Gomez, the Web performance division of Detroit-based Compuware Corp. (Nasdaq:CPWR), introduced new industry benchmark standards for measuring the state of Web and mobile site performance against previous performance, key competitors and industry leaders.

Gomez's benchmarks now include a "rank of ranks"-- an aggregate ranking across all benchmark measurements. The new standard provides a single, overall rank across many dimensions so companies can get the most comprehensive view of their website or mobile performance as it compares to top competitors and industry leaders. The Web site and mobile site performance indices are currently available for the retail banking and other retail industries in the United States.

Gomez is also the first to measure mobile performance from multiple browsers -- Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox -- and mobile-specific Web sites by four different carrier and device combinations -- AT&T's iPhone, Sprint's HTC Hero, T-Mobile's HTC Dream and Verizon's Droid.

Gomez says the benchmarks help companies fully understand the connection between Web and mobile application performance, business results and improved process discipline.

Gomez benchmarks also enable measurement of change over time -- an essential measure for companies needing to quantify and validate the impact of technology investments or improve business processes. Internal benchmarking helps companies better understand the risks of change on the ROI of technology related investments, while external benchmarking (or competitive benchmarking) helps companies better manage their customer experiences and expectations.

"Today's Web sites are more complex, featuring richer applications and reaching a wider audience in newer ways with mobile devices," said Matt Poepsel, vice president for performance strategies at Gomez. "This complexity is driving the need for deeper, more insightful metrics so companies can better understand the web experiences they're delivering to customers. We created the new industry benchmark standards to address the need for expanded performance metrics and compiled all metrics into a summary view with the 'rank of ranks' so companies can quickly see how their performance stacks up against their competition." 

Gomez has doubled the number of global Web performance benchmarks it has published for more than 10 years to more than 100 that include more than 2,000 companies in dozens of industries. Gomez Web benchmarks involve testing the Web sites of target companies using a subset of the Gomez network, which features more than 150 high-bandwidth "backbone" locations and more than 150,000 actual end-user "Last Mile" locations around the world.

Gomez Mobile benchmarks test mobile-specific versions of target Web sites. These are typically "streamlined" versions of Web sites that were created specifically with the mobile form factor and throughput speeds in mind. Gomez Business Process benchmarks measure typical multistep processes -- such as purchasing a product or performing a stock trade -- across major brands in the same industry.

For more details on Gomez benchmark methodology, go to: www.gomez.com/benchmarks/methodology/.

The Gomez U.S. Retail Banking web and mobile benchmarks now include:

* U.S. Banking Account Details Business Process Benchmark -- measures the response time, success rate, and consistency of a typical multistep processes, reviewing bank account summary and details.
* U.S. Banking Home Page Benchmark (Internet Explorer) -- measures the response time, success rate, and consistency of a home page using an Internet Explorer browser agent.
* U.S. Banking Home Page Benchmark (Last Mile) -- measures the response time, success rate, and consistency of a home page as experienced by real consumer-grade computers connected via high broadband at the "edge of the Internet."
* U.S. Mobile Banking Home Page Benchmarks -- measures the performance of mobile-specific versions of bank websites.

New international home page benchmarks include:

* Australia Benchmarks: banking, insurance
* Brazil Benchmarks: banking, retail, telco
* France Benchmark: CAC40
* Hong Kong Benchmarks: banking, employment, government, hotels, insurance, media entertainment, telecom and transportation.
* Italy Benchmarks: automotive, banking, retail, telco, travel
* Japan Benchmarks: airlines, banking, brokerage, newspaper, real estate
* Singapore Benchmarks: banking, consulting, education, government, health care, hotels, insurance, manufacturnig, media entertainment, real estate, retail, technology, telecom, transportation, utilities
* Sweden Benchmarks: entertainment, news and information, retail.

More at www.compuware.com or www.gomez.com.

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