Comments on KAIZEN Analytics: Web analytics– where should it sit in the organiza...

@mackaycs: thanks for sharing your view and...

2010-10-26T11:30:02.218+02:00

@mackaycs: thanks for sharing your view and experience. Very interesting example. I fully agree that a good analyst should be a bit technical savvy to ensure quality measurement and proper interpretation.

But this aspect is often separated from the business side - relegated to IS / dev team. Not best scenario in general...

Cheers.

The front end of our website is transactional mean...

2010-10-25T09:44:56.219+02:00

The front end of our website is transactional meaning that a key focus is on the UI and UX (to use too many acronyms!). Therefore my analyst team sits directly with the product teams that make the most complex decisions such as account management etc; and work closely with design/dev to develop the user experience (UX).

The most important thing in terms of centralization for me, is that the tagging is managed (preferably and executed too) by the analysts - learning a bit of javascript never did anyone harm.

This is because web analytics is only as good as the data that you collect, uniquely compared to back office data for example (where a "new account" or a "purchase" is pre-defined), you can collect whatever data you want and therefore it's the analyst who should be close to this activity in order to ask and answer the right questions.

@web analytics & @Tom Erik: Thanks for sharing...

2009-10-22T13:36:55.346+02:00

@web analytics & @Tom Erik:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Really interesting.

Fully centralizing all Web Analytics is not the best solution. Eric T. Peterson's model (Hub'n'Spoke) goes more in direction where there is a central hub that have a global vision, that supports other departments and provide them services. The spokes have their own resources that are "using" the output i.e. data, insights, who are making decisions, who tracking KPI's...

The Hub would help these resources by coaching them, by analysing their requirements...

Also you need to have a central view to avoid disseminating costs (having different solutions for same purpose) and promote best practices among the company.

In his Web Analytics Maturity Model, Stephane Hamel promotes the idea of a Web Analytics Competence Center (WAAC), typically a multi-disciplinary team that mix analytics, IT & business skills.

Whether this central hub/WAAC sits in IT or business is not most important. The fact it exists is the important point.

I tend to favor a decentralized "department&q...

2009-10-21T09:57:31.361+02:00

I tend to favor a decentralized "department", where many different roles are using "analytics" for different purposes. Especially in online news media, journalists, editors, frontpage editors, UX, IT, administration may all want to know what's going on on their website, but for different purposes. Why not make the analytics tool fit all user groups, eliminating the need for an analytics department? Dangerous words perhaps on a web analytics expert's blog :-)

Well, my take is that we could consider a hybrid b...

2009-08-15T14:03:35.296+02:00

Well, my take is that we could consider a hybrid between the 2, and needs to be supported by marketing...

@ankit Thanks for sharing your experience. Glad to...

2009-08-03T14:10:27.688+02:00

@ankit
Thanks for sharing your experience. Glad to hear you have a dedicated in-house team over there. But from an organization point of view, where does your team sit? I would be really curious to know more…

@Christian
I am actually doing all you described and more. I am responsible for not only some technical aspects such as having Web Analytics implemented based on business requirements, coordinating with external agencies & vendors, defining guidelines & in-house standards, managing vendors but also doing a lot of “business” related tasks: assist business in defining appropriate KPI’s & in their implementation, analysis of results, recommendations,… But as you stressed in your comment, larger companies need to appoint dedicated resources for coordinate Web Analytics practices in order to manage and develop these efficiently. Fully agree.

@Mark
Thanks for the comment. Always good to know that you are not alone to go through such situation :-) And thanks for the advice. I will take this into account.

@angie
I am pretty sure that there are examples out there where WA sits in IT and it works fine. The problem is getting executive support – something I think is less straightforward when you are in the IT and where the Web is not (from IT perspective) the most important area of activities. Not impossible, just thougher in my opinion.

Thanks all for commenting!

Hi Michael. Much food for thought there! I tend to...

2009-08-01T00:41:47.709+02:00

Hi Michael. Much food for thought there! I tend to agree "not in IT", but think there are exceptions depending on the company. Sometimes web analytics is best placed where-ever one can find an executive champion.

Good post!

Michael, Very well written! From start to finish ...

2009-07-31T14:19:37.683+02:00

Michael, Very well written! From start to finish I had to keep reminding myself I was reading someone elses situation & history - living the identical world. Analytics is a business function, few would put their marketing machine & intelligence in IT. Completely agree too on the centralized view of this function particularly in large organizations that often resemble mini businesses under one roof. The key for us was recognizing this situation and equally recognizing that on the other side was One Customer trying to look at us as One Company - Analytics is the voice of that customer. If done well, with a One Customer strategy in mind, it's a huge opportunity for large organizations! Equally this can be significant challenge when the function has no home! Uncanny the vertical you are in too. Thanks

Hi Michael! Most of our larger clients with many w...

2009-07-30T17:33:30.868+02:00

Hi Michael! Most of our larger clients with many web sites or web activities have pointed out one person (or in some cases a small group of people) to coordinate their web analytics practices. This person would then become a "power user" of the web analytics tool, have contact with the vendor and be responsible for helping others setting up reports. Ofthen this person would also be the main driver in setting up some standard reports which are distributed weekly or monthly to different (national) web teams. These temas are typically new to web analytics, but need feedback on their work with online marketing and web site editing. How is your work in Toyata? Are you also responsible for serving others with reports? Or are you mainly helping yourself optimizing "your own" web activities? Thanks for a goo post!

Christian

We have a Web analytics team in-house and we coord...

2009-07-28T17:52:39.985+02:00

We have a Web analytics team in-house and we coordinate with IT on getting things done. The marketing part is outsourced to various agencies. We work with business hand in hand to get the reporting and analysis done.

Ankit Nagarsheth
Toyota USA