Traction Complete develops software that enhances the native capabilities and functionality of Salesforce, with a complete suite of solutions for effortless account hierarchies and simplified, seamless lead management.
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Webtrends Analytics
Score3 out of 10
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WebTrends provides an enterprise web analytics platform and, according to Forrester, has a strong focus on support for mobile and social channels and a very open platform. Webtrends competes directly with Adobe Site Catalyst, IBM Coremetrics. and comScore DigitalAnalytix.
Traction Complete is very well suited for lead to account matching and for automatic, criteria based lead routing and processing. For example, when a lead is created, it can be matched to an account, and Traction Complete can populate account demographics like Industry or Annual Revenue. And once the lead's score reaches a certain threshold, Traction Complete can then evaluate any of the leads data (including the industry and annual revenue that the lead was previously enriched with), route the lead to a person or queue , and at the same time update the lead status and or enrich the lead with information to track funnel progression (e.g., MQL Date, Assigned Date, etc.).
Scenarios 1. If you want to use web server log files as input to your web analytics, then Webtrends will provides a good product, with great ease of implementation. Don't even think about being cheap on hardware, and make sure Webtrends runs on real servers, not in a VM environment. 2. If you want to use Data Tagging, similar to Google Analytics or Site Catalyst, Webtrends has a powerful product, just be prepared to pay. 3. If you are new to Web Analytics, but it is the strategic direction, start with Webtrends on Premises. Questions to Ask 1. What are you trying to accomplish? 2. Can you place a dollar value on the benefit that you expect/need from Webtrends? 3.Can you live with Webtrends running SaaS?
Control privacy, data sharing and competitive industrial knowledge using Webtrends on premises
Great control over custom reports, custom dimensions and metrics
Flexible tool which allows multiple methods of data capture. To my knowledge it was the first tool with a Tag Builder / Tag Management function built in via a supporting website.
The big downside, the elephant in the room, is that it does not (as of right now) have on-demand segmenting, drilldowns, etc. You have to think of what you want in advance and create those reports then analyze some data. This is huge. You can, of course, re-analyze old data after creating new reports but you still have to wait. (This deficiency may become obsolete with the release of Webtrends Explore later this month (May 2014).)
It has fewer mature integrations with other products and databases than competitors do, although I'm told it works with SharePoint better than anything else does.
Its attribution modeling capability is behind Google Analytics'. In my humble opinion, this could be changed quickly if Webtrends would make some tweaks to its standard visitor history files (i.e. preserve the order in which past visits were sourced beyond the single most recent one, rather than storing all those past sources as a randomized list).
It doesn't incorporate statistical tests, confidence intervals, or statistical associations. However, this same criticism can be applied to its competitors (other than A/B Testing products). It's a tabulation program, as they all are. In this respect, web analytics tools as a group are relatively primitive. Sorry to bring this up as a criticism of Webtrends but it's my pet peeve about the whole industry and I just have to say it. (p.s. take advantage of the heavy-duty Webtrends Scheduled Export functionality to get really granular data that you can feed to a stats program to get significances.)
Although the documentation, help screens, phone support and the knowledge base have improved tremendously in recent years, there is still a pretty steep learning curve because it is different from the tools that entry-level users may have already been exposed to. This can be a shock and many users are alienated at first because they just don't get some of the fundamentals at first. I'd like to see much better help screens that are thoroughly interlinked with the KB and documentation. Having superb online support would make a world of difference with the adoption of this basically powerful tool.
Traction Complete continues to improve and innovate, and their staff does a great job of informing us of new functionality and how we can use it to get more value from Traction Complete. And at its core, it covers a gap inherent in Salesforce CRM - the fact that leads are a standalone object and not connected to the other main CRM objects like accounts, contacts, and opportunities. Traction Complete bridges that gap without requiring us to convert leads to contacts and degrade the data quality of the contact records. This functionality is key to a holistic process from initial inquiry to MQL, SAL, SQL, New Customer, and repeat business.
I would be willing to try Webtrends again AFTER some research from other users. I would need to see that users mention better and faster customer support on questions and issues that arise while using the software. The software is capable of vast and incredible things, but if it isnt properly set up and supported during use, it is just a big hassel and waste of everyones time and money.
It's very usable overall and much easier than using native functionality. If there is anything I'd want to improve, and I'm being critical here, there are a few minor items. 1) It would be nice if the initial load time of flows was faster, but I understand that given the number of elements we have in the assignment flow, I should not expect a two second load time. 2) It would be great if the different flow versions had fields to capture properties/attributes like a verbose description to make version control better. My sense is that it will be available in a future version. 3) When editing flows, every now and then, the pop-up windows of elements are a bit sticky on the screen when trying to move/drag them - however, I usually experience this only in Safari and am often too lazy to fire up Chrome.
If I could give it a 0, I would. Not having an intuitive user interface made it impossible to convince non-analytic business users to use the tool on their own. Even as a seasoned analyst, frequent calls were needed to get what should be simple tasks done. Account managers don't understand the tool either, and have to refer you to technical support
The v9 admin interface and v10 reporting interface work as well as expected, but have a tendency to be pokey, especially for bulky reports and whenever you're connected to wifi. I much prefer using the REST API for all reporting for this reason, which simply dumps out the data and doesn't bother with the user interface.
The support team at Traction Complete has always been responsive, knowledgeable, and professional. They took the time to understand our business needs and helped us during the initial implementation, as well as with configuration changes when needed.
I once went on to Twitter to ask for help from my network of analytics people, and Webtrends themselves responded. They have been an excellent partner in making sure that their product is being used to the best of it's ability and I greatly appreciate that. Both Omniture and Google Analytics, do not have that level of support over social media
The in-person training was comprehensive enough to get you started, but I strongly recommend having a more experienced person when beginning with the tool.
Webtrends provides several free webinars over the course of the year, many of which I would expect to pay for. The people providing the webinars seem to have a good feel for real-world application of the product.
I've been part of 3 implementations, and the Traction Complete team has always met or exceeded expectations and delivered on their commitments/promises.
Careful planning and patience. Use a non-public test site to fine tune tags and reporting. Despite best laid plans, there will be surprises when you collect the data, run the analysis and begin generating reports using the tool. Perform a tag audit to ensure tags fire as desired.
Traction Complete offered more ease of use, less complexity, and an overall lower cost of ownership compared to other options. And while Salesforce can handle some of the automation, which requires more technical skill to configure, it does not provide the lead to account matching.
Webtrends has its work cut out for itself considering you have the behemoth Google Analytics and Google Analytics Premium having a strong offering and brand recognition for the price of free. After reviewing the paid service I'd suggest you start off with GA as a cheaper alternative that is just as robust, if not much more flexible in regards to the reporting and goal tracking needs for our company.
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Webtrends has had a positive impact on site visitation because it allowed us to understand the sources by domain for site traffic and find out ways to increase visits from those domains.
Webtrends has also allowed us to understand areas of optimization on the site, which has had a positive impact on the overall user journey on the site, likely leading to longer site duration and engagement.
