Interview: Analytic tools can yield results

IT Week: As vice-president of marketing in Europe for web analytics firm Omniture, what is your evaluation of the market?

Neil Morgan: I worked for Siebel for many years and [web analytics] is like CRM was 10 years ago. It's very fragmented. Siebel drove the need for a central repository, which became the customer database. If you own that you're in good shape, and you can add on other applications. This sector is the same. Omniture has had the vision to consolidate online marketing tools around web analytics. We integrate all the different tools so you can see the results of a search campaign in the web analytics tool, and you can optimise the search campaign because you're looking at web analytics data.

What are the differences between the European and US markets?

The US is 18 months to two years ahead, although organisations like eBay are at the same stage in the US and here. We're seeing more solid adoption of web analytics, and it's our intention to develop our products, potentially acquire companies and expand internationally.

What is your key differentiator?

Some companies in this market missed the wider commercial applications of web analytics. We arrived in 2002 and gave a solution to the marketing guys that didn't require a technical effort, and that worked. Our audience is very broad. Before it was just the online marketing guys and statisticians, but at Lastminute.com, for example, there are 200 Omniture users, half of whom log in every week. The chief executive, gets updates on his PDA. We can do everything SAP does with manufacturing – track everything you care about as an online business.

What other features will users find attractive?

We can show the value of leads that sales staff have generated. Also the repository is structured so everything we put in is in a data warehouse, not in log files that then have to be analysed. It's intuitive because you can ask any question you like and get the answer across a huge amount of data. The ease of use is not just in getting into it, but also in getting the results.

Why is Omniture making a push into Europe?

Until about six months ago we focused on the US because we didn't have the funds or the people here. That has now changed. Europe and Asia are the fastest growing markets because they are less mature.

Where will Omniture concentrate its efforts in the future?

I'm staggered by the growth of the internet as an online retail channel. The adoption of e-commerce is ahead of the technology and solutions, and that's good for businesses like ours. Internet users spend a quarter of their time online, but the average percentage of firms' budgets online is only eight. As long as that gap exists there will be potential for growth. Tracking rich internet applications is one of the new challenges.

About Neil Morgan
Morgan has worked in all sectors of marketing for 17 years.

Before joining Omniture, he led the marketing team at Siebel Systems.

Morgan was vice-president of worldwide marketing at Chordiant Software and worked in global marketing at Oracle.