Archive for the ‘Web Analytics Industry News’ Category

OX2 joins LBi International AB (“LBi”)

February 6, 2008

It had been brewing for quite some time as my little Web Analytics unit has been expanding its consulting offers related to Web and Customer Analytics well beyond the Belgian borders, actually all over Europe, in order to help companies reap the benefits of measurement and accountability of the online media.

While WebTrends first landed on my desk, in another lifetime back in 1999, as a business analyst, I felt help would inevitably be needed to get the most out of what Web Analytics coud bring to any business. And so when René asked me to help him set-up OX2, an Interactive Agency, back in 2003, my initial request was to set-up a Web Analytics team as well.

 To be honest, a lot of people felt that back then, we were kind of weird, which we totally understood but as the online medium is the most masurable of all channels and following my background as an economist, it really made sense for me to not only have a team to support clients in their online strategy but also prove that what we were saying made sense and added to the bottom line. Accountability through measurement was thus our early mantra as hard data remains undisputable when having to make strategic business decisions.

The early days – as from 2003 – allowed us to patiently build up our Web analytics expertise and team, first with WebTrends and adding gradually European supported solutions such as Google Analytics, Omniture, IndexTools, Unica, amongst others.
We also gradually moved from log file analysis to tagging, from using the reports within the Web Analytics tools to custom made automatised dashboards, which integrates data coming from other sources as well, ranging from campaign information to actual margin related data for ecommerce websites, moving beyond pure turn-over in order to get as close as possible to a companies’ impact on the bottom line.

To make a long story short, we were looking, from our little Belgium, for a pan European partner/acquirer that shared our accountability vision, had been thinking about Dashboards, Balanced Scorecards, Strategy Maps – thank you Kaplan & Norton – in order to reap the full benefits of our favorite channels’ measurability potential.
In a short: data driven strategy.

I’m convinced that LBi shares our vision to build an accountable future and am looking forward, as well as my team, to a fruitful collaboration.

Links:

Omniture gets new toys

February 4, 2008

So you had all heard the news and many of us blogged about it right away: Omniture acquired Visual Sciences for an amount equal to half the GDP of a small African country, but I digress 😉

The convenient truth (that no one in the world of vendor partners will admit to) is this: it’s going to be a hell of a lot easier to market SiteCatalyst-class and Discover-class solutions, without having to have our clients choose between Omniture and Visual Sciences.

Let us look in detail at the new array of solutions being offered by the Jolly Green Giant (ho ho ho):

“Traditional” Omniture solutions:

  • Omniture SiteCatalyst: with version 14 coming soon, this is undoubtedly the established standard for web analytics reporting. No surprise here.
  • Omniture Discover: the Java-based 3D data exploration module that makes web data mining a breeze (notice how I bolded ‘web data’)
  • Omniture Genesis: the hub module that ties together data from other solution partners for integration into SiteCatalyst
  • Omniture TouchClarity: the BT (behavioral targeting) module
  • Omniture Offermatica: the MVT (multi variable testing) module
  • Omniture SearchCenter: the bid management tool (to bid on keyword auctions)

Rebranded former Visual Sciences solutions:

  • HBX becomes… *drumroll* … SiteCatalyst HBX! As you can imagine, Omniture will no longer take on new HBX clients but will support existing customers until they eventually migrate to “regular” SiteCatalyst.
  • Visual Site, Visual Sale, Visual Bid and Visual Search… Wellthey’re going the way of HBX so wait and see…
  • Visual Workstation becomes … Discover On Premises! So far, everyone I have talked to agrees that the rebranding is misleading. Discover On Premises suggests that the product offers the same exploration capabilities as “regular” Discover but with the ability to host the solution in-house. Now when I bolded “web data” earlier, it was to emphasize the fact that Discover On Premises handles all sorts of marketing information: both web and offline data.

What about Platform 5 you ask? that’ s a question for a follow-up post 🙂

In the meantime, please leave your consitructive comments at the beep 🙂

Rétrospective WA du forum eMarketing 2008

January 30, 2008

De retour de Paris après une journée à rallonge et un retour plus que mouvementé (le progrès ne vaut que s’il est partagé par tous), je voulais vous faire part de mes impressions sur le 2ème Forum e-Marketing. Avant d’attirer des commentaires, je tenais à préciser que ce billet ne porte que sur la journée du mardi 29 janvier et ne prend pas en compte les interventions du mercredi 30.

