SAN MATEO, Calif., — August 16, 2004 — Keynote Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”), The Internet Performance Authority®, expanded its index coverage of the financial services industry today with the announcement of the world’s first e-business transaction index for the credit card industry. “The Keynote Credit Card Web Transaction Performance Index,” will benchmark the transaction speed and reliability of leading credit card Web sites as experienced by real users around the country. As consumers increasingly head to the Web for viewing credit card charges and paying their credit card bills, the new index will be a useful e-business performance benchmark and assist consumers in selecting which credit card providers are best prepared to provide an optimal quality of online experience.
Sites currently planned for inclusion in the new index include americanexpress.com, capitalone.com, chase.com, Citibank.com, dinersclubnorthamerica.com, discovercard.com, firstusa.com, mbna.com and Providian.com.
Initial results of the new credit card index are planned for public release within 30 days.
The new transaction index underscores Keynote’s strong customer base among leaders in the financial services industry and its commitment to deliver indices that serve the needs of important financial services sectors. Keynote is the trailblazer in e-business transaction performance benchmarking and launched the world’s first e-business transaction index for the online broker industry in June of 1999. The Keynote E-Banking Web Transaction Index launched in August 2003.
The need for credit card Web benchmarking data for use by consumers and the credit card companies themselves is growing increasingly clear as a recent report by Cybersource found that 99% of Web sites offer general purpose card payments (payment made with Visa, American Express, Master Card or Discover cards) to their site visitors. And increasing numbers of Americans are taking advantage of offerings by credit card providers to receive, view and pay credit card charges online. An April 2004 Yankee Group report found that 13% of U.S. consumers pay their credit card bills online and 14% receive and view their statements online.
“As more people use credit cards to pay for goods and services online, the risk of other people gaining access to credit card information not their own and making unauthorized purchases online has also increased,” said Roopak Patel, senior Internet analyst in Keynote’s public services division. “Rather than wait for their monthly credit card statements, more people are going to the Web sites run by their credit card providers to make sure there have been no unauthorized charges during the month. And of course consumers are increasingly paying their credit card bills online. It is imperative that credit card companies have a deep understanding for the performance aspects of their site, and of competitor sites, as experienced by end users, so they can continually optimize their site’s performance and keep their customers happy. Our new index is designed to serve this growing need.”
The Keynote Credit Card Web Transaction Performance Index is the first of its kind to systematically measure the speed and reliability of leading credit card Web sites for performing common multi-step tasks. To create this particular index, Keynote’s measurement computers in 10 cities around the U.S. “click through” the same steps an actual person might perform: entering the particular URL of the credit card site they wish to visit, clicking on the login button, logging in using account information, selecting steps necessary for viewing “recent charges” and logging out of the site.
The Keynote Credit Card Web Transaction Performance Index will be published weekly on Keynote’s Web site at http://www.keynote.com/solutions/solutions_ps_index.html.
Keynote has historically seen an improvement in overall performance results, over time, whenever it has launched a new vertical-based Web transaction performance index. The goal of the index is to help the credit card industry measure and manage the performance of its Web sites and optimize the experience of people receiving, viewing and paying credit card charges online.
The Keynote Credit Card Web Transaction Performance Index is designed to reflect the speed and reliability of the most well known credit card sites with a large online presence. Going beyond home page performance, the credit card transaction index will provide deep insight into the performance of these high traffic credit card Web sites.
About Keynote’s Credit Card Web Transaction Performance
Index
Keynote pioneered the use of vertical indices and
benchmarks for e-business performance over five years ago. The data
used to produce the index for a given week will be taken from actual
online transactions Keynote’s automated measurement computers
execute and measure from the ten largest U.S. metropolitan areas
(Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, New York,
Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.) ) on an hourly
basis Monday to Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to midnight (eastern
time).
Keynote transaction measurement computers are placed on the most widely used, familiar and recognizable Internet backbone and service providers in these cities. Keynote’s global network of measurement computers run standard Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers on Windows/2000 to obtain the most accurate and representative transaction performance data possible today.
For the Keynote Credit Card Web Transaction Performance Index, each of the measurements begin by launching the browser, selecting the starting URL for the specific Web site, and then conducting the following:
Complete index data that includes the aggregated and limited time-frame results and every data point taken 24/7 along with page, network component, content and error detail, will be available for purchase from Keynote on a subscription basis.
Background on Keynote’s Web Performance
Indices
Keynote’s Web transaction indices leverage
Keynote’s long history and experience developing Internet
performance indices. Keynote launched the world’s first Web
performance indices that assess page download performance (as
opposed to transaction performance), known as The Keynote Business
40 Internet Performance Index (measurements over T1 and T3
connections) and The Keynote Consumer 40 Internet Performance Index
(measurements over dial-up and broadband connections). Keynote also
launched the world’s first transaction performance index, The
Keynote Web Broker Trading Index. All today are considered the ‘gold
standard’ for Web performance benchmarking.
In addition to The Keynote Credit Card Web Transaction Performance Index, Keynote’s growing line of transaction indices include: The Keynote Web Broker Trading Index, The Keynote E-Banking Transaction Performance Index, The Keynote E-Commerce Transaction Performance Index, The Keynote Travel & Hospitality Web Transaction Performance Index (includes leading airline, hotel and online travel agency Web sites), The Keynote News Media Transaction Performance Index and The Keynote E-Government Transaction Performance Index.
Customers can use Keynote’s growing line of industry-specific Web transaction indices to assess Web transaction performance against internal benchmarks and against competitors. Customers can then leverage Keynote’s additional monitoring, performance management, load, content and usability testing services to improve the overall performance of their e-business applications and infrastructure.
To build and maintain its growing line of Web performance indices, Keynote uses its unparalleled global infrastructure of over 1,600 strategically and statistically located measurement, testing and diagnostic computers representing Internet performance from 50 metropolitan areas worldwide.
Detailed information regarding the methodology behind Keynote’s Web performance indices can be found at: http://www.keynote.com/downloads/whitepapers/webtxn-methodology052704.pdf.
General information about Keynote’s performance indices can be found at http://www.keynote.com/solutions/solutions_pm_performance_indices_tpl.html.
About Keynote
Founded in 1995, Keynote
Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”), The Internet Performance Authority®, is the
worldwide leader in e-business performance management services that
improve the quality of e-business. Keynote’s services enable
corporate enterprises to monitor, benchmark, test, diagnose and
optimize their e-business systems both inside and outside the
firewall. Over 2,100 corporate IT departments and 19,000 individual
subscribers rely on the company's easy-to-use and cost-effective
services to increase revenues and reduce downtime costs, without
requiring additional complex and costly software
implementations.
Keynote is The Internet Performance Authority due to the company’s global infrastructure of over 1,600 measurement computers in more than 50 cities worldwide that capture and store on a daily basis over 40 million Internet performance measurements, frequent media citations quoting Keynote's Web performance data and analysis and the company’s growing range of market-leading Web performance indices for vertical markets http://www.keynote.com/solutions/solutions_pi_index.html.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at http://www.keynote.com/ or by phone in the U.S. at 650-403-2400.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2004 Keynote Systems, Inc.
Public Relations Contact:
Dan Berkowitz,
Keynote Systems, Inc., (650) 403-3305, dberkowitz@keynote.com