Website Performance Reports

New: A complete overview of the last 24 hours (2006-10-03)

Would you like to see on the monitor at a glance how your website has performed in the last 24 hours? This is possible with WatchMouse's Performance Chart.

In addition to reports by e-mail and information in the log files, WatchMouse has now introduced the Performance Chart. This makes for even easier and clearer depiction of the performance of your websites. The Performance Chart gives a complete overview of the last 24 hours, per rule and with an automatic update. You can therefore see at a glance, in colour, exactly when the website has been slow, unavailable or error-free. The size of the problems is shown in percentage terms. The Performance Chart can be found under the Reports tab. URL: http://www.watchmouse.com/performance_chart.php

WatchMouse also offers even more information in the Dashboard. On this status page, you can indicate precisely what graphics and log files you wish to see. Some time ago, the Current Status page underwent a complete make-over. Resulting in this Dashboard. The graphs are renewed independently from one another. You yourself can set an interval, between 1 and 60 minutes. You can select the elements you want and move these to another location on the page. In addition to your own log files, you can show logs and graphics from other accounts to which you have access. The layout and settings are saved in your own account.

In order to put together your own status page, go to the url below and click on ‘add’ at top right to enter the first graph. URL: http://www.watchmouse.com/status.php

WatchMouse and Nedstat - Combining web site analytics and site performance (2008-06-02)

WatchMouse recently integrated with Nedstat's tool Sitestat. Nedstat is Europe's leading website analytics provider. Combining Nedstat's marketing intelligence with WatchMouse's website performance monitoring, enables customers to gain insight into the relationship between performance and visitor behavior.

The integration between WatchMouse and Nedstat should be of great benefit to WatchMouse customers who are using Sitestat Pro (or are considering using it) as it enables you to view your WatchMouse performance monitoring & Sitestat visitor statistics together. After making a few simple adjustments to your existing WatchMouse interface, you can view and compare both performance and visitor statistics, embedded in custom WatchMouse reports and thereby quickly spot any possible correlation between them e.g. an inverse relationship between your site's download time and your page views.

Having WatchMouse and Sitestat data presented in one custom report could help you identify when improvements to your site or infrastructure are needed, and as you implement improvements, you can track customer reaction and hopefully see a rapid return-on-investment with increased page views and online sales.

To find out how to integrate Sitestat data into your WatchMouse interface visit the Visitor statistics FAQs.

To view the brochure click here: Nedstat and WatchMouse partnership brings online marketing and technical performance data together [PDF file]

New Service: Monitoring the epicenter (DNS) of your online brands (2008-01-24)

Your domain name directs customers to a website where you represent your brand and all that it stands for but are you managing and regularly monitoring the domain name service (DNS) which translates your domain name and brings your customers to you? DNS consistency monitoring can help ensure your business does not lose customers to a slow or faulty DNS.

It is useless to have paid for an expensive and fully redundant web site server (park), if the DNS servers fail to respond, respond incorrectly, or inconsistently. Your DNS must be consistent and correct. Monitoring for DNS consistency is particularly important if you have online services relying on one or more domain names (and that is almost always the case). It doesn't matter if your DNS servers are maintained in-house or outsourced, you need to know if they are doing what they are supposed to do. WatchMouse's DNS consistency monitoring (now available in closed beta) checks your DNS systems and provides rapid notification of any unexpected DNS behaviour.

The WatchMouse's 'domain' type rule allows you to monitor the consistency of the behaviour of your DNS servers. It queries for a specified domain, performs a number of checks to test the health of your DNS servers and monitors for any difference in behaviour of your name servers. (If you also need to check that a domain name resolves to the correct IP address(es), you can use the 'dns' type rule which will be offered as part of the WatchMouse DNS consistency monitoring).

This new service will be available to all WatchMouse customers with a performance monitoring subscription (Webmaster and higher) and can be configured on the Monitoring Settings page. To set-up DNS consistency monitoring, simply enter the domain name (advanced settings are available).

Fancy participating in our closed beta test?

