Overview
Monitor Benchmark provides essential competitive information
that lets you know how your site compares. Monitor1
compares your performance to the broad financial services industry.
Monitor2 includes comparison to financial institutions in
your segment. Monitor3 and Monitor4
include comparisons to specific competitors you identify. Monitor
Benchmark provides critical competitive information that helps you
compete and win.
Monitor Benchmark is based on a benchmark group of around 50
leading financial service institutions with an Internet presence. The guiding
principal behind the Monitor Benchmark is to provide a living
benchmark representative of the best Internet financial services sites against
which to measure other sites.
We have chosen the Monitor Benchmark institutions from the
many hundreds of financial service institutions we have monitored. Institutions
are chosen for inclusion in the benchmark because they perform particularly
well, are characteristic of a particular segment, have interesting and unique
functionality, or represent a particular design point within the spectrum of
financial services Web sites. The list includes institutions from the smallest
to largest so it is representative of the industry as a whole and allows us to
examine segment availability and performance characteristics. It includes banks,
credit unions, card companies, insurance companies, commercial banks, and a
variety of equity firms. These sites provide both good availability and
performance. Many, although not all, of the sites are functionally very rich.
The list also includes a handful of non-financial industry sites. These sites
are included to provide a non-financial industry measure of Internet behavior
useful for comparison purposes. The non-financial industry sites are the most
available and highest performing sites we have encountered on the Web.
We use availability, performance, functionality, and other data from the
Monitor Benchmark as a basis of comparison in a number of our
products.
From time to time we are asked who is on the Monitor Benchmark
list. We do not provide this information for several reasons. The fact that an
institution is not on the list does not make it a 'bad' or 'poor' institution.
More often than not an institution not on the list for no better reason than
that there are other similar representative institutions already on the list.
Likewise, an institution on the list is not necessarily uniformly superior.
Indeed, there are some institutions on the list that offer superior
functionality but are ultimately only average performers. Likewise, there are
high performers with only basic functionality. Finally, having been in this
business for some years, we simply do not wish to deal with institutions unhappy
because they are not on the list or, alternatively, on the list. By keeping the
list confidential we are able to remain more objective and let the numbers speak
for themselves.
Monitor3 and Monitor4
include Custom URL Comparison that compares your availability
and performance against specific institutions you select and compete with.
Custom URL Comparisons provide you with the detailed specific competitive
information you need to compete and win in your marketplace.
With Custom URL Comparison you provide a list of the URLs
you would like to have your site compared against. We monitor those URLs and
include them in your regular report.
Custom URL Comparison URLs are monitored with the
immediate retest protocol. This protocol provides a
reasonable balance result that is most meaningful for competitive comparisons.
We do not send you alerts for these tests. While it is technically possible
to do so, we are reluctant on the argument that sending email alerts would draw
away attention from the more important alerts you receive for your site. If you
have concerns in this matter, contact us.
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Benchmark
