If you're a Visual Sciences customer, the news of the company's acquisition by Omniture must have come as somewhat of a surprise. Even though you've been waiting for the other shoe to drop since the July announcement that the company is for sale, to think that the company would be purchased by arch-rival Omniture is an interesting plot twist.
So, the question is, will you need to say good-bye to Report Builder, or Visual HBX, or any of the other aspects that you've liked about HBX? Well, as it's all speculation at this point, I'd say yes and no.
If history is a guide, we could view Omniture's acquisition of Instadia, a Swedish web analytics company, as a model for what the future holds for Visual Sciences customers.
Omniture acquired Instadia in January, 2007, and is still in the process of digesting them. The company's target for completing the migration of Instadia's ClientStep 200 clients to SiteCatalyst is pegged for June, 2008. However, its not clear how the migration is going. Early indications seemed to point to a relatively easy migration of data, but difficulty in matching up reports up between ClientStep and SiteCatalyst. I expect HBX customers could expect the same experience. (Are there are any former Instadia clients out there who could shed more light on this?)
So, if it's expected to take 18 months to migrate 200 customers, it will likely take a lot longer to migrate 2,000 customers, which is roughly the current HBX client base.
So, it's possible you may have your HBX implementation for awhile yet.
What about the features in HBX? Again if Instadia can be used as an example, Omniture has claimed that it will be folding in ClientStep's much loved online survey feature into a new release. This hasn't yet happened, and it's not clear when it will.
Like pre-season predictions, it's time now to speculate on what the future holds, and in this case try to predict what Omniture will keep, or not keep, and what it uses to tweak its current offerings. My guess is that ultimately there's not a whole lot of the HBX product that they'll incorporate; Visual HBX will go away and the few customers using the platform will all get migrated to Datawarehouse and Discover.
That leaves the Visual Site platform, which will probably stay intact as a stand alone product offering because Omniture doesn't have anything like the technology.
You could say that the good news from a customer perspective is that Omniture knows web analytics, and therefore should be more attuned to customer needs than a company with little experience in the business. On the other hand, if you're a Visual Sciences customer, you probably had reasons for not selecting Omniture in the first place.
If you're a Visual Site or HBX customer, what do you think?
Mixed emotions on this one. For sure HBX customers will be moved over to Omniture (why not?) and then they'll try to figure out how to integrate Visual Sciences into the core product (think Discover x10). As a long-time HBX customer, it'll certainly be interesting.
Posted by: benry | October 25, 2007 at 09:32 PM
"So, it's possible you may have your HBX implementation for awhile yet." Having to wait more than 18+ months for your product to update with new and emerging functionalities could push several customers over the edge, is my honest opinion. With online media developments and the measuring thereof moving at full speed, customer demand to integrate these measurements into current reports will grow. The timing seems just a little off, when taking the Instadia case into account, if VS (HBX users) won't be facilitated in this request or any other if development comes to a stand still. Very interesting times indeed.
Posted by: Matthew_Niederberger | October 26, 2007 at 01:02 AM
As an Omniture customer, I think that it's a great acquisition. I'm definitely interested in seeing how the Visual Site product is integrated into Omniture's offerings. In addition to the acquisitions of Offermatica and Touch Clarity, this acquisition is setting up Omniture to be a true one stop shop for Web measurement and optimization. If they keep growing and making acquisitions at their current rate, the next thing you know they'll be acquired by Google!
And I agree with Brian McGee's comments on the Yahoo! Web Analytics board that if WebTrends and Core don't do something they will indeed be toast.
Posted by: Jason Egan | October 26, 2007 at 06:10 AM
I don't know that I totally agree that if WebTrends and Core don't do something (as in merge) that they will be toast. From my experience, companies will always look for another option other than the leading or number one solution.
Either way, it's really starting to get interesting, huh?
Posted by: Anthony Ware | October 26, 2007 at 10:38 AM
having been in the same position a few times before with software i know exactly how this will play out.
Omniture will say otherwise but investment in the HBX product will stop and the software will fall behind over the next 2 years. Customers will be compelled to migrate to omniture or face a deteriorating product. The HBX product is practically identical reportwise to omniture so it has to happen. Personally i have been less than impressed with HBX and omniture is not a very analytical product so i will probably look to upgrade to a more analytical tool in due course.
Posted by: Ray Matthews | November 17, 2007 at 09:02 AM
Thanks all for the responses...Interesting and diverse:OMTR being a one-stop shop to upgrading to a more analytical tool. As a web analytics manager these are challenging times indeed. While the partners and acquistions OMTR is garnering sound great, I'd definitely suggest looking closely at the LOE and cost for making the integrations work for your organization.
I think considering new tools makes sense too, and if you know exactly what type of deeper analytics you're going to perform, it should help make your requirements more specific and enable you to put the vendors to the test to find the right one.
Posted by: Phil Kemelor | November 18, 2007 at 09:38 PM