Usage guide: Browsers - Stability and compliance
Overview
Digital transformation is causing an explosion in the adoption of web business applications, so to ensure that employees' experience of browser-based applications is optimal, it is crucial that they use the correct browsers, and that these are kept up-to-date.
The Browser Stability and Compliance pack addresses these problems with an at-a-glance summary of key metrics with dedicated pages that provide additional actionable insights into performance and stability issues, version dispersion, and non-corporate browser usage.
By maintaining control of installed browser applications, employee adoption and business productivity are improved, and compliance and security risks are reduced.
Ensure your library pack is properly configured by following the steps highlighted in its configuration guide:
Configuration guide: Browsers - Stability and compliance
Pack structure
The "Browsers - Stability and compliance" live dashboard acts as the starting point of this library pack. This dashboard provides capabilities to assess the reliability, performance, connectivity and versioning of browser applications used within an organization. The usage of corporate and non-corporate browser usage can be tracked, and there is a page dedicated to the usage of browser extensions, or plug-ins, in use on three popular browsers.
Identify areas of improvement
From the dashboard's summary page, you can access an overview of the key widgets from the rest of the dashboard. These widgets are arranged in sections corresponding to each dashboard page, allowing you to navigate to the appropriate section for more detailed troubleshooting.
Filters above the dashboard help you focus on a specific area, device, or platform type. The time picker can also be used to view data on a more granular or long-term time.
Use Cases
Identify browser issues
With the increase in web business applications, browsers now play a crucial role in employees' day to day work. Any stability issues with browser applications will have a direct effect on employee productivity. The Reliability page focuses on devices impacted by browser instability and can be used to track the number of crashes and freezes over time, changes in the ratio of devices experiencing problems, along with the effect of open browser tabs on binary stability.
The reliability of different browser applications can be compared and any applications causing concern can be investigated further using the Versioning tab. Here, crashes and freezes are broken down by application version. Version dispersion tables can be used a reference to gauge the impact of any particularly unstable versions, should it be decided to upgrade the devices potentially affected.
Manage browser compliance
SaaS applications support limited browser types. Some legacy applications may only support a single specific browser type. It is essential to know which browsers are used and which should not be used, and actions must be taken to change that.
This pack comes installed with a rule-based custom field called “Browser compliance type” that can be configured to categorize specific browser applications as corporate or non-corporate. The Adoption page contains dedicated sections showing the usage and breakdown of these categorized applications. This custom field is configured as a dashboard filter, and when a category is selected, this change will apply to all widgets in the first 5 tabs of the dashboard.
To avoid security and compliance risks, the latest versions of browser applications should be used. Using the Versioning page, the number of different versions of key browser applications can be visualized and controlled using the version dispersion table. Devices running particularly old, or unstable, application versions can be targeted for an upgrade/reinstall.
Manage browser plug-ins
Browser plugins, also known as browser extensions, can greatly enhance the user experience by adding functionality to the browser. For example, plugins can block ads, save passwords, and translate pages. However, if a plugin is poorly designed or contains malware, it can negatively impact the user experience by causing crashes, slowing down the browser, or compromising the user's personal information.
It is essential to regularly review and remove any unnecessary or outdated plugins to keep the number to a minimum and minimize these potential problems.
An excessive number of plugins installed on a computer can cause a variety of problems, such as:
Slow performance: Having too many plugins installed can slow down the browser and the computer's overall performance. Each plugin uses resources and can add to the overall load on the system.
Browser crashes: Having too many plugins installed can increase the likelihood of browser crashes and instability.
Conflicts: Having too many plugins installed can cause conflicts between plugins, leading to errors or unexpected behavior.
The Plugins page shows the average number of plugins installed on all devices, and the devices with the highest average number of plugins, for all browsers and individually. Devices with an excessive number of plugins should be investigated further.
