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Highlights
Faster, more coordinated incident response with automated workflows and stakeholder notifications
Improved visibility and team accountability during incidents
Reduced alert fatigue through better filtering and routing
Substantial cost savings compared to what a full PagerDuty setup would have required
The challenge: outgrowing their incident management setup
Francisco Yanez, DevOps Manager at Later, leads a team responsible for infrastructure, deployments, microservices, and observability. Over the past year, Later nearly doubled in size and acquired another company, evolving from a lean startup into a fast-moving midsize enterprise. This growth placed new demands on Later’s technical teams, particularly DevOps, who were tasked with maintaining infrastructure reliability while supporting faster releases and greater service complexity.
“With that kind of growth, we couldn’t rely on Slack or email alerts anymore,” said Francisco. “We needed to evolve from just receiving alerts to having a structured, scalable incident management process.”
Their previous system, PagerDuty, funneled all alerts to a single team that would then manually escalate them to the appropriate groups. This bottlenecked response efforts and delayed resolution times. “It wasn’t just about alerts anymore—we needed control, clarity, and the ability to loop in the right people quickly,” Francisco explained.
The transition wasn’t just about finding a better tool—it was about changing the culture. “Previously, one team managed all incident response. Our goal was to not only implement a tool but help Later shift to a more agile culture where teams own and manage their own services,” said Francisco. “It was as much about enabling DevOps practices as it was about managing incidents.”
Professional Services were able to train the whole company—senior management, directors, engineers—everyone on their roles during incidents. We couldn’t have done it without the support we received from xMatters. If I had chosen another vendor, I honestly don’t think we would have been ready in 4 to 5 weeks.
The evaluation: finding a better fit
Francisco’s team evaluated alternative solutions with the following must-haves:
- Seamless integration with observability and cloud tools
- Flexible, customizable workflows
- Built-in support for stakeholder collaboration
- Developer-friendly experience
- Cost-effective pricing
- Reliable onboarding and responsive support
They considered upgrading their PagerDuty solution or switching to Opsgenie—but it was xMatters that stood out as the most complete, scalable, and cost-effective solution.
Why Later chose xMatters
Several key factors led Later to select xMatters:
- Cost efficiency: “xMatters offered everything we needed in a single solution without nickel-and-diming us for every additional feature,” said Francisco. “Upgrading PagerDuty to meet our needs would have cost at least three times more than what we’re paying with xMatters. The pricing just didn’t make sense for us anymore.”
- Workflow flexibility: One of the biggest advantages for Later was the ability to fully customize incident response workflows to align with how their teams operate. Unlike rigid systems that force teams to adapt to the tool, xMatters gave Later the flexibility to design processes around their specific needs—whether for microservices, cloud infrastructure, or on-call coordination. This flexibility empowered teams to act quickly, reduce manual steps, and improve accountability during incidents.
- Stakeholder engagement: As Later matured operationally, it became increasingly important to involve non-engineering stakeholders—such as directors, product leaders, or customer-facing teams—during major incidents. xMatters allowed them to do this seamlessly. With built-in roles and smart notification routing, teams could quickly bring the right people into the conversation without overwhelming engineers or creating noise. This ensured incidents were managed with both technical precision and business context.
- Seamless integrations: xMatters easily integrated with Later’s existing observability stack, which was a critical factor in ensuring fast time-to-value. The platform worked out of the box with monitoring and alerting tools the DevOps team was already using, making it simple to centralize alerts and trigger automated workflows. This integration strength reduced friction during onboarding and enabled the team to focus on optimizing their response process rather than troubleshooting tool compatibility.
- Developer experience: From day one, xMatters stood out for its clean interface and user-friendly experience—especially for the engineers responsible for managing incidents. The platform’s intuitive design made it easy for developers to understand their roles, act on alerts, and collaborate across teams without needing extensive training. This contributed to faster adoption and more consistent incident handling across the board.
- End-to-End Support: “The whole experience—from pre-sales to implementation—was excellent,” said Francisco. “We felt supported at every step.” With limited time to complete the project, Francisco had to dedicate half of his engineering team to the implementation. Having the right guidance and hands-on support from the xMatters team made a big difference—turning what could have been a stressful rollout into a smooth, well-coordinated process.
“We needed to train people, create documentation, onboarding videos, and also handle the backend—integrations, automations, everything,” Francisco explained. “And xMatters team was there to support me from beginning to end. Even on the go-live date, they were still checking in. Everything was handled professionally and on time, from both the core team and professional services.”
Results: faster, smarter incident response
Since completing implementation shortly after their February purchase, Later has seen significant improvements:
- Reduced alert fatigue through better filtering and routing
- Faster, more coordinated incident response with automated workflows and stakeholder notifications
- Improved visibility and team accountability during incidents
- Substantial cost savings compared to what a full PagerDuty setup would have required
“Our developers really appreciate the change,” Francisco shared. “It’s no longer chaos when an incident happens. We know who’s doing what, and the process works.”
Looking ahead
With a solid foundation in place, Later plans to continue optimizing their xMatters workflows and expanding use cases across teams.
“We’re just getting started,” said Francisco. “xMatters is the kind of platform that grows with you—it’s been a smart investment for our team and our business.”
Would they recommend xMatters?
“Absolutely,” Francisco confirmed. “If you’re looking for a solution that goes beyond alerting and gives you real control over your incident response process, xMatters is the way to go.”
