SERVICE METRICS INTRODUCES THE NEXT GENERATION OF WEB PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT WITH SM-WEB RELEASE 2.0
Service Metrics, Inc., a leading provider of Web performance services and applications that measure the consistency, availability and performance of Web sites, has announced the next generation of online performance metrics, SM-WEB Release 2.0. The new release provides unmatched levels of scalability, customizability and performance detail.
Of particular significance in SM-WEB 2.0 is the increased scalability of its service configuration, a function of the underlying Service Metrics architecture. SM-WEB 2.0 allows customers to monitor Web sites up to 15 times per hour - 2.5 times more frequently than competitive services. With measurements once every four minutes, Service Metrics offers unequaled depth and timeliness of measurement data and provides this data to users through near real-time reports on site performance. This means that performance or availability problems often occurring during high-traffic spikes, which would be missed with traditional measurements, will now be captured.
The innate scalability of the Service Metrics architecture is enhanced by one of the Web performance industry's largest data warehouses. Collecting more than 1.5 million Web page measurements per day - and increasing significantly as a result of SM-WEB's expanded measurement frequency - each data point is archived for over one year, providing customers with invaluable information for trending analysis. Additionally, daily data can be downloaded via FTP on a secure site in 15-minute increments or as a daily summary. Unprecedented measurement frequency and data warehousing capabilities, combined with Service Metrics' expanding global DCA (Data Collection Agents) coverage, give customers scalable solutions that meet their ever-growing needs for measurement detail and decision support.
As the e-business market matures, new competitors are entering the Web marketplace at the staggering rate of one commercial site every nine minutes.(1) In this dynamic, competitive environment, application flexibility is critical for businesses competing to build brand awareness and loyalty among online customers. Service Metrics' embedded customization capabilities enable users, such as Web-hosting companies, e-commerce companies, ad banner services and content sites, to tailor services to meet their specific business requirements and user environments.
SM-WEB 2.0 features a redesigned graphical user interface based on a review conducted by Human Factors International. The interface incorporates standardized graphic elements, a tabbed folder paradigm and a navigational design that accurately represents process workflow. The new interface allows users to customize such features as monitoring frequency, report information format and notification parameters. SM-WEB 2.0 supplies richness of information through reports that let customers monitor specific timeframes, select which URLs to view on the status page and easily view more detailed metric data.
Additionally, more robust notification capabilities enable a number of service options. Four event triggers and four different notification lists - based on the level of performance degradation or improvement - can now be programmed into the application. This enhancement allows the customer to develop an escalation process that defines specific points of contact based on different event triggers.
To further meet customer needs, users can now select DCA groups from which measurements will be taken. DCA categories will reflect international, domestic, regional and city groupings. Customers can also choose to develop their own DCA groups to meet their specific market or site traffic demands.
Additional flexibility is built into Service Metrics' pricing model. For small-business customers or customers who need to monitor a site for only a short period of time, Service Metrics has created Tokens. The Token pricing model provides short-term monitoring solutions that allow businesses to use SM-WEB for seven consecutive days to measure the impact of changes to their Web site or for competitive analysis. Tokens can be purchased in packages of 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 Tokens.
"The new features in Service Metrics SM-WEB Release 2.0 are valuable in providing us with the tools and data we need to meet our customers' expectations," said Jay Parikh, manager, strategy and corporate development at Akamai Technologies. "Our account management and technical consulting teams rely on the detailed measurement data, customizable reporting features and trending capabilities for performance analysis. The richness of Service Metrics' data provides support tools that help us demonstrate the increased performance of our FreeFlow service to our customers."
SM-SOURCETRACKER is the industry's first measurement application to continuously monitor dynamically named objects, such as ad banners, log-in screens or other content served by a third party, whose URLs often change each time the object is delivered. Monitoring these dynamic elements provides e-businesses and their third-party content providers the ability to more effectively manage SLAs.
"As the Internet economy continues to grow exponentially and the competition for customers increases, the ability to provide the end-user with outstanding customer service has become paramount to achieving a return on investment," said Tom Higley, president, CEO and co-founder, Service Metrics. "Now with its enhanced scalability and customizability, SM-WEB 2.0 provides e-businesses with deeper insight into how end users experience their site, thereby giving them the tools to improve their site performance and return on investment."
Based in Boulder, Colo., Service Metrics, Inc. is a leading provider of applications and services that measure the consistency, availability and performance of Web sites. Collecting more than 1.5 million Web page measurements per day, Service Metrics provides e-business decision-makers the information they need, in real time, to improve quality of service and drive return on investment. Through its SM-WEB and SM-SCENARIO measurement services, its patent-pending SM-WEBPOINT application, and the new SM-SOURCETRACKER application, Service Metrics systematically measures, from an end-user perspective, a Web site's performance over a period of time and provides companies with information to analyze and implement the necessary changes for optimum Web site performance. Service Metrics was founded in June 1998 and has received financing from SOFTBANK Technology Ventures, IDG Ventures, Pequot Venture Partners, Nexus Group, LLC, Fidelity Ventures and Bluewater Capital Management, Inc.
For more information on Service Metrics or its products, contact Service Metrics at 4900 Nautilus Court, Suite 200, Boulder, CO 80301; telephone: (303) 381-0888; fax: (303) 530-0475; or visit the Service Metrics Web site at http://www.servicemetrics.com.
(1) Thomas Siebel, Cyber Rules, Doubleday, 1999, p. 4.