Coradiant, Inc.™, a leader in real-user monitoring equipment for web operations teams, today announced that approximately half of mission-critical Web site problems such as site errors and poor response times are found by users, rather than by the IT professionals who monitor and manage the Web site. Those who monitor their Web sites using a “blended” set of specialized performance monitoring tools, however, are able to cut that number to just 35 percent while addressing problems much faster than their counterparts.
According to a recent King Research survey sponsored by Coradiant, 98 percent of IT professionals reported that they learn about Web site problems directly from end-users. Of those that reported Web application problems, more than 50 percent reported that their company lost business as a direct result of those problems.
Among participants who use automated tools to monitor their mission-critical Web sites, the number of problems reported by their end-users decreased to slightly more than half. This number improved significantly when IT organizations used multiple types of monitoring tools as part of a comprehensive blended approach. Six percent of the respondents used a blended approach, consisting of a combination of enterprise management systems, synthetic transaction monitoring and real-user monitoring. These respondents reported only 35 percent of problems were identified by end-users, compared to 50 percent among all those who monitored mission-critical Web sites, but did not use an integrated, multi-tool approach.
Organizations that employed a blended monitoring approach also said that they fixed 90 percent of problems within a half a day, a significant improvement over organizations that did not use this type of broad approach to monitoring. The latter group only reported correcting 78 percent of problems found in the same time period. IT organizations using a blended monitoring approach depended less on their end-users to discover problems, and fixed problems more quickly than those who did not.
Other key findings of the research show:
- All respondents on average believe that IT only becomes aware of about 65 percent of web site problems experienced by end users.
- 35 percent of participants reported that more than 10 percent of their IT manpower was devoted to fixing web site problems.
- Nearly half of all Web site problems take longer than one hour to resolve.
- Survey respondents overwhelmingly reported that their end-users experienced problems. 86 percent of participants reported that users on their mission-critical Web sites experienced problems, and over half reported that their company lost business as a direct result of those problems.
“This survey makes it clear that Web problems are costing businesses money, and that implementing an effective monitoring strategy is the key to improving Web operations,” said Brett Helm, chief executive officer for Coradiant. “IT organizations that use monitoring to move from a reactive to a proactive Web management approach are experiencing significantly better results with less headaches. Among Coradiant’s customer base, alone, we are seeing how comprehensive user monitoring improves user experience and reduces the time to find and fix problems.”
In an open-ended question, participants said that the greatest challenges with their IT organization’s approach to end-user monitoring included: getting the people and financial resources to implement automated monitoring effectively; finding an easy way to pinpoint problems, and; initiating a simple way to use monitoring data for business-relevant reporting.
Survey Methodology
The results of this independent Web survey were obtained by King Research in late 2005. An independent database of IT professionals was e-mailed and invited to participate in the survey. There were a total of 346 respondents, representing a variety of IT professionals, each of whom responded to some or all survey questions. Participants were not compensated to participate in the survey, except to receive a copy of the final report. Coradiant sponsored the survey, but the company’s sponsorship was not revealed to participants. For the full report or to talk with the researchers, please contact Weber Shandwick.
About King Research
King Research provides marketing research and consulting services in the high-tech and enterprise computing markets using proven research methodology combined with in-depth technical expertise. Our projects result in our clients gaining a clear understanding of opportunities, priorities, perceptions, motivations and requirements in markets in which they wish to build their business. For more information please see www.kingres.com.
About Coradiant
Coradiant’s unique, user-centric approach to datacenter performance monitoring quickly delivers accurate operational information in business-relevant formats. The company’s award winning technology gives IT operations and network managers a real-time understanding of the user’s web experience without the complexity, cost and risk of traditional performance management approaches. For more information please see www.coradiant.com.
