WebTrends: A Busy Summer for Analytics

Summertime may be the time for blockbuster movie releases, but I don’t usually associate summer with blockbuster releases among web analytics vendors. WebTrends, with its Analytics 9 release in early August, sought to change all of that. WebTrends is having quite a busy summer, also acquiring a small multivariate testing firm called Widemile at the end of July.

The Analytics 9 release is quite an intriguing package and upon first look at all of its features there is definitely a “wow” factor…both because the interface and analysis functions are cool in of themselves, but a vast improvement on the “traditional” WebTrends interface.  The general thrust of the release is geared to making it easy for your report users to access reports more easily and analyze the data more quickly. Does WebTrends succeed?

The new Insight report profile report summary and drill down is clearly presented to the user with both standard and custom reports available. Rather than split up reports into a vendor-centric hierarchy (a frustrating norm from all vendors since the beginning of web analytics), the reports are presented in alphabetical order.  A search function is also available to quickly find a specific report.  However, you must enter the specific name of the report, as it is not a fuzzy search. On the plus side, the search form does fill in with possible reports based on your entry.

A “story” feature is available for all standard (not custom) reports. This is a great little feature that spits out a descriptive analysis of the report that’s been run. For example, instead of you needing to write about the top level numbers and trends, the story feature populates the analysis template with the numbers in all of the right places. I laughed when I first saw this because I could completely relate to having to spend time on writing these rather obvious analyses that are both labor intensive and tedious…but often necessary when sending reports along to stakeholders.  There is a bit of a downside, in that you cannot customize the canned analyses.

If you are using RSS for news, press releases, blogs and so forth, you can insert the RSS URL into a report, and see on what dates stories were going out on the RSS. All you need to do is a cut and paste of the URL into the RSS Overlay field and you’re good to go.

The other aspect of this release that is quite exciting is the use of the REST API to create automated Excel reports. Readers of the CMS Watch Web Analytics Report, and more sophisticated users of WebTrends know that automated Excel reporting (a la Omniture’s Excel client) has always been a weak point. The new REST APIs make this pain a thing of the past…for the most part. As long as you’re using Excel 2007, all you need to do is copy the http link generated by the report in WebTrends and paste it into the “From Web” field under the Data tab to get the report.  The good news is that you can generate the same report as often as you’d like…daily, weekly, monthly and so on, and the http link will be the same, so you can point to the same link. In addition, there is no limit to the number of rows available in the data export. The automation aspect...that is hands free update of the data into the Excel sheet… is not currently available. This means that you’ll need to do the data refresh manually. This is a bit of an inconvenience, but would not likely be too much to bear unless you’re doing quite a lot of automated Excel reporting.

Analytics 9 is a great step forward, but rather than being a standalone summer blockbuster it has to be viewed either as the first part of a multi-part serial or a preview of things to come. There are a few significant unfinished parts to this story:

What is to become of WebTrends’ custom report interface? This is not covered by the new release. If you need to develop advanced reports, such as those using filters or importing campaign and product IDs into reports, you need to use the “traditional” UI from release 8.5. Same goes for doing drill down reporting.

Other “cliffhanging” aspects in Analytics 9:

• The list of reports in Insight is pre-defined; the company indicates that you’ll be able to custom configure the list in the next release.
• There are two different log ins…one for Insight and one for the “traditional” UI, but there is on administrative control over setting permissions from one or the other.
• Insight does not work with Marketing Warehouse.

There is definitely a “work in progress” element to the WebTrends product right now…which feels both exciting and risky. Management stresses that it is now in a mode of rapid release, and that the product will be fully re-engineered over the next 6-9 months, with the next release coming out in October. According to the company, there have been 44 customers in beta since mid-June, and they are planning to use the feedback from this group to help shape the evolution of the new product.

I think it’s all a good thing, and I’m impressed by the progress the WebTrends team has made since Alex Yoder took over as the CEO a year ago. But for all of the advancements in Analytics 9, I have a question about what exactly and when exactly the core product will be completely re-engineered. It is not exactly clear what features will be addressed and when they’ll be addressed going forward. I think it would be helpful to have more definition around the product development roadmap.  Without this guidance from the company, I’m not exactly sure when the “new” product will be finished or available in entirety. If I were evaluating WebTrends, I’d ask my rep to be as clear about this as possible. Otherwise, I’d feel a bit like I’m guessing on how the product story is going to turn out. Might be fine for the movies, but in the case of a web analytics investment, I’d like to know how the story ends before I pay my money.

Definitely interested to hear your take on this...either here or at X Change Sept 9-11.

I'd love to see you in my Think Tank Sessions the day before XChange begins:

From Business Requirements to Tag Design to Tag

Managing Web Analytics on a Shoestring

 

Comments

[Jacques Warren]

Spot on Phil! I totally share your thoughts about WT evolution. I think the time has come to re-engineer the product. There's SO much legacy stuff in the app, that it has become a weight. We need a more flexible app that allows for more rapid and efficient on-the-fly analysis (slice'n dice, cross-tab, etc.).

I like the new Insight UI (I'm a Few devotee), but heavy users will have quickly noticede that the product is the same at its core. I understand that Webtrends has changed its developement approach, with UI and core allowing for independent development. This should effectively accelerate the evolution.

I agree that Alex's return has had a profound impact on the company, and brought back the excitement. People over there are pretty motivated!

So, I'm definitely one to be very curious to see what the next months will bring.

[Bill Bruno]

It's very refreshing to read a post like this. With all of the convoluted reviews out there, this one is a great balance of good and bad. I'm also very impressed with the transformation since Alex has assumed command, and I think this is a great step in the right direction for their tool. However, it's merely one step in a necessary set of steps and seeing a more defined product roadmap would be very helpful. Great post!

[Chris]

This is the best sum-up I've read.

I disagree a little (with Jacques too) about the need for re-engineering. I'm concerned about the time it would take; I don't think they have the extra resources and diverting existing resources would reduce the momentum that they have now.

I think the core product can be improved immensely now, i.e. made less confusing, less overwhelming, easier ... with an overhaul of the setup screens and help screens. And I really do mean overhaul, not tweaks. When I train people (not just me, I'm sure many have done so), the product perception can suddenly go from "ick" to "wow" once a number of things are clarified.

[Alex Yoder]

Jacques and Phil,

Thanks to both of you for your support and candid feedback. I would say that on the one hand, keep in mind that we can't change EVERYTHING this quickly, but on the other hand, it is our core tenet to actively listen to feedback from the entire market and also represent thought leadership ourselves, and incorporate that feedback into product development release cycles. Suffice it to say, please keep your eyes on the coming releases and I think you will find yourselves satisfied. :)

We are here to deliver, not just promise.

Best,

Alex