Merci en tout cas à toute l’équipe de ebusiness.info pour cette organisation impeccable! Quoi qu’on en dise, cette édition du forum était nettement plus qualifiée que celle de février dernier.
(more…)

Accenture acquires Memetrics and MAXAMINE

January 29, 2008

Yesterday, we were pleased to see a couple emails from our friends over at MAXAMINE announcing their acquisition by consulting giant Accenture.

Debbie Pascoe, VP of Client Services for MAXAMINE, shared with me their formal statement, “We are excited about this tremendous opportunity, and believe it will ultimately expand our capacity to deliver compelling value to our customers and partners. Accenture Marketing Sciences shares our unwavering commitment to maximizing the value of digital investments and online operations, and can help us deliver on that promise within the broader context of overall marketing excellence.”
(more…)

Welcome to the WAA Blog

November 26, 2007

Web Analytics Association Premiere Corporate LogoI wanted to encourage our readers to subscribe to the WAA Blog that has just been launched this month.

As you know the Web Analytics Association is working hard since its creation to help the Web Analytics Industry.

The Social Media Committee of the Association has thus launched a blog which is open to all WAA members.  So if you’re a WAA member and would like to contribute to the Association Blog, please read the Terms of Service and if you agree make your first contribution.

Congrats to Marshall and the rest of the Social Media Committee of the WAA for this achievement!

Web Analytics Leaders Team Up: IndexTools Certifies Experts at OX2 (Press Release)

November 21, 2007

IndexTools Strategic Alliance PartnerNEW YORK, NY November 19, 2007 – OX2, the Brussels-based interactive web agency reinforced its established position as an industry leader by building closer ties to online marketing analytics platform provider IndexTools. OX2 officially became IndexTools’ Strategic Alliance Partner in Belgium and the first company certified under IndexTools Certification Program. Two OX2 consultants passed detailed exams to qualify as a Certified Analyst and a Certified Deployment Specialist.

“OX2 has earned its place among the premiere Web Analytics experts in Europe,” said Dennis R. Mortensen, COO of IndexTools. “We’re extremely proud to strengthen our relationship.”

The partnership culminates years of close dialogue between the two firms. As a Strategic Partner, OX2 will work hand in hand with IndexTools in order to help their common clients benefit fully from the vast data rendered by the online channel and to provide tailor-made Web Analytics solutions to enterprise clients.

OX2 reported that joining the new partnership was no sudden move, but rather the latest development in a longer term, well-considered process. “We believe our independence adds tremendous value to our business,” said Ren� Dechamps Otamendi, CEO of OX2. “Before we agree on a partnership with a vendor, we want to be sure they will meet with the approval of our clients. In the case of IndexTools we liked that they have a European office with a strong familiarity of European business norms and culture, including European Web culture.” (more…)

Rejuvenating WebTrends

November 4, 2007

Rejuvenating WebTrendsWhen René barged into our bedroom some 72 hours ago with my laptop in his hand, announcing Greg Drew’s departure from WebTrends, we finally understood why his name had been popping-up on searches to our blog for the last 24 hours in such an abnormal way.
I had thought Greg already looked tired when we briefly met in Washington and attributed that logically to the Road shows that WebTrends was holding, following its August release of the long awaited Marketing Lab² (ML²).

On the other hand, this news also reminded me of some discussions we had back in the spring in San Francisco with some WebTrends folks about the need for a refreshing touch within WebTrends in order to get past the very bad feeling we all shared about the first release of Marketing Lab. All partners we talked to were anxiously waiting – for far too long, I really want to stress that – for a more advanced release that would bring true added value to our existing clients. With ML1, this was clearly not the case.

ClickShift aka Dynamic Search

(more…)

Bruce T. Coleman new WebTrends CEO – Some thoughts

November 3, 2007

We have seen very interesting things since last eMetrics in Washington in the Web Analytics Industry, as Eric Petersonrecently appointed Director of OX2 declared to ClickZ: “This has been one of the weirder weeks in Web Analytics ever. One of the biggest publicly traded companies gets acquired, and another lets its executives go. Now I’m afraid to wake up tomorrow and find out what else might be going on“.  

