Too few IT directors aware of their web systems’ performance

65% of UK IT directors cannot easily understand web application performance, yet fully 75% of them say it’s an important business issue. Manufacturing sector IT directors have best visibility, way up at 68%, with 88% understanding it’s importance. These are the headline findings of research among 100 UK IT directors across retail, distribution and transport, finance and manufacturing sectors for US-based web testing and performance management software firm Empirix, just released. The firm makes the point that for companies starting to depend on e-business, understanding how their applications are performing together is essential to maintain good customer experiences and to allow problem solving before customers start to notice deterioration. “We are pleased that the majority of IT directors are acutely aware that web application performance management is an important business issue, but surprised that so few have taken steps to ensure they can easily understand how their web applications are performing,” says Scott Miller, European director of Empirix. Evidently there’s no tongue in that cheek. “Today there are cost effective tools and services available that can proactively monitor end-user experience and identify and correct Web application performance problems. Unless IT directors start to use these tools and services, they risk losing both customers and revenue,” he says. He would wouldn’t he. But there’s no denying the importance of monitoring and mending web application performance – as recent high profile government and financial site embarrassments prove. Companies that have e-commerce sites or partner extranets and those that rely on internal web-based systems, including web-based ERP systems, need wider levels of administration and alerting. Empirix users in this country include Reed Business Information and British Telecom to give them their end-user perspective on the applications in real time. And the Empirix reckons that companies that use their systems actually create a competitive advantage by having web applications performing optimally all the time. Martin Atherton, lead consultant with analyst Datamonitor, agrees. “Increasingly, web applications are becoming the ‘gatekeepers to the enterprise,’ providing customers, partners and mobile employees access to information and services residing within the enterprise. “Provision of such functionality dictates that strong consideration be given to employing performance and management related solutions to ensure that quality of service and user experience is of the highest possible quality. It is Datamonitor’s view that taking a service management approach to the performance of IT assets will prove to be a strong competitive differentiator to enterprises investing in this type of technology, as well as promoting ROA (return on assets), the ‘longer term version of ROI’”.