TONICS WEB APPLICATION MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE IS USED IN NOVEL APPROACH TO ONLINE MARKET RESEARCH Market research has been given an edge in the e-community as Tonic Softwares Web Applications

Tonic Software - the leading provider of innovative Web Applications Management (WAM) services - has supplied the software to create an invaluable new market research tool for e-businesses in the form of the 'Automated Mystery Shopper (AMS). Recognising the growing need for automated online research and analysis tools, Tonic has licensed its software to Spains largest online market research organisation, Sigma Dos interactiva (SDi), who will use Tonicä to simulate the mystery shopping techniques currently employed by banks and other distribution chains, allowing data that previously took hundreds of participants many days to gather and analyse, to be obtained and processed in the space of a few hours.

Sigma Dos interactivas AMS service uses Tonicä to traverse business-critical websites, imitating real-time customers from remote locations and passing through all possible transactions or links that can be made on a site. Tonic can send millions of concurrent users to a website and evaluate the quality, reliability and scalability of the service, analysing data quantitatively and establishing benchmarks.

Designed to analyse the performance of websites and determine the online customer experience, Tonic Software can be used by market researchers for a more holistic approach to online research, providing data that evaluates the market potential of concepts, products and business ideas, whilst measuring client satisfaction and recommending strategic improvements. A solution like AMS can also identify market positions and niches, evaluate advertising concepts, identifying attitudes and behaviour towards products and online services.

Daniela Jouet, Managing Director, Sigma Dos interactiva, comments, Tonics software has been the integral element in developing the Automated Mystery Shopper service, which will help our clients identify the strengths and weaknesses of their web sites. Combined with a visitor/client satisfaction study, we can provide clear recommendations to improve the visitor-to-client conversion ratio. This development also allows e-businesses to manage the quality of their sites in real time."

Tony Budd, General Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Tonic Software, enthused, Our Agreement with SDi provides us with an opportunity to address the new market sector of market research. By partnering with the recognised market leader for market research in Spain, we can provide a service to organisations that breaks new ground in online research and allows Tonic to reach an entirely new audience."

For further information on Tonic Software, please contact Tony Budd, General Manager, Tonic Software, Pinewood, Chineham Business Park, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, RG24 8AL. Tel: (0)1256 698 048 Fax: (0)1256 698 584 Email: tony.budd@tonicsoftware.com Website: www.tonic.com

Issued:   22/03/01            Ends.                  Ref: ts77.doc

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Tonic, Tonic Index, and Guaranteeing Your Net Works are registered trademarks of Tonic Software, Inc. in the United States and the United Kingdom. All other product and company names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

About Tonic Software - Tonic is the premier web applications management (WAM) provider offering a platform product designed to improve web site performance. Tonics scalability assessment load-tests a site prior to going live; continuous monitoring ensures data integrity and site availability; root-cause analysis and automated error correction assures ongoing problems are detected, diagnosed and addressed without repetitive human intervention. Tonics WAM software improves the online user experience and enables companies to optimize the return on their e-business investment.

Founded in 1999, Tonic secured second-round funding from BA Venture Partners, CXO Media, Dain Rauscher Wessells, Dell Ventures, Intel 64 Fund, and Sevin Rosen. Tonic is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with nine offices throughout the United States including Atlanta, Boston, New York, Chicago, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco, Seattle and Tampa. The company established its European headquarters in Basingstoke, England. For more information, please visit Tonic at http://www.tonic.com.

About Sigma Dos interactiva - The Sigma Dos Group, one of the largest market research groups in Spain, launched Sigma Dos interactiva (SDi) in the year 2000 as a dedicated on-line research organisation. SDi offers qualitative and quantitative B2C and B2B on line research through a representative panel of 5,000 Internet users and 1,000 businesses. SDi has also developed a range of products adapted especially to fit dotcom information needs: WebCheck, a web evaluation test, CRMSenseİ, a Customer relationship study and E-ComSenseİ, a viability test for e-business. For more information, please visit Sigma Dos interactiva at http://www.sdinteractiva.com