So, let’s get back to WebTrends news as some more information has been published online regarding it’s top management changes. 

The first thing that seems clear now is that Greg Drew and the other three VPs were asked to leave by the Board of WebTrends. 

bruce_t_coleman.jpgBruce T. Coleman, who has become the interim CEO, knows WebTrends very well as he was member of the Board since 1998.  So even if he has no experience in Web Analytics operations, my feeling is that he understands very well the sector and he has got some ideas for the future.

Coleman has also extensive experience in running technology companies and thus we can expect some changes in the coming months.  From public declarations of their CMO Tim Kopp:

 “The company has been doing great. We’re driving double-digit growth. But we believe we can continue to do better and the board wanted to make a change to help accelerate growth“. 

So the objective is to increase growth and this seems to be the main reason of the management changes.  This was corroborated by Bruce Coleman who stated:

We need to get more new deals, this is a company that’s growing, but not growing as much as the marketplace. Given the investments, [the owners] want to see more of a return.(more…)

Greg Drew, CEO & top executives leave WebTrends

November 2, 2007

These are truly fascinating times for Web Analytics.

An article in the Portland Business Journal dated Oct.31st reveals thats WebTrends was hoping to be acquired by Omniture, who decided in favor of Visual Sciences.

Greg Drew, WebTrends’s CEO has now been replaced by Bruce T. Coleman.

Excerpts:

CEO Greg Drew and three other executives at WebTrends Inc. have left the company. Details of their departure remain unclear.

Pictures and biographies of each executive disappeared from the company’s Web site late Wednesday. Calls and a visit to the company, as well as a call to Drew, received no responses.

Drew had headed Portland-based Web analytics firm WebTrends for the past four years, and was part of the management team that took the company out as a separate enterprise from San Jose-based NetIQ Corp. in March 2005.

The WebTrends Web site now lists Bruce T. Coleman as CEO. He is CEO of El Salto Advisors, a consulting firm that provides interim management to computer software and service companies. He was most recently interim CEO of San Diego’s Websense until May 1999 and remains a director of that company.

[…] They speculate that with its market share slipping, WebTrends management wanted to sell the company to its biggest rival, Omniture Inc.

This particular piece of news begs the following questions:

  • why would two companies that just recently launched major upgrades to their product lines want to be acquired?
  • why sell to Omniture when WebTrends and Omniture have different views on Web Analytics?
  • were Visual Sciences and WebTrends in the same race and aware of it?
  • was Visual Sciences really favored over WebTrends? If so, what were the decisive factors in Omniture’s decision?

I am sure many people in the Web Analytics industry are as sad to see Greg Drew go as we are and wish him the best.

Thanks to Lars for pointing to the article!

As usual, constructive comments are welcome! 🙂

How will the Web Analytics Industry evolve with Omniture as the green giant?

October 31, 2007

After the acquisition of Visual Sciences, we all wonder how Web Analytics vendors will react. So let’s get back to the different vendors out there and try to take a look at the future.

If we take the latest Forrester Research regarding Web Analytics that Megan Burns wrote a few months ago, which you can download here at Unica’s website, we find the main Web Analytics vendors well represented. Here’s a graph that sums up Megan’s findings:

forrester_wa_wave_q3_2007.jpg

Based on this, on the leaders corner we will have after this merger: Omniture, WebTrends, Unica and Coremetrics. But other players need to be followed as ClickTracks, IndexTools, of course the free tools as Google Analytics and the coming Gatineau and let’s not forget the local players such as Nedstat (The Netherlands) or Xiti (France).

So Omniture is becoming the Web Analytics green giant, will the others be able to compete and how? (more…)

Omniture Pacman? What future for Visual Sciences?

October 27, 2007

real-pacman.jpgYesterday I had a journalist calling me to ask my opinion regarding Visual Sciences’ takeover by Omniture. Since becoming a public company, Omniture has been acquiring different companies, but one can wonder: where’s Omniture going

Omniture strategy: Pacman?

