Compuware Corporation announced the new 2014 Compuware APM Benchmarks.

The benchmarks are being enhanced and modernized so companies can better measure and compare the performance of their entire digital experience against industry competitors and peers across mobile, web, Last Mile and transactions.

Mobile sites, and increasingly mobile apps, are now major revenue and brand contributors, making a competitive online shopping experience essential for organizations seeking to capture their share of the thriving e-commerce market. With online revenue, loyalty and brand image being dependent on how well critical business applications perform, organizations need to up-level their online performance across all digital touch points.

Based on a rigorous and well-defined set of online transactions and home page measurements, Compuware APM Benchmarks competitively rank sites and provide the ability to analyze the performance best practices used by industry leaders and competitors. This information provides the justification for critical performance investments as to what it takes to become a top mobile and web property.

Compuware APM Benchmarks have been enhanced to model the way today's users are accessing critical business systems based on the following three premises:

- Highlighting the Importance of Mobile: Compuware's industry leading mobile network provides the platform to measure and compare the mobile experience of all benchmark participants across 3G and 4G LTE networks.

- Ranking Participants Based on Their Entire Digital Experience: Compuware APM Benchmarks will be based on a ranking system that compares participants based upon the most diverse set of measurements in the industry, including the mobile portion as an equal partner of the digital experience.

- Reflect Today's Web User Experience: The Compuware Performance Network has been recently upgraded to add the Chrome browser to its Internet-testing repertoire. Now test sites with Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox to accurately measure the experience from browsers used in 85 percent of web browser usage.

The benchmarks have been modified and enhanced across three key areas:

- Methodology: All benchmarks will use a two-tier rank-of-ranks methodology to measure and compare leading industry participants across a diverse set of benchmark tests. The overall ranking is created by using the equally weighted ranks across four sub-rankings, which now consists of home page performance for mobile, web, Last Mile and transaction (for select industries).

- Chrome Testing: Home page and transaction Chrome browser testing is being included along with Firefox and Internet Explorer testing in the web sub-ranking group.

- Updated Participants: The benchmarks are based on third-party lists of top companies in each industry based on criteria, including revenue or unique visitors. Many of the benchmark industry participants will be updated in 2014, beginning with the US Retail Benchmark which was launched today.

"The mission to provide a great digital experience has quickly transformed from a focus on desktop browsers and websites, to one where visitors have the ability to move between mobile and web channels without noticing a major shift in the user experience," said Steve Tack, VP of Product Management for Compuware APM's business unit. "While our comparative performance benchmarks have been a cornerstone for developing and executing a performance optimization strategy, we recognized the need to provide a greater level of performance analysis across the entire digital experience to model the way today's users are accessing critical business applications."