Have you ever had someone run a report in SiteCatalyst and come running to you saying something like this?

This report doesn’t make sense…There is obviously a tagging issue and you need to fix it ASAP!

If I had a dollar for every time this happened to me, I’d be a rich man! The truth is, that after many wild goose chases, the problem is not usually tagging related (note you can use tools like ObservePoint and DigitalPulse to verify). But if it ever was tagging that caused the issue, it was usually related to the release of a new JavaScript file. That has been the culprit many times for me over the years. Therefore, in this post, I will share a trick you can use to easily find out if data issues you might be experiencing might be related to a new JavaScript file release.

Tracking Your JavaScript File

So how can you use SiteCatalyst to determine if a new JavaScript file you released is wreaking havoc on your data? For example, let’s imagine a scenario where the morning of May 18th, you started seeing some strange data irregularities (possibly by checking Data Quality as described here!). Here is what you need to do:

1. Each time you create a new version of your JS file, assign it a version number (i.e. 0.5, 0.8, 1.2)
2. Pass this version number into a tool that can store it and let you know when it sees the version number change
3. Look at a report that shows you when the version number value has changed (what date it changed and at what time)

Sounds easy right? If only we knew of a tool into which we could pass data, have it be time-stamped and report upon changes in version number values…Hmmm….Where would we find such a tool??

Obviously, we already have that tool and it is SiteCatalyst! We can use the tool we know and love to track each version of the JavaScript file by simply passing in the version number of the file into an sProp on every page (and yes, I get the irony that we are using a JavaScript file which sets a beacon to enable tracking to track itself!). By doing this, we will have a historical record of when each JavaScript file was released. After you pass in the JavaScript File version you will see a report like this:

Here we can see the distribution of page views related to each JavaScript file version. In this case, we have been busy and have had four JavaScript file changes in one month! However, this report isn’t super-useful in answering our initial question: Were the issues we saw on the morning of May 18th related to a new JavaScript file release?

To answer this question, all we have to do is to switch to the “trended” view of this report and we will see a report like this:

Now we can start to see the flow of JavaScript file updates. Looking at this report, we can see that we moved from version 0.5 to version 0.7 (poor version 0.6!) on May 18th… This might support our hypothesis, but to be sure, we can look at this report by hour on May 17th & 18th and see this:

Now we can narrow things down to an hour and it looks like the JavaScript file did, in fact, change around 9:00 am on May 18th. As you can see, the simple action of taking the administrative step of keeping your JavaScript file in an sProp can provide an easy way for you to do some sleuthing when you are in a pinch!

Additionally, if you want to further test your hypothesis, you can isolate data that is related to a specific JavaScript file to see if it represents the issue you are seeing. To do this, simply use DataWarehouse to create a segment that only pulls pages that had data collected using a specific JavaScript file version as shown here:

Andy Kennemer, VP of Social Marketing & Media at Resource Interactive, recently attended the NRF Washington Leadership Conference, which included a meeting of the Shop.org Policy Advisory Group (PAG) meeting, of which he is a member. A major focus of the PAG meeting was the increased legislative focus on privacy and data security. Andy agreed to summarize some of the highlights for me to share here.

Legislation is cyclical, and we’re in a hot period right now.

The focus of our meeting was discussing in detail the various legislative actions in Congress regarding both online privacy and data security. These two issues are separate, but related, and the more they are mixed together in legislation, the more complicated and ambiguous it will make things for retailers and brands.

Last year we saw 3 main efforts:

1. The FTC’s attempt to establish rule-making authority through a new US Privacy Framework proposal;
2. Rep Boucher’s attempt to introduce an online privacy bill, which primarily would support the notion of consumer opt-IN to 3rd party tracking; and
3. Sen. Pryor introduced a bill addressing Commerce Data Security.

The FTC is likely to release a final “staff report” on this matter sometime this year. The Boucher and Pryor bills never made it to the floor for debate.

This year, mainly in the last 3 months, we have seen a flurry of activity like never before.

Key privacy bills introduced this year:

• Sens. Kerry & McCain introduce broad privacy bill (4/12/11)
• Reps. Stearns & Matheson introduce broad privacy bill (4/13/11)
• Sen. Rockefeller introduces “Do Not Track Online” bill (5/9/11)
• Reps. Markey & Barton introduce “Do Not Track Kids” bill (5/13/11)
• Sens. Franken & Blumenthal introduce Location Privacy bill (6/15/11)
• Sen. Wyden & Rep. Chaffetz introduce “GPS” Privacy bill (6/15/11)

Key data security proposals:

• White House releases Cyber Security proposal (5/25/11)
• Sen. Leahy re-introduces Judiciary bill from 111th Congress (6/8/11)
• Dept of Commerce “Green Paper” on Cyber Security framework (6/8/11)
• Rep Bono Mack revises House-passed data security bill from 111th Congress (6/10/11)
• Sen. Pryor re-introduces Commerce Bill from 111th Congress (6/15/11)

With so much activity, it’s challenging to even keep track of everything, and which bills and proposals matter the most. There are a few of these that are gaining momentum that, as an industry, we need to watch. The Kerry-McCain bill, White House Cyber Security proposal, and potential final report from the FTC on the privacy framework will have the broadest impact to brands and retailers.

For now, the feedback from a congressional staffer who attended the meeting was:

• There is a fear of modernity within the government. What needs to be better articulated is how data collection is used to actually help consumers, to have a more relevant and enjoyable online experience.
• We need the voice of actual consumers. Right now consumer advocacy groups have influence, but it isn’t clear if they really represent the concerns of average consumers.
• Retailers have not adequately addressed the consequences of legislation, in terms of actual economic harm, or hindering innovation. Some sort of cost / benefit / risks analysis could be helpful (e.g., What does our online experience look like if advertising is not as effective? Are consumers ready to pay for services that are currently free and ad-supported?

This continues to be a complex and rapidly evolving area, and brands cannot afford to simply put their heads in the sand and hope it goes away. Legislation will get passed, but the extent and impact of that legislation is far from clear.

Back in February our newest partner Adam Greco waxed philosophical about Google offering a paid version of Google Analytics. He got a bunch of feedback and all-in-all the post raised some interesting questions about Google’s place in the web analytics marketplace. Now there is a new rumor — one far less substantiated than the so called “Enterprise” offering Adam discussed — but one with potentially more far reaching implications.

On a call today, we heard that Google may be considering charging everyone for the use of Google Analytics.

Everyone? Yep. Everyone.

The details were sparse and wholly unsubstantiated, but come from a source that we generally trust as reliable. And while we normally don’t deal with rumors here at Analytics Demystified, given Google’s footprint — conservatively estimated to be around 30,000 business sites around the world with perhaps an order (or two) more non-business sites being tracked today — the implications of this rumor are interesting for two reasons:

1. If Google were to charge a fee similar to other of their offerings, say $100 per year, to use Google Analytics, these fees may produce millions of dollars in annual revenue (and profits) for Google and their investors. Outside projections for Google Analytics installations range into the millions, which, given a reasonable retention rate (say, 10%) would produce substantial revenue. Given the changes Google is going through right now on their management team it’s hard to say how important “revenue” is, especially when the bandwidth and data storage costs for Google Analytics are likely to be significant given estimated volumes and at a time when Google is being criticized over their increasing operating costs. Given the constant criticism over the years of Google’s inability to generate profits outside of their advertising business perhaps this sort of obvious revenue is suddenly appealing.
2. If Google were to start forcing folks to pay, this might be a huge boon to the emerging “secondary” market of web and digital analytics vendors including Woopra, Chartbeat, Performable, Clicky, Kissmetrics, and a rapidly expanding set of web and mobile analytics vendors who largely charge tens to hundreds of dollars per month. Despite the odds given the footprint “traditional” web analytics vendors have within the Enterprise, combined with the hegemony Google has over entry-level businesses and small companies, in the last three years we have seen a surprising “second coming” of web analytics vendors gaining traction in a variety of niches. Be it real-time analytics for blogs (Chartbeat, Woopra), funnel analysis (Kissmetrics), heat-mapping and session recording (Robot Replay, ClickTale, Reinvigorate), or customer-focused analytics (Performable), these companies are, by-and-large small, agile, and somehow managing to gain adoption despite the presence of Google and “the bigs”.

This second implication is very interesting to me … the fact that against well-established, already deployed, and in Google’s case completely free competition, these start ups are able to grow and, at least in a few cases, thrive (see Clicktale, Robot Replay who was acquired by Foresee Results, Performable, etc.) Imagine the glee that founders and investors in these companies would experience if Google Analytics were to put up a real (albeit potentially small) barrier to entry. It likely wouldn’t be enough to stop companies, but it might be enough to make them think “Hmm, I wonder what else is out there?”

Given that most of these start-ups are focusing on ease-of-use and specific use cases, and in many instances are doing a pretty darn good job (my opinion), this pause might be exactly what these start-ups need. Heck, it might even help some of the bigs, given the trouble they have had selling against Google Analytics juxtaposed against the dramatic interface changes that some are poised to unleash. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not saying that Google charging $100 for analytics magically re-opens the door for traditional vendors with annual contracts in the tens of thousands of dollars. But every substantial change in the marketplace is an opportunity for great management teams, and Google suddenly charging anything would surely be a substantial change.

But I digress.

At the end of the day I personally consider it highly unlikely that Google would start to charge everyone just because they can — it just seems like an unnecessary and “evil” thing to do (despite the fact that we did the same thing earlier this year at Twitalyzer without any negative impact on our business.) Still, Google is held to a pretty high standard, and I suspect that the (relatively) small amount of revenue they would ultimately generate is hardly worth the negative press they would likely receive.

But I’m interested in what you folks think. Would you pay $100 per year for Google Analytics as it exists today? What if they offered more features or functionality? If the latter, what would they need to add to get you to pony up? Or would you immediately pull the code off your site if Google required any kind of payment? If so, why?

I welcome your comments and conversation.

The Web Analyst’s Code of Ethics is a reality! This Code represents an industry effort to promote ethical data practices and treat consumer data with the respect and attention it deserves.

I’m writing this on the eve before the official launch announcement of the Web Analyst’s Code of Ethics here at the WAA Symposium in Austin Texas. As you can see in the video above, this effort is the culmination of a ton of hard work by a community of contributors.

Yet, the conversation isn’t a new one. My partner Eric has been writing about the fact that We are our own worst enemy since August and our internal conversations about privacy regulation and public opinion of tracking practices have been going on long before that. The issue received mainstream attention from the Wall Street Journal in their What They Know series, which took a bias view in our opinion. Anything that starts out with the phrase; “Marketers are spying on Internet users…“ is FUD in my opinion.

So, in September of last year we decided to do something about it. I must say that Eric never fails to amaze me in his ability to make things happen, because not 24 hours after our conversation about launching a Code of Ethics, he had one drafted and in my inbox. We decided that the best avenue for getting this code out to the community was to work in conjunction with the WAA, where I am a member of the board. Thus, I shopped it around to my fellow board members and we all agreed that it was something that our industry needed. The issue was brought before the WAA Standards Committee and a sub-committee was formed to hash out the details. And the Code was offered to the community for public comment. After numerous iterations and literally dozens of comments and contributors, we arrived at the final Code you see here.

It’s important to recognize that this Code is a pledge for individuals and not organizations. We created it as such because we know that not every individual will be able to enforce policy within their company, but every individual can inform and educate their peers. Yet, as we state in the pledge itself, “I recognize that we are far stronger as a community…”. And this effort is about a community showing it’s commitment to ethical data collection and utilization practices.

Momentum for this project has been incredible thus far, but our work is far from over. It’s just beginning. Like any good analyst, I’ve created goals and success metrics for the code of ethics that I’ll be tracking and reporting on over time. The video above is the first effort to share a glimpse of the metrics, but ultimately I’m shooting for the following goals:

1) Gain 1,000 Pledges to the Code of Ethics in 2011

2) Attract mainstream media attention to this community effort within the first 90 days of launch (e.g., recognition by @WhatTheyKnow)

3) Ensure that our collective voice is heard by legislators and policy makers before regulation is forced upon us

Let us know what you think about the Code of Ethics here by leaving comments and joining the conversation. Or simply show your support by pledging to follow the Web Analyst’s Code of Ethics.