We see different types of acquisitions done by Omniture in the past:

  1. Complementary products to enhance the portfolio of solutions proposed to their clients. This is the case for TouchClarity and Offermatica. One could argue that buying TouchClarity also allowed Omniture to have a better UK presence, but my feeling is that the technology was the first motivation for this acquisition. Other Web analytics players have also done acquisitions of this type as WebTrends with Position Gold and Dynamic Search or WebSideStory with Publish.
  2. A different type of acquisition made by Omniture is the one represented by that of Instadia. Instadia was a great Danish WA product that got acquired last year and if it wasn’t clear enough at the beginning, it is clear crystal now what the intentions where. Even if the product was interesting, Instadia’s product has been abandoned and clients are being migrated towards Omniture’s SiteCatalyst. The objectives behind this acquisition were to gain presence in the European market through customers and skillful employees that could integrate the rapidly growing European Omniture’s team (Omniture is now one of the vendors with most resources in the European market).

Based on this, where the does Visual Sciences acquisition fall? Well, a bit in between both scenarios. Buying Visual Sciences provides Omniture with clients, great minds and probably the best analytical and data visualization tool out there. See below for more details about Visual Sciences in the Omniture ecosystem. (more…)

OmniSciences?

October 26, 2007

OmnitureOmniture, le géant mondial des WA vient d’annoncer le rachat de son concurrent direct, Visual Sciences (anciennement connu sous le nom de WebSideStory) pour la coquette somme de 394 millions de dollars, soit un peu moins du quart de la valorisation d’Omniture.

Il y avait bien entendu des rumeurs sur le sujet, comme le soulignait Ian Thomas cet été.

Au-delà du montant de la transaction qui ne sera finalisée que l’année prochaine, ce rachat de VS permet à Omniture de consolider sa position de leader mais remet surtout en question l’équilibre de la concurrence entre les différents éditeurs.

Pour les partenaires d’Omniture ou de VS, la situation risque de devenir intéressante car ce rachat permettrait de proposer une gamme de solutions vraiment modulable même si je pressens que HBX va disparaître (à terme) au profit de SiteCatalyst. Il y aura donc tout un effort d’accompagnement des clients à ce moment-là.

Plus d’informations sur l’intégration des offres et services à partir de l’année prochaine 🙂

Liens:

Comme d’habitude, vos commentaires constructifs sont les bienvenus 🙂

Omniture in the process of buying Visual Sciences

October 26, 2007

OmnitureTitle says it all 🙂

An announcement by Jim MacIntyre goes:

Visual Sciences has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Omniture, Inc.
The press release announcing this acquisition is available for review on our website. Until regulatory review of the acquisition is complete and the transaction closes, both companies will continue to operate independently and will continue to compete in the marketplace. This means that we will continue to deliver the products, service and support that your businesses can rely on.We understand that you will have questions about the future of the products lines. Future direction for products will be determined following the closing of the transaction and after comprehensive planning and feedback from customers and partners.

There we have it folks; I personally like to think of it as the integration of the best of both worlds.

Let’s see how this develops 🙂

Links:

Nouvelles fonctionnalités Google Analytics et Urchin v6

October 18, 2007

UrchinComme annoncé dans le billet d’Aurélie, Brett Crosby de Google (et ex-fondateur d’Urchin) a annoncé au cours du sommet eMetrics de Washington que la solution Urchin allait enfin être publiée dans sa version 6, que tout le monde attend depuis presque 3 ans.

Il faut dire que depuis le rachat d’Urchin Software par Google en mars 2005 pour intégrer la technologie UTM (Urching Tracking Module) à l’offre Google Analytics, on se demandait si Google n’avait carrément pas tué Urchin en se concentrant uniquement à Google Analytics.

Les rumeurs que nous avions entendu à Dublin au printemps dernier nous avaient laissé pleins d’espoir qu’une nouvelle version arrive, et nous y voici donc. (more…)

What’s new with Google Analytics, Brett Crosby’s eMetrics announcement

October 16, 2007

Google Analytics Authorized ConsultantIt’s always a pleasure to go to the eMetrics summits and hear from Brett Crosby what’s new and what Google has been working on in a very concise way. 15 minutes tops, crystal clear and true value for your money 😉

Last eMetrics in Washington, Google announced the launch of Google Website Optimizer. This time around, they are pushing a bit further by rolling out some very exciting features and holding true to their word to continuous support of their Urchin software version.

I’m pretty sure Julien will comment further about these new features. Let me just announce the big steps. So, what’s new with Google Analytics?

