ALUReXML.org

eHelp Corporation Unveils Open XML Standard For Web Usability Analysis

New e-Analytics Technology Designed to Dramatically Increase e-Commerce Sales is Embraced by Industry Leaders

SAN DIEGO, CA. April 12, 2000.

eHelp Corporation introduces the ALURe specification, an open implementation of XML that promises to significantly reduce abandonment rates on Web sites and boost e-Commerce sales. ALURe (Aggregation and Logging of User Requests) tracks and reports usage patterns in Help and customer assistance systems on Web sites. Using this information, companies can make significant improvements to their Web sites that lead to reduced abandonment rates, increased completed transactions -- and higher revenues.

According to Arlyn Asch, co-author of the specification "As Web sites become more complex -- and because competition is just a click away -- it is critical for companies to stay close to their customers and make the Web purchasing experience easy and painless. The open ALURe specification enables companies to track, identify and modify trouble areas on the site and improve the customer experience."

A recent study by Forrester Research found that sixty-seven percent of people who place items into an online shopping basket abandon it before completing the purchase; sixty-three percent of them could not find the information they needed. Using ALURe, companies can identify and eliminate specific problems and difficulties that Web site visitors have -- providing a better Web experience and reducing the abandonment rate.

Because of its open XML-based data format, ALURe is an extensible, ideal model for gathering and reporting "User Assistance System" usage trends. ALURe understands and interprets data from Web-based customer assistance systems, online discussion forums, transcripts of real-time chat conversations and email messages. Any data mining and analysis tool that recognizes XML can use data gathered through ALURe.

ALURe is enthusiastically supported by a number of leading Internet and e-Business companies including Informix. Corporation, Contigo Software Inc., WebPartner, to name a few. These companies support the concept of an XML specification that can provide data about usage of Web site user assistance systems in an open format. For additional ALURe information, please visit the ALURe Web site at http://www.alurexml.org.

The ALURe specification incorporates the following features:

Usage patterns -- ALURe tracks help usage patterns.
XML-Based -- Web browsers and Internet-enabled applications can easily transmit ALURe data.
Highly portable -- Recognizable, adaptable and understood on virtually every platform.
Flexible -- ALURe data can derive other standards for reporting usage trends.
Valuable -- ALURe data can be easily interpreted by XML-enabled reporting and authoring tools. All events are time-stamped so that usage trends can be gauged and graphed with respect to time.
Secure -- ALURe data can be communicated over an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) connection.
Robust -- All ALURe data can be captured within the context of the user assistance system and accessed remotely without degrading the performance of the user assistance system or alarming the user.

About eHelp Corporation

Privately held eHelp Corporation (formerly Blue Sky Software) was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in California. eHelp Corporation is the acknowledged leader in the electronic Help and customer assistance market, providing the most innovative online user assistance solutions for the Web, Intranets and software applications. eHelp Corporation provides the foundation to more than 250 million online user assistance systems currently in use around the world and its products have won more than 50 industry awards. eHelp Corporation's family of products includes the industry standard RoboHELP Office. For more information, please contact eHelp Corporation Tel: 858/459-6365; Fax: 858/459-6366. The Web site is available at www.ehelp.com.

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. For references, see "ALURe (Aggregation and Logging of User Requests) XML Specification."

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