A few days ago I sat down with the BI (Business Intelligence) manager in one of my portfolio companies. He showed me some key metrics on the business, and what they are measuring as they try to understand the fundamentals of the business.
Analytics is a key part of any web business, and in today’s world – any business, web or non-web. Everything needs to be measured, and it’s important to measure the right things. A lot of times, it’s the trivial stuff (# of users, growth, conversion) but other times it’s much more sophisticated (repeat users, traffic sources, segmentation, churn, etc.).
Having good metrics is important as they provide good information, and GREAT stories. Sitting with the BI manager taught me a lot about the business of that portfolio company. What is really happening? What customers are profitable? Where can we make more money? What are the current bottlenecks? With such insights, you can addicted to analytical information, as much as you can be addicted to the performance of a public stock. As such, I ask my companies to share data on a monthly basis. That’s the minimum resolution where you can see real changes, that are beyond just noise. I never want to get access to Google Analytics. As a board member, getting daily information can kill you.
A lot has been written on the importance of analytics. Check 360innovate as one example. Or just search Google for “importance of analytics”.
Now, here is a personal thought on analytics. I sometimes wish I could have analytics on my life. Some sort of a measurement tool on everything. Just for me. How many flights did I ever take? How much km did I run to date (total)? How many people did I meet? I can’t get this information. Is it interesting? Not sure. But maybe my grand kids will have all that in a database one day.
Hi, you got some good points in this post although my experience analysis of various kinds is important but usually unefficiant, without proper reactions.
Especially on the web, where most companies use analytics, you have to react to users immediatly and appropriatly or else there gone.
Having tons of reports does give a nice feeling that you "know whats going on" but its not enough to change and improve whats going on.
Posted by: mike Telem | September 02, 2009 at 05:27 AM
I agree. Similar to Active Insights, we are investors in Verix (www.verix.com).
Posted by: Daniel Cohen | September 02, 2009 at 11:51 PM
I definitely agree, business-wise, that is. But your last comment made me think real hard: while it may actually be VERY interesting, do I really want to digitize, elasticize and statisticize my personal life to that extent?
Cheers and shana tova!
Zigmund
Posted by: Zigmund | September 17, 2009 at 08:34 PM
On the topic of BI and analytics, check out this really cool clip on YouTube about video analytics soltions and how it improves Business Intelligence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx9pcNh5uJY
Posted by: Zev Schonberg | November 19, 2009 at 04:38 AM