Big Changes at Analytics Demystified
I suspect by now many of you have noticed but this week we made two pretty amazing announcements here at Analytics Demystified. Now that the dust is settling I have some time to take a step back and offer up some comments on the announcements and what I believe they mean for our clients, our prospects, and the web analytics industry in general.
On Tuesday we announced that respected industry veteran Adam Greco had joined John and I as a Senior Partner. Adam is well-known to many in our community thanks to his high-visibility work during his tenure at Omniture, his popular “Omni-Man” blog, and his fine, fine work on the Beyond Web Analytics podcast series.
For John and I bringing Adam on board was a no-brainer. The guy is as bright as they come, he is articulate, and most importantly he knows how to squeeze every last drop of value out of the most widely deployed digital measurement solutions in use today — Adobe SiteCatayst and Google Analytics. Adam is committed to extending that expertise to all of the popular platforms as quickly as possible, and our hope is that by mid-year he will be providing the same great insights he has for SiteCatalyst to Webtrends, Unica, Coremetrics, Nedstat, and other customers.
Adam will be running our Operational Use Audit and Framework Development practice as well as providing custom training and generally supporting the rest of the Demystified service offerings. Which brings me to our second announcement …
On Wednesday we announced an exclusive partnership with tactical and technical consulting practice leaders Keystone Solutions. Keystone is a slightly better-kept secret than Adam Greco, although their current clients certainly know who they are. Founded years ago by former Omniture super-star Matthew Gellis, Keystone has grown into a talent magnet comprable to, well, Analytics Demystified. Matt Wright from HP, Kurt Slater from Expedia, Rudi Schumpert from Ariba, and a host of other amazing analytics technicians.
We have doubled-down with Keystone for one simple reason: in our experience they are the best of the best when it comes to providing fundamental and foundational support for any digital measurement practice. Especially against those same two “most popular” solutions — Google Analytics and Adobe SiteCatalyst — Keystone delivers in a way that few others out there are capable, and that is the kind of talent we prefer to work with in the field.
Through this partnership Analytics Demystified clients will be able to benefit from a dramatically expanded set of web analytics consulting service offerings ranging from on-the-ground implementation support to ongoing reporting and analysis to some pretty amazing custom solutions. They will also be taking the lead on our Tag Management Systems Audit and Deployment practice, an offering I expect to be red-hot in 2011 and beyond.
Now, unfortunate as it is, we were not able to pursue this type of relationship with Keystone without some cost. The immediate fall-out is that Analytics Demystified will no longer be participating in the X Change conference. While this breaks my heart after having put three years of sweat equity into the event, relationships change and so it is time to move on.
I do, however, promise every one of the hundreds of consultants, vendors, and practitioners we have personally invited to this conference over the past three years that we will be back, live and in-person, with something far more “Demystified” in nature. Based on our work with Web Analytics Wednesday, the Analysis Exchange, and hundreds of other events around the globe, we have a pretty good idea of what is truly missing from the web analytics event landscape … and now, thanks to Adam and the team at Keystone, we have the means to deliver.
I welcome your comments and questions about both pieces of news, and I hope you’ll keep your eyes open in the coming few weeks for even more news from our growing company. It is exciting times, indeed.
