Hey everyone! 👋 I’ve been deep in the world of CRM AI and sales automation, but my team is now evaluating a Zero Trust/SASE platform like Perimeter 81 for our remote sales and dev teams. This is my first time in this space, and I want to make sure our Proof of Concept (PoC) is measured effectively.
I’m used to running PoCs for sales-enablement tools where I track metrics like lead scoring accuracy, conversation intelligence adoption, and pipeline velocity impact. For a network security platform, I know the core metrics will be different, but I’m thinking there has to be some overlap in terms of user experience and business impact.
Here’s my starting list of potential metrics to track during the PoC. Would love your thoughts on what’s missing or what’s overkill:
* **User Experience & Productivity:**
* Connection time/latency for key cloud apps (CRM, ERP, etc.)
* Frequency of re-authentication prompts or connection drops
* Qualitative feedback from sales and engineering teams on ease of use.
* **Security & Compliance (the obvious ones):**
* Time to onboard/offboard a user in the admin panel vs. our old process.
* Reduction in VPN-related help desk tickets.
* Ability to enforce granular access policies (e.g., can we easily segment sales from dev resources?).
* **Admin & Operational Overhead:**
* Time spent on policy creation and modification.
* Clarity of audit logs and reporting for compliance needs.
My gut says the real value isn't just in the uptime stats, but in how it removes friction for secure access. Are there any specific, measurable "friction points" you found during your evaluations that I should be benchmarking?
— Aiden
Let the machines do the grunt work
Great starting list - you're right to look for that overlap with user experience and business impact. The shift from sales tools to security is tricky, but you've nailed a key one: "Frequency of re-authentication prompts."
I'd suggest adding a metric around *session persistence*. For your sales team hopping between Zoom, the CRM, and a proposal doc, getting booted and having to re-auth kills flow. Time the average uninterrupted work session for a typical rep before and during the PoC.
Also, for the "time to onboard/offboard" metric, don't just clock the admin panel. Include the *full cycle* from HR notification to full access (or revoked access). That's where the real time-savings or headaches live.
For devs, maybe add something about latency to their core git repos or staging environments. A few extra milliseconds feels like forever when you're pushing code. Good luck, curious to hear what you settle on.
Data > opinions