Metrics
Build Analytics into Your CMS
by John Girard
14-May-2004
Enterprise software applications often evolve in isolation,
but adopt features from other systems. Content management systems, for
instance, now routinely embrace document management and asset management
features.
However, in the case of website content management, there has always been a debate between bundling together functions for managing content with functions for managing websites on the one hand, versus maintaining a clean separation of concerns on the other hand. For the latter alternative, best-of-breed solutions are commonly integrated with (or sometimes, bolted onto) the CMS platform to create a bundled solution.
The Case Against Best of Breed
And so we get the much heralded "best-of-breed integrated solution," which might combine, for instance, the ideal solutions in each of multiple software categories: web content management, digital design and authoring, email newsletter management, subscription management, and website analytics. [Ed.'s note: CMSWatch frequently espouses a best-of-breed approach.]
While the allure of a fully integrated solution of best-of-breed applications is compelling (and in many cases works quite well), this article makes the case for the value of "building-in," using the specific example of truly integrated web content management and web analytics platform. As you'll soon see, some very interesting things can happen when a web analytics tool is built directly into a web content management application.
Laying the groundwork
First, we should define some terms. With recent technology advances and some clever coding, it's actually possible for two very disparate applications to appear to the end user to be integrated. So what is the difference between built-in and bolted-on, anyway?
While interface integration is important, even more critical is integration on the backend. A bolted-on application can only be as good as the data that is passed to it behind the scenes. A well-crafted built-in application, in contrast, has all of the data it needs, all the time -- the software equivalent of "perfect information."
Consider the case of content management and web analytics. With best-of-breed solutions, system integrators or in-house developers need to make decisions in the beginning as to what information should be passed from the CMS to the analytics application and vice-versa. With a built-in solution, that data is already exposed directly to the analytics engine.
In theory, robust services-oriented architectures (SOAs) that broadly expose underlying functions and methods should also provide this sort of capability too. In practice, though, such tight integration is the exception rather than the norm, for a variety of reasons -- and a lack of standards in exposed data is probably the biggest. As a result, most "best-of-breed" solutions are awkward (most, for instance, don't manage to integrate application interfaces, and still require users to log-in to the applications separately).
The problem with built-in
The single biggest problem with building-in compelling add-ons to a CMS when there are already well-established standalone alternatives is product focus. Is it really possible to create a world-class web analytics engine, when the same team is focused on building a world-class content management solution? The simple answer is no.
But in my experience, the majority of CMS customers don't really need "world-class" when it comes to web analytics applications, and they can obtain a whole range of other functions that actually do help them with their business from a built-in solution. Furthermore, just because a CMS solution has a built-in web analytics module doesn't mean that customers need to turn it on -- for those few cases where a more sophisticated tool is truly warranted, engineers can still integrate a higher end solution.
There are many examples of CMS vendors adding useful, lightweight capabilities for certain services -- like collaboration, asset management, and search -- when a 3rd-party solution would be too complex and costly. I just think analytics should join those ranks.
An overview of the benefits
With the central problem of built-in solutions identified, let's shift to the benefits of a built-in product as it pertains to building web analytics into CMS.
A combined CMS / Web-analytics system:
- Exposes data effortlessly from either application to the other, with nothing lost in the translation.
- Blends data from both applications for more sophisticated reports.
- Ships with a common interface, which makes the learning curve for end users smoother.
- Offers a common administrative tool, obviating the need for deploying a universal login system, or passing permissions information between the applications.
- Supports built-in quick links that, for instance, can immediately expose traffic data inside the CMS.
- Allows for a "one vendor, one solution" approach.
Let's consider each benefit in turn.
Exposing data
What kind of data would be useful to share between a content management application and a web analytics tool? Well, in a nutshell, anything that needs to be reported on. Most web analytics engines solve this problem by requiring that any metadata that will be parsed in reports can be scraped directly from the web page.
