Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued) vs. Pendo.io

IBM analytics has continued to improve upon the days of being the original core metrics. After using the updated version for quite some time, it has been great at providing the needed analytics to measure ROI and goal performance for our quarterly KPI's. It has resulted in a great increase in web engagements although we are a midsize company, smaller outfits may not need such an expensive option.

Incentivized

Pendo is very well suited for startups and mid size product companies who are looking for -

• Help in user experience building
• Measuring the impact of a feature on the requirement phase itself
• Advanced analytics to get a sense of how the product is working
• Insights about necessary changes that are required to make the product better

Incentivized

• IBM CXA comprises an acquisition called Tealeaf. This tool has deep heritage and this is evident in its present-day capabilities.
• The Universal Behaviour Exchange or UBX puts the concept of personalisation at the forefront. The ability to combine physical (analog) and digital transactions to create the complete picture of a customer journey, is a stand out benefit.
• The solution does not have to involve the purchase of software. IBM CXA can be sold as a service bundled with analytics as a service. This not only lowers the cost of ownership, it gets around one of the principal issues. Strong staff with design and analytical capability to drive the solution and deliver tangible benefits.
• The seamless integration of Watson AI services to help with the heavy lifiting. Watson reinforces the analytical focus this solution has and can learn to recognise situations specific to a company.

Incentivized

• Track usage across our platform (new and existing features) - where each customer clicks, how long they stay at certain areas within the software, etc.
• To promote new features.
• To train customers on how to use new features.
• To survey our customers within the software.

Incentivized

• The user interface is in Flash, which can be very frustrating and slow at times. Apparently, this is to be transitioned in a future release.
• Can only segment the last 93 days of data. Any historical segmentation beyond the 93 days must be run in Explore (which is credit based, and has its own limitations with the number of credits per month, based on the initial contract with IBM).
• Reports can only display 93 days of data at a given time for custom date ranges. There are pre-programmed date ranges setup with IBM during implementation (last week, last month, last quarter etc.), but are not flexible enough to answer more specific questions.
• Certain reports cannot have segments applied, making answering some simple questions a bit more tricky. For example, I can create a segment around mobile devices and apply it to the marketing channels report, but I can't create a marketing channel segment and apply it to the mobile reports.
• Built in API calls allows for nice report design and automation.

• I find the reporting and analytics to be a little light. They could improve custom reporting capabilities.
• Would like to see the capabilities of the Pendo tagging tool built into the platform. (don't launch a separate product). I find the tagging tool does a much better job at selecting the components to be tagged than the platform does.
• Sometimes takes a while to refresh counts when adding a new tag.

Incentivized

IBM Digital Analytics is a great solution for our clients and I believe they offer the best solution for the retail space. We have access to IBM support via email or live chat and they can answer many of the reporting questions that come up. IBM is receptive to our feedback of the product so I am confident they will continue making improvements

We have had an excellent experience with Pendo. When we've had questions or concerns, Pendo is very quick to respond and communicate with us. We have experienced top-notch customer support and customer engagement. We have actually modeled some of our implementation and product processes after Pendo's examples.

Very easy to implement and use.

Overall, Pendo provides a smooth interface, especially with the most recent update, and I couldn't imagine using or learning any other platform so product focused. From the moment I log into Pendo, I know where I'm going and what I'm looking for and I'm able to find that, through the interface, in as little time as possible. This helps keep me focused on doing other tasks at work so I'm not overburdened with hunting things down in the system

Never had any issues

As reports are templated, the system is pretty quick. Sometimes you have to wait a bit for a report to render. Or you might have to re-load the page. But there is no real issue here and the system is on par with other similar systems.

Overall, the level of support is very good and I would say it is a strong asset of the solution. However, you can sometimes feel that there is a difference of level among the support team.

They've been great anytime that we have needed help with something. They also have some really great help articles. We're able to figure most things out through their articles, but when we've had to call in they've been very helpful and we haven't had any problems. I'd highly recommend working with them.

Incentivized

Online training is really great. One of the best assets that they have. Lots of great videos, pop quizzes at the end of each module. Fantastic. Other tools have similar features, but not as good.

The training schedule was well thought out and tailored to meet our needs. Chantelle stayed with us through the whole implementation and made sure that we were good to go.

See previous comment: reading and understanding the encyclopedic implementation guide is a must.

Use Segment to install and cut developers out of the work cycle!

Incentivized

Much of the work we did in IBM Digital Analytics could have been answered through Google Analytics, a much simpler, agile and FREE solution set. Not mention, given the vast number of Google Analytics USERS, free and actionable support is simply a click away ... this compared to IBM Digital Analytics fractured and often absent support service.

WalkMe is an industry leader, but they charge an arm and a leg. Working with them you get a lot of support and CSM time, but is it really worth that price tag? Pendo.io was an easy choice for that simple reason.

Incentivized

This solution can support large amount of data and transaction. The way that user management features are built, it shows it is meant for large organizations.

• We spend too much time trying to work around bugs on the new UI.
• We spend too much time trying to figure out how to make certain segments work because support and the knowledge center are lackluster.
• Our sales rep is very unresponsive and leaves us searching for a lot of answers on our own, including what other products we may benefit from that IBM offers.

Incentivized

• We have had an ROI in reduced support contacts.
• We have had increased NPS scores due to our ability to target messaging for the right reasons to the right audience members rather than blanket distribution of information.
• Delayed deployment in certain environments (being worked through) has led to a delay in one business area, but it is not public facing yet so we aren't heavily impacted by that yet.