The biggest topic that you will grapple with in 2011 is consumer privacy. We are at the most liberal and lenient point of consumer privacy in the history of time. It’s primarily because digital data is spewed by consumers with each click, like, Tweet, share, and update with reckless abandon. Consumers are barely aware of the digital footprints they’re creating and we don’t know how to handle it. There are no rules here.

Consumers are racing to new digital medium at breakneck speeds to be early adopters of the next best thing and are literally addicted to digital. Our obsession is so ravenous that almost half of smartphone users will wake up in the middle of the night to check for digital updates. It’s not their fault really, in fact I include myself in this frantic race to get the newest browser, the latest app, or to connect with nearly anyone who asks. Heck, I downloaded the Owner’s Manual to a Hyundai on my iPad within seconds of watching a TV commercial just because I could. I have no idea what data Hyundai now has on me and if or when I’ll start receiving ads or emails containing must-have offers for a car that I probably won’t ever buy (although it looks sweet!). My point is that we’re on the precipice of a substantive change in the way that consumer data is collected and utilized. If we (and by “we” I mean we digital measurers, organizations and institutions) don’t get our acts together in the first quarter of Q1 then we will have regulation forced upon us.

In my opinion, the number one most critical component for even getting off the ground with privacy protection is education. We must educate consumers, organizations, developers and governments to have a meaningful conversation about privacy. If we fall short of that, ignorance about how data is collected, how it’s used, and who uses it, will continue to be vilified by consumers and media sources that don’t know What they Know.

To that end, I’m working on a concept that I’m calling the Privacy Apogee.

Those of you who are up to speed on your celestial mechanics will know that an apogee reflects the furthest point of orbit from earth. What I seek to explore is the farthest point of ethical data collection from a consumer. My working diagram above depicts your average consumer at the epicenter of privacy and the way we track his digital activities using technology that extends from innocuous to invasive. My plan is to flesh out this concept with current tracking capabilities and potential consumer benefits. Moreover, I intend to create a blueprint for accountability. Ultimately the goal is to produce an infographic that conveys several things:

For consumers

– The Privacy Apogee will illustrate data tracking capabilities that exist today and highlight some of the benefits of opting-in to these tracking practices.

For developers – It will offer guidance on what methods of data to collect and how to communicate data collection, storage and utilization practices in clear language.

For organizations – The Privacy Apogee will illustrate just how far – is too far – by showing what’s technically possible and what’s morally ethical.

In creating this work, I hope to educate and inform the masses by offering a public service that will open some eyes to the critical imperative for self-regulation before we have governmental mandates forced upon us. The Privacy Apogee will illustrate current technological capabilities for tracking consumers’ digital actions and offer both positive and negative repercussions of those actions.

So back to you Captain Blackbeak…I’m listening and this is what I’m doing to create change. It’s a change in perception. A change in education. And a change in direction for our industry. But like you, I cannot do this alone and need the support and mindshare of our industry. With the help of my partner Eric and the industry #measure pros out there my goal is to crowd source this idea to ensure that I’ve fully considered the technology capabilities and the benefits of tracking practices, So I need your help. The Web Analyst’s Code of Ethics is one part of this, but I’ll be working to define the pros and cons of data collection and the methods by which we accomplish our task. Stay tuned for more, as this is just the beginning…

But in the meantime, what do you think?

2011 is shaping up to be the year of big marketing. And luckily for us measurers, smart marketing is founded in data and measurement. With IBM’s recent acquisition rampage and now Teradata’s plans to buy Aprimo, there is unprecedented choice for integrated enterprise marketing solutions. Teradata announced today it’s intentions to buy the Enterprise Marketing Management leader for $525M with a closing date anticipated for sometime in Q1 2011. It’s a smart move in my opinion because the days of big data management and the ability to harness the consumer data firehose for elevated marketing are upon us.

On the executive briefing this morning, I pointed a question by asking if this acquisition was a response to IBM’s recent buying spree and the answer was a definitive no. Bill Godfrey, Aprimo’s Chief Executive Officer, quickly pointed out that Aprimo’s technology set covers 8 categories and that only one competes directly with the IBM/Unica offering. He iterated, “This is not a copy-cat move” with mild umbrage. Mr. Godfrey went on to eloquently explain that the merger pursues an independent strategy that brings a unified platform covering a very broad end-to-end spectrum of functionality. While the story sounded familiar, it’s a good one. It leverages the database storage and business analytics capabilities of Teradata and layers the marketing management and operations proficiency of Aprimo on top. This enterprise-ready integrated solution fuels a marketers’ paradise where insights are churned from data, which pumps intelligent life into automated marketing. All this happens within a closed-loop system that improves over time. Sounds rosy doesn’t it? To paraphrase Teradata’s CMO Darryl McDonald, “The combined solution will help accelerate revenue generating campaigns and leverage data for strategic insights and quick response.”

Keep in mind that this isn’t entirely new territory for Teradata who has been offering marketing products to its customers for some time. With IWI (Integrated Web Intelligence) and TRM (Teradata Relationship Manager), it’s already servicing digital data integration and intelligent marketing to it’s customers. Yet, it will be interesting to see how many existing clients and new organizations adopt this complete functionality. My hunch is that this stack is not for the feint of heart nor the bootstrapped organization. It will work best with deeply integrated datasets, stored within big iron and activated using some complex Marketing Resource Management capabilities. All things that both Teradata and Aprimo excel at. But fair warning: Mom & Pop shops need not apply. However, if you’re a large enterprise looking to accelerate your marketing prowess, then this may be the solution you’ve had on your wish list all these years.

While integrating these technologies may take a while, and the promise of an end-to-end solution is no trivial pledge, I’m bullish on the deal. This is a step forward for marketers because it has the potential to deliver the ERP system they never had. It still doesn’t cover everything, but the combined solution sure does handle some critical moving parts.

Congrats to everyone at Aprimo for building an attractive offering and to Teradata for recognizing it. And Happy Holidays to all!

The following originally posted in Exact Target’s 10 Ideas To Turn Into Results report. It’s part of their Letters to the C-Suite Series and this is my letter…

To The Executive Team:

Do you even know who your customers are anymore? Chances are, you probably don’t. You
catch fleeting glimpses of them as they open your emails or pop onto your website for a quick
visit. You might even momentarily engage with them when they drop into your store to browse
around or see your products firsthand. Or maybe you meet them ever so briefly as they feign
interest in your brand by “liking” something you posted on Facebook.

If you’re doing it right, your business is collecting feedback across many customer
touch points.

But you only really hear them when they shout from the rooftops, irate and full of vim. That’s
probably where you begin to learn what’s on their minds. But do you even know that it’s the
same person who was showing you all that love during your last promotion? Probably not.
In actuality, few companies really know their customers. Whether your customers are end
users or other businesses, how they interact with your brand, where they discover new
information, and how they communicate is changing at an astounding rate. Customers
are increasingly unaffected by traditional marketing conventions, and their tolerance for
redundant messaging, static content, and conflicting brand information is nonexistent. They
don’t see your organization like you do—in departmentalized silos of categories, products,
business units, and operating divisions. To them, you’re just that brand they either love, hate,
or treat with ambivalence. That is, until you knock their socks off by impressing them with your
service, support, and relevance. Yet, to really deliver value to your customers, you need to get
to know them. This starts by remembering the interactions you have with them and building
off of these activities.

Digital communication is the new reality, and treating customers through digital channels is
synonymous with how you’d treat someone you meet in person. Listen to what they’re saying
and respond with appropriate dialog. But most importantly, remember these things (because
upon your next conversation, your customer might just remember you):

• Your memory of customers exists at the database level.

• By maintaining customer profiles and appending them with attributes that contain history,
activity, and propensity (among other things), you can truly begin to have meaningful
interactions.

• To do this effectively, the database must contain information from all your touch points.

This includes transactional systems, web analytics, call centers, mobile devices, social
media, ATMs, stores, email systems, and whatever else you’re using to reach out.
Bringing your data together through integrations enables you to achieve a holistic picture of
your customers. A little scared by this? Well, you should be. Customer behaviors are going to
fundamentally change the way you engage with your audience. If you’re not equipped, they’re
going to take their conversations (and their wallets) elsewhere. By integrating your data, you
open opportunities for new customer dialogs.

Take my word for it—it’s happening NOW.

Your Agent For Change,
John Lovett

Robots are cool. I like robots when they build cars, try to plug oil spills and clean carpets. The only types of robots I don’t like are the ones that hit websites repeatedly and throw off my precious web analytics data! Do you have a problem with these types of robots? Would you know how to see if you do? I find that many web analytics customers don’t even know how to see this, so in this post I will share what I do to monitor robots and hope that others out there will share other ways they deal with robots.

Why Should I Care About Robots?
This is often the first question I get. Who cares? Here are my reasons for caring about minimizing robots hitting your site:

1. If you use Visits or Unique Visitors as part of any of your website KPI’s (i.e. Revenue/Unique Visitor), you should care because robots are inflating your denominator and dragging your conversion rates down
2. If you are tasked with reducing Bounce Rates on your site, you should care as robots will often be seen as bounces
3. Omniture (and other web analytics vendors) often bill you by website traffic (server calls) so you may be paying $$$ for junk data
4. Often times web analytic KPI’s have razor-thin differences month over month and having a lot of garbage data can mean the difference between making a good and bad website business decision

Do I Have a Problem?
The first step is to identify if you have a problem with robots. Unfortunately, SiteCatalyst does not currently have an “out-of-the-box” way to alert you if you have a problem (@VaBeachKevin has added this to the Idea Exchange so please vote!), but in the meantime, here is my step-by-step approach to determining this:

• Create a recurring DataWarehouse report that sends you Page Views and Visitors for each IP address hitting your site (If you store the Omniture Visitor ID in an sProp, I would use that in place of IP address). This can be daily, weekly or monthly depending on how much traffiic your website receives. I sometimes add the Country/City as well (you’ll see why later).

• When you receive this report, it should look something like this:

• Once you have the data, I create a calculation which divides Page Views by Visitors and then sort by that column (if you have a lot of data from different days/weeks, you can create a pivot table). The result should look like the report below where you will start to see which IP addresses are viewing a lot of pages on your site per visitor. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean they are all bad. It is common for small companies or individuals to share IP addresses. The goal of this step is just to identify the IP addresses that might be issues. In the example below, you can see that the the top two IP addresses appear to be a bit different than the rest. While it may make you feel good that these unique visitors liked your website so much they viewed thousands of pages each, you might be fooling yourself!

• Once you have this list, I like to do some research on the the top IP Address offenders. You can do this via a basic Whois IP Lookup or you can invest in a reverse IP lookup service.

What Do I Do If I Find Robots?
If after reviewing the top offending IP addresses you find that you do, in fact, have a robot hitting your site, you have a few options:

1. Work with your IT group to exclude these IP addresses from hitting your website. This is your best option since it will be the most reliable and reduce your web analytics server call cost.
2. Work with Omniture’s Engineering Services team to create a DB Vista Rule that will move these website hits to a new report suite so it will not pollute your data. The best part of this option is that you don’t have to engage with your IT team and you can add/remove IP addresses anytime you want via FTP. Unfortunately, you will still be hit with server call charges for this (not to mention the cost of the DB Vista Rule!), but if you also pass data to Omniture Discover, you might save money there by not passing bad data to Discover.
3. Work with Omniture’s Engineering Services team to build a custom solution for dealing with robots…

Employee Traffic
While I don’t want to imply that your co-workers are robots, I wanted to mention employee traffic in this post as well since it is tangentially related. I find that many Omniture customers don’t exclude their own employees from their web analytics reports. This can be a huge mistake if you have a lot of employees or have employees who actively use the website. For example, at my employer (Salesforce.com), we use our website to log into our internal systems which are all run on Salesforce.com! This means that we have thousands of employees hitting our website every day to log in to our “cloud” applications and that traffic should not count towards our marketing/website goals. Therefore, we manually exclude all employee traffic from our reports by IP address to minimize the impact of employee traffic impacting our KPI’s. While we don’t consider this to be robot traffic, we address it in the same manner by passing employee traffic to its own report suite. One cool by-product of placing employee traffic in its own report suite is that you can see how often your own employees are using your website so you can show management that the dollars they give you serve multiple audiences!

