Watch CBS News

AutoAnything Cuts Response Time in Half With Compuware APM

DETROIT -- Compuware Corp. (Nasdaq:CPWR) Tuesday announced that San Diego-based AutoAnything, one of the nation's largest and fastest growing online retailers of specialized automotive products, has cut its Web site response time and Web page load times in half using Compuware APM dynaTrace.

Compuware will host a webcast with AutoAnything regarding the company's use and success with Compuware APM on Wednesday, Sept. 19. Register at this link.

Recognizing that fast page load times are crucial to site performance and conversion, AutoAnything's development team set out to reduce response time by more than 100 percent. To harness the analytics and tools needed for such a project, they turned to Compuware for application performance management.

"Today's online retailer market is extremely competitive," said John Van Siclen, general manager of Compuware's APM business unit. "Customers have very little patience for slow performing websites, and their loyalty can be won or lost in a matter of a single second. So, application performance is crucial. New applications, new architectures and new business demands require a new approach to APM. AutoAnything's use of Compuware's new generation APM system has enabled them to leap ahead of the competition in terms of user experience, transaction speed and time to market for new releases."

Compuware developed dynaTrace to deliver fast, accurate, in-depth analysis of its customers' Web-based applications, and made it easy to use and deploy. With Compuware dynaTrace fully implemented, AutoAnything's development team realized immediately that dynaTrace would be instrumental in the development of the company's new web platform.

"Right away, dynaTrace exposed some serious bottlenecks in our Web app," said Parag Patel, Chief Technology Officer at AutoAnything. "With the tools dynaTrace provides, we were able to immediately drill down to the root causes and resolve issues quickly. dynaTrace was an instrumental tool in achieving the speed improvements we wanted for our new website. Our goal was to shave 75 percent off of the page load times, and I am pleased to say that we achieved this goal. We know from past testing that a speed improvement of this magnitude leads to a substantial increase in conversion."

Beyond the ability to monitor and manage applications, dynaTrace enables AutoAnything to continually optimize website performance. By confirming, analyzing and improving the application architecture, AutoAnything's developers have maximized their infrastructure's abilities, with less than 2 percent overhead in production.

"Along with the troubleshooting tools, dynaTrace also validated what we had already suspected -- our engineering and design were great, they were just being held back by external dependencies," said Patel. "Once we identified and fixed those issues, we knew our goal of a sub-100 millisecond Web site response time was ours for the taking."

The No. 1 ranked online automotive accessories retailer, AutoAnything looks to pull further ahead with the launch of this new site. Using HTML5 and optimized for mobile operating systems, AutoAnything's design requires the most advanced application analytics available. Compuware dynaTrace delivers the ability to study the impact of applications on user experience and how they translate into increased conversion and revenue. In an e-commerce environment where slow load times and sloppy apps are simply not tolerated by users, AutoAnything relies on the latest technologies, including Compuware dynaTrace to maintain a competitive advantage.

"AutoAnything is a great example of what can be achieved quickly with a modern APM system like Compuware APM," said Van Siclen. "Customers get cost savings, increased revenue and greater customer loyalty all at once. It's this rapid time to significant value that has modern APM on the 'must have' shortlist of a rapidly expanding group of companies that are serious about maximizing the value of applications."

AutoAnything was founded in 1979 as Blue Ribbon Motoring, a manufacturer of sheepskin seat covers and custom carpet floor mats. In 1997, the company took a new direction and went online as a retailer of automotive accessories. Today, AutoAnything.com is No. 159 in the Internet Retail Top 200 Guide of e-commerce companies.

More at www.autoanything.com.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.