Press Releases

Coremetrics and Watchfire Partner to Offer Website Analysis to Improve Internet Business Effectiveness

Fortune 2000 Companies Now Able to Understand How Web Site Integrity Affects Online Customer Success

SAN FRANCISCO and OTTAWA – October 29, 2001 – Coremetrics™, a leading provider of data-driven business intelligence solutions and Watchfire, a provider of Website Management software and services, today announced a partnership designed to improve Internet business results by linking online customer behavior to website effectiveness. Under the terms of the agreement, Coremetrics and Watchfire will join forces to market and sell their complementary services to enable businesses to optimize their sites to improve visitor success and increase Web site ROI.

This strategic alliance will afford Fortune 2000 companies the ability to leverage analysis from Watchfire's Website Management software and Coremetrics' business intelligence solutions to better understand how website defects affect online customer success. The correlation between website defects and customer disloyalty was demonstrated in a recent report from Jupiter Media Metrix, which showed that, for certain groups of users, a 10 percent decline in response time can lead to a 5 percent increase in abandonment rates.

"Companies who have invested heavily in the Internet channel are seeking ways to improve Internet channel performance," said Scott Kauffman, president and CEO of Coremetrics. "This strategic alliance offers tremendous value to our customers, as they can now understand the correlation between website integrity and visitor behavior."

Due to growing cost-containment pressures, IT and ebusiness managers are intensely scrutinizing corporate investments in websites. At the same time, managers are struggling to prioritize their website investments based on expected rates of return. Coremetrics and Watchfire offer decision-makers analytical solutions for measuring the impact of website integrity on their business"both in the aggregate and across customer segments"thus enabling businesses to identify and prioritize the investments that are likely to yield the highest return.

"By understanding website behavior, companies can better manage customer perception and their business' success," said Michael Weider, CEO of Watchfire. "We are very excited to be working with Coremetrics to offer companies a way to identify and analyze enterprise websites for problems that can negatively impact visitor success."

Watchfire's Website Management software and services help organizations optimize their ebusiness execution by mitigating corporate risk, enhancing web team effectiveness and addressing the critical website issues that affect visitor success. Watchfire's comprehensive automated testing, analysis, and reporting solutions can help detect and manage issues on even the largest and most complex sites.

Coremetrics' business intelligence solutions consist of a Core Data Platform™ and a Web analytics service, eLuminate Commerce™. Coremetrics' Core Data Platform is a data warehouse of comprehensive and accurate online customer behavior for analysis using eLuminate Commerce, custom reporting by Coremetrics, and integration with third-party applications. Coremetrics' business intelligence solutions provide analysis that allows companies to decrease customer acquisition costs, increase customer retention and improve browser-to-buyer conversion ratios.

About Coremetrics
Coremetrics is a leading web services provider of clickstream analysis solutions that enable companies to develop a comprehensive understanding of all visitor and customer interactions with their online channels. The Coremetrics data capture, storage and decision-support system provides corporations with essential tools to increase online sales, maximize marketing ROI, and optimize site design, resulting in dramatic profitability improvements across their online initiatives. Customers include Ann Taylor, The Columbia House Company, GMAC Insurance, Hanover Direct, Nortel Networks, Sundance Catalog Company, and Wilsons Leather. Coremetrics is headquartered in San Francisco with research and development offices in Austin, Texas. The company is privately held with funding from Accel Partners, General Catalyst, and Highland Capital Partners. To learn more about Coremetrics, visit the company's Web site at www.coremetrics.com or call 877-721-CORE.

About Watchfire
Founded in 1996, Watchfire's Website Management software and services can help organizations optimize their ebusiness execution by mitigating corporate risk, enhancing web team effectiveness, and addressing critical website issues that affect visitor success. Watchfire's comprehensive automated testing, analysis, and reporting solutions can help detect and manage issues on even the largest and most complex sites. Watchfire's sophisticated reports put detailed, actionable information regarding content and interaction defects, searchability, accessibility, design effectiveness, privacy compliance, corporate standards compliance, and brand equity into the hands of the people who need it, when they need it. Watchfire customers represent over half of the Fortune 500 companies and many of the largest e-commerce, government, and educational sites in North America and include Compaq Computer, Lockheed Martin, First Union Bank, Nickelodeon Online and AT&T. The company maintains dual North American headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and Lexington, Mass. Further information on Watchfire can be found online at www.watchfire.com.

Coremetrics, eLuminate Commerce and Core Data Platform are trademarks of Coremetrics, Inc. Any other marks used in this document are trademarks or registered trademarks of the manufacturers or marketers of the products with which the marks are associated.