Case Study: VSHN – The DevOps Company: Streamlining Meetings with SimplyMeet.me

Effective communication and collaboration are critical for any organisation’s success in today’s fast-paced business environment. VSHN, a renowned DevOps solution provider, helps enterprises manage cloud infrastructure and application delivery. VSHN prioritises DevOps and customer experience. Thus, it optimises internal processes, including meetings, to boost productivity and innovation.

This case study delves into VSHN’s successful implementation of SimplyMeet.me, a meeting scheduling solution that has revolutionised its communication landscape. By leveraging the power of SimplyMeet.me, VSHN has transformed meeting management practices, enabling more efficient coordination, improved time management, and enhanced team collaboration.

This case study will explore the specific challenges VSHN faced before adopting SimplyMeet.me. The reasons behind their decision to implement the solution, the process of integrating it into their existing infrastructure, and the tangible benefits they have gained as a result. Additionally, we will examine the key features and functionalities of SimplyMeet.me that have played a pivotal role in VSHN’s meeting optimisation journey.

Overall, we will shed light on the transformative power of SimplyMeet.me and its role in revolutionising meeting scheduling and coordination within an industry-leading DevOps company. By examining VSHN’s journey, we aim to inspire organisations across different sectors to embrace innovative meeting management solutions, empower their teams, and drive success through optimised collaboration.

Interview with Aarno Aukia

Please explain what your business, VSHN – The DevOps Company, does and who are your main clients.

Answer: VSHN is Switzerland’s leading partner for DevOps, Container & Kubernetes. VSHN (pronounced like “vision”) was founded to fundamentally shake up the hosting market. As a lean startup, we have focused on operating IT platforms through automation, agility, and a continuous improvement process. We are entirely location-independent, and without our own hardware, we operate extensive applications according to the DevOps principle of agile and 24/7 on every infrastructure. This enables software developers to concentrate on their business, and IT operations are relieved. Our services include Kubernetes consulting, container hosting, DevOps tooling, and custom software development.

How do you market your business? Do you get new clients via word of mouth, advertisements, referrals, or other channels?

Answer: We are really active and well-known among the open-source and Kubernetes communities in Switzerland, but nothing is better than a supportive, happy customer. Referrals and word of mouth are working really well for us. However, we also use online marketing to communicate with our existing and potential customers.

What are the main challenges of running a business like yours?

Answer: We have an amazing talent and company culture, but the technology landscape in the DevOps world is constantly evolving. We must do our best to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and tools. We need to invest time and resources into R&D to ensure we are offering our clients the best solutions possible.

As a Swiss company, our clients probably have one of the highest expectations regarding the performance, reliability, and security of their applications. As you can imagine, meeting and exceeding client expectations is not an easy task 🙂

What did your booking process look like before using SimplyMeet.me, and how do you use it now (do you send appointment options by email, send your clients a link to the booking website, etc.)?

Answer: We used a competing product (doodle.com) that no longer supported our use cases. A few months later, we were unable to use the old tool. Before finding Harmonizely and SimplyMeet.me, I was about to burn out because of the additional effort of manually writing emails back and forth with contacts.

As I scheduled about 10-20 meetings per week, this took up considerably more time than I used to. Now, most of our sales, account management, and recruiting meetings are scheduled by the contact themselves, and the meeting details will pop up in the Calendar, CRM, reminders, etc all fully automated.

What challenges and objectives led you to look for a booking solution?

Answer: The main challenge was to find a booking solution that supported CalDAV and was easy to use both for the user selecting a meeting and for us, and we’re very happy with SimplyMeet.me in this regard.

Has SimplyMeet.me met your expectations – does it solve your needs?

Answer: Yes, 100%

What is your favourite thing about SimplyMeet.me?

Answer: I can integrate my calendar with another colleague and be sure they can join the meeting if needed.

Is there something you feel SimplyMeet.me is missing – in terms of features/solutions?

Answer: It’s all about integrations; the more, the merrier. We have in-house-developed integration into our HubSpot CRM. However, we lack custom JavaScript on the booking page for conversion tracking.

Do you feel that using a booking system saves you time?

Answer: It saves everybody’s time, both us and the other party. Technology has the power to do many things, including SimplyMeet.me. It is changing the way we arrange meetings and the way we conduct them too.

Did you need any help with setting the system up? If so, were you happy with the support you received?

Answer: Initial setup up was easy enough that we were able to do it ourselves. We were then able to document and train our other internal users ourselves. I was happy to get support via chat for the advanced integrations and APIs, which was also fast and easy.

Do you find it easy to manage the system after setup?

Answer: Simplicity is the key. The UI is self-explanatory and easy to use. You can review all settings in minutes and customise meetings with additional questions or other information.

Have you downloaded our admin app? If so, do you find it efficient?

Answer: No, I haven’t. As SimplyMeet.me feeds directly into my calendar, which I use daily, that has worked really well for me. After the initial setup, I had to change settings less than once a month.

Would you recommend the system to your friends/associates?

Answer: Absolutely! I would recommend the SimplyMeet.me system to everyone looking for a simple and efficient booking system.

Anything else you would like to comment on?

Answer: As “The DevOps Company”, we believe in enabling people (in our case, software developers) with the tools to enable self-service. This means eliminating tedious, repetitive tasks and making them more productive. This concept is referred to as “shift left” in the DevOps community. Giving people the tools to choose a time that fits them in my calendar aligns perfectly with this philosophy.