Final Thoughts
As I stated in the beginning of this post, this is just one way to investigate and deal with robots. If you have other techniques, please share them here! Thanks!

This last week I was in London thanks to the good graces of our friends at Tealeaf to deliver a keynote speech at their EMEA customer conference. After the event, both reporters and conference attendees asked me “What is the most important technology trend in web analytics today?”

I have been asked this hundreds of times in my career as an analyst and consultant and the answer used to be tricky. In the past I’ve opined “multichannel integration”, “segmentation”, “application usability” and even “none, it’s about people and process, not technology.”

This time, however, my answer was clear: Tag Management Systems.

Tag management has become a nightmare for many companies.  As we outlined in our white paper with ObservePoint on the need for a “Chief Data Officer”, tagging and data collection has gotten out of control in companies of all sizes. Information Technology supports one set of tag-based tools, marketing deploys their own stuff via content management systems (CMS), advertising and other individual stakeholders drop their tags, and before you know it you have a dozen or more scripts included at various points across your site.

In a way, because of fragmentation in the marketplace this situation was inevitable. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Emerging tag management systems (TMS) are rapidly transforming the data capture and technology deployment landscape, replacing inefficient, individual installations with a “one stop shop” able to manage any number of tag-based technologies via a single user interface. Early adopters of these systems are reporting a profound transformation of both their ability to manage data capture and their relationship with Information Technology.

From a web analytics perspective this is what we call a “win/win.”

One of these vendors is Ensighten, a company founded by a group of folks who have a long established reputation in digital measurement. Their CEO Josh Manion and I go back pretty far, and so when he told me about their platform I was immediately intrigued but somewhat skeptical.

I had already seen nearly all of the competing solutions in the market and walked away a variety of concerns. I’d even gone so far as trying to establish an “Open Tag Alliance” initiative with one vendor, which unfortunately collapsed due to time constraints.

Needless to say, I was impressed with Ensighten, so much so that I asked Josh if we could partner with him (something we rarely do with technology vendors.) He agreed, and so we are proud to announce that we are the first deployment and integration partner to sign up with Ensighten.

In support of our partnership we agreed to write a paper detailing what we see as the advantages of tag management systems. Titled “The Myth of the Universal Tag and the Future of Digital Data Collection”, this short paper outlines the need for TMS, the rationale behind deployments, and the opportunity for return on the investment. The paper is freely available now at the Ensighten web site or you can write us directly for a complimentary copy.

Readers should note that there are a handful of tag management solutions in the market today. At Analytics Demystified we believe the growth in the sector is validation of the opportunity — each of these companies have good stories to tell and an expanding customer base.

You should consider a tag management system if you are:

• Frustrated with the “one tag, one project, one timeline” model of tag deployment;
• Switching vendors and looking to gain leverage over future deployments;
• Heavily invested in Flash but have long struggled to measure the technology;
• Managing globally distributed sites but have little centralized control over tags;
• Looking to add Q/A and workflow management to your tag deployments;
• Concerned at all about the quality and data accuracy from your web analytics.

If any of these criteria apply to you I would strongly encourage you to give John or I a call. We’ll be more than happy to walk you through the current tag management system vendor landscape at no charge and point you towards whatever solutions seems right for you.

We welcome you to the age of tag management systems and we hope you will join us in welcoming Ensighten to the market.

Your next actions:

• Contact Analytics Demystified for more information about TMS
• Visit the Ensighten web site to download “The Myth of the Universal Tag”
• Visit the Ensighten site and learn more about their tag management system

We’re certainly on an acquisition hot roll here in our cozy little measurement industry. This week marked yet another buy-up of a web analytics company, Netherlands based Nedstat, was acquired by comScore. The sale price was reported at $36.7 million USD, which brings the tally of measurement buy-outs including the $1.8 billion dollar Omniture acquisition last year to nearly $2.5 billion dollars by my count. Those are some good multiples on revenue since my Forrester Web Analytics Forecast didn’t peg market spending to hit even $1 billion until sometime in 2015. Granted Omniture, Unica and to some extent Coremetrics were offering more than just web analytics in their product portfolios. But regardless, measurement technologies are all the rage these days and finally, big businesses are taking note of the value of web analytics.

Foreshadowing

Some might say that comScore and Nedstat, while serving similar industries for different purposes, were running on parallel paths and that an acquisition was a plausible outcome. But before I dive into that hypothesis, first I’ll toot my own horn by mentioning that I went on record predicting this one. The good fellas at Beyond Web Analytics interviewed me on the topic of market consolidation just after the IBM acquisition of Unica and we had a good chat about it here on the podcast. The closing question asked me to look into my crystal ball and guess who would be the next acquirer in the analytics market. While I didn’t guess that it would be comScore, I did speculate that there are some very interesting and valuable technologies that exist in Europe. I mentioned both Webtrekk in Germany and Nedstat as companies that would make appealing acquisition targets. Clearly comScore must have been listening (c’mon, I jest). But one of my clients across the pond also mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Nedstat’s CEO was quoted in a German newspaper as saying that there is no longer a place for a dedicated web analytics company in this environment. I’ve been saying this since early 2009, but coming from a chief officer of a successful technology operation…Foreshadowing indeed.

The Red Herring

So, bright and early on morning of the acquisition my friend Jodi McDermott reached out to me on the news by pointing out the press release on the deal and I owe her a big thanks for that. When we spoke later that morning along with Magid Abraham, comScore founder and CEO the first question Jodi asked me was…”Were you surprised?”. Now, the dirty little secret is that analysts can never show surprise, but heck yeah I was surprised that comScore was the buyer!?! I didn’t anticipate comScore because of their Unified Digital Measurement (UDM) solution which currently handles over 500 billion transactions per month and is growing rapidly. So, they already had their own tag based measurement solution. Additionally, just under a year ago comScore announced a strategic partnership with Omniture to deliver a newly created Media Metrix 360 solution predicated on UDM that would leverage a hybrid combination of Omniture page tags and comScore’ panel based measurement.

It was brilliant actually, and demonstrated the first significant attempt to bring together advertising measurement with site-side data. Yet, just a month after this partnership was announced, Omniture was snatched up by Adobe, and I can only speculate that the momentum on the partnership was stymied. Don’t get me wrong, Media Metrix 360 still exists, and clients like Martha Stewart and the Wall Street Journal add marquee status to the initiative. Thus, I would expect that comScore will support Media Metrix 360 by continuing the partnership with Adobe’s Omniture Business Unit as well as continue development on their own proprietary solution. Whatever they choose to do, these efforts – their own hybrid UDM tags and the Omniture relationship – created a red herring for me that had me looking elsewhere. Now the real question is… Was Nielson surprised and how will they counter? Sorry friends, my crystal ball is not that good.

The Plot Twister

I saved the best for last because here’s where the plot starts to get really interesting. comScore has stated that its acquisition interests in Nedstat are to better serve the media and publishing industries. Web analytics and site-side measurement has long been focused on the transaction and sites that don’t have traditional online transactions are left to quantify success by custom fitting solutions to meet their needs. With most web analytics solutions you’re forced to follow the conversion funnel through to a transaction (or not) and attempt tie things together or launch remarketing efforts from there. But when there’s no transaction at the end of the visit, then many traditional web metrics have very little resonance to the business.

Nedstat has long been focused on key topics like engagement and rich media measurement – metrics that matter to publishers. Now with the acquisition by comScore who has a stronghold within many media companies (not to mention a reserved line item in their budgets) they can create a very different value proposition for media companies looking to quantify metrics for their advertisers as well as optimize the experience for their visitors. I tend to agree with Magid who stated that this new paradigm for publishers is likely to create a natural segmentation in the market. With stalwart web analytics firms (albeit in their current incarnations) Omniture, Coremetrics and Unica are working towards an analytical system that feeds marketing automation. Now we’ve got the potential for something entirely different.

For these reasons I’m bullish on the acquisition. We have a new opportunity for web analytics where site-side measurement meets audience (panel based) measurement. It’s the collision course that many have been talking about. And it sets the stage for propelling measurement into next generation devices, apps and mobile platforms that don’t have transactional elements. It’s still too soon to say how this will play out, but I applaud Magid, Gian and the comScore team on their vision for creating a new measurement paradigm. And a big congrats goes out to Michael, Michiel, Fred, Ulrike and the entire Nedstat team for building a globally attractive solution. Bravo.

But these are just my thoughts…I may be way off…I may be crazy. Readers, do you agree that this new duo can impact enterprise measurement on a new level? I’d love to know what others think.

This summer’s web analytics acquisition season has heated up to the point where when my phone rings and it’s John (who wakes up hours earlier) saying “comScore has acquired Nedstat” my response is “of course they have!” Not to say this isn’t an exciting acquisition, but wow the vendor landscape has changed a bunch this year …

John spent the morning on the phone with our friend Jodi McDermott and comScore’s CEO Dr. Magid Abraham talking about the decision for comScore to get more deeply into client-side measurement technology and he promises to have a more comprehensive post up in a day or two. I only wanted to weigh in and say “congratulations” to the entire team at Nedstat!

I have been lucky enough to have worked with Michael, Fred, Michiel, and Ulrike on a number of occasions and have produced two white papers with them (one on video, the other on mobile) with a third coming out in a few weeks. The management team and everyone I have interacted with at Nedstat are wonderful people and they will definitely add great value and expertise to the comScore family.

Again, watch for more detail and analysis from John in the coming days and congratulations to the comScore and Nedstat families from all of us here at Analytics Demystified.

So the beauty of one public company buying another is that they usually hold an analyst call to explain the rationale. Props to IBM for holding this call just two short hours after the news broke and for giving a few of us a chance to pepper them with tough questions. On this call, Craig Hayman, General Manager of IBM Business Solutions (within the IBM Software Solutions Group) and Yuchun Lee, Founder and CEO of Unica shared an insiders’ perspective on the deal. In fact, Craig even shared the code name “Amaru” which was his secret squirrel moniker for referring to the deal internally before it was done.

So here’s the scoop.

The IBM acquisition of Unica was largely driven by a recognized need for enterprises to get closer to their customers by understanding their experiences and interactions across a broad network of channels and customer touch points. They’ll accomplish this by using analytics technologies, building single view profiles of customers and delivering marketing process improvements.

Sounds a little like markety-speak doesn’t it? Well, regardless it’s still a pretty good story and one that I hope IBM is able to pull off. It’s actually similar to the one that Adobe told after the Omniture acquisition with perhaps more of an automation spin.

What does this mean for Web Analytics?

When Joe Stanhope of Forrester fame deftly asked how IBM planned to rationalize the overlap between NetInsight and the recent Coremetrics acquisition, the response was dominated by the word “synergies” which they see a lot of between these firms. Yuchun rightly went on to describe NetInsight as only one product in the Unica portfolio and that Coremetrics and Netinsight served different segments within the web analytics market. He explained that NetInsight has strength in the on premise solution market (which they do) and that their ability to leverage web analytics within an online datamart was also differentiated (while not entirely unique to the market at large, it’s true when compared to Coremetrics. NetInsight uses a relational database construct for storing and accessing clickstream data). Yuchun also pointed out that Coremetrics has strength when it comes to collecting high volume, high transaction data. This is a result of Coremetrics robust infrastructure that they’ve been building to collect and deliver this data at scale without incurring exorbitant expenses (and they were doing a damn good job of this).

All in all, the comments about the synergies concluded by stating that both tools would accelerate the benefits of deep customer insights for IBM’s clients. None the less, it will be very interesting to wait and see which features and functions emerge from a combined solution of two web analytics powerhouses.

What does this mean for IBM?

As much as I’d like to think that analytics is the epicenter of the business world, this deal is about multi-channel campaign management and marketing automation. IBM is without question on a buying spree. They snatched up SPSS, Coremetrics, DataCap, Sterling Commerce and now Unica in short order. Presumably this is all part of IBM’s strategic growth plan that earmarked a whopping $20 billion for acquisitions through 2015. But from a web analytics perspective, this acquisition didn’t occur because of the NetInsight product. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of the technology, but Unica’s campaign automation solutions and interactive marketing prowess within the marketplace surely made them a tasty morsel for IBM to gobble.

The newly acquired Unica technology will sit within the Software Group business – or more specifically – IBM Software Solutions Group. Yuchun will own the BU within the software solutions group. And this group also holds Websphere Commerce, Coremetrics, Cognos and about a bazillion other software solutions. But as we learned on the call today, Craig Hayman will work to build out frameworks and the connections between these multitude of solutions.

