Watchfire Introduces `Online Business Management` Software and Services
Company Announces New Solutions to Protect Online Brand, Reduce Risk
Exposure from Non-compliance and Optimize Website Investments
WALTHAM, MA - August 25, 2003 - Watchfire, a provider of software and
services to manage the brand, risk, and cost effectiveness of online
business, today announced tailored Online Business Management solutions
to help organizations manage and protect their online brand, meet global
online compliance mandates, and improve online cost effectiveness.
Since few companies have the same level of control and governance in
place for their online business as they do offline, they have no way to
justify the cost of this channel or understand its contribution to their
overall bottom line. Additionally, poor online brand management and
regulatory compliance practices have been directly related to widespread
market backlash and public relations embarrassments-damaging to any
organization.
Before today`s announcement, there has been no single solution to
address these three online issues - brand, risk and cost - for the
business rather than technical user. Many of the world`s most
recognizable brands trust Watchfire to manage their online business and
the company has used its experience with its enterprise customers to
provide best practices in building online business dashboards executives
can relate to for their industries. Watchfire calls this solution
approach `Online Business Management.`
"Websites are evolving daily and given the increasing amount of
legislation organizations must comply with, effectively managing these
large, complex sites is a significant challenge from a cost, logistical
and legal perspective. Regulatory burdens continue to increase, as do
the risks for non-compliance and few organizations have a systematic way
of ensuring adherence to corporate policies and procedures," said Peter
McKay, president and CEO, Watchfire. "Watchfire`s Online Business
Management solutions were designed to help protect an organization`s
online brand, manage costs and enable regulatory compliance by
automating the manual process of identifying and managing content
quality, privacy, and accessibility issues."
Specifically, Watchfire provides the software-based platform from which
to address these critical issues with Online Brand, Online Risk and
Online Cost Management solutions to integrate with an organization`s
business processes and goals. These solutions help eBusiness, Legal and
IT departments put the processes in place to effectively manage their
online operations with the same level of control, effectiveness and
attention given to the rest of the organization. Providing management
with the data and insight they need bridges this gap and effectively
integrates IT into the organization`s overall strategy.
Online Brand Management
Marketing and ebusiness leaders tasked with managing an organization`s
online brand often operate in decentralized environments with little
exposure to or understanding of other areas of web development. Given
this decentralized nature, the task of measuring and understanding the
effectiveness of online activities and investments to ensure this
channel is being properly utilized can be daunting. There are many
factors that can negatively affect a company`s online brand and
reputation and significantly reduce the ROI of online marketing
programs. Poor online experiences frustrate visitors, causing
abandonment. Website quality has a direct impact on the impression
visitors have on how well an organization is run. Companies also have
little knowledge or control over how third parties are using their brand
online. Websites that shut out people with disabilities are turning away
a huge part of their audience, and risk incurring significant losses in
revenue, potential litigation and reputation damage. These consequences
directly affect online revenue and extend to a company`s offline
presence.
Watchfire`s Online Brand Management solution provides executives with
the insight necessary to improve the user experience, helps ensure
success and positive ROI for marketing programs and helps protect an
organization`s brand by providing stakeholders with valuable metrics
that correlate site quality data with user patterns including usability;
critical search engine and traffic statistics; corporate standards
issues including style guidelines, image cataloguing; and non-compliance
rules. In addition, the solution assists organizations in their efforts
to comply with accessibility standards, including the U.S. Government`s
Section 508, the World Wide Web Consortium`s (W3C) Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and support for custom accessibility
standards.
"Watchfire`s solutions have helped us to make our online services easily
and equally accessible to all our members and to encourage compliance
with the W3C`s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines," said Paul Towers,
Head of Electronic Channels, Nationwide Building Society. "Watchfire was
instrumental in helping us address this increasingly important issue and
has enabled us to save a tremendous amount of time and costs by
automating what would normally be a manual process."
Online Risk Management
When an organization goes online, it has an obligation to ensure its
customer`s personal information is protected, transactions are safe, all
website sections are up to date and information is accurate. However,
many organizations have been caught not complying with various laws and
regulations, and these lapses have been severely punished in the media,
in the courts, and by consumer advocacy groups. A breach in any of these
areas may have significant repercussions, not the least of which is risk
exposure.
Watchfire`s Online Risk Management Solution helps organizations mitigate
their online risk by identifying privacy and data security issues.
Compliance and legal executives are alerted to instances of
non-compliance with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), the Health
Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the
Children`s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Privacy management
functionality gives companies the ability to understand their online
data collection, use, and potential sharing practices, helping to avoid
online privacy glitches. The solution audits and identifies the site
architecture, including all third party links and links to potentially
inappropriate content, asset domain expiry, copyright and trademark
protection, non-compliance rules including web link guidelines, and
identity theft and disclaimers. Effective management of website privacy
is key to earning customer trust and compliance with industry
regulations and global legislation.
Online Cost Management
Today`s websites have grown so large that owners no longer have
visibility and control over these important assets. Disparate web teams
using rogue web servers; remote locations using different standards and
technologies; and duplicate resources due to industry consolidation have
created a tangle of platforms and technologies. Without understanding
what they actually have, owners cannot make informed operational
decisions that help make significant cost savings.
Using Watchfire`s Online Cost Management solution, IT executives can now
create an inventory and technology map of their entire online presence.
Only by understanding a web environment -- the web servers, the
technologies in use, and the technology policies and standards (or lack
thereof) in place -- can organizations take back control and reduce
online operating costs. Armed with this information, and using the cost
reduction framework, organizations can make informed decisions about
potential cost savings by consolidating web servers; eliminating
duplication of technologies and hardware and improving web server
performance and service to the organization. This can be achieved in
tandem with maintaining and improving the effectiveness of the online
business.
Online Business Management Dashboards
Currently, management has little data or insight to effectively
understand the correlation between their online and offline business. To
address this, Watchfire has also created high-level executive "dashboard
views" to complement each of its Online Brand Management, Online Risk
Management and Online Cost Management Solutions. These dashboards
provide customized views to bridge the gap with IT departments by
providing an immediate view to the website`s overall health while
continuously monitoring to help ensure online compliance and help ensure
a positive online experience. Ebusiness executives will have detailed
views into the brand effectiveness of their online activities. Legal and
compliance stakeholders can analyze risk management and compliance
issues, and online cost management views will help IT operations manage
online assets.
Availability
Watchfire`s Online Business Management solutions are available from
Watchfire`s direct sales force. For more information, please visit
www.watchfire.com/solutions/default.aspx
About Watchfire
Watchfire provides Online Business Management software and services to
manage the brand, risk, and cost effectiveness of online business. More
than 50 percent of the Fortune 500, such as ChevronTexaco, HP and Dell
rely on Watchfire to optimize their online business investments and to
help them gain competitive advantage. Watchfire`s alliance partners
include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mercury Interactive, CA, Microsoft,
Interwoven and Documentum. Watchfire maintains dual headquarters in
Waltham, MA and Ottawa, Canada. For more information, please visit
www.watchfire.com.
Contact:
John Garger
Senior Vice President
Linden Alschuler & Kaplan
P. 212/575-4545
F. 212/575-0519
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