Netflame upgrade provides website operators and marketers with improved monitoring, management, and customer satisfaction capabilities via a hosted customer management suite.

by Gretchen Hyman of siliconvalley.internet.com [February 19, 2002]

Cisco Systems-backed management solutions provider Fireclick has pretty much distilled the three critical factors that keep online shoppers coming back to a website time and again: good content, intuitive navigation, and speed.

"Online customers are satisfied when they find what they want, where they expect it, and at a price that's reasonable," states Fireclick. And in keeping with this basic Web philosophy, the Los Altos, Calif.-based company released its newest version of Netflame with upgraded features and analytics tool Site Explorer for a complete, hosted web management service.

Offered as part of Fireclick's Web Experience Management solution, Netflame2 is built to blend real-time Web traffic analysis, measurement, and content acceleration into one functional suite intended to take the heat off website operators, maximize the performance and effectiveness of a website, and increase user traffic and customer satisfaction.

Netflame2 requires no additional software or hardware and is enabled by adding a small line of HTML code to every page of a website to track and monitor customer experience and behavior.

The software initially established a niche in the online retail category where buying patterns, longer sessions, customer loyalty, and site traffic are the basis of survival and profitability. Now, Fireclick's Netflame is used to track user experiences by online retail sites Ann Taylor, Victoria's Secret, Restoration Hardware, JC Penney, FAO Schwarz, Bluefly.com, and American Eagle Outfitters, to name only a few.

"Fireclick's Netflame2 helps enterprises manage the website design trade-offs between content, navigation, and speed," said Guy Creese, research director of Internet Analytics for the Aberdeen Group. "Getting the mix right is already difficult, but especially when companies use multiple packages to perform the metering. By offering a one-stop-shop solution to this tuning problem, Fireclick enables enterprises to embrace the complexities of website design and monitoring rather than shrink from them."

For tracking how many visitors access the site, where they come from, what they gravitate to, how long they stay, and why they leave, Netflame2 includes Web AnalyticsRealTime Insite used in conjunction with Site Explorer to monitor traffic volume, access pattern tracking, and provide pattern analysis. RealTime Insite also reports on display time, back-button usage, and exit patterns from site visitors. Site Explorer appears in the browser window creating a "dashboard-like" effect for the online marketer or IT manager to monitor the website in real time and track the moment-to-moment activity of its users. Site Explorer then delivers up reports from the Netflame2 network and displays them for review, depending on what modules are being tracked.

Another useful feature of the Netflame suite is predictive caching technology that speeds up page access for consumers with slow connections by two to ten times the normal response time. The feature can also predict where the user/shopper will go next on the site and automatically caches the page before it is called up.

Netflame was named Best Internet Facilitation Product or Service for the 17th annual Codie Awards for 2002. The Codie Awards is a function of the Software Information Industry Association, a trade association for the software and digital content industry.

Fireclick is also funded by Atlas Venture and Menlo Ventures.

Pricing and availability
Fireclick's monthly hosting fee varies depending on traffic volume and the size and function of the company. The minimum monthly fee is $1,295. A free online demo is available on the company's website.

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