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eBusiness

Once an  organisation decides to exploit web analytics, it should invest in the right  solution that suits the business needs and budget that will allow management to  achieve its goals. No tracking analysis tool, on its own, will give management  the insight to make the necessary strategic changes to the organisation's  website.Investment in staff training and/or outsourcing the  interpretation of web metrics to able professionals is indispensable.

Not  all that is measurable is relevant and management should focus on critical  aspects of their business to improve the overall performance and prevent the  migration of their customers to their competition.

Mr Micallef Attard  holds an MBA (e-Business) degree and is a certified public accountant and  business consultant.

Article published on the 25th August 2005:  i-Tech: The Times of Malta & Technology & timesofmalta.com

The significance of metrics in any field of study is indisputable. Managers rely  on established metrics in the traditional management disciplines in order to  determine their organisation's current position and to provide indicators for  selecting suitable strategies for future initiatives.

The popularity and  accessibility of the internet is changing the traditional face-to-face encounter  with the client. Organisations have the opportunity to move closer to the person  behind the web browser, and are now finding themselves just one click away from  potential customers. In this dynamic scenario, managers need to have reliable  measurement standards, appropriate web analytic tools and expertise at their  disposal, all of which are indispensable for the success of their online  initiatives.

A recent survey looked into whether local organisations with  live online presence optimise their return on investment (ROI) through the  adoption of web analytics. The results have shown that although 79.1 per cent of  these organisations (tourism, telecommunications, media, publishing and  government organisations ranking top of the list), have facilities to track  online activity on their websites, only 42 per cent of surveyed organisations  take a reactive approach to changing online strategies as a result of regular,  in-depth analysis of online customer-centric related e-metrics. This  notwithstanding, the level of sophistication of web analytic applications in use  is revealed to be low.

Other results showed that 94 per cent of  respondents of organisations with access to web tracking applications do not  measure complete browsing history by unique visitor analysis, while 90.7 per  cent of surveyed organisations have never performed a third party usability  testing exercise of their website.

Although these results are comparable  with those obtained in similar international studies, management appears to be  failing to recognise the potential of this medium. Some 71 per cent of local  organisations with access to web tracking applications have identified at least  one of three factors - lack of time, budget limitations, and lack of specialised  personnel - to be a limiting factor in maximising their web analytics potential.  It is therefore evident that local organisations are not investing enough time,  money and human resources in this area of expertise and as a consequence are not  in a position to effectively incorporate web analytics into their strategic  online decision-making processes.

The main aim of tracking clicks on a  website is to increase sales, reduce costs, improve ROI, get to know the online  customer, fine tune online marketing strategies and improve website performance,  with the intention of outperforming competition.

In the future more and  more organisations will move from first generation "site stats" to more  intrinsic second and third generation e-metrics, as they reap the fruits of  e-business and e-customer intelligence, an evolution similar to that followed by  accounting systems, from simple databases to fully integrated systems assisting  the entire enterprise across the whole value chain.

Online measurement matters

by Rolan Micallef Attard

Specifically tailored  analytic tools equip management with the measurement techniques necessary to  boost customer loyalty and reduce online customer dropouts. Every online  organisation continually performs activities to attract potential customers,  influence them to engage with the website, persuade them to perform  predetermined tasks, convince them to return, and evoke them to spread the word.  Various analysis techniques may be explored to measure the ROI of each of these  activities, better known as the four pillars of the online customer life cycle  framework: reach; acquisition; conversion; and retention.