Organizations: Implementing the SAFe framework often entails significant changes in organizational culture and processes. PEDCO faces resistance from employees and management within client organizations who are accustomed to traditional methods. Convincing stakeholders of the long-term benefits of SAFe, particularly in organizations that have operated in a certain way for years, are a considerable challenge. PEDCO had the need to develop effective strategies for addressing concerns, and demonstrating clear, tangible benefits to overcome this inertia.
Challenge 3
Differentiating in a Competitive Market: As the popularity of SAFe grows, so does the number of service providers offering similar frameworks and solutions. PEDCO faced the challenge of differentiating their services in a crowded market. They needed to clearly articulate what sets their approach apart, such as unique methodologies, specialized expertise in regulated industries, or superior customization and support services.
Partner Solution
The solution was designed based on serverless technologies and generative AI services such as AWS Bedrock offered by AWS.
LLM: Anthroptic Claude 2.0 provides the large language model (LLM) that generates intelligent and relevant responses to user specific questions based on its own knowledge and augmented with content from the vector database with corporate information.
User Interface: The virtual assistant’s user interface is hosted as static web application in an S3 bucket served by a Cloudfront distribution to reduce latency and therefore improve the user experience for end-users.
Database: Aurora PostgreSQL Serverless with the pgvector extension enabled and deployed across three availability zones provides a highly performant and highly available database solution for the vector database. Furthermore, DynamoDB is leveraged to store on the one hand several prompt definitions and on the other hand the chat history of the user to provide a context-aware virtual assistant. By using the serverless options, the solution benefits from automatic up- and down-scaling when demand changes.
Logging and Monitoring: Application logs from the backend Lambda function are forwarded to CloudWatch, and errors in the backend trigger an automatic alert in a slack channel.
Security and compliance: The entire backend is deployed in private subnets. The backend components which stores critical data like Aurora Serverless and DynamoDB are encrypted with KMS using customer-managed keys (CMK). Additionally, all data is encrypted in transit using certificates managed by AWS Certificate Manager where possible. The whole access between the AWS services is managed via IAM role following the principle of least privilege to avoid the usage of static credentials.
Deployment and orchestration: The whole infrastructure is described using the Infrastructure as Code (Iac) tool Terraform and stored in central GitHub repository. Deploying the AWS infrastructure is done in an automated manner by leveraging digger together with GitHub actions. Following this setup, digger will do a terraform plan on each pull request and runs a terraform apply on each merge into main branch. Additionally, releasing a new version of the backend is also done using GitHub actions which builds the image and pushes it to ECR. All changes are always tested in a development environment before applying them to production.
Result
PEDCO's innovative virtual assistant solution revolutionizes their market communication, effectively conveying their intricate SAFe framework expertise. This tool transcends traditional website interactions, becoming a pivotal element in both organic engagement and targeted marketing campaigns:
- Enhanced Visitor Engagement: The average time spent by visitors on the website has surged by 35%, indicating a deeper engagement and interest in PEDCO's offerings.
- Significant Lead Generation Boost: The introduction of the virtual assistant has led to a remarkable 25% increase in leads generated through the website, showcasing its efficacy in capturing and retaining potential client interest.
- Impactful Market Presence Post-Launch: Since its implementation, the virtual assistant has not only streamlined client education and query resolution but has also played a critical role in amplifying PEDCO's market presence, reflecting in higher conversion rates and client satisfaction metrics.
Benefits
- Enhanced Customer Engagement: The virtual assistant offers round-the-clock interaction, giving potential clients immediate access to in-depth insights about the SAFe framework and how PEDCO's Applied SAFe enhances it. It accurately addresses specific inquiries, making a significant impact in retaining visitor interest by providing precise, tailored responses.
- Improved Customer Education: Acting as a comprehensive educational resource, the virtual assistant dispels common misconceptions and clearly outlines the distinct benefits and ROI of implementing SAFe with PEDCO, guiding potential clients towards well-informed decisions.
- Internal Advocacy Support: Understanding that adopting SAFe often requires consensus within client organizations, the virtual assistant becomes a tool for internal advocacy. Its link can be easily shared among stakeholders, facilitating internal discussions and supporting the decision-making process for implementing PEDCO's solutions.
- Competitive Differentiation: By integrating this advanced, user-friendly virtual assistant, PEDCO distinguishes itself in a competitive landscape, demonstrating a strong commitment to innovation and customer-focused solutions, thereby enhancing its market appeal and client relations.
- High availability and scaling: Serverless backend services respond to increased demands and are capable of automatic up- and down-scaling.
About the Partner
ByteSource Technology Consulting GmbH based in Vienna is one of the leading experts in the DACH region for AWS, Atlassian, AI, DevOps and agile software development as well as technical consulting. As the largest Atlassian Platinum Partner and AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner in Austria, ByteSource proves their expertise in scaling the Atlassian toolset and agile transformation on the innovative Data Center platform. With a focus on DevOps & Cloud Journeys as well as migration and advise, ByteSource realizes large-scale projects up to three times faster than IT companies with conventional approaches. The integration of generative AI underscores the commitment to deliver enterprise-level solutions with exceptional effectiveness.