• Contact us to request participation in the beta.
• Collect all the domain names that are important to your business.
• Go to the Monitoring Settings page.
• Add a 'new rule' and select 'domain' from the type menu, for each of the domains you wish to monitor.
• Specify the other settings you would like for other rule types, hit 'save', and you're done!
• The results of the domain name monitoring appear in your logs, reports, and graphs instantly.

WatchMouse introduces Site Performance Index (2009-05-14)

new industry gauge offers complete overview of website performance

WatchMouse, the website monitoring company, has launched the WatchMouse Site Performance Index (SPI). The index acts as a gauge for measuring the performance of websites. It gives a complete overview of visitors’ experiences when using a website in terms of both the speed and availability.

WatchMouse measures the SPIs of the major players in 30 different industry sectors including banking, travel, insurance and logistics. The resulting reports are published monthly on www.watchmouse.com/SPI

The SPI measures the waiting times experienced by visitors accessing a site. The longer the loading time or the worse the availability of a web page, the higher the final score and the lower the level of visitor satisfaction. Sites with an SPI of 1,000 or less are performing well whilst those companies that score above 1,500 have work to do.

WatchMouse’s SPI site currently contains reports from 30 different sectors across five countries. Summaries of the reports can be accessed free of charge from the WatchMouse website and full reports can be ordered on the site.

The reports are refreshed every quarter and offer extensive trend analysis, background information and complete score tables with measurement results for the companies monitored in each sector, and by country. Companies can also, for a fee, order benchmark reports which clearly show how their own corporate site is scoring in relation to those of their competitors. In addition, tailor-made reports can be ordered, in which companies can specify their own lists of ‘peers’.

“Good website performance is crucial as recent research by Jupiter Research demonstrates that customers can give up after waiting for just four seconds,” said Mark Pors, chief technology officer at WatchMouse. “We are also seeing a shift taking place whereby, alongside availability, loading speeds are also being included in service level agreements (SLAs).”

“The SPI reports enable companies to find out whether their SLAs are in fact being achieved, and compare this with the website performance of their competitors. In this way, they can easily assess whether there is room for improvement,” he explained.

Nedstat and WatchMouse start partnership (2008-04-14)

Online marketing and technical performance in one dashboard

Amsterdam, 14 April 2008 – Nedstat and WatchMouse announce a strategic partnership that brings together online marketing intelligence and technical performance. The new integration allows marketeers and technical managers to always have the same real-time view of the technical status of their online business activities. This makes it possible to react instantly when for instance decreasing online business has a technical cause.

The performance reports of WatchMouse have been seamlessly integrated in Sitestat and can be added easily to any online marketing dashboard. Marketeers now view the same technical site performance data as their technical colleagues, making communication between these disciplines within organisations much more efficient.

Michael Kinsbergen, CEO Nedstat. “The website is principally a marketing and communication channel and therefore the domain of marketeers. But it is also a technical channel so technical management plays an essential role as well. The Sitestat-WatchMouse connection has made the communication between both stakeholders much more direct and easy.”

Stan van de Burgt, WatchMouse CEO, says: “By measuring from different locations on the Internet, we can give a clear view of how the performance of a website is experienced by the visitor. Research has shown that visitors already leave after a waiting period of 4 seconds. The Nedstat and WatchMouse measurements are perfectly complementary in giving insight in the relationship between performance and visitor behaviour.”

The Sitestat-WatchMouse integration is directly available to all joint customers of Sitestat and WatchMouse.

About Nedstat

Nedstat is European leader in website analytics. The products and services enable companies to improve the effectiveness and profitability of their online communication and business.

Nedstat makes website analytics straightforward and accessible for users of all levels and disciplines. Products are easy to use, reports are clear and fast to access, customization is easy and services and support are personal and high quality.

Nedstat employs 180 people in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.
The client list includes many renowned and internationally operating organizations like ASICS Europe, Electrabel, Ernst & Young, KarstadtQuelle, Renault, Panasonic and Wolters Kluwer. Also, numerous government and not-for-profit organizations have benefited from Nedstat's expertise in delivering reports on users’ behaviour online.
Key accreditations by Europe’s leading independent web-standards organizations, such as ABC electronic and OJD, ensure that customers’ metrics are in full compliance with leading industry standards.