In a nutshell:

  1. Internal site search
  2. Event tracking of Web 2.0 Rich Internet Apps
  3. Outbound link tracking (TAGLESS!)
  4. Optional new GA.js code
  5. Urchin software from Google in beta version, only sold through GAACs.

Getting a bit deeper into the different features, Internal Site Search will show you the who, what & where of your internal search module. Reports will include time spent after search & reports of what happens afterwards. You can tie this back to your goal conversions and your e-commerce. I already know of a couple of clients who are going to be utterly thrilled with that!

Event tracking of Web 2.0 apps will allow you to track RIA in Ajax, Flash, Silverlight & Air and it will not inflate artificially your page views. It’s based on an event hierarchy of objects, action & label. Your object can for example be your player, the actions the buttons you use such as play, pause, etc. and the label will displays the name of the content.In your reports, you’ll be able to cross segment this with your other data such as geography for example.

As mentioned, outbound links will be tracked without additional use of tags. Gosh, that’s going to make life soooo much easier!

If you want to be able to use those 2 last features mentioned, you’ll have to update you code to include the new GA.js tag. It will also allow you to automatically detect SSL/HTTPS so that won’t be an issue anymore. Thank you very much! The new tag uses object-oriented code so it’s more compact and faster. And as a the cherry topping the cake, if you switch over from your urchin to your new GA code, EpikOne’s SiteScan is at your disposal, for free! Yeah!

UrchinLast but not least, Urchin software from Google is out in beta version, sold only by GAACs. It’s the software version that supports both page tagging and classic log files (if you still need that) and the good thing is that you can have both GA & Urchin running with a single tag. Urchin software from Google will therefore allow you to reprocess data and audit your raw logs if needed.
In terms of pricing, it’s a single fee of 2.995$, including all modules. It’s free if you’ve bought advanced support and if you didn’t, don’t worry: we will apply what you paid for moving from Urchin 5 up to Urchin 6.

So, on that note, thank you Brett, Google and the entire fabulous Google Analytics people working on this great product. And last but not least, happy birthday Avinash!

Julien back to you. Greetings from Washington.

Aurélie

Eric Peterson joins OX2 as Director & Shareholder (Press Release)

October 16, 2007

Eric T. PetersonBrussels, October 16th 2007 — Eric Peterson becomes shareholder of OX2, the Belgian/pan-European interactive agency leader in the field of measurement and analysis of online behavior, also known as Web Analytics or WA. Eric Peterson becomes a shareholder as well as a member of the agency’s board. As such, Eric’s mission will be to influence the WebAnalytics.be business unit by confronting his vision of web analytics against that of Aurélie Pols (Web Analytics Team Leader chez OX2). Eric Peterson will also travel to Europe to assist OX2’s European clients, should they require his unique presentation and strategic workshop management skills. (more…)

OX2 Expands to Germany (Press Release)

October 10, 2007

David Rhee (former Director of Web Analytics at Gateway Computer) joins OX2 to lead the agency’s new German branch

Wandering Dave Rhee with OX2 logoBrussels, October 10th, 2007 — OX2, the Belgian interactive agency and a leader in the field of website measurement and online behavior analysis (a.k.a. Web Analytics) increases its international clout. After expanding into France last January, OX2 develops its activities in Germany by opening a web analytics branch in Frankfurt. This endeavor was made possible with the addition of a renowned web analytics expert to the already celebrated Web Analytics European Dream Team. OX2 went all the way to California to retain the services of David Rhee, former Acting Director of Web Analytics at Gateway Computer (NYSE:GTW) and Primary Moderator of the Web Analytics Forum, run by the Web Analytics Association.

Download the Complete Press Release:

Choose your prefered language option: (English – French – Dutch)

In a few weeks…. eMetrics Washington!

September 26, 2007

eMetrics Washington 2007It’s becoming a little tradition to fly over to the US to attend the eMetrics Summits. In a few weeks in Washington Aurélie and I will be attending the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit and we’re really looking forward. Aurélie will be presenting and I’ll be networking and attending the lobby bar as usual. And yes, don’t worry, I’ll bring the chocolates 😉

I’m really looking forward catching up with all our Web Analytics friends from the other side of the Atlantic (Eric, Jim, Avinash, Bryan, Clint, Stéphane, Ian, Joseph, Judah, Dylan, Andrea, Brian, June, Braden, …) but also some European friends that will also be making the trip as Vicky, Neil and Oliver.

