DETROIT and TORONTO, Feb. 9, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Compuware Corporation (Nasdaq:CPWR - News), the technology performance company, today announced the launch of new website performance benchmarks in Canada. The new benchmarks for the automotive, banking, brokerage, and insurance industries allow companies to compare and track website performance against competitors and market leaders.

Compuware Gomez benchmarks rank the web and mobile site performance of leading companies within an industry to determine which companies are providing the best online experiences and the companies that are not meeting users' expectations. This comparative measurement helps companies gauge user expectations in their industry and make informed decisions about investing in their online operations. Benchmarking allows companies to proactively manage website performance and improve online experiences to drive increased profitability.

Online shoppers in Canada spent C$15.30 billion (US$15.02 billion) on goods and services purchased over the Internet last year, according to a report from Statistics Canada. Online channels have become the preferred way to access personal information and to carry out transactions - bank transfers and bill payment, managing an online investment portfolio, vehicle search and purchase process, and shopping for insurance. By improving website performance, businesses have an opportunity to attract new customers and forge deeper relationships by providing a better online experience.

The new benchmarks for Canada include:

Automotive: Backbone, Last Mile

Insurance (life):Backbone, Last Mile

Banking: Backbone, Last Mile and Transaction

Brokerage: Backbone, Last Mile and Transaction

"Canadian companies need to consider the performance, availability and overall quality of the online experience they're offering customers," said Jonathan Ranger, Gomez Benchmark Practice Director at Compuware. "Benchmarks not only provide valuable insight for Canadian businesses into how their website performance compares with competitors and market leaders, but also a tool for measuring performance over time."

For more information about benchmarking, download "10 Best Practices for Benchmarking Web and Mobile Site Performance." The paper provides best practices for benchmarking web or mobile site performance based on top performing web and mobile sites.

Gomez Benchmarks are an impartial, quantitative measurement of comparative web and mobile site performance and rank the web and mobile performance of companies across three key metrics:

Response Time -- measures the time elapsed while downloading a page or an entire multistep transaction process. Availability -- measures the percentage of successfully completed tests out of total test attempts for the measurement period. Consistency -- measures the standard deviation of the response time of successful tests completed.

Benchmarks are used by organizations to compare and track performance against competitors and market leaders; baseline and track performance over time; and as key indicators of success for business and IT site owners. Gomez publishes hundreds of global web and mobile performance benchmarks based on more than 20 million monthly tests across 3,000 companies in 13 countries and include:

Home Page Backbone Benchmarks: measure the performance of the website's home page from the Internet Backbone. Home Page Last Mile Benchmarks: measure the performance of the home page from the end user's desktop taking into account the real user's connection speed. Transaction Benchmarks: measure the performance of a key business process such as ordering a product or making a stock trade. Mobile Benchmarks: measure the performance of mobile site's home page on the largest carriers and top devices.

The Gomez platform is the industry's leading solution for optimizing the performance of web, non-web, mobile, streaming and cloud applications. Driven by end-user experience, Gomez provides a unified view across the entire application delivery chain, from a user's browser or mobile device, across the Internet or a corporate WAN, in the cloud, to inside the data center, eliminating blind spots from the First Mile to the Last Mile.

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Compuware Corporation

Compuware Corporation, the technology performance company, provides software, experts and best practices to ensure technology works well and delivers value. Compuware solutions make the world's most important technologies perform at their best for leading organizations worldwide, including 46 of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and 12 of the top 20 most visited U.S. web sites. Learn more at: http://www.compuware.com.

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Compuware Launches New Website Performance Benchmarks for Canada