Author Details:
- Name: Jerilyn Forsythe
- Title: Sr. Program Manager
- Company: Palo Alto Networks
Tell us about you, your company, and your team?
Palo Alto Networks is the world’s cybersecurity leader. We innovate to outpace cyberthreats, so organizations can embrace technology with confidence. We provide next-generation cybersecurity to thousands of customers globally, across all sectors. Our best-in-class cybersecurity platforms and services are backed by industry-leading threat intelligence and strengthened by state-of-the-art AI and automation. LIVEcommunity is Palo Alto Networks official online community and a key pillar of the company’s online self-service and digital strategy. The LIVEcommunity team helps all its members improve their security posture by providing a vibrant and intuitive peer-to-peer support channel for customers, partners and employees.
How does your role and your team support your company and its goals?
LIVEcommunity’s mission is to be the first line of digital support to all Palo Alto Networks customers and partners, delivering a world-class community experience where members proactively find and share solutions, increase their cybersecurity knowledge and easily discover critical resources. Industry experts from around the world rely on Palo Alto Networks to stay up-to-date on rapidly evolving best practices. Our community platform is a key delivery method of critical information and valuable resources to our global customer base. As Sr. Program Manager, I oversee the development and delivery of programs for LIVEcommunity, including coordinating cross-functional teams, defining program objectives, timelines, and success metrics, and ensuring alignment with business goals. With a focal point on quality, strategic internal and external communications, and stakeholder relationships, I am able to contribute to the overall growth and success of LIVEcommunity and the company at-large. Our 400,000 members—cybersecurity professionals from around the world—prove that thousands of minds working together is far more powerful than a lone engineer.
Who were the teams and use cases you put this solution in place for? What challenges was this solution intended to solve?
Bolstered by our remarkable growth in the past two years, and guided by meticulous metrics and feedback from stakeholders and customers, LIVEcommunity has driven significant innovation through the successful implementation of two key developments: a BrightCove video analytics solution to support our Customer Success teams; and the launch of a new Support FAQ area to enhance customer empowerment through self-service capabilities. These initiatives align with our ongoing mission to foster scalable self-service, providing value both internally and externally.
In preparation for the launch of the Support FAQ, we collaborated closely with various teams to ensure that this solution addressed the most-pressing challenges faced by our customers. We engaged with our most actively involved community members, including LIVEcommunity Cyber Elite experts, and partnered with internal support teams to analyze case metrics and understand common pain points. This thorough collaboration allowed us to gain a deep understanding of customer challenges, particularly during product migration and their evolving digital support needs. By leveraging the wealth of knowledge across all Palo Alto Networks digital assets and the community’s repository of Accepted Solutions, we curated a comprehensive collection of resources to address customers' most common questions.
Additionally, our Customer Success teams highlighted the need for more granular video data to better serve customers. To address this, we worked with Khoros Professional Services to implement a custom-built video analytics dashboard, consolidating all video data into a single, accessible interface. This solution allows for the extraction and downloading of detailed video performance metrics, empowering teams with valuable insights.
Both the Support FAQ and Brightcove video analytics dashboard initiatives reflect our commitment to driving innovation and supporting stakeholders in maximizing the platform's potential. These solutions not only resolve specific customer challenges but enable internal teams to deliver high-quality, data-driven content that enhances the overall customer experience.
What is a recent win, major innovation, or challenge your team has tackled in the past year that this solution helped you address? Describe the challenge, opportunity, and teams involved.
Palo Alto Networks LIVEcommunity has demonstrated its ability to transform customer support by providing users with invaluable answers, solutions, and knowledge. Since its establishment in 2015, LIVEcommunity has continuously evolved to serve as a centralized platform for peer-to-peer support, essential resources, customer journey guidance, and self-help materials. This transformation has enabled LIVEcommunity to effectively address challenges and deliver substantial value to both Palo Alto Networks and its customers.
The past year has marked a period of exceptional growth and innovation for LIVEcommunity. Notably, our efforts to enhance customer offerings have resulted in significant improvements in key community performance indicators (KPIs). We saw remarkable growth in the last two years. The following metrics underscore the expanding impact of LIVEcommunity on both existing and potential customers (comparing the period from October 2023 through September 2024 with the previous 12 months):
- More than 26.6 million total page views (a 129% increase)
- 4.9 million Accepted Solutions views (a 103% increase)
- 15% rise in member registrations
- 41% growth in total visits
One of the most notable achievements in 2024 has been the deployment of a cutting-edge BrightCove video analytics solution. A challenge emerged as we identified a gap in accessible video data, which was hampering the ability of our Customer Success Managers (CSMs) to make data-driven decisions. To address this, our community team collaborated closely with CSMs and engaged Khoros Professional Services (PS) to implement a custom video analytics dashboard on LIVEcommunity — marking a first-of-its-kind solution. This innovation brings a centralized analytics platform with a feather-light API consumption experience, reusable components, downloadable metrics, and asynchronous automation. The impact has been substantial, unlocking new levels of efficiency, insight, and scalability for our teams.
Additionally, in June of 2024, the Support FAQ section was launched representing a critical milestone in Palo Alto Networks’ digital support strategy. This collaborative project involved our digital support teams and leveraged resources across the company's digital assets, reinforcing our commitment to scalable, self-service solutions. The Support FAQ section not only serves as a user-friendly tool for our customers but also empowers our Technical Assistance Center (TAC) engineers by providing them with an actionable resource to guide customers to quick, effective resolutions.