If you’re serious about Web Analytics, this is the conference you need to attend. If you attended our Web Analytics Day and you enjoyed it, attend eMetrics you will be bluffed.

Here’s a little video that I hope will make you think about it:

If you can’t attend eMetrics Washington, you can also attend eMetrics Stockholm that we will be also attending and were Aurélie is also speaking 😉

I wanted also to announce that it’s our Design Department that has come up with the new eMetrics logo and the creatives used to advertise this event.

See you in Washington DC,

René

P.S. You can read previous posts about previous eMetrics Summits here.

OX2 & Omniture

September 22, 2007

Omniture[Click for French version]

omniture_certified_logo.gifWith the recent arrival of Dave Rhee at OX2, our web analytics team now includes three full-fledged Omniture Certified Professionals, including Aurélie and yours truly. This is due in great part to the partnership that was just signed between Omniture and OX2 and announced by Neil Morgan during the Web Analytics Day on September 14th. Neil graciously acknowledged OX2’s expertise with Omniture since both Dave and myself had the unique opportunity to deploy Omniture’s web analytics tools for Fortune 500 companies and now this expertise is officially available to OX2 clients.

OX2 is now Omniture’s preferred partner for Belgium but our partnership extends of course to France, Germany, and beyond!

Adding Omniture to our skill portfolio was a logical step in our quest to best serve the interests of our clients and help them grow their online strategy by taking decisions based on hard, concrete data.

Thanks to the Omniture team for placing their trust in us and we are looking forward to a fruitful collaboration! 🙂

 

OX2 presence

The Web Analytics Day was also a good occasion for OX2 to present Dave and myself as Analytics Country Managers for Germany and France respectively, with Aurélie leading our (increasingly) European activities from our Brussels offices. This reinforced OX2’s image as a leading pan-European consultancy in the field of Web Analytics as well as bringing more credit to our position as a vendor-independent agency.

As you can see from the map here, there is plenty of room for us to grow but we’re working on it 😉

Take note in your calendar that OX2 and Omniture will both be presenting at the Customer First event in Brussels between October 18th and 19th.

Thanks for reading and, as usual, constructive comments are welcome 🙂

***

Version française (more…)

OX2 Web Analytics Day 2007: Thank you & Feedback

September 18, 2007

Here’s a little video presenting the Web Analytics Day that took place last week here in Brussels done by Roberto, one of our Design team members.

I wanted again to thank all the persons that made this unique event possible and specially to:

Eric for having accepted to deliver 3 outstanding presentations that really made the day worth it.

Ian Thomas for giving us the exclusive moment of presenting Microsoft Gatineau

– All the sponsors (Omniture, WebTrends, IndexTools, Microsoft, Nedstat & Extenseo) for supporting this event and allowing us to invite the practitioners.

– All OX2 team that has been working hard on top of their day2day jobs to get this event ready.

– And last but not least, all the participants that showed up. This event was for you and the best gauge that I can think of to measure the successof the event are the feedback forms. Besides one person that complained because it was too much oriented for big compagnies, here are some interesting statistics from the 50 forms that we received back:

100% of respondents found the conference instructive

100% said that the agenda and topics matched their expectations

100% would recommend the event to their friends

Regarding the speakers, the ranking of satisfaction was pretty much as expected: Eric leads with almost everybody stating that he was very good followed by Aurélie, Dave and Stephan. On the vendors side, the ranking of satisfaction placed Omniture followed by WebTrends and then Indextools, Nedstat and Extenseo.

I have to admit that we were really amazed by the feedback forms and the positive emails that we have received since last friday. Here are some of the comments we have received:

René, Aurélie, just a short note to say congratulations and thank you for today, I thought the audience, content and venue were all first class!

Thanks for hosting the event last week. I thought it was very informative and I certainly picked up a few useful insights.

I just wanted to congratulate you guys again in setting up this great event. All the people I have spoke to during the day where all enthusiastic about the event and Web Analytics.

Thank you for your event, I was really impressed

As I just told Rene over the phone. I think it was an amazing event on the level of Emetrics (and I do about 25 shows a year).

this last comment really made my day, as eMetrics is for me the nirvana of the Web Analytics event.

Thanks again to everybody that came and allowed this event to be a great success.

