Omniture User Group Meeting
By Craig Danuloff
Weds evening Omniture hosted quite a swanky 'user group' meeting at the Forbes Gallery in NYC. There was great attendance with about 100 existing Omniture users representing many large and well known companies. (Check out dates for Omniture Cafe meetings in other cities.)
It was clear the Omniture users have quite a pent-up demand for information and a community. It didn't take 2 minutes into the first presentation for the audience to begin asking questions and sharing work-arounds and requesting features. That could have gone on for hours - and been very useful and informative.
But the agenda called for a series of presentation from both Omniture users and Omniture staff, and so we learned a little about how the product is used in the real world and some 'inside' information on current and future happenings at Omniture (it was an NDA event so I can't share too many details.)
I was pleased to have been invited to share some of our experiences, and pulled together what would have been a solid 45 minute presentation - but the agenda allowed only about 15 minutes (which I knew in advance, so the over-stuffing was totally my fault). Still I was able to share a bit about how we approach both implementation and ongoing analysis, and discuss some of the tough spots we got into and how we managed to wiggle out of them.
The most interesting part of preparing the presentation was stopping to think about our 'Analytics Philosophy'. It don't think I was able to fully or accurately define it, but here's what I came up with:
- Analytics is required. We don't take clients or work on any online marketing activities without 'appropriate' analytics software installed. Usually this means SiteCatalyst, although we do have some smaller clients on Google Analytics or IndexTools, and one major account still on HBX.
- We need analytics in order to understand marketing programs, user behaviour, and website content and architecture. These are three of the most important attributes of an online marketing program and it is just impossible to make very many intelligent decisions about any of them without solid analytics.
- Interesting isn't enough, it has to be actionable. After operating a website without any analytics, just getting the basic reports seems like a miracle. But the thrill of that wears off quickly, and it ultimately becomes clear that the data only looks backwards but the business needs to move forward. This means relating the data to goals, options, theories, and external information.
- Analytics software is a tool not a solution. Gathering and presenting the data is a big hard job, but even a full implementation and lots of customized reports won't let anyone maximize business results. Analysis takes time and skill - which both mean resources and money. Avinash started the conversation with his 90/10 Rule but there is a lot more conversation to be had. And some of it should start with the vendors who need to set realistic expectation when marketing and selling even the high end tools. We prefer Omniture because of it's complexity and ability to be customized - attributes which add to the ongoing cost (and value) rather than reducing them.
Thanks to Omniture for hosting a great evening, and inviting us to participate. My primary suggestion to them: users need more. This is a mission-critical function for nearly everyone I met that evening, which means it doesn't have to run after-hours. Start the event at 1pm, schedule 3 1-hour sessions with general topics but setup to allow the room to talk (think un-conference) and some breaks. You can still buy us great hors dourves and cocktails at the end of the day. :-)
I'm looking forward to the next event, whatever form it takes.