The problem arises when you want to report on data that you don't necessarily want to publish in the finished page (like a list of every author or editor that touched the content before it was published).
A built-in solution solves this problem because it already has access to all of the hidden metadata that was used to publish the finished page -- it has a vision into the "black box" and sees more than just the end result.
Additionally as any new data is tracked by either system (the CMS or the analytics application), it's automatically exposed to the analytics engine. With a bolted-on solution, the analytics engine very often must be "re-taught" when there is new data available. For instance, if a site template change exposes new metadata categories in the published site (powered by the CMS), the analytics engine typically won't pick up those changes without being reconfigured.
Blended data
Besides the benefit of automatically exposing CMS data to the web analytics engine (and vice versa) data from both applications can be seamlessly blended into more comprehensive reports.
For instance, an online magazine might want to know: do the most active CMS users typically create the content that is most viewed on the site? By blending administrative tracking data (from the CMS) with web page tracking data (from the analytics engine), this question can be answered quickly and in a straightforward way, within a report that makes sense.
Common interface
Even the best integrated "bolted-on" solutions typically stumble when it comes to delivering an integrated interface. "Skins" are the common solution -- where certain elements (like background and foreground colors) can be changed and a logo can be added, but nothing beats a combined interface.
For example, in a built-in solution, all of the interface conventions can be standardized so that learning one part of the application automatically prepares the user for the other sections.
In addition, there is usually a small but meaningful speed advantage in using a built-in application -- flipping between functions inside an application is typically faster than jumping to another application, especially when multiple logins are required.
Common administration
Since the content management tool usually serves as the core platform that holds all site elements together, it is intuitive to administer all of the site's features from that single interface. By having a built-in web analytics engine, the permissions for access to analytics data can be administered in the same way that content authoring and editing rights are administered.
Using the roles systems common to most CMS's, web analytics permissions can likewise be bundled with core CMS permissions to create a more convenient and complete profile of the different categories of user on the site. This is especially relevant because the bulk of content management system users typically have some analytics needs, and most analytics users make use of at least some content management functions.
Finally, the need for a universal login tool disappears in a built-in solution -- the same login can give the user access to all CMS and analytics functions.
Built-in interface quick links
One of the simplest and most powerful advantages of a built-in solution is the ability to include ubiquitous "quick" links from the CMS application into the analytics tool. For instance, an editor who is reviewing the work performed by an author can click that author's name for an instant look at how much her work has been visited in the previous month as compared to the site average.
Likewise, an editor who notices from a web analytics report that a particular piece of content is tracking especially well can immediately target the article to additional sites or site sections from within the CMS.
One vendor, one solution
One of the great business benefits of the built-in approach is that it creates a single vendor environment. If there are problems with the tools, there is no need to dig into which vendor might be able to fix it -- it's all run by the same team.
Similarly all enhancements to either platform necessarily take into consideration how the other application will be affected, and so version upgrades no longer break things.
Conclusion
In the end, bundling related Web site functions like analytics into Web content management applications is about options. If a website has modest reporting needs, why should a business pay another vendor for an overly powerful solution they don't really need? In addition, the integrated approach views web content management and its related functions (more correctly, I believe) as related elements along a single continuum. Website maintenance, after all, is a process that includes the creation, distribution, and measurement of Web content; it is not an isolated function.
Bundled analytics is not for everyone. Some businesses will need the more sophisticated tools available in "best-of-breed" analytics engines. And we should expect to see more productized integrations between specialized analytics and CMS vendors, especially for those cases where content management and content delivery environments are completely separate.
Nevertheless, over time I fully expect to see more and more website functions built into CMS platforms, and hosted CMS vendors are well-positioned to lead this trend. Some providers (especially the hosted vendors) have already elected to build such features as email newsletter management, subscription management, community tools, and payment gateways directly into their packages, and the end result is compelling: a single, truly integrated management platform that handles all website functions. I think it just makes sense for analytics to be part of the platform too.