DM p34-36 Software Dec08.qxp 02/12/2008 13:11 Page 36
Software Review
this application can also drive individualised product
recommendations or inform promotions and messag-
ing while an individual is on a website.
So it’s quite a performer but we’re in the dark when
it comes to the price tag. The vendor would not sup-
ply any pricing information or indeed the user manu-
al, describing Discover as “enterprise software” and
that it “comes with an enterprise software price tag”.
Though very well put together for online applica-
tions, this lack of pricing information means
Discover’s value is less clear as a standalone tool for
integrating and analysing multichannel data – its
advantage over packages from other suppliers is hard
to spot.
For example Alterian, Apteco, smartFocus or
Tangible’s Magellan can also handle high data vol-
umes at decent speed. A few other web analytics
providers, such as Site Intelligence with its VBIS plat-
form, also have a longer track record when it comes
The package offers a
It also has strong enterprise reporting credentials, to integrating data from other channels.
range of innovative and
valuable features,
with the ability to publish reports over the web or via Though there is a Guided Analysis feature that
although how much they the built-in reports portal, and can automatically employs statistical techniques to automatically high-
will cost you to access is
send reports customised to the needs of each different light outliers and anomalies in a dataset, there’s no
as yet unclear as the
vendor was unable to
user. predictive analytics tools included. Any modelling
supply any pricing
work would be done elsewhere and the results
information.
Enterprise pricing applied using one of the vendor’s operational applica-
There’s no doubt that Discover is an excellent plat- tions like Test&Target or SiteCatalyst.
form for train-of-thought analysis. You can drill down Those that feel restricted by their current web ana-
to the very lowest level of data and it offers a wide lytics package will relish the power and range of
choice of functions for querying and reporting, plus Discover but, like any what-if exploratory tool, it’s
massive scalability and a stellar range of visualisation not going to offer any easy gains in formulating tac-
tools. tics or strategy on its own.
Given that web analytics is concerned with a host The success of the package will still very much
of interrelated variables, being able to see clearly how depend on the ability of the user, taking the time to
one action on a site might affect results elsewhere explore the data fully and having processes in place
and how metrics differ for different customer groups to exploit any learnings for the benefit of business,
is absolutely paramount. but such effort is likely to be rewarded.
n
If a company were
already a SiteCatalyst
user or very much
focused on web and
email, then moving onto
Discover for web analyt-
ics would be a natural
progression if the poten-
tial returns justified the
cost. It takes you far
beyond the standard
tool’s capabilities with
complex funnel analysis,
nested metrics and much
more.
In conjunction with
Omniture packages like
SiteSearch and
Test&Target to handle
the operational delivery,
36 Database Marketing December 2008
www.dmarket.co.uk
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