As I mentioned in an earlier post, I first came across IndexTools at SES San Jose ’07. The guy working their booth seemed to be very knowledgeable about their product; even enthusiastic about it. Turned out he (Dennis Mortensen) was a co-founder and COO, so I guess he should be knowledgeable and enthusiastic. A couple weeks after the show I got a follow up from one of the IndexTools sales guys, Bill, and we set up a time for a brief demo online.
The 45 minute walkthrough gave me a better appreciation of the IndexTools product, and a better understanding of when it might be appropriate for someone like me to “upgrade” from the free Google Analytics tool I use now. And a point that Bill made is that IndexTools also thinks of itself as a viable option for many people who currently use or are considering more robust tools like Omniture or Webtrends. Bill claims that IndexTools offers “80%-85% of the functionality [of Omniture or Webtrends] for 30%-35% of the cost.”Editions: For those companies or individuals looking for a Google Analytics upgrade, IndexTools’ $50/month e-business package (including 100,000 page views a month) is the likely choice. For those sites with “up to millions of pageviews” there is an enterprise package, for about $250/month. According to their website they offer (or used to offer) a premium package as well – but Bill didn’t discuss this.
The enterprise package offers a fully customizable dashboard, drag and drop report building and modification (like pivot tables in Excel), and the ability to limit access (for clients or various users) to certain areas of the tool. The way Bill explained it, this type of limited authorization can be for the good of the client (so as not to overwhelm him/her with too much information) or for the good of the administrator (so as to limit the number of misdirected questions from the client).
One key differentiator of any edition of IndexTools (from, say, Google Analytics) is that IndexTools is a real time statistics solution, as opposed to a “log file analyzer.” This allows you a more up to date view of your statistics – a real necessity if you’re doing A/B split testing on a high traffic site.
Of particular interest to me, as a consultant/agency, is their white label partnership offering which would allow me to offer IndexTools to clients as an in-house solution. Alternatively, IndexTools offers a co-branded alliance offering.
While I haven’t quite outgrown the appeal of “free” (i.e.: Google Analytics), I can imagine a time in the near future when I’m wanting more from my analytics solution. IndexTools will be an honest possibility when I’m ready to make the move.
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