Semphonic Releases Implementation Guides for Omniture's SiteCatalyst and Visual Sciences' HBX Analytics

Market Wire, October, 2007

Semphonic , a leading web analytics consultancy , today released Implementation Guides for Omniture's SiteCatalyst and Visual Sciences' HBX Analytics. The Implementation Guides are designed to help organizations get a web analytics implementation right the first time. The Implementation Guides -- based on Semphonic's experience implementing these products on some of the largest and most complicated web sites in the world -- walk through each phase of a web analytics implementation.

"Many companies are discovering that implementing an enterprise class tag-based web analytic solution is not as simple as slapping an image into a global header," states Gary Angel, President, Semphonic. "Slapdash implementations almost inevitably result in measurement systems that are unable to meet many core needs for analytics and reporting. Unfortunately, most organizations only find this out after the fact. During implementation, they are facing a classic Catch-22 -- you don't know what you need until after you've implemented -- and by then it's too late!"

The Implementation Guide tackles some of the biggest challenges faced by organizations starting with an Enterprise measurement system:

Implementation Process: Tagging is one of those projects that most organizations will only do once. So, naturally, they lack the experience to build solid processes around it. The Implementation Guide includes a detailed description of what's involved and lots of guidance about how to think about and structure your measurement implementation.

Designing the Basic Tag: There are a surprising number of issues around implementing a basic tag: from designing an efficient account structure to deciding on a page naming strategy. The Implementation Guide walks through every core variable in the tag describing its function, basic strategies for implementation, key stakeholders that need to be involved in a decision and a recommendation as to the most appropriate strategies.

Optional Tag Elements for Reporting: Much of the power of enterprise web analytics comes from custom variables that are unique to the site. The Implementation Guide examines many common implementation strategies for customized variables (event-times, form data, commerce data, customer information, survey data, etc.) and provides recommendations for how and where they can be coded in the tag.

Quality Assurance: Most tagging implementations require testing to insure that they are capturing the necessary information. The Implementation Guide includes 20 common implementation problems, how to test for them and what to about them.

"Although the vendor may have told you that it's easy to simply tag all of your pages and you'll be up and running, we've found that this is rarely the case...especially with solutions as complex and potentially as powerful as SiteCatalyst or HBX Analytics," adds Angel. "But if you don't collect the data you need, or don't set page tags completely and accurately, you may be at a serious disadvantage before you go into production. Not only will the initiative fail to accomplish its goals, but the investment in the web analytics solution will be jeopardized."

To purchase a copy of the Implementation Guide, please visit www.semphonic.com/analytics/impgutr.asp

About Semphonic

Semphonic has over 10 years of experience as a web analytics consultancy for agencies and companies such as Answers.Com, American Express, AOL, Care2, Charles Schwab, Intuit, Morgan Stanley, Nokia, NPD, SurePoint Lending and many others. Semphonic has partnered with most of the major web analytics tool vendors and provides a range of services including tool evaluation, tagging, implementation and rollout support, end-user and analytic training, report development, highly targeted deep-dive analytic projects, SEM analytics, and full-service web analytics outsourcing. Semphonic is headquartered in Novato, California. Visit us at http://www.semphonic.com for more information.

Media Contact: David Libby Tel. 510.868.4903 Email: Email Contact