Increasing efficiency & cost savings
during digital transformation

Improving the customer experience through digital transformation started with a refresh of core legacy systems and a shift to Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud technology to ensure the company has timely and accurate information for all 1,500 facilities across the country.

“Pluralsight not only helped us understand the best way to approach agile development and build a devops culture that brings developers and IT operations teams together,” says Rich Keeler, Software Engineering Lead. “It also helped us create and ship stable quality code in an iterative, efficient fashion. And now our product is more scalable, stable, and predictable than our old system.”

Many Extra Space Storage customers are engaged on mobile and want to interact with the company on their smartphones. Others prefer a high-touch, concierge-type service. They all want a seamless, frictionless interaction with their storage provider.

“After the multi-year refresh of our core systems, we’re now diving into the development of more customer-facing applications to help customers interact with us better and easier, so they have a better experience when they do business with us,” says Jeff.

Part of their digital transformation includes leveraging technology to help customers access all of its services and make purchases however and whenever they choose. The company also wants to boost the customer experience with its call centers, finding efficient and cost-effective ways to serve more customers. Learning agile development and understanding devops processes were a key part of that.

“We’re using a range of new technologies, such as Angular, Gulp and other open-source and software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools. Plus, we’re learning new patterns and best practices for existing languages and tools we’re already familiar with, including C#, Web API 2.0 and SQL Server,” adds Rich. “With Pluralsight, we can assign developers courses when we get started and get everyone on the same page, so they build a consistent, maintainable, scalable solution every time.”

“As a team leader, I’ve been able to use Pluralsight to educate myself on upcoming trends. Knowledgeable experts and thought leaders from Pluralsight help me understand what’s up and coming, what’s tested and proven, and how to use those technologies in the best way,” says Rich. “And from an architectural standpoint, I can decide the best path forward, so we can build the best solution, stay up to date on evolving tools and best practices and create opportunities for our developers to invigorate their careers with new learning.”

Recently, the whole leadership team took the Scrum framework assessment available on Pluralsight. “That was a good way to encourage all of us to make sure we had a base understanding of the process to help guide our teams appropriately,” says Jeff.

Teams are also using the assessment and Skill IQ features to engage in friendly competition and knowledge sharing, resulting in greater expertise across the teams.

“They can measure their own skill level and compare their results with one another. Doing so helps them see where to focus future learning efforts, so they can raise their score, which raises the bar for their peer group, too,” says Bron. “With a wealth of content available, Pluralsight helps us quickly address key skills gaps.”

“By investing in the Pluralsight platform and giving everyone licenses, employees see that we’re invested in their learning and growth. Meanwhile, insights available in Pluralsight help me understand who’s using the tools and what skills they want to learn,” says Jeff. “Ultimately ..

“If I had to choose between sending a developer to a conference or giving them Pluralsight license, it's kind of a no-brainer,” says Rich. “Pluralsight allows us to learn what we need when we need it, and to do it at our own pace.”

Most importantly, access to a platform that includes curated learning, a community of experts, and a vast library of technical answers gives Extra Space Storage a key advantage over its competitors.

“With Pluralsight, over the last year, we’ve saved 60% of our budget versus equivalent classroom training,” adds Bron. “With how quickly technology is changing today, our learning needs are not slowing down. Pluralsight is a critical partner in helping us keep pace with innovation through convenient, cost-effective and efficient skills development.”

In an industry designed to help you use your space more efficiently, that’s everything.