A SOFTWARE company which launched its first products in December has already won contracts with some of the UK's top web application providers.

Aware Monitoring's offerings are designed to help ensure that users' website applications are working as efficiently as they can.

And they are already being used to monitor the performance of applications such as the Ladbrokes and William Hill mobile phone betting platforms and dieting-aid websites run by Boots and the NHS.

They have already helped the Nottingham company become a finalist in the Nottingham Post's Nottingham City Council-sponsored New Enterprise of the Year Award.

Founding partners Nick Barker and Simon Oxley have a combined total of 25 years experience using and selling the largest system monitoring applications from some of the world's biggest names.

Having spotted a niche market focussing on web applications, rather than websites, they decided to go it alone to produce a world-class software product to meet what they saw as untapped demand.

"We knew that building such a service would be a lengthy process involving substantial commitment of time, financial resources and considerable risk," said CEO Barker.

"But we also knew there was a market for a monitoring application which is accurate, reliable and easy to use.

"Our product checks web page content to ensure it is correct, that pages are not slowing down, and that sign-ins are working properly.

"It e-mails and SMS text messages site owners to advise of any slowdowns and failures – which is key, with research showing that even a second's delay in a page load can lead to almost one-in-five customers becoming dissatisfied."

That in turn can obviously lose customers and damage the brand involved.

Using some £40,000 of seed funding, Aware spent most of 2009 developing its product and testing it out with more than 250 firms and IT freelancers. Current sales show monthly growth running at 170 per cent and – with a growing list of applications suitable for its product – the firm is already on the next phase of product development.