What does this mean for clients?

So, when I look at the big picture, my speculation is that IBM is furthering the bifurcation of the marketplace in yet another direction that separates the “haves” from the “have nots”. What I mean by this is slightly different from what Eric described in his bifurcation of analytics market as a separation of tools based on the level of experience for each user. He puts technologies like Adobe Omniture’s Discover and Coremetrics’ Explore into the exclusive camp of highly skilled analysts who are capable of performing true analysis on digital data sets. The rest of the population is left with simpler, yet still capable tools (not meant in a disparaging way) like Google Analytics that are intuitive and require little training to begin garnering insights. While I agree with Eric, a new twist in this divide can also be developing on a financial level.

As we know, Google Analytics is free and enterprise analytics can quickly run into six – even seven – digit figures in a hurry. My thoughts on this financial divide and IBM’s perpetuation of it stem from Sam Palmisano’s scoff at the notion of consumer technologies dominating the enterprise. Clearly the IBM acquisition moves dictate that a set of tools designed for the professional marketer will be vastly different from the solutions accessible to consumers on the street. Thus, I see this as yet another wedge in the bifurcated divide between large enterprises, the ones that typically purchase software from the likes of IBM, Oracle, and SAS, and small and mid-sized companies who are forced to use a different toolset primarily because of price.

So at first blush, if you’re a big enterprise this all sounds pretty good. IBM and Unica join forces, which isn’t too much of a stretch as there’s also some history here…IBM is a Unica customer using campaign management, marketing resource management and other services to bring about a “marketing transformation” within their own organization (at least that’s how Craig Hayman put it). And Unica has also been OEM’ing IBM solutions for some time. The acquisition extends the growth trajectory that Unica was already on and helps to bring together IBM’s end-to-end story that they call “Blue Washing” (Err…hope that code word was okay for public consumption).

But, the acquisition also acts as a good milestone for IBM who is assembling all the key ingredients for a leading enterprise solution – Sterling Commerce is connecting to the back end – Coremetrics offers deep insights into customer behavior and segments – and now Unica delivers a marketing management solution. It’s hard to argue that they’re not connecting a very compelling story for marketing professionals.

Yet, if you’re a mid-sized business or even a small organization…the IBM “Blueness” may have just distanced itself even further into the stratosphere.

The burning question on many a web analyst’s mind today is likely…Who is Transpond? That’s the question I asked when I first learned of Webtrends’ plan to acquire the San Francisco based application development platform vendor.

Today the acquisition closed and word is out. At first glance, this may sound like a left turn for web analytics and perhaps it is. But in my mind it’s an interesting acquisition that’s headed in a positive direction. It also demonstrates that Webtrends isn’t afraid to make bold moves and assert its innovative position in the social analytics realm.

The History

Transpond was founded in 2007 as iWidgets, back when widgets were all the rage (here’s a view from the Wayback Machine). The company got off the ground with a $4M investment in early 2009, but found that they were limited by their chosen iWidgets moniker and went through a rebranding exercise in the Summer 2009 to become Transpond. All the while, they’ve been providing application development tools for companies to build and deliver apps on mobile devices like the iPhone or Android, web platforms like Facebook and even TV apps for connected televisions. Transpond offers do-it-yourself development of applications such as quizzes, polls, games and interactive commerce for distribution across multiple digital channels. They also provide development support if you’re looking for some expert dev resources to really make your apps sing. Under the new ownership of Webtrends all of these capabilities will be folded into the Webtrends Apps offering and presumably reporting will become available within the Webtrends Analytics 9 interface.

What’s in it for Webtrends?

So, you may be asking yourself, why is Webtrends interested in this company? Well, the way I see it, Webtrends is tuned into the fact that more and more organizations are developing content that will live and breathe off-site. That is, apps that are not contained within your primary web presence. Whether it’s on a mobile phone, Facebook or the next new platform, users are interacting with your content and each other off-site. That’s a domain that web analytics has traditionally not been able to capture without some fancy footwork because most web analytics solutions rely on tracking contained within the pages of your primary web sites. While tracking within apps is not new either, this acquisition opens up the possibility of integrating behavior with applications that exist off your site into the data soup that is digital analytics. It’s really a logical extension of the analytics technology.

Why is this Cool?

What’s also really appealing about this technology from a development perspective is that the platform allows company’s to build apps and deliver them across multiple platforms in a consistent manner. Thus the ability to build it once and delivery to many, in whatever format they choose to consumer the content. Plus, when you bake in measurement and analytics to the apps, then you really have a means to evaluate interaction and compare across channels.

While this is certainly a new direction for web analytics acquisitions, I for one like the purchase and look forward to seeing Webtrends execute on the delivery of this new solution. Webtrends has the distinction of being one of the first pioneers in web analytics out there and also as the last independent vendor left standing. I’m pleased to see that this old dog ain’t afraid to learn new tricks.

Congratulations go out to Alex, Casey, Justin and the Webtrends team on the innovative move and to Peter Yared and Charles Christolini of Transpond for closing the deal.

This weekend the Wall Street Journal produced a well researched article called The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets. Apparently, it’s the first in a series of articles about Internet tracking practices. It’s entirely informative and chock full of quotes, anecdotes, video and interesting visuals. I highly recommend giving this article a read if you subscribe to the WSJ, or encourage you to join the discussion on their blog. However, I take serious issue with the bias inherent within this first article. The author, Julia Angwin uses phraseology like “the business of spying on consumers”, and “…details about her, all to be put up for sale for a tenth of a penny”. Clearly, the conclusion drawn by the author and presented to readers is that tracking solutions are spawned from malice. I vehemently disagree.

While, it’s true that some tracking can be used for devious function, the majority of uses are fully anonymous and serve to benefit end users exponentially. The reality is that media fragmentation, facilitated by the Internet, has forced advertisers to compete for our attention. To do this, they’re hocking their wares in a significantly more relevant way. By serving up advertising content that’s based on activity, propensity and preference, they are saving us from the irrelevant fire hose of most advertising. Without being coarse, I find that the fact that some consumers are self-conscious and sensitive to advertising that’s targeted to their browsing activity as trivial. It’s trivial compared to the the benefits that targeting delivers to the rest of us.

I’ve got more to say on this topic, a lot more in fact, but I’ll stop short for now. My closing thought is that, while the author of the Web’s New Goldmine may see the art and science of tracking as a boon for advertisers… I see it as a significant win for consumers. A jackpot perhaps. I hope and expect that my online and offline interactions with brands will get increasingly better and more relevant as my interactions continue. Tracking will enable this to happen. But, that’s just me…I’d love to know what you think.

Years ago Google’s Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik told everyone “data quality sucks, get over it” which at the time was quite the funny and controversial thing to say.  Among other things Mr. Kaushik encouraged his readers to “resist the urge to dig deep” to understand data-related problems, to “assume a level of comfort with the data” and to focus more on trends and less on absolutes.

At the time this advice seemed good. Any number of companies were in the midst of switching vendors back in 2006 (a trend that has noticeably declined) and so guidance to not stress out on the differences observed between old system “A” and new system “B” was good, as was his encouragement to spend more time focusing on data quality in key areas (checkout, carts, etc.)

Unfortunately times have changed.

Since 2006 we have seen a slow but steady increase in the prominence that digitally collected data has within businesses of all sizes. Now in 2010, more senior managers, Vice Presidents, and CEOs than ever are incorporating both qualitative and quantitative data collected from web, mobile, and social sites than ever before. Among our clients we have seen a profound shift from “nice to have” to “critical” when it comes to data flowing through Omniture, Coremetrics, Unica, Google Analytics and other systems, and slowly web analytics is becoming an embedded component of business decision making.

While this shift has far reaching implications lately at Analytics Demystified we have been looking more closely at how we can help our clients not “get over” the “suckiness” of data quality and actually do something about it.  We are doing this for one simple reason: senior leadership doesn’t want a glib response to data quality issues, they want as high a level of accuracy possible and concrete answers for why that accuracy isn’t forthcoming.

Don’t believe me? The next time your boss asks about the quality of the numbers you produce look them squarely in the eye and repeat Mr. Kaushik’s words, “Well Bob the data quality sucks and so you should just get over it, okay?”

When you’re done you can call my friend Corry Prohens to help you find a new job.

The alternative is, of course, to actually pay attention to your data’s quality and work diligently to incrementally improve data collection processes. Rather  than be lazy about the very foundation of all of your valuable work (and the high-quality analysis you’re working to drive into the business) you can do a few simple things designed to make your data “less sucky” and thusly more valuable.

And what are those things? Thanks to our friends at ObservePoint we have authored a short white paper on this exact subject! Titled “When More is Not Better: Page Tags” and subtitled “The Dramatic Proliferation of Script-based Tagging and the Resulting Need for a Chief Data Officer” (okay, not my best title, I admit it) the paper outlines the business processes and technologies required to develop a little more trust and faith in your digitally collected data.

The paper is a free download from ObservePoint but you will need to trade some information with them. I can assure you Rob Seolas and his team are fine folks and given that they have a tendency to send out sweet USB devices to prospects there are worse things than having someone from ObservePoint call.

Get your copy of “When More is Not Better: Page Tags” at the ObservePoint web site today!

If you’ve read the paper I welcome your comments. While we recognize that few companies are going to appoint a Chief Data Officer to manage their digital data quality we hope that our readers understand that the point is not the job title but rather the work the associated work. Our thesis is that as the push towards digital continues those companies who have (and can communicate) a high-level of trust in their data will gain a competitive advantage, and in a world where the competition is always only a click away, who doesn’t want every advantage they can create?

Okay…I’ve been quiet about the Coremetrics acquisition by IBM for long enough now. While the dust still won’t settle until sometime in Q3’10, when this deal passes FTC scrutiny, I’m compelled to weigh in and offer my $.02 USD mainly because there’s been some good dialog in the blogosphere from people I respect like: Eric, Joe Stanhope, Akin and more recently Brian Clifton.

I’ll take a slightly different approach and use the acquisition to talk about the state of the web analytics marketplace. For starters, let me just say that this acquisition was inevitable. So too will Webtrends be acquired by some player looking to incorporate metrics into their overarching set of technology capabilities. And as I blogged earlier this spring, yet another even bigger fish will eat the existing big fish and we’ll utter oooh’s and ahhh’s as the analytics technology market evolves into a vital organ for all businesses with a heartbeat. While not immune to arrhythmia, this course of events shouldn’t really take anyone by surprise. I’ve been saying this for a while now and even penned “Web Analytics is Destined to Become an Integrated Service” back in May 2009 when I wrote the Forrester US Web Analytics Forecast 2008-2014 (subscription required). I’ve been advocating web analytics as a function within the marketing organization, which seems to be a logical orientation. However, it’s interesting that the consumption of analytical technologies has come from a smattering of different perspectives.

Here’s how the post-acquisition landscape looks:

Creatively Speaking…

Adobe’s acquisition of Omniture undoubtedly took many by surprise (myself included – although you’re never allowed to admit surprise as an analyst). The promise Adobe made to investors was that they would incorporate the market leading web analytics technology into the creative life-cycle by enabling measurement at the point of content creation. Perhaps that’s not exactly how they positioned it, but that was my impression and they’re now executing on that promise. Say what you want about acquisitions and the slow moving integration process, but Creative Suite 5 debuted in April just six short months after the deal closed, with measurement hooks from FlashPro and Dreamweaver into both SiteCatalyst and Test & Target. They’ve also accomplished this remarkable feat using a visual interface allowing content editors and non power-users the ability to begin measuring their digital assets. This utilization of analytics places measurement at the operational level, yet by and large it’s still within the marketing group.

The Marketer’s Toolbox…

Enter Unica with their rebranded Marketing Innovation product suite where NetInsight (formerly Sane Solutions) web analytics sits at the core. While both Omniture and Coremetrics made pre-acquisition strides to amass a truly effective online marketing suite, they were merely playing second fiddle to Unica Campaign, Interact and Marketing Platform solutions. Unica is widely acclaimed as a leading Campaign Management tool and sits proudly in the marketing departments across many an enterprise business. They’ve worked web analytics into the DNA of their overall marketing perspective and use it to power the automation and decisioning that many organizations strive for with lust and admiration. Their utilization of analytics really does empower analytics as a lynchpin for integrated marketing.

