Web-based ASPs Integrate CRM and Web Analytics
Users of Web analytics applications must wonder what happens to those hot sales prospects lured in through online marketing campaigns. Customer relationship management (CRM) users, in turn, probably wonder how those prospects got there.
In an attempt to tie together those two different parts of the marketing and sales process, WebSideStory, a San Diego-based ASP that specializes in Web analytics, today announced a technology partnership with Salesforce.com, a San Francisco-based CRM ASP.
The integration is possible because WebSideStory and Salesforce.com aren't “working across channels,” Rand Schulman, WebSideStory's chief marketing officer, said. That is, rather than needing to couple Web-based applicationse with legacy client-server software, “we're on the same side of the channel.” Both WebSideStory's and Salesforce.com's applications are built in an Internet-native architecture.
“Integrating CRM and analytics is not trivial. Providing a 360-degree view of the customer is difficult, but it's important,” Schulman said. “Salesforce.com offers an open and robust API and that allows us to take this first baby step.”
Under terms of the agreement, joint clients of Salesforce.com S3 and WebSideStory's HitBox Enterprise can track the marketing and sales process from the initial campaign to lead generation to sales. For example, users can track the number of visitors that were reached by a particular initiative, how many times someone clicks on a banner or opens an e-mail, and how much actual revenue that was ultimately generated from that same campaign.
“This is what marketers have been after for years: the ability to completely close the loop on their online marketing efforts,” Schulman said.
Today's announcement comes on the heels of a similar partnership between WebSideStory and search and content management ASP Atomz (see Atomz, WebSideStory Integrate Search, CMS and Analytics
Salesforce.com and WebSideStory are listed by ASPnews as Top 20 Service Providers.
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Dan Muse is a journalist and digital content specialist. He was a leader of content teams, covering topics of interest to business leaders as well as technology decision makers. He also wrote and edited articles on a wide variety of subjects. He was the editor in Chief of CIO.com (IDG Brands) and the CIO Digital Magazine. HeI worked alongside organizations like Drexel University and Deloitte. Specialties: Content Strategy, SEO, Analytics and Editing and Writing. Brand Positioning, Content Management Systems. Technology Journalism. Audience development, Executive Leadership, Team Development.