About WatchMouse

Accurate and independent monitoring of website performance enables businesses to address load time and many other potential user experience issues which might not be apparent when conducting in-house or single point monitoring.

WatchMouse's global infrastructure provides its customers with peace of mind that their site has been tested from the user's perspective, and external to the organization. As industry leaders in website performance monitoring, WatchMouse offers customers a web-based service with features such as SMS/email alerting and extensive reporting.

Many of the world's lead brands depend on WatchMouse to monitor their sites, providing independent confirmation of both in-house and suppliers' website performance.

For more information about Nedstat or WatchMouse, please visit www.nedstat.com or www.watchmouse.com.

WatchMouse and Badboy Software announce partnership (2008-04-03)

Partnership brings easy website transaction monitoring

WatchMouse is pleased to announce a partnership with Australia's Badboy Software. The partnership combines the immensely popular Badboy scripting tool with WatchMouse's market leading website performance monitoring, enabling customers to record complex transaction scripts and run them using a global infrastructure.

Owner and founder of Badboy Software, Simon Sadedin says, "With Badboy Software's in-depth experience in functional testing and WatchMouse's extensive infrastructure, technology and know-how for running enterprise grade monitoring solutions, we have a unique opportunity for collaboration."

The powerful Badboy scripting tool enables customers to professionally record all the actions involved in a web transaction. Designed to aid in the testing and development of complex dynamic applications, the Badboy tool contains dozens of features including a simple yet comprehensive capture/replay interface, load testing support, detailed reports, graphs etc.

WatchMouse CTO, Mark Pors explains, "Having integrated with Badboy, our customers can now upload their Badboy scripts directly into their WatchMouse console. Scripts can then be automatically and periodically run from WatchMouse's global infrastructure of 25+ checkpoints. This new functionality enables our customers to monitor their web applications 24/7 and know how their site behaves when customers access it from locations all around the world."

As a global leader in website performance monitoring, WatchMouse provides many of the world's largest companies with independent verifications of their website performance. With immediate results, automated alerting, simple set up and flexible subscriptions, WatchMouse offers the features, control and quality of service essential for today's online business.

The partnership between WatchMouse and Badboy Software provides customers with a market first: global, easy, powerful, web application testing.

To find out more about this new functionality and sign up for a free trial visit: http://www.watchmouse.com/scripting.php

Mark Pors
CTO
WatchMouse
http://www.watchmouse.com/

Why do you need a monitoring service such as Watchmouse? (2005-01-31)

There are a number of reasons for this, depending on your role in your organization, and what you want to achieve. Each of these roles leads to a different approach for using and setting up the service.

Most likely you are either responsible for keeping a service such as a website online, or you have contracted somebody else to do that for you. Additionally, you could be a consultant or technical architect who wants to get an insight in performance and uptime characteristics of various solutions and services.

If your role is to keep things running, you really want to be notified of problems as soon as possible, before your customers or supervisors notice. You want appropriate error messages and not too many false alarms. As you configure Watchmouse you probably want to have a quick alert by e-mail or SMS/text message when things don't work and have additional diagnostic information available. In this way, downtime can be kept to a minimum. It is not only the quality of the systems that counts, but also the speed with which you can fix problems.

Your role could also be in overseeing your service providers, whether they are internal or outsourced. In that case, you don't want to be interrupted by these messages, unless the situation becomes dramatic. Instead you would like to look at the weekly report, and see if your service providers are living up to their promises. On the Internet it is easy to get 99% uptime, and you should really be doing better than that. The services that regularly fail to make this grade need attention, to see if another approach to provisioning them works better.

If you are considering technical alternatives for the way you are setting up your e-business, you are most likely interested in typical failure modes. For example, we know from experience that most website problems are software problems, followed by sizing problems. Communications problems are fairly rare, and if they occur they take the form of peering problems: websites cannot be reached from specific networks, even if all networks are operational. One approach using Watchmouse reports is to check various aspects with different rules. Use one rule to download the homepage, another to check the DNS and a third to check connectivity to the hosting centre. In a next column I'll go into the details of this.

Peter van Eijk is a management consultant specialized in management of network infrastructures. He can be reached via his contact page.