A brief history in the wonderful life of Web Analytics

Luke Adams is our Sales Manager in charge of Web Analytics; here is his take on what he describes as the wonderful world of Web Analytics.  

“I chose to Join Xcede on their Web Analytics desk as the market appeared extremely interesting, covering a particularly niche area which was growing rapidly and is still constantly changing.

If we look back 2 years it was the year of MVT.  Last year social media analytics came to the forefront, and this year we are seeing a growing demand for mobile/tablet analytics. The market is constantly evolving along with the introduction of new techniques used by the Analysts to delve much deeper into data, in line with our Clients’ requirements.

When started in this market 4 years ago our clients were happy with a candidate with either implementation or reporting experience. Now candidates are expected to not only have implementation experience, but also be analytical, able to build and develop strategies and also be client facing. They need to be able to speak with key stakeholders in a manner which they understand and in a way in which data related decisions can be made. In addition I am getting more requests for candidates with a strong statistical educational background. This is due to the data sets the Web Analysts are dealing with becoming more complex and far larger.

Offline and online analytics have become more integrated, and in the next few years analysts will need to display both online and offline tools and techniques on their CV’s rather than treating them separately, as they are currently.  Several clients are already starting to merge their analytics departments and training their staff up in various tools. This is mostly seen with agencies and consultancies.

Web Analytics vendors have been in the news a great deal over the last few years. Adobe bought Omniture (after there had been some less high profile acquisitions). This was followed by IBM firstly buying Unica and then Coremetrics and around the same time buying Netezza, a data wharehouse system. Google Analytics Premium is now out and is unlikely to be acquired (in fact this tool is seeing significant developments and upgrades, making it even more powerful).

This leaves Webtrends… Webtrends has a close relationship with Microsoft and there have always been whispers on the grapevine of an acquisition here. However, Facebook have also been showing a keen interest and now Twitter has emerged as a front runner after Webtrends worked on their analytics piece with them. This intense interest in Webtrends goes to show the value companies in the market place put on web analytics, and how far it has come over the last few years.

In the news there are increasing references to web analytics and the data they are producing.  With more companies and more people online than ever before this trend will continue to increase and the need and importance of web analytics will increase as well.

I can only see the market developing and growing. With this it will lose its “niche” tag and become a mature market, from this, new challenges and opportunities will arise. I am fortunate enough to have been involved in this market from an early stage and am glad that I have witnessed many changes and developed many relationships along the way."

To contact Luke email him at lukea@xcedesolutions.com ,

Call him on 0207 886 0723

or

Take a look at our current vacancies by using the search bar on the left.

Please let us know your thoughts on this blog.