Shoppers World…

With speculation still swirling about the how’s and why’s of IBM’s intended use of Coremetrics, it’s tough to ignore Coremetrics’ strength in the retail vertical. While Coremetrics has an impressive client based outside of retail, including publishers and financial institutions among others, they’ve clearly got some good mojo going with their triple-A retail clients. Just thinking of how Big Blue will assimilate the nimble teams of relentless Coremetrics marketers in San Mateo and Texas makes me slightly nervous. Not for any loss of focus by the Coremetrics team on their dedication to client support or from their delivery of leading analytical capabilities that they offer – rather – where will this newly acquired asset live within the IBM estate? The way I see it, two possible scenarios can play out here:

1. First is the scenario that Akin speculates upon whereby IBM is folded into the Websphere group and serves to illuminate the value of customer interactions within website platforms across IBM’s customer base. This would greatly benefit Websphere customers although it would narrowly define a finite application of a technology that is so much bigger than just online commerce.

Or;

2. The scenario that Eric envisions (and one that I believe would benefit our industry exponentially) is the one where IBM becomes the “business analytics” juggernaut in the enterprise. If this were to occur, IBM would need to integrate its SPSS and Cognos acquisitions to get really crafty about delivering extremely high value digital insights.

These are two very different outcomes and both speculatory, but I’m rooting for the latter simply because it has the potential to push analytics so much further along. My sources tell me that some long-time IBM’ers feel this way too. One confidant with access to IBM brass even shared with me that internally the acquisition will be deemed a failure by some at IBM if Coremetrics isn’t integrated with SPSS and Cognos. That’s great news, because wholesale failure of business analytics isn’t an option.

Switzerland…

So here we have Webtrends as the only standalone web analytics player remaining from the set of truly original US-based technologies. They’re doing a good job of playing the part of Switzerland as they not-so-quietly establish a platform of Open Analytics whereby data flows in -and- out of the interface fueling other operations around the business. While this is not the same as an integrated approach, Webtrends is taking a strong stance on have-it-your-way analytics. Their open APIs and REST URLs make it easy to leverage their data collection and pump data to any application within the enterprise. Thus, they too offer an integrated approach yet do so by maintaining a position that supports rather than delivers the adjacent marketing functions.

The Low End Theory…

Any post about the state of the analytics marketplace would be remiss if Google Analytics wasn’t included in the conversation. I include the Big Googley in the Low End Theory – not because they’re trailing – but because they’re sneaky smart. Just in case you haven’t been watching, since Google acquired Urchin Software, GA has been quietly amassing millions of installations across businesses large and small adding to the democratization of web analytics. I’d argue that they’re not doing this in a concerted enterprise-wide way, but they are probably gaining the most ground across the enterprise by sheer adoption and hands-on utilization. What this means is that pockets of users are deploying Google Analytics for very focused use of the data and the organization is becoming more accustomed to seeing GA data and using it to make key decisions in their day-to-day operations.

Many other analytics programs are delivering similar value to business users, yet in an extremely isolated manner with tools like KissMetrics, Twitalyzer, Visible Measures and Radian6 just to name a few. This is truly the low end theory because the data is rarely seen by anyone outside the marketing group, but it’s driving key activity around specific marketing functions without the larger business really taking note. Think grassroots baby – under the radar – with potential super smartie effectiveness.

Can Marketing Come from the Heart?

By now you should be asking yourself; So where’s this all going? Despite how each of the companies I described above fit into the overall aspect of a company’s business, I think that we can all agree that analytics is about understanding business performance. Here is where Eric’s vision of the Coming Revolution in Web Analytics fits into the story and the quietly powerful behemoth that’s already penetrated the enterprise garden sits in wait down in Cary, North Carolina. Whether it’s SAS, another player, or an amalgamation of services from multiple players – analytics needs to be at the heart of the organization. Here’s where my analogy pays off…because if this is to happen, then data becomes the lifeblood of the enterprise and analytics allows companies to relate to their customers and offer more tuned in and relevant products and services. Marketing should control this blood flow but use it to power the brain and the working limbs of the organization. While this may start to look like Business Intelligence, I believe it’s different because it requires real-time information, automated decisioning and ultimately creativity. These are qualities that I have yet to see from a BI tool. But maybe I’m naive.

Before this diatribe gets any longer, and you dear reader need resuscitation I’ll call it quits. But I’ll offer fair warning that this is just the beginning of my thoughts on the matter and there’s more to follow. I’d also love to hear what you think.

By now you’ve heard that IBM announced today their intent to purchase Coremetrics. While I was caught off guard by the news — it was all over Twitter before I’d had a single drop of Espresso — I cannot say I was particularly surprised. Coremetrics has not been particularly coy about their intent to do what is best for their customers and company, and IBM is on a tear for acquisitions and investment in analytics with over $10 billion spent on 14 (now 16) acquisitions since 2005 including SPSS, Cognos, and now Coremetrics.

In fact, according to CMS Wire, IBM is now #2 behind privately held SAS for analytics market-share (14.5% versus SAS’s 33%.)  Couple this with the consulting services organization IBM established just over a year ago and the picture becomes incredibly clear: IBM has the potential to become a digital analytics juggernaut in the Enterprise.

You know what? I’m excited about this.

I’m excited for three reasons, none of which are particularly altruistic of me considering that I am a strategic business consultant who has spend years working to elevate the visibility of digital analytics within the Enterprise. From my point of view, my partners and I (and our peers) will only be more successful as traditional business pays more attention to the value of digitally collected data as an input to business intelligence.

But I digress.

I’m excited by IBM’s acquisition of Coremetrics for these three reasons:

1. This acquisition validates my “Coming Revolution in Web Analytics” thesis. In 2009, with the support of SAS, we postulated that we were on the cusp of a grand revolution in web analytics, one that had profound implications on both the practice and the practitioner. In the same way SAS continues to refine their web and customer experience analytics offerings, IBM buying Coremetrics pushes us further along towards what I believe is an inevitable future where digital analytics is powered as much (or more) by statistical and predictive models as “pretty” spreadsheets and iPhone viewer apps.
2. This acquisition validates my “Two Sets of Tools” thesis. Back in February of this year I wrote a post about the need for two sets of tools to do digital analytics professionally. I wrote this post in response to a dramatic increase in the number of companies telling us their business users were frustrated with the complexity of the most widely deployed “Enterprise” web analytics tools. While Coremetrics 2010 is certainly not perfectly suited for business users of all shapes and sizes, I do like what they’ve done with the recent release (view source on the main site!) More importantly, Coremetrics plus SPSS is essentially the bifurcated solution I describe appropriate for deployment within large companies.
3. This acquisition has tremendous potential to elevate the visibility of “digital analytics” within business leaders across the globe. One of our vendor clients commented today “don’t you think the need for web analytics has been validated already?” to which I could only respond “no.” Everywhere we go — conferences, clients, prospects, social events, you name it — we continue to see a half-hearted expression of commitment by senior leadership for web and digital analytics. Don’t get me wrong — they are 100% committed to connected efforts! Leadership LOVES mobile apps, social media, Flash and Flex and Silverlight and the iPad and QR codes and … well, you get the idea. But in my experience when it comes to investing in the measurement of those efforts to validate their value to the business, well, let’s just say interest seems to wane. My hope is that with IBM backing digital analytics and pushing Coremetrics as part of their portfolio that this will change much more quickly than it would with, say, Adobe pushing the same agenda (sorry, sorry, sorry!)

My last point is clearly the most important. For web analytics to truly “grow up” and mature into the valuable contributor to the entire business we all know (or at least suspect) it can be, it has to become a greater priority for senior leadership. And despite the fact that the people I respect the most — guys like Jim Sterne, Gary Angel, and Josh Manion — continue to do the real evangelical work, pounding their fists and respectfully raising their voices in an attempt to get management to pay attention, I suspect that John Squire and Joe Davis injected into the analytics sales process at IBM has far greater potential to change minds and focus within corner offices.

Sorry to put that on ya, Squire. Let me know if I can help.

Since I was slow to get this post up two other well-written and thoughtful pieces about the acquisition have been published that I would encourage you to read:

• Akin Arikan (Unica)’s “Farewell to Web Analytics” post, which I think is a little hopeful on Akin’s part but should be expected as IBM is a large Unica customer and so this deal creates some risk for Akin and his team;
• Joe Stanhope (Forrester)’s take on the deal. Joe was lucky enough to have dinner with John Squire last night and has a lot of detail about IBM’s opportunity.

Again I am really excited for Coremetrics management and staff. Personally I think that IBM made a great decision, one that will create benefits for everyone truly committed to digital analytics.

As always I welcome your thoughts.

This is purely speculation. I have no inside knowledge into the possibility I present here other than hypothetical conversations with peers. Sean Power brought up the topic over dinner recently, which caused me to start thinking seriously about the realities of Microsoft buying Adobe. He blogged about it way back when Adobe acquired Omniture. At that time, I was at Forrester and when we got wind of the deal, we had an all-hands meeting to make sense of the awkward acquisition. Upon arriving at consensus, I quickly penned a missive about why the acquisition of the leading web analytics and optimization firm made sense for a creative software firm like Adobe. Yet, like most others, we had to squint at the deal to see any logic in it at all. Now it’s starting to become clear why Adobe shelled $1.8B to add some attraction to its offering for a much larger suitor.

Adobe controls big chunks of the digital customer experience. Specifically, they play a major role in content creation through the CS5 suite of products. While web developers aren’t necessarily building their global digital offerings in Dreamweaver, surely they are using elements of Creative Suite to do just that. Further, any document where the author wants to control its integrity will lock it down by saving it in PDF format. And now through the acquisition of Omniture, they gained the ability to measure and optimize consumer utilization of those assets as well as the web sites and marketing efforts of leading brands across the globe. We’re just starting to see the fruits of this curious marriage between the two firms in the announcements of tracking capabilities within the CS5 release. Yet, these tracking methods are not meant for the traditional users of Omniture’s set of highly robust analysis capabilities; they are designed for content creators and developers to gain insights about the digital assets they’re producing. I like to think of this as tricking people into using web analytics by not actually telling them that they’re using data to make day-to-day business decisions. Brilliant actually. This introduction of tracking capabilities within CS5 falls precisely in line with what my partner Eric Peterson describes as the bifurcation of the web analytics marketplace. Analytics at the low-end are offering information that is helpful (dare I say critical) in making decisions about business activity. At the top end are trained web analysts who crunch the data to tease out the insights and offer recommendations based on a holistic representation of data from numerous disparate sources. With Omniture Insights providing the analysis horsepower at the top of this scenario and CS5 empowering the bottom, all of the sudden, Adobe becomes an invaluable resource for enterprises that deliver services in online, offline, B2C, B2B or B2B2C environments. Now, let’s introduce Microsoft into this mix.

MSFT has labored [successfully] to own the consumer desktop with its operating system, indispensable productivity tools (MS Office), and not-so-universally, rich media with Silverlight. Not to mention that they’re still working diligently to capture consumers with Bing, MSN and a slew of other services pointed at end users. All this traction across MSFT properties gives them a lofty vantage point from which to monitor consumer behavior across digital channels. Adding a stack of ubiquitous software for content creation and some world class measurement capabilities may be quite attractive to the Redmond rotund. They’d immediately challenge Apple on a new level of customer intelligence and empower their enterprise customers with a whopping new set of capabilities. Despite the new consumer view to be gained from this possible acquisition, the real benefits are a nicely wrapped enterprise solution complete with: MS servers, a .NET framework, SharePoint, Dynamics CRM, Dynamics ERP, and a kitchen sink of bells, whistles and anything else you might want. Given the opportunity to deliver, measure and manage the customer experience at a really deep and integrated level seems like an appealing bet to me.

I won’t droll on about how or when this impending acquisition will occur; mostly ‘cause I have no idea. But I will hedge by saying that others suitors may actually line up before MSFT comes calling. Google for instance could parlay a nice entrance to the packaged software market and gain the ability to create, deliver and measure that largest advertising network on the globe. For that matter Apple may be strategically sparring with Adobe’s crystal palace in a deliberate attempt to soften their value. Swooping in for an acquisition after some fierce battling on the street wouldn’t be completely unheard of…now would it?

