CMS Watch VisualSciences Feed

Omniture's SiteCatalyst 14 Catches Up

philkemelor@pkwc.com(Phil Kemelor) — Thu, 6 Mar 2008 00:07:00 -0500

Everybody loves a party, and Web Analytics vendor Omniture is no exception, using their annual summit to announce the release of SiteCatalyst 14 and a truckload of other news, including a partnership with Baidu and the roll out of the combined Touchclarity/Offermatica offering.

If you have SiteCatalyst, you probably are now just getting familiar with the new release. So, what do you think of it?

I received a briefing last week, and certainly the new Ajax interface jumped out as a big improvement...13.5 was getting tiresome to look at, especially when compared to Google Analytics, IndexTools, and Nedstat.

SiteCatalyst's new capabilities in video measurement are also worth delving into. Tagging video is generally labor intensive because tags must be set within the application. Omniture claims to enable a "one tag" fits-all approach for Flash and Flex, along with Windows Media Player, QuickTime, and RealPlayer, which appears to be similar to the approach taken by Google Analytics. And there are improvements to Excel reporting and Forum access that are also noteworthy. To see some video of the new reporting, check out Marshall Sponder's blog.

If you're an Omniture customer, you'd have to be pleased with this upgrade. If you're an HBX customer contemplating whether to stick with the plan to migrate to SiteCatalyst, this will also appear to be fairly compelling from a features perspective at first glance.

Nevertheless, I suggest you take a closer look at what's really important from a requirements perspective...Is video analytics really something critical for your business? Do you use Excel reporting? Could Google Analytics fulfill 90 percent of your requirements and then a video analytics company like Visible Measures fill the last 10 percent? These type of mix and match possibilities can make your head hurt, but finding the right combination of measurement tools is going to get more, not less challenging, in the years ahead.

Enterprise Search Vendor Landscape, Circa 2008

tregli@cmswatch.com(Theresa Regli and Adriaan Bloem) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:16:00 -0500

You might be tempted to select enterprise search vendors for your shortlist based on their supposed "leadership" status in the market -- status either conferred by analyst firms or assumed by the vendors themselves. However, CMS Watch analyst Theresa Regli argues that you need to look more closely at product and vendor alike -- and understand where both are headed -- to properly evaluate your longterm risks and opportunities in an evolving marketplace...

What's an HBX Analytics Customer to do?

philkemelor@pkwc.com(Phil Kemelor) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:04:00 -0500

Omniture completed its acquisition of Visual Sciences last week.

So where does that leave HBX customers?

For the party line, you can check out the HBX migration FAQ.

After reading through it, my guess is that you'll have a bunch of questions. As suggested on the site in a number of places, "contact your account or services manager." Well, here are some of the questions I'd ask if I were in your position:

When will our migration to Omniture be scheduled?
What is the process for mapping all of our HBX Analytics data collection to SiteCatalyst?
Are there any reports and data output from HBX Analytics that we are not going to get in SiteCatalyst?
Are there any reports we're getting in HBX Analytics that we'll have to work harder to get from SiteCatalyst? For example, are you going to have to recreate Report Builder Excel reports in Omniture Data Blocks?
If you own Visual HBX, the recently released transitional module between HBX Analytics and Visual Site, is that going to be supported?
Are you going to require professional services assistance to create any of the reports you previously had in HBX?

I suggest before scheduling your migration you get answers to all of your questions and instead of considering this migration as something you must do, think about it more critically, as if you were evaluating a new vendor. It may be a good time to dust off that old RFP and consider your analytics requirements. SiteCatalyst may still fit the bill -- just don't rush into this blindly.

As readers of Web Analytics Report know, you have options. I suggest you give Parts 3 and 5 in particular a good review.

I'd also suggest checking out a thought-provoking post on transitioning from HBX to SiteCatalyst by my colleague, Gary Angel.

What's an HBX Analytics Customer to do?

philkemelor@pkwc.com(Phil Kemelor) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:04:00 -0500

Omniture completed its acquisition of Visual Sciences last week.

So where does that leave HBX customers?

For the party line, you can check out the HBX migration FAQ.

When will our migration to Omniture be scheduled?
What is the process for mapping all of our HBX Analytics data collection to SiteCatalyst?
Are there any reports and data output from HBX Analytics that we are not going to get in SiteCatalyst?
Are there any reports we're getting in HBX Analytics that we'll have to work harder to get from SiteCatalyst? For example, are you going to have to recreate Report Builder Excel reports in Omniture Data Blocks?
If you own Visual HBX, the recently released transitional module between HBX Analytics and Visual Site, is that going to be supported?
Are you going to require professional services assistance to create any of the reports you previously had in HBX?

