After becoming disillusioned with the length of time it took to do a performance evaluation using the open source program OpenSTA, CNAV evaluated the top seven commercial load testing solutions. They chose Web Performance Load Tester because its "no scripting" approach cut their testing cycle to 1/4 to 1/5 of its previous time. The Caisse Nationale d'Asurance Vieillesse (CNAV) is the French-equivalent of the Social Security Administration in the United States, responsible for managing millions of pensions.

Both employers and citizens use CNAV public website to to file forms and manage their pensions, so the web servers receive a very bigh number of users, especially when tax forms are due.

    They began systematic performance testing early in their move to web-based systems. Mr. Jean-Luc Orts, stated: "Not running performance and capacity tests could result in very expensive emergencies. There are only a few days for the employers to file returns without encountering issues."

    At begining they asked consultants to do the testing, but Orts learned that "though efficient, the cost and the inflexibility quickly encouraged us to become self-sufficient in the area of load testing." They next tried OpenSTA, an open source load testing suit for Windows, but found "...the product remains very simple. It can do plenty of things, but only with a programming language, which has an expensive development cost. For instance, it was specifically tricky to write scripts to correctly manage the Oracle SSO (Single Sign-On) which is used on our portal."

    On the market many commercial load testing packages exist, and CNAV attempted the top seven, and finally settled on Web Performance Load Tester. "Compared to the companies we evaluated (far from being exhaustive with seven candidate companies) Web Performance Load Tester stood out with the best quality/price ratio. The differences are obvious in terms or productivity, design, and presentation of the results. In using Web Performance, the development time for test scripts has been cut to 1/4 to 1/5 of how long it used to take."

    This wasn't the singular reason. "I also want to underline that its important to have careful and reactive support. Its an assessment that I have made since the beginning and which confirms my choice. With Kapitec (the representative of Web Performance in France) and Web Performance I notice a responsiveness that allows me to quickly progress with answers in less than one day, sometimes even half a day."

More information on http://www.webperformanceinc.com/.