NS: Keeping the Netherlands accessible
1.1 million travelers per day │ 24x7 digital services
For NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) , providing a seamless and reliable digital experience for travelers is crucial. Whether buying tickets via the NS app or planning a journey on its website, each customer interaction needs to be smooth, fast, and dependable.
To achieve this, NS has multiple DevOps teams responsible for developing and supporting its products. These teams closely monitor the uptime and performance of user journeys and the APIs underpinning them.
User journey monitoring: Sitting in the traveler’s seat
NS uses ITRS Uptrends’ synthetic transaction monitoring to simulate real customer interactions. It tests complete user journeys to identify potential issues before they affect travelers.
“Every time a customer uses our online services, we want to give them a first-class digital experience,” said Maarten Engels, Lead Platforms & Software Development at NS.
NS continuously checks multiple user journeys such as:
- User logins to validate that travelers can access their accounts quickly and securely.
- Travel planning so NS customers can trust in its accurate, responsive, and user-friendly planner tool.
- Ticket purchase, making sure the entire ticket-buying flow, from selecting travel options to confirmation of the purchase, functions smoothly.
- Webshop (including product ordering) to monitor the end-to-end process of selecting products, processing payments, and receiving confirmations.
- iDEAL Status to prevent external payment integrations from disrupting purchases.
- Bicycle parking so travelers can check bike storage availability and reserve space without hassle.
- Customer service to confirm functionality if users need support, guaranteeing high service standards.
“We monitor the complete user journey, not individual legs. We want to make certain everything from point A to point B works as customers expect from the Netherlands’ principal public transport provider,” said Engels.
API monitoring: Keeping the digital “track switches” functional
While user journey monitoring offers valuable insight into the customer experience, API monitoring tests the critical systems underlying it. Just as track switches ensure trains take the right routes, APIs direct requests and data to the right applications and services.
“The APIs we monitor support our customer-facing front ends and are crucial for displaying accurate travel information on our website and app,” explained Engels. “Whenever Uptrends detects an issue with APIs, we know right away where to look for the problem.”
By using Uptrends, NS checks that APIs are always available, functional, and returning the correct responses. Proactive monitoring allows the relevant DevOps team to react quickly before issues disrupt the user experience.
Strategic monitoring: Custom checkpoints at key destinations
NS monitors its APIs and digital services from the locations where its users are most active. For example, it monitors its homepage from cities including Antwerp, Berlin, Paris, and London, as well as across the Netherlands.
“Uptrends lets us run checks where our travelers are, helping us account for regional differences in availability and performance. If something is about to go wrong, we want to catch it fast,” said Engels.
Access to over 230 public checkpoints enables NS with:
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User-centric monitoring: By focusing on regions with the highest user activity, NS ensures that its tests precisely reflect the customer experience.
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Regional insights: Internet infrastructures vary across locations and Uptrends allows NS to detect region-specific issues. “If there’s a connectivity issue in London or slower load times in Paris, for instance, we can detect these ahead of time so travelers in that city aren’t affected,” Engels explained.
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Proactive issue resolution: With custom checkpoints, NS can accurately inform fixes and optimizations before issues escalate. “Synthetic monitoring from specific checkpoints helps us troubleshoot problems before a user journey is disrupted,” Engels added.
Uptrends allows the DevOps teams at NS to focus on the most important performance issues for its users.
Preventing disruption: How NS protects its digital experience
When an issue arises, NS follows a well-structured incident management process led by its IT service desk:
1. Detection: Uptrends continuously monitors both user journeys and APIs. “The moment a metric falls outside our acceptable thresholds, such as a slow page load time, we get alerted,” said Engels.
2. Investigation: Uptrends provides critical insights into where the problem might be occurring. “Say an API goes down; the relevant DevOps team reviews the data to confirm if it’s a software issue, like a failed deployment, or if something is wrong at the platform level.”
3. Escalation: If necessary, Uptrends escalates the issue to the platform provider. “With Uptrends' detailed insights, we can take informed, decisive action right away to address the problem,” said Engels.
4. Resolution: With the right teams having visibility of the right information, NS can resolve issues efficiently, restore systems, and minimize any impact on its customers.
As a result, NS provides its travelers with accessible, reliable, and performant digital services — whenever and wherever they need.
Always putting travelers first
By prioritizing and protecting the digital experience with user journey monitoring and API monitoring, NS makes sure its online journeys meet the same high standards it sets for its physical journeys.
“Our ambition is simple: to encourage people to travel by public transport. That requires a smooth, reliable, and fast experience for every customer, every time they interact with us,” Engels shared. With Uptrends, NS not only enhances customer satisfaction but also upholds its reputation for reliability and quality service.
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