Update (April 22, 2010): This article at Venturebeat suggests that iPhone application measurement vendors are hearing good news from Apple regarding their ability to measure in-app data.  The article, however, is devoid of any kind of details whatsoever and so the Tweets saying “Apple NOT banning analytics from OS 4.0” appear to be somewhat optimistic in my opinion.  I’d love to hear from Google, Omniture, Webtrends, Coremetrics, Unica, etc. and see if they are having the same “you have nothing to worry about” conversations with Apple. Obviously is Venturebeat is correct this is great news, but if I were developing an iPhone application I’d want a little more  than rumor to contradict the language in Section 3.3.9.

Wait and see I guess …

Dear Mr. Jobs,

As a very loyal Apple customer and user of your products I want to thank you for all that you’ve done for computing in general. Your attention to detail and your vision have resulted in many of the most useful and usable products I own, too many to list honestly. While I was able to hold off for three days before purchasing the original iPhone (now on my third since I upgrade with every release) I pre-ordered my iPad and absolutely love it.

Thanks for that.

Unfortunately as a long-time member of the digital measurement industry I am in the uncomfortable position of having to ask you to reconsider what will undoubtedly be viewed by many Apple customers, developers, and end-users as an egregious mistake. I am talking about Section 3.3.9 in your updated iPhone Developer Agreement in which you apparently ban all third-party in-app measurement. While I respect Apple’s right to privacy, for those not familiar with Section 3.3.9 I would encourage you to read the following articles:

• Apple Places New Limits on App Developers
• New iPhone Developer Agreement Bans the Use of Third-Party Analytics and Services

The summary statement is that your updated Developer Agreement, if my read is accurate, strips all of your Development partners of their ability to measure application usage with an eye towards improving the overall quality of their product.  Just as a reminder these Developer partners include Best Buy, Expedia, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Netflix, and some 150,000+ other companies working to deliver great experiences on your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad devices.

While I certainly understand the over-arching desire to have quality control in all things Apple, which the mobile family of applications essentially become by proxy, banning the ability to measure application use is likely to be met with some resistance among your larger Development partners.  Many of these companies are known to me as a consultant and have active programs in place to use solutions like Adobe’s Omniture, Webtrends, Coremetrics, Unica, Google Analytics, and Yahoo Web Analytics to determine which application functionality is working and which needs to be addressed in future updates.

Given that Apple is a long-time Adobe/Omniture customer I rather suspect that this third-party tracking is embedded in many of your own applications.  Perhaps that’s not the case, but given the general utility of these applications I would be pretty surprised if your own developers aren’t in violation of the new Developer Agreement somewhere in the pre-installed application stack.

If not, well, shame on your developers for not embedding application tracking in complex applications like Pages and Keynote on the iPad. While I certainly do love the freedom I have to write on the iPad, I suspect if you were using Adobe/Omniture to track Pages you’d see me continually tapping the page in landscape mode trying to get a menu to come up so I can make a bulleted list …

But I digress.

Since many of your best Development partners are companies well-known for their general prowess for digital analytics — companies like Best Buy, Expedia, Cisco, Netflix, Disney, ABC, ESPN, and many, many more — you may want to give a little more thought to Section 3.3.9. If this section remains you are essentially blocking all of these companies (and all mobile developers in your App Store) from gaining valuable insight into how their applications can be more useful, more delightful, and frankly, more like Apple.

Hopefully this was just a huge oversight on someone else’s part within Apple, especially since as far as anyone knows you don’t have technology available to replace the data that would be lost if (or when) Developers comply with this requirement. It may seem a touch geeky but business owners are increasingly relying on this data to justify the expense and commitment it takes to participate in the App Store (and the mobile revolution in general.)

Being such a fan of your work I’d like to offer a solution, just in case your open to the idea.

Apple has an opportunity to do something that, well, nobody else really has or does in terms of digital measurement. Because of how the App Store works, Apple could create a set of terms and conditions for application tracking that would simultaneously provide guidance to your Developer community and create an unprecedented level of transparency for technology end-users everywhere (or at least those using Apple products.)

Imagine a tier of requirements and resulting notifications to the end-user based on the type of data the application wanted to pass.  Just like geo-location requires explicit one-time opt-in today, tracking of individually identifiable (e.g., device-level or personal) data could require the same type of opt-in.  For more basic tracking (e.g., completely anonymous interaction data) you could simply allow that without opt-in to foster the growth and development of the application development community.

The most important thing is you would have an opportunity to craft a set of mobile tracking requirements that could be extended and applied across the entire mobile universe. In the same way Apple has changed our relationship with “pocket computing” forever, your company could essentially resolve a problem that in some ways is an accident waiting to happen, and do so in a way that creates opportunities rather than creating tension with the very group that is making your products so successful today.

If this is in any way interesting to you I’d love to discuss it more. My contact information is on my web site.

Measurement is not as sexy as the iPad or iPhone, but at the end of the day it is just about as important. With every new technology comes the need to understand it’s use and justify related expenses. Your Development partners are intensely drawn to the iPhone opportunity to be sure, and it’s great that you’re making people like Loren Brichter and others rich thanks to their efforts.

But not everyone will be as savvy as Apple or as fortunate as Atebits; most companies work to use the limited data they do have to understand user behavior in an effort to make incremental improvements to their applications. Section 3.3.9 seems to prevent this data from getting into your partner’s hands, preventing the very thing I suspect you’re working to promote: the highest quality applications possible delivered via amazing devices.

Hopefully I and others are simply reading Section 3.3.9 the wrong way. I would be honored if you or someone from Apple would provide guidance on this point and I’m happy to help communicate that guidance in whatever way I am able.

Sincerely,

Eric T. Peterson
CEO, Founder, and Senior Partner
Analytics Demystified, Inc.

Baseball fans across the nation were smiling this weekend with opening day games around the league. Those of you who know me, recognize that I’m a raging Red Sox fan, but last night’s 8pm start time against the Yankees was just too late for me to catch the entire game. So, upon checking the scores this morning I got to see this cool new interactive game summary on Redsox.com.

The spark lines show Tweet volume with mouseovers that offer details on each individual tweet. And the highlights are actual video clips that fire off a new window right from the summary page. Way to go MLB.com for delivering a simple, yet innovative mix of professional and consumer generated content.

Oh, yeah…the Sox beat the Yankees 9 – 7 in the opener if you’re wondering.
GO SOX!!

Being a change agent for web analytics requires taking calculated risks, standing up for what you believe, and working diligently to make our industry stronger. I left my job at Forrester Research in part to become a change agent for web analytics and my bid for a seat on the WAA board of directors is the next big step in my journey. But, this quest I cannot fulfill alone – I need your vote. I’ve never run for elected office before so to illustrate my conviction, I borrow words from John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential nomination speech and added a few of my own…

“With a deep sense of duty and high resolve, I accept your nomination.” I’ve stated several times before that there is no industry better than web analytics. Our colleagues within web analytics – the practitioners, the vendors, the leaders and gurus – are by and large friendly, approachable, and always willing to lend a hand. It makes working within analytics gratifying and fun. My hope is to elevate these positive attributes of our industry by aligning under the professional organization that we can call our own.

“The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high…”
Despite my positivism, we are facing turbulent times as an industry. We need to strengthen our association at a global scale to ensure that we speak with a common voice in all countries and in all languages to distinguish the Web Analytics Association as the undisputed resource for education, standards, research, and advocacy.

“…if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.” It has recently come to my attention, despite proof from some members that not everyone receives value from the WAA. If elected to the Web Analytics Association board I will dedicate my term to proving the value of our association to members at every level, from student to vendor to advanced consultant. If we cannot recognize our own value, how then can we expect outsiders to accept our mission with the credibility and respect it deserves?

“I believe the times demand new invention, innovation, imagination, decision.” Those of you who know me recognize that I am not one to dwell on the mistakes of our past. Instead, I look to the future to determine how we can improve our situation and our position within the industry. These are exciting times for web analytics but times that will regale us to obscurity if we fail to demonstrate our vision through genuine contributions. We must think differently about how measurement technologies can be applied to today’s challenges and illustrate how the WAA is defining these efforts by taking a decisive leadership stand.

“This is a platform on which I can run with enthusiasm and conviction.”
It is this industry, its people and our collective challenges that I want to champion as a representative of the Web Analytics Association. I’ve stated my intentions on the WAA web site, but will reiterate the most important. It’s time to stop making excuses and start delivering value to the members of the WAA. A vote for me will get you a dedicated evangelist who is willing to shoulder the burden of hard work and diligence that’s required to orchestrate change in this industry.

I welcome your thoughts and comments about how to improve our industry and will guarantee an open mind throughout my tenure on the Web Analytics Association board of directors if elected. Thanks for reading, Now Get Out And Vote!!

When John was with Forrester Research last year he had the opportunity to do some work for Google that published some pretty bold claims. Among these was his reporting that “a staggering 53% of enterprises surveyed currently use a free solution as their primary Web analytics tool, and 71% use free tools in some capacity (PDF from Google). At the time I commented:

“When [John] first told me that over half of Enterprise businesses were using free solutions I have to admit I didn’t believe him. In a way I still don’t, but perhaps that’s only because I work with a slightly different sample than he presents. Regardless, John’s report paints a picture of an increasingly challenging market for companies selling web analytics and a new sophistication among end users.”

Increasingly my new partner is looking like some kind of prescient seer, although perhaps not for the reason some of you expect. Without a doubt Google is pushing hard to improve their analytics application, and by nearly all measures they are doing a phenomenal job. As I said back in November I personally believe their “Analytics Intelligence” feature is brilliant, and I have little doubt that we’ll continue to see little improvements here and there over the coming year.

But as much as I love Google Analytics for what it does, I am also willing to be honest about what it does not do and what it is not. Google Analytics alone is simply not enough for truly sophisticated web analytics.

Despite John’s findings at Forrester, and despite the fact that Google Analytics is easily the most widely deployed web analytics solution ever built, there are clearly limits to what Google Analytics is capable of today. What’s more, there is nothing wrong with having limits … what is wrong is trying to be all things to all people, which is what this post is really about.

At Analytics Demystified we have been talking over the last six months to an increasing number of companies that are considering dropping their historical vendor, almost always in favor of Google Analytics. And at Analytics Demystified we don’t do that much work with small, mom-and-pop shops … these are global organizations, name brands, and market leaders in their respective categories. Most of these companies are spending well-over $500,000 per year on analytics technology, and a handful are spending double that.

What’s more, all of these companies have multiple dedicated resources for web analytics. These companies, in many cases, are freaking awesome at putting their tools to work, and in all cases understand that web analytics is a “people” thing, not a “technology” thing. So what the heck is driving them towards Google’s waiting arms?

Limits.

It turns out there are limits to the amount your average business user is willing to invest in learning web analytics tools. As more companies begin to truly take a strategic approach towards web analytics, many of them are realizing that their business users are simply not “getting” the fee-based solution they’ve invested so heavily in. The business users have more or less found their limit, and hit the wall, and are balking at the amount of time it actually takes to learn and become proficient with these tools.

Apparently in an effort to further differentiate themselves from Google Analytics, the paid guys have inadvertantly made their technology so complex that few people in the business are actually willing to use it.

Oops.

Having worked at WebSideStory in the past I have to admit I cringed when one business user complained that [market leading vendor X] “was just too complicated” and that she “really, really missed using HBX because it was simple.” But this is a story we are hearing over and over and over … to the point where I am having to revise my entire opinion about Google Analytics place in the true Enterprise, which I’m happy to do …

… except.

A problem with the wholesale shift to GA arises when we go to the dedicated analysts and consulting teams who actually do get and use the paid solutions, pretty well in most cases. Suggesting to them that they might try and get by solely on Google Analytics is kind of like telling LeBron James that he needs to do his job with only one leg, one arm, and a blindfold on if he wants to keep playing ball.  He’d probably still be able to drop 30 on the Knicks, but he certainly wouldn’t be happy about it.

I don’t personally know a single analyst worth their weight in salt who would be happy and willing to standardize completely on Google Analytics, at least not today. Despite awesomeness galore, the decreasing list of things that GA doesn’t do is pretty important to these sophisticated users. True visitor-level segmentation, real flexibility in reporting on custom data, the ability to define custom metrics and dimensions, true data integration … it’s not an infinite list, but it’s still pretty long by my estimation.

