Competition in the web analytics market is fierce, which is good news for companies hoping to get the best price, flexibility, accuracy and scalability in a web analytics tool.
A new report from JupiterResearch of New York finds that more than
two-thirds of organizations currently using web analytics are satisfied with
their current vendor. What’s more, the study found that the functionality of
solutions from various vendors is fairly similar. In effect, features in web
analytics tools are largely now commoditized.
The fact that the majority of organizations are happy with their
current web analytics vendor means that vendors that want to convince companies
to jump ship to their solution will have to try just a little harder to win
their business, competing heavily on both cost and flexibility.
Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and
reporting of Internet data to help understand and optimize Web usage, according
to the Web Analytics Association.
With the feature war largely over, web analytics vendors have just
two ways to distinguish themselves from the legions of competitors. Price is the
obvious one, but more interesting is the degree of flexibility the solutions
offer.
John Lovett, author of the JupiterResearch report, said
state-of-the-art in web analytics is data integration and the ability to stitch
together a holistic view of customers' experience across multiple touch points.
Some vendors are accomplishing this by developing integration platforms that
allow data to be passed from independent marketing applications like email,
content management and search, to analytics solutions for blended analysis.
Others are differentiating their solutions by creating suite-like products that
consolidate marketing functions or enabling data sharing and use in various
formats to increase flexibility in both use and analysis, he said.
Another differentiator is data accuracy, which the survey found to
be a top vendor selection criteria. Some vendors have added features that
resolve this issue, including the ability to annotate graphs with explanations
or incorporate comments. More than 75% of vendor surveyed have these abilities,
the report found.
All of this is especially good news for smaller companies, which
have been barraged by web analytics vendors in recent years with stripped-down
versions of enterprise systems designed with them in mind. Most of the major
vendors, including Google Analytics, Web Trends, ClickTracks, Netstat,
Omniture, IndexTools (soon to be purchased by Yahoo!), Unica, Coremetrics,
Fireclick and AuriQ focus on the midmarket, although some also focus on larger
companies as well.
Although some wouldn’t consider anything other than market leaders
Google Analytics and Omniture, CMS Watch, an independent firm focused on
Web-related technologies, says that’s short-sighted. In a statement in January,
2008, CMS watch said that Google Analytics and Omniture are “over-hyped”, and
that other established web analytics vendors are quite appropriate for
mid-sized companies.
CMS Watch recommends a host of options for mid-sized companies
looking for SaaS-based solutions, including Coremetrics, Digital River, Google,
Netstat, Omniture and VisualSciences. Hybrid solutions, which combine SaaS and
traditional software, include 24x7 Real Media, AuriQ Systems, IndexRools, Lyris (ClickTracks), SageMetrics,
Unica, VisualSciences and WebTrends.
JupiterResearch recommends Google Analytics, IndexTools from
Yahoo! And Lyris HQ ClickTracks as industry leaders in the small to midsized
business market.
But that’s not the end of
it. Microsoft plans to enter the market sometime later this year with a product
currently code-named Gatineau. Like Google Analytics, Gatineau is expected to
be free, and integrated with Microsoft’s advertiser toolset. It is expected to
offer an integrated view of marketing campaign effectiveness, demographic
segmentation, integration of conversion value data, and visualization of
behavioral data.
