Since Alex Yoder took over the reins as CEO at WebTrends in
August, the company has been on an active campaign to make itself over…on both
the image and product development fronts. Preaching a message of “openness”
this has been manifest in hiring a new PR firm focused on consistent messaging
and a senior management team that shows an interest in accessibility…both noticeable
changes from the pre-Yoder days.
Things moved a bit more slowly on the product development
front. While the openness vision has been articulated at industry conferences,
such as eMetrics,
it wasn’t exactly clear what this meant…other than that the Marketing Warehouse
was the key to data access. So, it was
with great anticipation to see what the company was going to announce at Engage, its customer conference last
week.
Now that the smoke has cleared, let’s see what happened:
A Big Pre-Announcement
A
New WebTrends Open Exchange – Yes, Open Exchange has been around since September
2007, but primarily as a partnership program. The revamped Open Exchange will
provide API access that builds on its Tag Builder functionality. At first impression
this is all a good thing: a fully published API
should help extend data export to third party solutions; provide an alternative
to the ODBC drive for exporting data into Excel and enable better access to
both Analytics and Marketing Warehouse data. These last two points are significant
because for years WebTrends has insisted that there are no issues with the ODBC
driver even though many in the marketplace have expressed unhappiness with the
product. On the second point, there seems to have been an overemphasis on developing additional reporting and querying
capabilities for Marketing Warehouse at the expense of the core Analytics
product.
Is
there a catch? Well, the critical component of the web services is the Data
Collection API, and this is available in beta only right now…general release
for Analytics slated for June and for Marketing Warehouse in Q4 2009. Any beta
users out there? I’d definitely like to hear about your experiences after you’ve
used the APIs to see what you think.
Quick
take: Big build up and pay off to be
determined.
An
Interesting Partnership
A
Co-Branded Radian 6 Offering – Radian 6 is one of the new breed of analytics
tools that monitors social media impact. WebTrends announced WebTrends Social
Measurement Powered by Radian 6. The promise is that through Open Exchange, you’ll
be able to integrate Radian 6 data with WebTrends Analytics. However, you’ll
need to wait on this…probably at least another quarter for any integration. In
the meantime, you can purchase the Social Measurement solution through
WebTrends and for now; see basically the same reports as you would if you
purchase Radian 6 directly.
Quick
take: Big build up and pay off to be
determined.
A
Packaged Approach
A
Solution-Oriented Vertical Offering – Throughout its history, WebTrends has
lacked cohesiveness to its product and service offerings. Yes, it could do a
lot, but it’s been difficult to figure out what part of the solution would fit
your needs. The company is addressing this with eight vertical focused
solutions. Nothing like the Coremetrics reporting
or the Omniture
playbook approaches, these service/solution offerings are presented as complete
offerings that encompass strategic, technical and tactical components. Of
course it will be curious how these complex engagements are estimated, planned,
delivered and managed.
Quick
take: Big build up and pay off to be
determined.
So,
You Tell Me…
As
I mentioned, WebTrends is doing a lot these days to convey a new image. Management
is easy to talk to and very forthcoming with information. They are doing a
great job at reaching out to analysts, and you can sense a real energy…so
different than years past. But I wonder what you’ve seen…in your demos with
WebTrends, your experiences with tech support? Do you think the company has
changed for the better? Is this management enthusiasm and sense of purpose evident
in your day-to-day dealings with the company? Or is it pretty much the same
old, same old?
The
next few quarters should be telling as to whether Engage will be seen as the
public turning point for the company, or nothing more than a pep rally for the company faithful.
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