Keynote Acquires NetRaker, a Leader in Online Customer Experience Management Solutions
• Strategic Acquisition Enhances Keynote’s Offerings to Marketing Professionals for Evaluating and Improving Web Site Design and Effectiveness
• Leveraging NetRaker’s Research Manager Service, Keynote Creates the WebEffective Intelligence Platform (WIP), Which is Now Available
SAN MATEO, Calif., — April 6, 2004 — Keynote Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”), the worldwide leader in Web performance measurement and management services, today announced the acquisition of NetRaker, a privately-held company based in Mountain View, Calif., that is a leader in online customer experience management solutions that help e-business managers measure, evaluate and improve the design and navigability of their Web sites.
In addition to acquiring NetRaker’s customer experience management services, including Research Manager and the NetRaker Index, the majority of NetRaker’s employees have joined Keynote, including Douglas van Duyne, NetRaker’s president and chief executive officer, and George Papazian, NetRaker’s chief operating officer. Mr. van Duyne, the co-author of a popular book on Web site design entitled, “The Design of Sites,” becomes senior director of customer experience products and design. Mr. Papazian becomes general manager of the customer experience division.
While acquisition terms were not disclosed, Keynote expects NetRaker to contribute revenue of approximately $500,000 to Keynote`s fiscal third quarter results ending June 30, 2004. Based on NetRaker`s recent historical growth rates, Keynote believes that NetRaker is capable of contributing revenue in the range of $3.0 million to $5.0 million for Keynote`s fiscal year 2005.
Keynote’s acquisition of NetRaker, the company’s ninth since going public in September 1999, is a strategic one since NetRaker has a strong following among Fortune 500 customers and especially among marketing executives. By acquiring NetRaker, Keynote is strengthening and broadening its customer experience management solutions for enterprise customers. Additionally, Keynote believes the acquisition allows it to target e-business marketing executives within Fortune 500 companies, such as usability and market research managers.
With NetRaker’s customer experience management solutions and professional services organization, clients can set up research involving hundreds to tens of thousands of online panelists in order to evaluate Web site design options and suggest design improvements. Panelists may be comprised of a client’s actual Web site customers or those of competitors.
Keynote offers NetRaker clients a financially stable company with which to do business, a well-known and respected brand, and assurance of continued access to both NetRaker’s leading customer experience management solutions and its superior professional services organization. As well, NetRaker clients now have easy access to Keynote’s other customer experience solutions, and are afforded one-stop shopping for the company’s complete portfolio of award-winning Web performance measurement and management services.
NetRaker’s services enhance Keynote’s existing customer management offerings for enterprise customers, which include its WebEffective™ service, a unique hosted solution for capturing and understanding the actual behavior of site visitors. Keynote has integrated NetRaker’s solutions in online “opt-in” and “directed” customer experience management (including NetRaker Research Manager) with WebEffective, creating the Keynote WebEffective Intelligence Platform (or WIP).
The WIP measures, tests, and improves e-business performance by delivering market research, usability and Web analytics in an integrated, cost-effective, easy to use service. Some of the key benefits of the WIP are:
The WIP is a flexible Web experience research and usability testing solution.
• The WIP enables clients to determine how to best serve online visitors by understanding their demographics, why they are visiting a Web site, what activities they perform at that Web site, what they think about the site and whether or not they believe they are successful in achieving their goals in visiting the site.
• The WIP complements the typical “click-stream” monitoring solutions that most companies utilize.
• The WIP can gather and correlate quantitative and qualitative attitude, intention, behavior and performance data from a selected panel or a random sample of real visitors, providing insights and recommendations to improve the effectiveness of a Web site.
• The WIP is delivered either as a managed research application, or as an appliance that can be hosted internally by the client. This provides clients with ultimate flexibility to access the WIP in the manner that makes the most sense for their organization.
“The synergies in our services and our cultures make this an ideal match and we`re excited to join Keynote," said Mr. van Duyne. "The Keynote brand is synonymous with Internet performance and will help us leverage our services across the enterprise and to introduce new services.”
“Our acquisition of NetRaker benefits customers of both Keynote and NetRaker. Total Performance Management delivers a best practices approach for ensuring that e-business is optimized for speed, reliability, load, content and usability. If performance is sub-par on any one of these measures, especially usability, e-business effectiveness and the bottom line can suffer,” said Umang Gupta, chairman and CEO of Keynote. “NetRaker is the leader in customer experience management and provides services that ideally complement our WebEffective service. NetRaker strengthens the customer experience management solutions we offer our own customers. And NetRaker customers receive the benefit of our well-known and respected brand, our financial stability and easy access to one-stop shopping for all their other Web performance measurement and management needs.”
