Web reporting or web analytics?

Last week I was doing a presentation at a conference organised by one of the web analytic vendors. In one of the sessions, the vendor was showcasing one of their new products. During the presentation I heard a couple of phrases used that resonated with me.

The presenter was talking about the ability of the product to allow analysts to follow a train of thought by querying the data in a number of different ways. He described this as allowing the analyst to develop “analytical momentum”. I hadn’t heard the phrase before, I wish I had thought it up though as I knew exactly what he meant by it. Momentum is about the ability to keep going and the less friction there is the greater the momentum.

With the analytical process it’s exactly the same. In the search for the resolution to a problem or some insight that be leverage to your advantage, you want to be able to follow a trail or a lead and move on quickly from one perspective on the data to the next until you either come to a dead end or find the insight that you are looking for. There is a difference between the analytical process and a reporting process.

Last year I asked John Marshall, CEO of ClickTracks, what he thought the difference was between analysis and reporting. He told me:

“Reportingâ€? requires that you know what you’re going to want to know, whereas “analysisâ€? gives you the ability to learn “on the flyâ€? what you don’t know, and then to know it.”

So, analysis is a journey of discovery. You don’t know where it’s going to lead and you are likely to wander down a few blind alleys in the process. So, speed becomes a vital issue and the second phrase in that vendor presentation that resonated with me was “analysis at the speed of thought”. I sometimes compare the reporting process to the analytical process like this: reporting is like walking to work each day. It’s predictable, you know how long it’s going to take and you’re fairly certain what’s its going to look like when you get there. Analysis is like trying to find the middle of a maze. You have no idea where it is, what it looks like or how long it’s going to take and that’s why speed and momentum are important. If you’re under pressure to get to the middle of the maze, you want to be able to run rather than just walk.

Why is this important? Well, I don’t think that there is much competitive advantage in just having good reporting. Having good reporting is better than having poor reporting for sure but as John Marshall said “you have to know what you want to know” and so it’s all very predictable. Analysis is about discovery and insight. To do it well you need tools that give you speed and momentum in the process. You also need the right kind of people to drive the process and extract the value. There’s no point investing in software without the people realise the potential.

Are your reports predictable or are you on a constant journey of discovery? With many organisations having had their web analytics systems in place for a couple of years now, can you see how you are going to make the next breakthrough? So, are you doing web reporting or web analytics?

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