Web Analytics Services

New Tools, Stat!

CMP uses two analysis apps--one developed in-house and a commercial package, Accure Insight, bought in 2001. Both served the company's needs when they were deployed but now cannot keep up with the requirements imposed by 150 Web sites, not to mention the increasing focus CMP, like many organizations, is placing on its online presence (see "Analyze This,", for particulars on what Web analytics can do for your business).

In testing these services, we first determined if each would meet our basic reporting needs. We wanted path information, such as clicks to page, time spent on pages, and entry and exit pages. We also sought traffic and visitor information, including page views, unique visitors and visitors' DNS domains, type of browser and language (see "How We Tested," for more details).

Because it's important to deliver useful information without making IT a bottleneck by overtaxing the helpdesk with support requests, ease of use accounted for 25 percent of our score. As for security, we looked for administration features concerning access and authorization.

We also considered how well the services combined our Web sites to create a "world view" on a per-user basis, and how much access to the underlying data and reporting tools--and administration of that access--can be distributed and delegated. CMP's model is one of centralized access, which is fine, but it increases administrative overhead. For example, to define the reports an individual may access, you must look at every report and see who else has access. A timesaving approach is to distribute reports by groups, with a list of all reports by group.