Both developments underscore our commitment to fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation, with each solution driving forward growth, customer satisfaction, and streamlined knowledge management across the organization.
What were the business outcomes and value driven by addressing these challenges? Please share specific results, metrics, and/or KPIs that quantify the change.
The introduction of the Support FAQ area has greatly contributed to our mission of streamlining customer experiences. By providing additional problem-solving resources, we have been able to reduce support costs, increase customer satisfaction, and foster a positive perception of our brand. This is evident in the following metrics:
- Cost Savings: Trending at a 63.5% increase in support cost reduction YoY based on Forrester and TSIA industry standard community value calculations. This notable surge reflects the community's significant contribution as a cost-effective avenue for customer support.
- Customer Satisfaction: In 2024, our on-site survey revealed that 70% of LIVEcommunity visitors who sought support successfully found the assistance they needed. This data underscores the effectiveness of our self-help resources, including the Support FAQ, in meeting customer needs.
- User Engagement: Since its launch at the end of June, the Support FAQ has garnered an impressive 14,000 page views and more than 8,300 unique visitors. These compelling figures indicate a high level of customer engagement, illustrating their active interest in seeking and utilizing the information provided.
- Impact of Accepted Solutions: The inclusion of Accepted Solutions in Support FAQ articles has proven to be effective. On average, Accepted Solutions included in the Support FAQ have more than doubled their views rate since the launch of the Support FAQ.
With the September 2024 release of the Brightcove video analytics solution, we have enabled our global Customer Success teams to gain in-depth insights into the performance of their produced videos. This initiative has not only solidified our relationships with key stakeholders but equipped them with valuable knowledge to enhance their customer content strategies. The adoption of the BrightCove dashboard has been widely embraced by product managers across our product portfolio, driving informed decision-making and further optimizing video content to serve our customers better.
What were the progress outcomes driven by addressing these challenges? Please share specific results, metrics, and/or KPIs that quantify the change.
The successful implementation of the BrightCove analytics dashboard exemplifies our commitment to delivering innovative solutions to internal stakeholders and building meaningful, collaborative relationships within the organization. Through diligent research, engagement with Khoros Professional Services, and a well-defined plan of action, we were able to create a pioneering dashboard that addresses the specific needs of our stakeholders. This achievement showcases our ability to drive progress and deliver on the expectations of our partners.
Another key outcome of our efforts has been the development of a centralized FAQ resource, aimed at streamlining access to information and reducing the time spent searching for answers. With this initiative, we are well-positioned to drive a reduction in support case volume by offering easily accessible, relevant content. By aggregating related information and incorporating Accepted Solutions, we have significantly strengthened our self-help resources, setting the stage for improved customer satisfaction and greater support efficiency moving forward.
Looking ahead, tracking essential metrics such as unique visitors, page views, and engagement data will provide us with deeper insights into customer behavior and overall content effectiveness. These insights will guide us in refining our content strategy, ensuring that future resources are even better aligned with customer needs.
By incorporating the Support FAQ content and keywords into federated search across all digital resources adds immense value by providing customers with a unified, seamless experience when seeking answers to their technical questions. By centralizing access to critical Support FAQ content, we empower users to quickly find relevant information, minimizing frustration and time spent searching across disparate platforms. This not only enhances the efficiency of troubleshooting but also reduces the need for direct support, enabling customers to resolve issues on their own.
Moreover, integrating Support FAQ content into AI copilots further amplifies this value, allowing TAC engineers to tap into a well-organized, comprehensive knowledge base for faster case resolution. Automated isolation and remediation driven by this content ensure that technical issues are addressed swiftly and accurately, enhancing the quality of service delivery.
What differentiated the Khoros Communities solution in your ability to achieve/deliver on your goals for the year? What in the solution helped enable it? Were other factors involved?
Khoros community solutions have been a key differentiator in enabling us to meet and exceed our goals for the year. Khoros’ comprehensive built-in features and intuitive functionalities allowed us to rapidly design, develop, and deploy a new Support FAQ section in a remarkably short timeframe. This speed and agility were instrumental in addressing emerging internal and customer needs, ensuring we could respond promptly and efficiently without the need for time-consuming custom development.
One of the most impactful aspects of the solution was its ability to streamline our workflow through ready-to-use tools, which allowed for seamless collaboration and quick iteration during the build process. Additionally, the platform's scalability played a crucial role in supporting our long-term objectives. As our community grows, the Support FAQ will continue to be a go-to resource for customers looking for answers.
What parts of your experience working with Khoros enabled you to address the need or challenge?
One of our key strategic objectives is to enable our stakeholders and internal teams to fully leverage the capabilities of the Khoros platform, and our longstanding partnership with Khoros has been key in achieving this.
A highlight of our collaboration was the development of the groundbreaking BrightCove analytics dashboard, which exemplifies the value of our partnership with Khoros. Additionally, the expertise and unwavering support from both the Customer Success and Professional Services teams have been vital in facilitating this initiative. Their guidance, combined with the efforts of our internal teams, allowed us to seamlessly implement this powerful new tool for our Customer Success teams. This collaboration not only equipped our team with the necessary resources but also ensured we could effectively deliver on our goals and elevate our overall service offerings.