NetIQ’s WebTrends: Host With the Most

With more than 55,000 customers, NetIQ Corp.’s WebTrends leads the Web analytics market—credit its ability to be one of the first out of the gate with a low-cost Web log analyzer. In fact, it still produces a relatively simple tool that customers can reel in for under $500.

PDF DownloadIn 2001, the Portland, Ore.-based WebTrends was acquired by NetIQ, which offers corporate system management and computer security.

Over the years, WebTrends has introduced more advanced reporting and analysis packages. Additionally, it now offers a hosted version of its software, WebTrends Live, that allows companies to access pre-configured reports about their Web traffic using a standard Web browser.

The strategy is popular with companies that want a more advanced reporting tool, but don’t necessarily have the resources to run the reports themselves.

Peterson’s, which offers information on colleges and universities and provides applicants with programs to help gain admittance, was using WebTrends Enterprise internally to analyze its Web traffic, but its college and university customers were increasingly asking for access to reports. Director of Web Traffic Management, Bill Herron, says by switching to the hosted version of WebTrends, Peterson’s set up a site for each client to view its own traffic logs and run analysis reports. Peterson’s now has 6,000 clients accessing WebTrends Live accounts.

Herron has been happy with WebTrends’ support early on and through the NetIQ acquisition. “We ran into a few problems at the very beginning, but they responded quickly,” he says. “They also made a few enhancements based on our input.”

Customers say there were some hiccups following the merger with NetIQ and a subsequent realigning of products. “There was some confusion on the sales side. It took them three to four months to get on top of it,” says Rodney Howeedy, director of database management for First Door, a company that provides human resources expertise and resources. “But it didn’t affect their level of technical support. It’s always been among the best I’ve seen.”


NetIQ Corp.
3553 N. FIRST ST., SAN JOSE, CA 95134
(408) 856-3000
www.netiq.com/solutions/analytics

Ticker: NTIQ
Exchange: NASDAQ
Employees: 1,091

Ching-Fa Hwang
Chairman
Cofounded NetIQ in 1995 and served as president and CEO from inception until January 2002. Holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University and an M.S. in computer science from the University of Utah.

Charles Boesenberg
President/CEO
Named president/CEO in January 2002. Has served as CEO, president of Central Point Software, Magellan and Integrated Systems. His 30-year career includes work at Apple and IBM.

Daniel Meub
VP, General Manager of Web Analytics
Chief operating officer at WebTrends until it was acquired by NetIQ in March 2001. CEO of Adaptive Solutions prior to joining WebTrends.

Products
NetIQ offers five levels of its WebTrends analytics software, including a hosted version. Besides Web Analytics, product categories include: Windows, SQL, and Exchange Management; Performance and Availability Management; Security and Administration; VoIP and Network Testing.


Reference Checks

Boeing Employee Credit Union
Chad Laske
Website Project Manager
[email protected]
Project: The Boeing financial cooperative uses WebTrends to track customer usage and identify trouble spots.

First Door
Rodney Howeedy
Director, Database Management
(404) 367-6462
Project: First Door provides on-demand answers to human resources managers’ questions. It uses WebTrends Intelligence Suite to determine what issues most interest its managers and provides alerts when resources are being used to search “hot” topics such as sexual harassment.

Fry Multimedia
Chris Grant
Senior Data Analyst
(734) 741-0640
Project: The design and interactive agency uses WebTrends internally to analyze traffic patterns, and also builds the software into client sites.

Peterson’s
Bill Herron
Director, Web Traffic Management
(609) 896-1800
Project: Using hosted analytics offering, WebTrends Live, to produce reports on visitor traffic for internal use and for the use of about 6,000 outside clients.

Cruise West
Bill Hanson
Webmaster
(206) 441-8687
Project: The travel company uses WebTrends Live to analyze what destinations and packages are in demand.

Portent Interactive
Ian Lurie
President
(206) 575-3740
Project: Uses WebTrends internally and also designs tool into sites developed for clients such as Diadora America.

Executives listed here all have been customers of NetIQ’s WebTrends products. Their willingness to discuss their experience has been confirmed by Baseline.