As readers of Web Analytics Report know, you have options. I suggest you give Parts 3 and 5 in particular a good review.

I'd also suggest checking out a thought-provoking post on transitioning from HBX to SiteCatalyst by my colleague, Gary Angel.

The 2008 Web Analytics Report

tregli@cmswatch.com(Theresa Regli) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:01:00 -0500

Today we released the 2008 Web Analytics Report, evaluating 15 web analytics products.

While you may have heard of Omniture and Google Analytics, and perhaps think them your only choices, don't believe the hype. As Phil Kemelor, lead analyst on the report, put it: "The web analytics marketplace has seen some instability and consolidation -- such as ClickTracks and SageMetrics being acquired by larger entities, and Omniture's imminent acquisition of Visual Sciences -- and this has led some to believe that web analytics has become a two-party system. But don't believe the hype that Google Analytics and Omniture are your only choices, because that's hardly the case."

In fact, our research found that there's especially diverse choices in Europe and the UK, and in this new edition we added one of those vendors, UK's Foviance and their tool WebAbacus, to our line-up of evaluations. As we also note in the full press release, with Microsoft entering this space later this year, the marketplace is far from limited.

You can download a free chapter, which includes our review of Coremetrics' Online Analytics.

If you are a full subscriber, you'll receive your copy shortly; if you're a previous report buyer, you'll receive an e-mail soon outlining discount eligibility.

Watch this space for more in the coming weeks...

Omniture and Visual Sciences Get Nod from the FTC

philkemelor@pkwc.com(Phil Kemelor) — Thu, 6 Dec 2007 09:45:00 -0500

Omniture's plans to acquire Visual Sciences cleared a major hurdle yesterday with the US Federal Trade Commission yesterday. The acquisition, which is now expected to close in the first quarter of 2008, is subject to approval of stockholders of both companies and other customary closing conditions.

So, that takes out any suspense as to whether the deal would go through or not. Not that many folks expected a problem.

So, what to do if you're a Visual Sciences customer?

Omniture has said that it will likely keep Visual Site as a licensed, self-hosted product. The recently released on-demand may get discontinued and replaced by Omniture's Discover offering. HBX Analytics licensees will eventually get migrated to SiteCatalyst.

If you'd like to get a wide range of perspectives on how the merger will impact both Visual Sciences and Omniture customers, I invite you to join my Semphonic colleagues and myself for a free webinar on Tuesday, December 11 at 2pm EST/11am PST, where we'll be delving into the nitty gritty of the transaction.

To Register: Please visit https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/320201650 For more info: http://www.semphonic.com/analytics/asksem.asp

I hope you can join us!

Omniture and Visual Sciences Get Nod from the FTC

philkemelor@pkwc.com(Phil Kemelor) — Thu, 6 Dec 2007 09:45:00 -0500

So, that takes out any suspense as to whether the deal would go through or not. Not that many folks expected a problem.

So, what to do if you're a Visual Sciences customer?

To Register: Please visit https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/320201650 For more info: http://www.semphonic.com/analytics/asksem.asp

I hope you can join us!

Lyris HQ links ClickTracks, CMS, and E-mail marketing

philkemelor@pkwc.com(Phil Kemelor) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:52:00 -0500

Lost in the news about the dust-up at WebTrends and aftershocks from the Omniture/Visual Sciences acquisition was the announcement that Lyris, Inc. (formerly J.L. Halsey), the parent company to ClickTracks, launched its Lyris "HQ" platform and BidHero, a PPC campaign management solution.

The core of the Lyris platform, according to the company, is in management of the various products -- ClickTracks, Hot Banana content management, BidHero, EmailLabs email marketing, and EmailAdvisor, a email delivery monitoring tool -- from a single user interface.

Lyris has done quite a bit of work to bring this integration to fruition, and if it lives up to its promise, could be a nice solution to the SMB market or independent divisions at larger companies.

As we've noted the importance of working with web analytics vendors with a commitment to a product roadmap, it appears that Lyris is following through on their vision. But for you the customer the story is of course a bit more complicated. Picking a "suite" of tools almost always means sacrificing a poor fit in one area or another in exchange for a (potentially) unified interface and single vendor invoice...