And while the list of third-party applications to provide additional functionality to Google Analytics — for example ShufflePoint and their wonderful use of the GA APIs — we have still not seen a solution emerge that confers all of the necessary functionality that “professional” web analysts need to do their jobs well. In my experience there is nothing worse than knowing how to answer a question but not have the tools in place that you need to make the necessary connections.

Notice that I’m not saying that the alternatives to Google Analytics necessarily have these features. You don’t have to spend much time following the Web Analytics Forum or the Twitter #measure tag to see complaints about how hard it is to do stuff that should be pretty simple. But for the most part this rich functionality can be found in the add-on ad hoc exploration tools (e.g., Omniture Insights, Coremetrics Explore, Webtrends Visitor Intelligence, Unica NetInsight, etc.), and it turns out that when you’re competing on web analytics these features are pretty important.

So what am I saying, and what did I mean by “bifurcation” in this post’s title?

I believe that we are about to see an increasing number of companies in the coming year drop their paid vendor’s “basic solution” in favor of Google Analytics and, at the same time, seriously consider adding their vendor’s high-end offering. More specifically thanks to advances in “universal” (sic) tagging, the increasing cry from business users to “get us something simple that we can use”, and the true and present need for experienced operators to have a robust data exploration tool at their disposal, I think we’ll see an increasing number of “Google Analytics + Omniture Insights” implementations.

Some caveats:

• I am not saying that all companies will drop their paid vendor in favor of Google Analytics, mostly because “all companies” never do anything;
• I am not saying that all companies should drop their paid vendor in favor of Google Analytics, or even that companies should drop their paid vendor at all, especially if you have a pretty solid web analytics strategy in place;
• I am definitely not saying that I believe companies can manage a sophisticated web analytics operation using Google Analytics alone, although this statement hinges on the definition of “sophisticated”;
• I am not evangelizing for Omniture Insights, even thought I used to work at Visual Sciences and continue to use OI thanks to the good graces of Omniture/Adobe;
• I am not evangelizing for Google Analytics, even thought I do think the GA team has made amazing advances over the last 12 months;

The final caveat is that I am only using Omniture Insights in the description below as an example — you can substitute any of the solutions I listed above just as easily, or even use SAS if you’re ready for the coming revolution in web analytics. Heck, if you’re super-motivated, you can take Hiten Shah of KISSmetrics suggestion and build your own clickstream data warehouse and analyze the results using Tableau.

Regardless of the technology you choose, the bifurcated solution looks kind of like this:

• For your business users you simply do an awesome job implementing all the great new functionality present in Google Analytics;
• Using very simple Javascript libraries you “copy” the data you’re sending to Google Analytics and pass it along to Omniture Insights (OI);
• At the same time you add whatever other information you need to pass to OI, either because GA can’t handle it or you’ve filled all your custom variables;
• In OI you transform the data to match what GA is doing as closely as possible, knowing full well the data will never match because of GA sampling and the reality of our industry;
• In OI you add to the data with whatever you need, either via transformation, lookup tables, custom metrics and dimensions, whatever …

With these technologies in place you now have two things:

1. A very appropriate solution for your internal business users, one they will likely embrace thanks to it’s simplicity, it’s beauty, and it’s Googliness;
2. A very powerful solution for your web analysts that is largely based on what your business users are looking at.

The way the solution set works practically within the business:

• Business users get training on Google Analytics, which is surprisingly easy to provide, and if you’re big enough the rumor is that Google’s own evangelist will come visit with you (fun!)
• Business users get used to the idea that the numbers in GA are not 100% perfect, especially in high-volume situations where GA is sampling;
• Business users follow the age old advice to “manage based on trends” and use some of the slickness that is GA to identify problems and opportunities;
• When the business finds something interesting they ask the analytics group to work with them to look more closely and provide analysis (not reports);
• When the business needs “more accurate” numbers they ask the analytics group to provide reporting from the complete set of data (normal accuracy and precision caveats still apply);
• With their newly gained free time, the analytics group can become more of a proactive analytics service organization and less of a barrel full of “report monkeys”;

Yes this involves some internal education, but c’mon people, all web analytics involves internal education. You’ll need a clear explanation about the “goodness” of the GA data in high-volume (e.g., sampling) situations; you’ll need to provide training on Google Analytics, but there are some amazing people out there who can help you; and you’ll need to manage two vendor relationships … although if John’s data from Forrester is correct, 71% of you are already doing that!

Clearly this solution is not without risks, but from where I sit, I am having more and more trouble putting together a viable and workable alternative. Web analytics is becoming an increasingly critical function across the Enterprise and awareness of the solution set is bubbling up more rapidly than ever. As this happens, an increasing number of internal stakeholders are starting to ask for direct access to web data.

But the fee vendors, again for pretty good and obvious reasons, have evolved their base solutions to an unprecedented level of complexity, especially when you look across many vendor’s “complete” base solution (e.g., Webtrends 9 plus the requirement to use Webtrends Live for a lot of stuff, Omniture SiteCatalyst plus Omniture Genesis, etc.) Nobody is blaming them for the push upstream … especially since nobody I know could think of an alternative to differentiate their solutions from the 8,000,000 lb gorilla that Google Analytics has become.

At the end of the day in many, many cases you end up with business users frustrated by their inability to effectively and efficiently self-serve, and analytics professionals frustrated by the amount of time they spend pushing out basic reports. Quickly the situation becomes what is politely described as “inefficient” or,  in more colloquial terms, FUBAR. You choices are  then to A) lump it and suffer or B) do something about it.

I’m not a big fan of suffering.

The bifurcated solution, if you think about it, is actually pretty awesome. You get the best of both worlds, and one of the solutions costs you nothing and so (hopefully) frees up budget to hire more and better people to manage your web analytics efforts. I’d rather see a company put $500,000 equally towards an ad hoc analysis engine and smart people to run it than the case I see too commonly today where the lion’s share of that $500,000 going directly to buy a solution that is not meeting the needs of the business.

What do you think?

If you’re a company of any size and history of investment with any of the big U.S. or European vendors, and if you’ve been considering something similar, we’d love to hear from you. While we’re already providing guidance to some pretty large clients making this move we are always eager to collect additional data as an input to our thinking. We’re also happy to hear from consultants and vendors who have a clearly vested interest in the outcome I’ve described. And yes, if you need to bitch at me for suggesting that Google Analytics is anything short of manna from heaven, I suppose I’ll approve those comments as well.

Update: I should apologize to Adobe since I knew they had written to the FTC but didn’t mention it when I originally published this post. If you’re interested in this topic you should definitely download and read Adobe’s letter to the Secretary of the FTC regarding the use of Flash Local Shared Objects to re-spawn cookies. They cite my BPA white paper and do a great job outlining the company’s position on this particular use of their technology. I am writing to Adobe now to see if I can get someone on the phone to discuss in greater depth but if you know anyone there please ask them to email me directly.

A few weeks back we published a white paper with our client BPA Worldwide on the use of Flash Local Shared Objects in web analytics practices. The paper, titled “Flash LSOs: Is Your Privacy at Risk?” is available for download at BPA Worldwide and does require a tiny bit of information (name, company, email.) We wrote the paper with BPA Worldwide because we are seeing a resurgence in the use of Flash LSO as a back-up mechanism for browser cookies and frankly I personally worry about the practice.

Cookie deletion is what it is, and nothing anyone has done in the past five years has seemed to do anything to lessen (or worsen) the rate at which consumers clear cookie and history files. And yes, cookie deletion has a confounding effect on a variety of metrics web analytics professionals consider important, we’ve covered this more or less ad nasuem, although I certainly wonder how comScore’s recent reversal on the value of cookies will play out across combined web analytics + audience measurement efforts.

My concern is that companies are increasingly using cookies to over-ride consumer preferences regarding cookie deletion. Documented by Soltani, et al. in their paper “Flash Cookies and Privacy”, companies are actively using Flash LSO, which are much more difficult to block and delete than their browser-based counterparts, to essentially “reset” browser cookie values and thusly “remember” information that consumers are either implicitly or explicitly asking the web browser to forget.

If you’re doing this, or even considering this, I would encourage you to download the white paper as we provide what I believe to be sound guidance regarding the use of Flash LSO in a measurement practice.  You might also want to check out this post over at the Adobe web site which details how Adobe Flash 10.1 will begin to support the “private browsing” feature in most browsers. While I don’t blame Adobe particularly for how companies are using LSO in digital measurement practices, this update is an excellent response from the company and shows their commitment to consumer privacy.

As always your thoughts and feedback are welcome.

Building a Culture of Measurement is the title of the Keynote “Sprint” I’ll be delivering at Webtrends Engage next week in New Orleans. Like the other distinguished speakers during the keynote, I’ve only got 10 minutes to deliver my message and then get off the stage. Ten minutes isn’t nearly enough, so I thought that I’d elaborate here on my blog to hammer out the concepts behind my presentation.

Let me put it right out there and state that culture isn’t built overnight. And changing culture takes even longer. So save your get-rich-quick schemes for some other ponzi project. There is no quick fix for business culture because it exists in the ethos of your organization, not in the conference rooms, offices and cubicles. Culture consists of values, beliefs, legends, taboos and rituals that all companies develop over time. Attempting to force culture will most likely result in failed efforts and an ingenious solution. Instead, organizations that don’t have an inherent culture of measuring their marketing efforts must ingrain some key measurement enablers into the system.

Know your surroundings – know your audience.

Start by understanding what you’re working with by taking a realistic assessment of your organization’s culture. This may be easier for an outsider to gauge who can spot promise and dysfunction much more quickly than the tenured veteran who is so ingrained within the culture that it’s a part of their daily routine. In either case, taking a realistic assessment of how the company utilizes data and reacts to data-driven ideas is the launching point.

Find levers that trigger change. Once you’ve assessed the situation and gained your bearings, then you need to find out what motivates individuals and business units within the organization. Measurement is largely about producing results, so if there are decisions being made in absence of data, perhaps digging up some examples of bad decisions with proof from historic data might offer some subtle hints about operating differently. Yet, all companies operate differently, so if yours is one that wouldn’t react well to this tactic, then figure our how to push the buttons (whether positive or negative) that will affect change.

Always ask why. Not so much in the way that a three year old persistently asks…why? Why? WHY? But more so to determine if data requests and new projects have a well thought out plan with measurable goals. So much of what we do in analytics is founded on having clearly defined objectives and goals that it is imperative for web analysts to enforce their clarity by insisting that data has a purpose.

Once you’ve established what you’re working with, the next step is to develop a measurement strategy that meshes with your culture. I advise my clients to create a “Waterfall Strategy”. I introduced my concept of the Waterfall Strategy in my manifesto, so I won’t attempt to recreate it – here it is:

Strategy Credo #8: Establish a waterfall strategy. By this I mean strategy should flow from the headwaters of the organization and align with the corporate goals set forth by the executive team. Once your measurement team is clear and united on the goals, then identify objectives as the next tier in your waterfall that supports the corporate goals (these are your business promises). The base of your waterfall strategy consists of the tactics. Tactics are the actual campaigns and programs that emerge from your marketing machine (your creative promises). Each tier within the waterfall has specific metrics that indicate success. These metrics must be clearly defined and baked into the system at all levels to ensure proper measurement. It’s also critical to recognize that neither you nor an external consultant is likely to change your corporate goals, but you can refine the way in which you get there.

The third effort that you must undertake when attempting to build a culture of measurement is to make your data sing. And no I don’t mean going on American Idol or belting out karaoke at your next company function. Here I’m talking about the ability to tell a story with your data. Think about culture for a minute here…it’s built on stories. You need to become a story-teller within your organization and find the narrative within the data. Communicate to your constituents not with numbers and spreadsheets, but with examples of how their efforts and activities contributed to the success of the organization. In doing this, you will create heroes and legends within your organization who earned their status through data. The next thing you know, others will be knocking at your door and asking for metrics and measures to show the brilliance and success of their projects. You’ll inherit a whole new set of problems when this starts to happen, but we can tackle that at another time.

So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Please let me know your thoughts and how you’ve built a culture of measurement at your organization.

