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Webtrends - A Flexible and Nimble Open Platform for Enterprise Data Analytics
October 24, 2013

Webtrends - A Flexible and Nimble Open Platform for Enterprise Data Analytics

Adam Krause | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

On-Demand

Modules Used

  • Analytics
  • Streams

Overall Satisfaction

  • Webtrends provides a platform that can accept any number of custom variables and can be adapted to fulfill a variety of business needs. Segmentation, purchase funnel, scenarios, dropoff and bounce rate are effective.
  • Webtrends 10 integrates analytics data with 3rd party data including app stores, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This provides a compelling case for programs that require insight into these data.
  • Webtrends is not great at providing statistical data for analysis. You need to enable Log File Delivery or create an analysis export to perform this. This could theoretically be done with Streams.
  • Webtrends has difficulty identifying multi-visit users due to the inherent fragility of cookie-based tracking.
  • Webtrends Analytics does not provide Pathing capabilities for segments, only for the aggregate. However, this can be worked around with Scenario functionality selectively fired by a tag management system.
  • Segmentation by high-cardinality parameters tends to cause issues with table limits. Even after scrubbing and scrutinizing data, we commonly see up of 10K rows per dimension. Due to this, we use Webtrends Analytics to roll up data into larger segments and export all of our log data into our database for heavy duty number crunching.
  • Webtrends is able to identify the source of each visit and create reporting on user behavior. We're able to attribute activity from a variety of sources to determine effectiveness. The REST API is invaluable for pulling large volumes of trended data to identify where notable events occur.
  • Streams provides ROI by providing immediate visibility into site activity, for any level of granularity that you're collecting in the Analytics product, without impacting the user experience. We're using this to create a proactive Care response team as well as resolve product issues remotely within seconds of it occurring on the site, so we can save customers from abandoning while they're still on the site.
We heavily utilize the Analytics features, and for our purposes the On-Demand Analytics product is a good value, so there would need to be a compelling reason to switch to another vendor. Streams is a unique product and is particularly attractive due to its lack of overhead from a user experience and implementation standpoint.

Product Usage

20 - Product Owners, Marketing Managers and Analysts primarily.
2 - Administrator
Reporting Manager (creates self-serve dashboards in Excel via REST API)
  • Webtrends is used to identify segments of our traffic and report on each segment. so we are able to determine what is drawing interest within each segment of our visit population.
  • Webtrends Streams allows us to identify issues on the site, as well as identify individual users who are encountering issues, so we can proactively reach out to them.

Evaluation and Selection

In a previous position, we switched to On-Demand from On-Premise.
We evaluated Google Analytics, but we picked Webtrends as it offered better value for the price.

Implementation

The SaaS service is much easier to set up, implement, and maintain than the On-Premise version. The Tagbuilder and REST API make it easy to deploy code and pull data.
  • Vendor implemented
  • Implemented in-house

Training

  • Online training
  • In-person training
  • Self-taught
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.
It can be done, especially by someone with experience with analytics. For a beginner, the tool is complex enough that it's (significantly) more time effective to get outside training.

Configuration

If you work with custom data integrations, you'll likely be updating the analytics code on a monthly basis. The pace of change increases with data requirements, so a tag management platform to accommodate this is highly recommended.

Support

WebTrends day-to-day tech support is generally very good, and they are also good with escalating issues when necessary.

Usability

Webtrends has enough out-of-box dimensions that can be used right away to build out a fairly robust aggregate analytics program. Support is generally responsive.

Reliability

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.

Integration

  • Responsys.
  • Hootsuite.
  • Facebook.
  • Twitter.
  • DoubleClick.
  • App stores.
  • Proprietary data stores.
  • Enterprise Data Warehouse.
With a published Data Dictionary, it is quite easy to identify what data can be integrated with other services.
Webtrends is able to export large data sets in an easily consumable CSV or JSON format.

Vendor Relationship

Webtrends is engaging and helpful post-sale, but from experience your relationship with an analytics vendor will be better if you consistently initiate conversation. This should not be considered a downside.
We negotiate package deals primarily. It's easier to gain leverage to secure discounts when shopping for multiple products from the same vendor.