After lunch we began again with session 4 of the Web Analytics Training Day:
Session 4: Selecting a Web Analytics Vendor
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Presenter: Jim Humphrys, W.L Gore & Associates
With a myriad of options of tools and vendors, where do you begin? Learn how W. L. Gore & Associates selected a web analytics tool and implemented web analytics. In this case study, see how one company structured the project, evaluated their organization’s needs, picked a data collection method, selected a vendor and implemented web analytics. Implementation included training personnel in web analytics and rolling it out across the company, with more than a few interesting learnings along the way.
You’ll gain insights into:
- Best practice vendor selection
- Lessons learned from the selection process
- Implementation challenges that may surface
- Issues that arose during the introduction and rollout of web analytics
Here's my notes:
How to select a Web Analytics vendor happens once (every couple of years) and you need to think deeply about how your going to use the tool.
Answers First
- Using the tools is much more important that which tool is selected
- There is no “perfect” tool
- Evaluate vendors as much as the tools
- Expertise is required – you can’t leave Web Analytics to IT – until the business got involved in Web Analytics nothing happened.
- The biggest problems are not technical – they’re organizational, KPI’s, taking action.
Questions to ask before starting vendor selection process
- Why change?
- Site value? (how does your site provide value – and that’s a gauge of how much you might want to invest in Analytics)
- Project scope? (one site, global sites, etc)
- Company analytics experience and maturity? (who is going you use this tool - )
Selection Factors
- Business Needs
- Website Technical Architecture
- Business Analysis Resources
- Technology Resources
- Vendor Services and Support
- Linkages with other information architectures
Case Study Context – Gore Associates
Gore $1.5 B global company, B2B, B2C, decentralized unique culture (none are high volume < 200,000 visits a month each). Complex web properties, but not high volume, concurrent “redesign” project and inadequate metrics capability.
Six Month Process – Gore Selection Process and Timeline
- Prework, planning 93 months)
- RFI to Implementation Kickoff (3 months)
o RFI developed
o RFI presentations
o Narrow field and dig deeper
o Reference checking
o Decision process
o Final negotiations, option selection
o Implement.
Core Requirements
o Work for all B2b, consumer and commerce.
o Must work for business, marketers and power users
o ……
Gore Planning Process
o Research
o Project Definition
o Goals
o Budget
o Define team
o Define process
o Requirements
o Universe of vendors.
Gore RFI Sections
o Objectives
o Context
o Goals
o Project Guidelines..
o …..
Key Selection Issues
o Log files vs. Page tags vs Hybrid
o In house vs. ASP
o Data History
o Data Accuracy
Gore Selection Process Details
Initial Presentations
References: Influenced selection process.
Lessons Learned
1. need to have a person driving this process
2. did not get a good handle on site objectives
3. most of the reports look similar – but it’s how you use it.
Selection took 6 months – Base code – 3 weeks, first dashboards 2 months, success events – 6 months and first commerce tag at 8 months,
Key implementation issues
1. Metrics organization, resources, roles, governance
2. Education of users
3. Organizational readiness, sophistication
4. Key performance indicators, communications
5. Multi Locale Metrics
6. testing
7. ….
Results
Increased amount of traffic measured from 3% to ~85%
Over 75 sites and 25 active users.
Implementation Lessons learned
Did something right, others not.
Questions:
1. Did you go with ASP solution?
- We did go with an ASP solution
2. You mentioned a hybrid solution (tags vs. logs)
a. Vendors usually offer both and you have to think through how your were going to use the information.
3. Any big surprises on cost
a. We were presently surprised the cost was lower than we anticipated.
b. We paid for it at a Corporate Level so we don’t have to worry about implementation on a business level.
4. Who did you assign to work with the web analytics
a. it’s a distributed responsibility
b. We have bi-yearly emarketing conferences and are able to introduce web metrics there.
5. Why is your company structured around 30-40 Micro sites?
a. We’re one of the best places to work but we’ve not got some of the overhead that other companies have.
MarketingProfs, MarketingSherpa and Consultancy are good additional resources.
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