Keynote will host a free Webinar on Thursday, April 8 at 11:00 a.m. pacific time to introduce customers and prospects to the new WIP services. The presentation will include details on the platform and its components, specific customer examples and brief demonstrations of the services. To sign up online for the free Webinar click on or call Abigail Yao at (650) 403-3464 or email her at ayao@keynote.com.
About Keynote WebEffective Intelligence Platform (WIP)
Keynote’s WebEffective Intelligence Platform is available now and can be used by e-business managers, usability managers and market research managers.
The Keynote WIP includes the following service modules:
1. Research Manager
Research Manager is a flexible, opt-in and tracking service to create, implement and analyze combined usability and market research studies utilizing a specially selected panel of prospects or customers. Research Manager is primarily used for task-based and directed testing of a Web site prior to the launch of a new site, development of improved functionality or introduction of new marketing offers.
2. Real User Observer
Real User Observer is a detailed tracking and analysis service for unobtrusively testing what a sample of real visitors see and do on a Web site while conducting actual transactions. Real User Observer is primarily used for self-directed testing typically involving thousands of real visitors. The service includes a Powerful Active Questions capability for obtaining attitudinal information in real time, as real visitors interact with specific features and content on a Web site.
3. Customer Experience Benchmark
Customer Experience Benchmark is an ongoing benchmark of the five critical variables (content, ease of use, perceived performance, brand value, satisfaction) of customer experience based upon self-reported information. The Benchmark provides an indicator of customer experience problems developing on a Web site and comparative scores versus other similar sites in that industry or among competitors obtained from a selected group of panelists.
About Keynote
Founded in 1995, Keynote Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”), The Internet Performance Authority®, is the worldwide leader in Web performance measurement and management services that improve the quality of e-business. Keynote’s services enable corporate enterprises to monitor, benchmark, test, diagnose and optimize their e-business systems both inside and outside the firewall. Approximately 2,200 corporate IT departments and 18,000 individual subscribers rely on the company`s easy-to-use and cost-effective services to increase revenues and reduce downtime costs, without requiring additional complex and costly software implementations.
The Keynote brand is recognized as The Internet Performance Authority because of the large number of Internet performance measurements its global infrastructure of over 1,600 measurement computers in 50 cities worldwide captures and stores on a daily basis (over 40 million at last count); frequent citations in the mass media regarding Web site and Internet performance; and its broad and growing range of market-leading Internet performance indices for various vertical markets. (http://www.keynote.com/solutions/solutions_pi_index.html)
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at 650-403-2400.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are not purely historical regarding the Company or management`s intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations and strategies for the future. Because such statements deal with future events, they are subject to various risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from the Company’s current expectations.
Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, those related to revenue contribution from the NetRaker business, the service offerings it intends to develop based on the completion of its acquisition of NetRaker and the benefits of those services for its customers. It is important to note that actual outcomes and Keynote’s actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include risks and uncertainties such as Keynote’s ability to develop and introduce new services, including those based on NetRaker’s services, in a timely manner and customer acceptance of new services, significant growth in the amount of NetRaker services sold during fiscal 2005, compared with historical periods for NetRaker, customer acceptance of the NetRaker services, the extent to which demand for Keynote’s performance measurement services fluctuates and the extent to which revenue from other service lines, including performance management solutions, can continue to increase, the extent to which existing customers renew their subscriptions and purchase additional services, particularly enterprise customers, pricing pressure with respect to Keynote’s services, competition in Keynote’s market, integration of NetRaker’s technologies and personnel and costs associated with any future acquisitions, Keynote’s ability to keep pace with changes in the Internet infrastructure as well as other technological changes, and the success of Keynote’s international operations. Readers should also refer to the risks outlined in Keynote’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2003, and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and any current reports on Form 8-K filed during the fiscal year.
All forward-looking statements and reasons why results might differ included in this release are made as of the date of this press release, based on information available to Keynote as of the date of this press release, and Keynote assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement or reasons why results might differ.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks and Keynote WebEffective is a trademark of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2004 Keynote Systems, Inc.
Public Relations Contacts:
Dan Berkowitz
Keynote Systems Inc.
(650) 403-3305
dberkowitz@keynote.com
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