Turbulence in the Web Analytics marketplace

tbyrne@cmswatch.com(Tony Byrne) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:20:00 -0500

Today we released some findings about the Web Analytics marketplace. Specifically, we see ongoing turbulence, with important new entrants (i.e., Microsoft), as well as vendor mergers past and (likely) future. Doesn't mean you shouldn't invest in this technology (our report can explain why); but it does mean, as usual, that vendor roadmaps and sustainability are as equally or more critical to a good long-term fit than feature functionality.

Releasing 4th edition of Enterprise Search Report

tbyrne@cmswatch.com(Tony Byrne) — Tue, 6 Nov 2007 00:01:00 -0500

Today we released the Enterprise Search Report 2008, evaluating 18 major search vendors. We'll be discussing more about different marketplace trends and vendors in the coming weeks. For now, our initial release focuses on the stunted promise of hosted search, as customers look to appliances for simpler needs, and more sophisticated, on-premise solutions for connecting to enterprise repositories. You can download a free chapter, which includes our (I think rather path-breaking) review of Google's Search Appliance.

If you are a full subscriber, you should receive your copy shortly; if you're a previous report buyer, you'll receive an e-mail a bit later this week outlining discount eligibility.

WebTrends CEO is history

philkemelor@pkwc.com(Phil Kemelor) — Thu, 1 Nov 2007 10:37:00 -0400

Well that was the news out of Portland late yesterday from a piece in the Portland Business Journal. Also gone are Jason Palmer, vice president of product management; Tore Steen, vice president of business and corporate development; and Hamid Bahadori, vice president of product development and hosted operations.

There's not a lot of details coming out just at this time. However, if you have anything to share, please shoot me an email.

WebTrends has seemingly been on the come back trail with features such as Score and Visitor Intelligence. On the other hand, their WebTrends Marketing Warehouse has been slow to catch on with customers, and it's probable that their highly publicized effort to scoop up HBX customers hasn't paid off.

The new CEO is Bruce T. Coleman. Coleman is CEO of El Salto Advisors, a consulting firm that provides interim management to computer software and service companies.

Some former employees have speculated that Francisco Partners, the private equity firm that owns WebTrends is eager to unload the firm.

From an investor's perspective, this would seem to make sense. Web analytics is hot right now. But from a customers' perspective, quick sales don't often bring good tidings.

Does Web Analytics Consolidation Mean Anything to You?

philkemelor@pkwc.com(Phil Kemelor) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 21:24:00 -0400

There has been plenty of discussion over the last few days about "consolidation" in the web analytics marketplace due to the Omniture/Visual Sciences deal. I believe the whole notion of consolidation is really more relevant if you invest in web analytics companies, rather than use their products.

In fact, I'll suggest a different theory based on the point of view of a web analytics consumer, rather than a web analytics investor: that marketplace is not consolidating; it is in fact fragmenting, and there are plenty of options to consider if you are purchasing web analytics solutions.

Much of the consolidation discussion is based on vendors that adhere to the SaaS/page tag collection model. Readers of the Web Analytics Report know that the license and data collection model of an analytics solution often has more to do with relevance to your requirements than functionality.

To get a bit more depth about what consolidation, fragmentation mean to you, read my post on Web Analytics Management.

Is Omniture the Borg?

philkemelor@pkwc.com(Phil Kemelor) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:56:00 -0400

Is Omniture the Borg?

That's what I wondered when reading about their purchase of Visual Sciences. The company has now acquired four competitors since January, including Instadia, a large Swedish web analytics firm.

The question that comes to mind is how can the company actually integrate all of these technologies successfully. As we've written in the Web Analytics Report, Omniture already faces some serious support issues associated with its growth.

If Omniture manages this acquisition well, they might actually help mitigate their support issues for the long term because they'll acquire a significant number of tech support and professional services folks who already understand web analytics. True, these resources may have their hands full migrating HBX customers to SiteCatalyst, but in a few years, Omniture could potentially boast a capable and staffed-up support team.

In the meantime, however, both Visual Sciences and Omniture customers should buckle up for what may be a rough ride.

For more on what the acquisition means for the HBX and Visual Site offerings, see my post on Web Analytics Management.

Is Omniture the Borg?

philkemelor@pkwc.com(Phil Kemelor) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:56:00 -0400

Is Omniture the Borg?

That's what I wondered when reading about their purchase of Visual Sciences. The company has now acquired four competitors since January, including Instadia, a large Swedish web analytics firm.

In the meantime, however, both Visual Sciences and Omniture customers should buckle up for what may be a rough ride.

For more on what the acquisition means for the HBX and Visual Site offerings, see my post on Web Analytics Management.

