iRise simulations were used to quickly test new online applications such as credit card acquisition, alternate online funding and a wholesale portal directly with bank customers prior to development. As a result of more complete, proactive usability testing with iRise, Wachovia's customer support contact rate has dropped from 40% to 17%.

"Before we started working with iRise, building complex online financial systems was a time-consuming, risky and pressure-filled proposition," said Carter Hansen, senior vice president of User Centered Design in the eCommerce Division of Wachovia Corporation. "Because we can rapidly generate highly interactive, life-like simulations in iRise, we're able to get developers and stakeholders on the same page. Using iRise is mission-critical for us - it brings the threshold for usability testing way down, translating to Web sites that our customers have found to be really intuitive."

Forrester Research, in a report regarding the online customer experience and how design can meet business goals to increase sales and reduce costs, stated, "Financial service institutions find big opportunities in sales and savings. The most sophisticated financial service institutions build complex models to determine the economic effect of their Web sites on offline sales, online sales, customer retention, customer satisfaction, and cost savings from shifts in channel usage. But banks, credit card companies, and mutual fund companies don't have to go to that level to see that business-focused redesigns look like a winner." This report, "The ROI of Web Redesigns Made Simple," is by Harley Manning of Forrester Research, Inc., dated March 17, 2006.

Other benefits Wachovia has reaped from its use of iRise include:

• Increased independence by designers and reduced dependency on finite IT resources to make changes
• Dramatic increase in usability testing extended to smaller investments
• Ability to execute on short turnaround times for new product introduction due to rapid, iterative simulation process
• No negative impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty rates when new Web-based services are introduced

"Our customers are innovating through software by offering new services online," said Emmet B. Keeffe III, chief executive officer and co-founder of iRise. "With the increased emphasis on user-centered design, companies such as Wachovia are relying on iRise to help them deliver highly effective business systems out of the gate. We're proud to work with them to meet that challenge."