And yes, see you next year at our third OX2 Web Analytics Day Brussels (It’s going to be difficult to do better I think…).

René

P.S. BTW, you can also view some pictures of the event at Flickr.

Web Analytics Day Brussels: a European shock therapy in Web Analytics

September 16, 2007

My conference journey started out on Thursday, when I hooked up with a couple of Belgian clients at the eDay in Rotterdam, before heading back to Brussels together with Eric, after his brief radio interview, where I was lucky enough to play around with his iPhone. To be quite honest, I’m not really an early adopter but if you touch it, believe me, you want one and leaving your credit card at home doesn’t really seem to work 😉
The car ride back home went fast – as we both like to drive fast – and discussed on the way recent evolutions of the Web Analytics industry, including Megan Burns’ latest Forrester wave that had been officially released a couple of days before.
To be quite honest, the night was short and the next day promised to be quite long as I picked up both Dave and Eric to head to the Federation of Enterprises in Brussels in order to have breakfast around 8 am.

WAD at the FEB

When setting up the Web Analytics Day in Brussels, our intention was mainly to get practitioners from major Belgian companies – and picked up a couple of international attendees in the process – in order to allow them to get a full review of what Web Analytics is actually about, looking beyond the pure acquisition of a web analytics tool. As Eric’s Web Analytics is Easy presentation also emphasized, using his RAMP analogy, the first letter stands for Ressources which include both technology as well as people. The other acronyms respectively stand for Analysis, Multivariate testing & Processes. (more…)

Exclusive Video: Microsoft Gatineau presented by Ian Thomas @ OX2 Web Analytics Day 2007

September 16, 2007

Last friday, Aurélie and I had the pleasure to host our second Web Analytics Day.  It was a great event with over 100 participants attending.  One of the key moments was when Ian Thomas presented to the audience the forth coming Web Analytics tool: Microsoft Gatineau.  Eric and Robin have already published the slides of the presentation, you’ll find hereafter the video of Ian’s presentation:

We wanted to thank again Ian for this Worldwide Première presentation of Gatineau and for even personalizing the presentation to the Belgian market with his chocolate example 😉

If you want to sign up for Gatineau’s Beta, you just need to go here.

We will be publishing more material and comments from OX2’s Web Analytics Day 2007 in the coming days so keep checking if you’re interested or subscribe to our RSS feed.

René

Microsoft Gatineau at our Web Analytics Day

August 29, 2007

gatineau_logo.jpg

Now that Eric has posted about this in the Web Analytics Yahoo Groups, I can share with you that the next 14th of September, during our Web Analytics Day, Ian Thomas, responsible of the Microsoft Gatineau project, will be doing the first public demo of the Bêta version of Gatineau.

If you’re in the Web Analytics Industry, you already know about Gatineau as many Blogs (including ours) have been talking about this product these past months.  If you’re not familiar with it, Gatineau is the future FREE Web Analytics tool of Microsoft.  So a competitor of Google Analytics.

Why is it interesting?  (more…)

Web Analytics Standards by the WAA

August 24, 2007

Web Analytics Association Premiere Corporate LogoThis quick note to let you know that the Standards Committee of the Web Analytics Association (WAA) has released 26 new definitions of Web Analytics standards.

The new definitions:

Building Block Terms:
Page, Page Views, Visits, Unique Visitors, New Visitor, Repeat Visitor, Repeat Visitor & Returning Visitor

Visit Characterization:
Entry Page, Landing Page, Exit Page, Visit Duration, Referrer, Internal Referrer, External Referrer, Search Referrer, Visit Referrer, Original Referrer, Click-through, Click-through Rate/Ratio, Page Views per Visit

Content Characterization:
Page Exit Ratio, Single-Page Visits, Single Page View Visits (Bounces), Bounce Rate

Conversion Metrics:
Event, Conversion

You may download the document with the definitions here. According to Avinash, member of the Committee, the comments for each of the definitions are really interesting and worth reading 😉

BEL20 & Web Analytics

August 13, 2007

CAC40 & Web analyticsHere is the latest instalment in our WA Indexes series: the BEL20 index, which comprises the 20 most significant public companies in Belgium.

Well, 19 really, since Barco was taken off the index on March 1st, 2007 and the vacant slot hasn’t been filled as of today.

As with previous reports, let us start things up with an overview of which company uses which tool… (more…)