Introducing Coremetrics Jr

philkemelor@pkwc.com(Phil Kemelor) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 09:27:00 -0400

Coremetrics' announcement of its SMB Solutions might have caught some by surprise, considering that this (hosted) Web Analytics solution is often thought of as one of the more complex and expensive web analytics options out there. However, the company says that roughly 35 percent of its clients are in the SMB market and they foresee plenty of growth in that area.

At one level, this makes sense for Coremetrics. As we noted in Web Analytics Report, Coremetrics' focus on specific verticals -- such as retail, finance, and travel -- makes for a more easily understood standard set of reports for novice or part-time analysts, such as web content managers and marketers. According to Coremetrics, 70 percent of their current SMB users fall into these categories.

From a business perspective, instead of competing primarily with Omniture, Coremetrics will now be competing with other mid-priced tools in the space, such as WebTrends, HBX, Fireclick, Nedstat, and IndexTools.

Let's look at it from a functional perspective. Specifically, will the SMB product carry a lighter feature set? The company says no, arguing that recent architectural re-factoring on the back-end of their service now allows them to compete on pricing and services in the SMB market. Prospective (and existing...) customers will want to monitor this carefully; going lower-market could mean many more customers working within a system that traditionally suffered from long waits for customized queries.

Coremetrics claims that moving significant amount of data processing away from their core database environment will address these bottlenecks. You'll want to test it.

The Price is Wrong!

philkemelor@pkwc.com(Phil Kemelor) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:57:00 -0400

Not long after my WebTrends Xmas in August Release post, WebTrends' Director of Product Marketing Matt Langie contacted me to tell me that I'd gotten their pricing wrong. Pricing for Marketing Data Warehouse is not $1000/month, as I thought I'd been told during the demo. Langie said this statement contained errors:

"Existing customers of the Marketing Warehouse will be upgraded to Score and Visitor Intelligence at no additional cost."

It should read:

"Existing customers of the WebTrends Marketing Warehouse will be upgraded to WebTrends Visitor Intelligence at no additional cost."

He added, "In addition, WebTrends Marketing Warehouse is no longer a standalone product that is licensed, but serves as the underlying database which powers the two new products in ML2, WebTrends Score, and WebTrends Visitor Intelligence. As such, new licensees of WebTrends Score or WebTrends Visitor Intelligence will now receive the Marketing Warehouse inclusive in these product offerings."

To this I responded with the following questions -- questions that you might ask as a current or potential customer:

What is the additional cost of Score for existing customers?
What is the cost of Score for new customers?
What is the cost of both Score and VI if purchased by new customers together?

Langie responded, "...we are not publicly disclosing the specific pricing for our new product offerings, added to the fact that each customer's unique requirements ultimately drive their level of investment into these new solutions. I would also add that both WebTrends Visitor Intelligence and WebTrends Score are priced on a usage model."

OK, so WebTrends doesn't want to publicly disclose its pricing, but I find the explanation somewhat hard to decipher. If you're a WebTrends customer, or thinking about becoming a customer, I suggest you ask the same questions that I did to clarify your costs.

What troubles me though is how pricing based on "unique requirements" has become the standard operating procedure among the largest web analytics firms -- not just WebTrends. Perhaps this is just a reflection of a software space maturing and coming up with more enterprisey licensing models -- "whatever you've got is what you'll pay" -- but for you the customer, this is not a good thing. I rarely meet a customer who completely understands their license or contract agreement. Vendors may consider their pricing as "flexible," but it's just plain confusing to most, and after my exchange with Mr. Langie, I'm left believing that the pricing for Marketing Lab 2 will remain a mystery to most until the first invoice, unless they're quite tenacious in their exploration.

Speaking of becoming a new WebTrends customer, the company announced its "Move to ML2" program earlier this month. Designed to play on the potential squeamishness being felt by Visual Sciences' HBX customers these days due to the likely sale of the company, the "Move to ML2" program allows HBX Analytics licensees to apply up to 100% license credit towards a new investment in WebTrends Marketing Lab 2 (ML2).

HBX customers considering taking the bait should know -- as we've discussed in the Web Analytics Report -- that switching analytics vendors is not a trivial task. Against the license credit, you need to consider costs and time for transferring historical data from HBX to Web Trends ML2 -- that is, unless you decide to throw that data away. Also think about going through the process of another implementation. WebTrends is not offering any other credits towards implementation, data migration, and so forth at this time, according to Langie.

While I don't think Visual Sciences is doing a great job of making its customers feel secure by announcing the company is for sale, it might be worth seeing how this story plays out. Given tightening capital markets, it might take longer for Visual Sciences to find a buyer than originally planned.