Insight on Insight - Part 1

I love my job.

I really do.

I’m not just saying this in case my bosses read this.

Maybe not the part about getting up early.  Or having to travel sometimes when I would rather not.

But I do like the fact that I have spent the last 4+ years of my career working closely with a product that continues to amaze me every day with its vast capabilities and endless possibilities.

Some of you used to know it as Visual Workstation.  It then got named Discover onPremise when Visual Sciences was acquired by Omniture.  It had a little identify crisis for a while as it tried to differentiate itself from the similarly named Discover.

But now, it finally has a name.

And the name, my friends, makes a whole lot of sense.

Insight.

For those of you who don’t know what Insight is, it is an extremely flexible system that allows for large volumes of data to be analyzed in real-time, without the restrictions of traditional cube based databases.  The schema is fairly open, and while some amount of discipline and attention to detail is necessary when building a dataset in Insight, the system is vastly flexible in the kinds of relationships and deep analysis you can do.

Because with Insight, the sky is the limit.

However, with great power comes great responsibility.

And a need to really know your stuff.

I have seen companies who have used Insight to develop game-changing strategies for themselves, and have enjoyed ENORMOUS ROI based off of the disoveries they have made about their customers.

And I say customers and NOT visitors for a reason.  I will get back to that later.

I have also seen customers who have not been as successful, so I will not sugar coat things here.  However, there are vast differences in the ways that they have approached their implementations and ongoing management of their system and their business strategy.

I am going to be taking a deeper look into Insight over the next few weeks.  The following areas I’d like to cover in regards to Insight are the following:

1) Where makes Insight a true differentiator in the market?

2) Is Insight too complex for me?

3) When it makes sense to consider Insight for your business

4) What kind of analysis models are companies using today to push Insight in new directions - as well as company business strategies

5) How to develop a governance model for success with an Insight investment

6) Does Insight replace the need for your data warehouse? (Hint - the answer is no, but I will tell you why in a different post)

I am going to be honest here.  Insight is NOT for everybody.  Maybe I shouldn’t say that - I am the vendor.  But I will not lie either.  It takes resources, it takes dilligence and it doesn’t spit out answers on your company strategy - it enables you to make the decisions that matter.

It’s not a genie in a bottle.

But it’s pretty darn close - if you know what you are doing with it.

I stand my supposition that if you want to do end to end customer-centric analysis, spanning across multiple channels (web, call, store, loyalty card activities) - you are falling short if you are not taking advantage of this technology.

I will tell you why over the next two weeks.

Here’s to some Insight on Insight.

Cheers!

• Kiran Kairab Ferrandino
• 0 responses
•  Channel Analytics, Marketing Integration, Omniture Business, Online Marketing, Web Analytics

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