At a glance

A national network of travel centers and gas stations was struggling with rising operational costs and inconsistent visibility from its monitoring tools. Over time, the company adopted more than 15 different tools to monitor cash registers, gas pumps, security cameras, environmental controls, freezer temperatures and more. This sprawling and disjointed toolset slowed alert times and responses. The company turned to Kforce, creating a plan to reduce the number of tools, improve alert and response times, and create a scalable model for its monitoring programs.

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How to stop tool sprawl: OpenTelemetry makes observability simple and powerful

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Challenge

The company had invested in multiple monitoring and observability platforms over time, including network, infrastructure, application and digital experience tools. While each platform had its own merits, they created a fragmented ecosystem that was difficult to govern and hard to optimize. Fragmented monitoring toolset Tools were implemented independently, resulting in overlapping capabilities, inconsistent configurations and limited visibility into system performance. Inconsistent alerting and incident responseAlerts were generated and routed differently depending on the source system. Operations teams spent significant time correlating data manually during incidents, which slowed detection and resolution while increasing operational strain. Limited return on investmentDespite investing heavily in industry-leading tools, leaders struggled to quantify the value of their efforts. Licensing costs rose without seeing improvements in reliability, responsiveness or service quality. Gaps in observability coverageMonitoring coverage varied across environments and services. Without a consistent telemetry standard, teams lacked a shared view of system health, making it difficult to identify trends, risks and improvements. Unclear future state directionThe organization needed to modernize its observability approach but lacked an unbiased assessment and a practical roadmap. Emerging capabilities such as OpenTelemetry and AIOps were understood conceptually but not tied to a clear implementation strategy.

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Chadd Schwartz

MEET THE TEAM

senior director solutions delivery

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Jason Ashabran

principalconsulting solutions

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The company partnered with Kforce to conduct a focused monitoring and observability assessment that balanced technical rigor with executive clarity. The assessment focused on how tools, processes and teams worked together rather than evaluating platforms in isolation. Standardized telemetry and clearer governance simplified how monitoring data was collected, routed and consumed. End-to-end observability assessmentThe team conducted an evaluation of the existing monitoring ecosystem that reviewed tools, data flows, alerting logic and operational workflows. This assessment uncovered instances where value was lost due to duplication, gaps and inconsistent practices. Alert normalization and operational alignmentKforce analyzed alert quality, routing and ownership across platforms. Recommendations focused on improving signal-to-noise ratios, standardizing alert handling and ensuring alerts aligned to response procedures during incidents. AI-assisted analysis and collaborationMicrosoft 365 Copilot was used to accelerate insight generation, documentation and stakeholder alignment. This enabled faster synthesis of findings while improving transparency and collaboration across technical and leadership teams. Phased observability roadmapsThe team delivered 1-, 3- and 5-year roadmaps that balanced quick wins with long-term transformation. Near-term initiatives focused on improving value from existing tools while longer term plans addressed platform consolidation, standardized telemetry and AI-driven operations. OpenTelemetry future stateThe roadmap introduced OpenTelemetry as a foundational standard for data collection and portability. This approach reduced vendor dependency, improved consistency and created a scalable foundation for advanced analytics and automation. Governance and cost optimization strategy Recommendations included establishing clear governance for monitoring standards, validating changes and ongoing optimization. Tool rationalization and licensing alignment tied observability investments to measurable business outcomes. Scalable model for future growth The phased roadmap balanced near-term improvements with long-term modernization. As the organization grows and systems evolve, observability practices can scale without reintroducing fragmentation or tool sprawl.

Solution

Project outcomes

The team’s work established a foundation for OpenTelemetry adoption and AI-driven operations. The assessment resulted in three observability maturity roadmaps for 1-, 3- and 5-year horizons. The recommendations in these roadmaps empower the client to achieve the following predicted results:

Improve incident detection and resolutionOperations teams will save a few hours each day by normalizing alerts and clarifying ownership across monitoring platforms. Detection and response times—measured by Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR)—are projected to improve 40% within a year. Greater return on observability investmentsThe roadmaps reduce monitoring tools by 33%. The assessment identified which existing tools deliver value and where overlap dilutes impact. Leaders can maximize their investments when they optimize licensing, avoid redundancy and focus spending on reliability and service quality goals. Strengthen visibility and confidenceCreating a single observability platform to monitor the recommended 11 tools will give leaders a shared understanding of risks and opportunities. Executives will use the unified view of metrics and phased initiatives to prioritize investments and track progress with greater confidence. Foundation for proactive operationsBy introducing OpenTelemetry and planning for AI-driven analytics, the company will lay the groundwork for proactive health monitoring and predictive insights instead of reactive incident response.