The Performance of Web Applications -- One-Second Wonders for Winning or Losing Customers

One Second of an Additional Delay in Response Times of Web Applications Can Impact Customer Satisfaction by Up to 16%


BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - December 10, 2008) - Significant research is revealed in a new benchmark research report by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS) entitled, "The Performance of Web Applications: Customers Are Won or Lost in One Second." This report found that for more than 160 organizations that participated in the survey, business performance begins to suffer at 5.1 seconds of delay in response times of web applications. The research also revealed that every additional second of the delay in the response times could cause a decline in page views by 11%, conversations by 7% and overall customer satisfaction by 16%. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5136.

"An increase in dynamic Web content and an emergence of Web 2.0 applications are impacting the market for Web application performance management in a few different ways," states Bojan Simic, research analyst, Aberdeen. "End-user organizations are losing some of the control that they previously had over the performance of these applications due to new underlying technologies and usage patterns that are becoming more difficult to predict. More importantly, end-users' expectations for performance of these applications are getting higher and what seemed to be minor performance issues in the past are now becoming serious business problems that can significantly impact revenue, customer satisfaction and brand reputation. As the importance of managing performance of Web applications is increasing, some of the power that traditionally was reserved for technology vendors is shifting to the end-user side. Going forward, market leaders in this space will be defined not by features and functionalities of technology solutions, but by the willingness to understand end-users' expectations, usage patterns and needs for new types of Web content."

The report shows that the quality of the end-user experience is the top performance indicator that organizations are using to evaluate their success in managing the performance of web applications. However, Best-in-Class organizations are four times more likely to have capabilities in place to measure application performance from an end-user perspective as compared to Laggards. The report also outlines that Best-in-Class organizations are more likely to measure end-user experience via passive monitoring while Industry Average and Laggard organizations are predominately relying on internal monitoring of enterprise infrastructure and end-user surveys.

The report shows that 63% of organizations in Aberdeen's survey reported that the number of servers needed for optimal performance of Web applications has increased over the last two years. Additionally, the research shows that a cost of new server purchases makes for 21% of total cost of deploying Web applications. However, the research also shows that Best-in-Class organizations are 71% more likely to increase available server capacity as compared to Laggards while being less likely to invest in purchasing new servers.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Gomez and Strangeloop Networks. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5136.

For additional access to complimentary Information Technology Research, please visit http://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/-information-technology

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

© 2008 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
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Contact Information: Media Contact: Bojan Simic Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5281 bojan.simic@aberdeen.com