Gomez brings much needed quality to the web

I heard on the radio just the other day that the migration of shoppers to the web is slowing down, and that people are returning to stores. This, it was claimed, is because people want to re-engage with the shopping activity with its tactile and social elements. I think that is only part of the answer; I believe that the web experience is turning off people because far too often it fails to deliver a quality experience.

Gomez have been involved in ensuring that the web experience, as actually perceived by the customer, is maximised through their 14,000 last mile sites, allied to an ability to cover all leading ISP and browser combinations; but up to now they were trying to retrofit quality rather than build it in.

In an era in which Customer Experience is becoming one of the key drivers of corporate strategy, as it is recognised that the most important key to corporate profitability is not just an ability to attract profitable customers but an ability to retain them, the need to build quality into the web from design though to production is becoming paramount. Gomez are no longer limiting their capabilities to performance testing, they are now able to address functionality testing as well.

They have three new products, which are becoming available, all of which are equally compelling:

• Reality View: which automates cross browser and operating system visual testing
• Reality Check: which automates cross browser functionality testing for web applications
• Reality Load: which conducts load testing to ensure that web applications perform properly in the real world from an end user perspective, as they would see it in their location

Together these will ensure that web applications have quality designed in, developed with quality as an attribute, and delivered as an assured solution.

As exciting as that capability is, if it is priced beyond the reach of the vast majority of the market it is a potential which would only be realised by the few, but Gomez are offering this capability through a very aggressively proved on-demand capability, so the excuses for failing to adopt are going to be very few.

Gomez realise that their value add is not through software features, but in the infrastructure assets that they have, such as the 14,000 final mile test sites, so they are leveraging open source code and virtualisation to achieve far more than their competitors at a far more competitive price point. This is important because the web is opening up opportunities for small and medium sized companies to take on the large companies with a far more even playing field, but a lack of quality allied to affordability can limit their ability to realise that potential. These offerings are functionally rich, yet are easy to use, and the pricing is based on consumption so low use users only pay for what they use and will find an affordable entry point.

The importance of these tools is that they really can impact on Customer Experience dramatically. For instance, Reality Check captures screen images and can turn them into a streaming movie of what the customers see. This can readily highlight just how intrusive pop-ups can be to the end user, which may well make the revenue they bring in a questionable addition compared to the disincentive for the customer to stay and browse and turn their activity into a purchasing decision.

At a time when most developers are using Firefox, whilst most users are still using Internet Explorer, the basic premise that underlies Gomez of being able to assure sites as seen by the user is unquestionable. The impact of Web 2.0 and Ajax, and the impacts they have on the way the web operates with both content and application logic being pulled in, add to the requirement. Gomez bring to that mix proven capability and expertise, the pricing model means that even small medium sized providers can now use Gomez to ensure the quality of their web offering making this a vital offering worthy of serious consideration by the mass of the market.