Oh yeah, if you’re going to be at Webtrends Engage next week please seek me out and let’s talk about building a culture of measurement; my concept of the waterfall strategy; or simply share a story over a cup of coffee. If you haven’t seen it yet, Webtrends has built out an awesome site for networking with fellow Engage attendees, so let’s meet.

See you in NOLA!

**Update** Here’s the video courtesy of Webtrends of my official presentation.

As you can see by the title of this post Analytics Demystified has some amazingly huge news — respected industry veteran and former Forrester Research senior analyst John Lovett has come on board as a Senior Partner. I have known John for years and have been one of his biggest fans all along; imagine my chagrin when he decided to leave his awesome job and help Aurelie and I build something truly great here at Analytics Demystified!

John has long blogged over at Analytics Evolution but he’s already set up shop here at http://john.analyticsdemystified.com.  As you can see he’s pretty excited about joining our team as well, and you can read the official press release on our web site.

At Analytics Demystified I have worked for the past two years and Aurelie and I have worked this year to build a truly great and well-differentiated consulting firm. Lots and lots of companies do implementations, reporting, and the basic block-and-tackle work that is the foundation of our industry. But when I left Visual Sciences I wanted to fill a completely different need. In the past two years we have, I believe, successfully done that.

We count among our clients some of the best companies doing business online, some of the greatest technology firms in measurement today, and some of the nicest people working in web analytics today. Based on the early news from our trusted clients and partners John will only accelerate our growth and allow Analytics Demystified to focus on more strategic and more valuable engagements across the globe. Plus, since John is a total and complete Rock Star like Aurelie, I have a new partner that I know I can trust with the kinds of clients we work with here at Analytics Demystified.

We will have more great announcements from the firm in the coming weeks but I will leave you with these few things:

• If you’re a Analytics Demystified client in any kind of retainer, you have immediate and automatic access to both John and Aurelie. Contact me directly for more information;
• If you’d like to talk to John about his practice at Analytics Demystified you can email him at john@analyticsdemystified.com;
• If you’d like to know more about this announcement and how Analytics Demystified can help your business, please give me a call at (503) 282-2601;
• If you’re in Boston and want to congratulate John and buy the man a drink, please join us at Web Analytics Wednesday in Cambridge on TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15TH (sponsored by our friends at Unica and SiteSpect and hosted by Judah Phillips)

I hope everyone reading this blog will join me in welcoming John to the team and take the time to read his “Hello World” post titled “Let the Wild Rumpus Start”.  Oh, and feel free to spread the word!

Now that Omniture’s Q3 earnings are public that I sort of felt like I needed to apologize to the company or at least recognize that they did a good job last quarter leading into their sale to Adobe Systems. Despite what I had heard from multiple sources their earnings announcement was right in line with guidance. Congratulations to the entire Omniture and Adobe team!

It still leaves me scratching my head about the deal since the synergies are less obvious to me than they clearly are to Adobe and Omniture’s management and shareholders, but hey, with the sheer number of changes occurring in the industry right now who knows what might actually work. Hell, based on what I’m hearing about the Google Analytics announcement next Tuesday, it’s going to look like a great time to be focusing on something other than competing with Google Analytics …

I’m going to get to spend time with many of their largest customers next week so I suspect I’ll hear a great deal more about how this sale is being met by HBX customers, Visual Sciences customers, and those folks who have a tremendous amount invested in the SiteCatalyst line of products. If you’re an Omniture customer going to Emetrics next week and have an opinion you’d like to share please reach out to me directly and we’ll arrange some time to chat.

Again, congratulations to Josh James and all of the OMTR shareholders on what is increasingly looking like a great deal for all involved.

Wow, everyone seems to have an opinion about this acquisition. Some people think Microsoft will ride in at the 11th hour and out-bid Adobe because Microsoft and Adobe compete, and because Google has Google Analytics. On this point I am inclined to agree with Joe Davis, CEO of Omniture competitor Coremetrics, who comments that Omniture has been shopping the company around for some time and it is unlikely that Redmond hasn’t already had the opportunity to play (given the significant investment Microsoft has in Omniture.)

Other folks appear to be worried that Adobe will be integrating Omniture into Flash and this raises privacy concerns. While certainly folks have concerns about tracking and the possibility of embedding tracking into Flash Local Shared Objects (LSO) I just have to believe that management at Adobe is smart enough not to risk Flash’s dominance by subjecting the technology to the scrutiny, navel-gazing, and paranoia of the “privacy police.”

Their customers, at least the ones I am talking to, are more or less 2 to 1 against the acquisition at this point citing a variety of concerns (transition, failure to execute on stated product plans, talent flight, Adobe is not adept at services, etc.) Far be it from me to tell anyone’s customers they are wrong when expressing concerns, especially since this is an out-of-sector acquisition and Omniture is now more or less a medium-sized cog in a very big machine. Arguments for include loving Adobe (I love Adobe!), being relieved that Adobe is a big, grown-up company, and hopes that Adobe will focus on fundamentals like customer support, product execution, and global expansion.

Another customer complaint is that Omniture is now losing the (thin, pasty) veneer of third-party objectivity and that some companies may not actually want Adobe to have access to their site’s data.  I think this may be the same boondoggle that Omniture (and others) have used to explain why “the Enterprise wouldn’t use Google Analytics” — except there is more and more (and more) evidence that the Enterprise does use Google Analytics — but it will be interesting to see how the “free-standing” analytics vendors work to make Omniture eat their own words now that they too are part of something larger.

The comment that has me most concerned is one best detailed by Carter Malloy from Stephens, Inc. Research Analyst who I have known for years and who I know to be pretty level headed regarding the sector.  Carter sent me this, which I am simply repeating with his permission:

“I don’t understand the strategic rationale on adobe’s part. Different end market buyers. Very different products. No real cost savings or integration between the two products. OMTR is very capital intensive vs. adobe not much at all. Seems like Adobe is buying growth with hopes for cross sells. I would be surprised to find out that OMTR did not shop the business around before accepting the bid from Adobe – we should find out soon in public filings required by the SEC. Omniture will still have to report 3Q09 earnings in October, but I think the deal will get closed before Q4 in Jan/Feb. I also think Adobe will show Omniture’s revenue performance on an informal basis going forward. It will be <10% of Adobe’s total revs, but I still think they will give analysts at least some idea of what growth looks like.”

This was in response to my comment detailing a thesis that I have heard from several of Carter’s peers: that Omniture was about to blow Q3 earnings and that the result would be a dramatic dip in OMTR share price as investors head for the exit. The rationale is, apparently, that the company has over-promised and under-delivered for too long, both to investors and customers, and the economy has been the “last straw” for many who have opted to look elsewhere for web analytics technology. This, combined with slower-than-hoped adoption of non-core solutions (data warehouse, Test & Target, Search Center, Survey, etc.) resulted in a “company who’s greatest days are behind them” (direct quote, and I begged to attribute but was told “no” due to company policy.)

Don’t get me wrong: This is not my thesis, at least not yet.

While I have seen evidence of larger Omniture customers switching, increasingly to Unica, I have not seen enough evidence of the kind of massive shift away from SiteCatalyst that would warrant a sudden exit. The good news is that Carter’s thesis can easily be tested: Either Omniture will make expectations for Q3 or they won’t. I’m sure this will make for an interesting Q3 call, at least for those investors who are taking a bath on the acquisition price.

My concern is this: If the investment banker thesis is correct, if Omniture was about to report a second quarter of, um, disappointing results, then what does that mean for the larger industry? Is Adobe really evidence that the larger market is taking an interest in digital analytics? Or was the company thrashing about looking for something new to cover for recent declines and this really isn’t about Omniture or web analytics at all?

Again, I don’t know, at least not yet, and I don’t think any of us do. But given the very mixed reviews about the acquisition I think we as an industry should take a step back and consider the larger ramifications. Personally I don’t think web analytics is going ANYWHERE — hell, I’m recruiting at Analytics Demystified — but we can all admit we collectively haven’t done the best job explaining what we do and what the data we live and die by means.

This interesting acquisition will certainly get more interesting as the days pass. Congrats again to all involved.

Wow, I have to admit that I was surprised mid-day today at a new client meeting in Chicago when, at the same moment, my phone, my SMS, and my email all went off at the same time. When we got to a break I quickly glanced down and the SMS message said “Adobe buys OMTR for $1.8B!!!!!!”

Wow.

I didn’t get to talk to the press (John got the honors, congrats) and am just not getting a chance to cogitate a little on what Adobe’s entrance to the web analytics market means after non-stop phone calls for the past five hours.  A lot of interesting comments have already been published so I will try and reference the stuff I think is insightful in an effort to avoid repetition.

• In general, the more I think about the deal the more it makes sense, at least for Omniture. Given increasing pressure from lower-cost (and free) solutions, the economy, and a customer base that is more and more prone to complain about service issues and the high cost of doing business with the company, exiting now makes good sense.  Why fight the sea change in the analytics market when you can saddle someone else with the responsibility?
• Like others, I don’t really see the synergy in the deal, but I admit that I love Adobe and so I’m willing to be surprised. I think of Adobe as a software company for creative types; Omniture sells software-as-a-service to analytical types; these are different business models and very different customers. The idea that somehow this acquisition bolsters Adobe’s position in content management or as a global delivery platform just doesn’t resonate with me.
• Similarly, I don’t see this acquisition as creating anything new regarding measurement being embedded into rich media applications. Thanks, perhaps ironically, to Macromedia (owned by Adobe) we have been embedding tracking codes into Flash, Flex, Silverlight, AJAX, etc. for years … and while the integration is botched as often as not, I don’t see how adding a “Click here to Omniture-ize” button into Dreamweaver and Adobe’s RIA development suite will solve that problem.
• I do agree with Alex Yoder’s general thesis that this acquisition increases the overall visibility of the sector and that this is a good thing. I also agree that this acquisition is likely not the last — both WebTrends and Coremetrics are owned by investors and you know how those guys are. His citation of Microsoft and Oracle is interesting given both companies historical interest in the sector (although neither has had the chutzpa to actually pull the trigger — at least in a substantial way.)
• I also agree with Gary who is somewhat skeptical about acquisitions, especially out-of-sector ones like this (anyone remember NetIQ? How about you Deepmetrics customers?) and since the Instadia, HBX, and Visual Sciences acquisitions that Omniture made didn’t really generate the benefits promised. However, where Gary favored IBM (who I didn’t realize wanted back into the sector after selling SurfAid to Coremetrics) I liked the idea of WPP increasing their $25M investment by, well, I guess about $1775M or so. Given my position on how companies will deploy web analytics in the future, WPP adding a premium measurement brand to their analytics tools and giving them the ability to pass world-class analytics along to their best customers made sense to me. Oh well.

Regarding Omniture customers … I am getting feedback from across the spectrum. Some customers are encouraged by the news, largely because they believe that Adobe will bring a new level of rigor to product development, integration, and customer support.  Others (including those customers still on HBX) are somewhat discouraged by the news, given that they’ve been hearing a lot of promises lately and they’re not sure what a new owner will mean.  Still others have expressed that they really liked what the company had been doing this past year and so are bummed that things might slow down while the deal and integration are completed.

Prospects are a different question. Since I am working with a number of companies currently evaluating Omniture products … the best guidance I can give is “wait and see.” Again, I think Adobe is an awesome company and every interaction I have ever had with them has been positive. Hopefully this acquisition will be mostly painless and largely transparent to outsiders. We’ll know soon enough if Omniture’s recent aggressive pricing and willingness to cut deals to close business differs from Adobe’s business practices. And while competitors will almost certainly claim “Omniture is out of the game,” I am personally encouraging my clients to think carefully about what Omniture and Adobe have been able to do independently before writing the combined company off.

At the end of the day I’m really happy for the bright folks I know who have been plugging away at Omniture all these years in a variety of their companies. The teams at Omniture, HBX and Visual Sciences, Offermatica, and hell even Matt Belkin (remember that guy!) who hopefully get to participate in the largess that Omniture has created should all get credit for the thousands of hours they spent on the road, fighting for the big green machine, never willing to concede until they’d finally lost (and sometimes even after they’d been asked to go home!)

Congratulations to Josh, Chris, Brett, John, Kristi, and the entire senior management team at Omniture! Also, best of luck to the management team at Adobe with your new acquisition; your new customers are among the best in the business and will look to you to make a good thing even better.