Watchfire Partners with WebTrends, Recommends WebTrends Analytics 8 as the Solution of Choice for its Customers

April 18, 2006; 06:40 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. & WALTHAM, Mass. - WebTrends Inc., the market leader for web analytics and Marketing Performance Management solutions, and Watchfire, the market-leading provider of web site security and compliance software and services, today announced a strategic partnership that combines WebTrends Analytics(TM) 8 with Watchfire's flagship product WebXM(TM), providing customers with the ability to prioritize the remediation of web site defects by focusing on those that are most visible. In addition, WebTrends Analytics is now the preferred solution that Watchfire will recommend to its customers.

A significant number of web sites suffer quality and compliance issues that can range in severity from broken links and slow-loading pages to missing privacy statement links and a lack of compliance with certain industry regulations. Unchecked, these issues can erode visitors' site experiences, undermine channel performance and may expose an organization to risk. In addition, Forrester Research has found that one of the top three things that negatively impacts the success of web analytics deployments is missing or erroneous page tags, which many web analytics solutions use to collect data for analysis (What's On Web Analytics Users' Minds?, May 12, 2005).

Watchfire's WebXM helps solve these issues by auditing corporate web sites to identify pages missing web analytics data tags, and to help ensure that cookies are being used in accordance with privacy policies. In addition, WebXM automates web site quality, privacy, and compliance audits and when integrated with WebTrends Analytics offers users one-click access to the full range of WebTrends reports to correlate user behavior with identified site issues in order to prioritize improvements, manage the customer experience and better understand the business impact of quality and compliance issues.

For example, web site content managers may see pages identified by WebXM as slow-loading and can utilize WebTrends navigation analysis to examine the impact -- determining whether users wait and continue through a given process or if they abandon the site -- in order to prioritize fixing those pages that are the most critical to address. Or, by leveraging WebTrends Search Analytics and the WebXM search engine optimization reports, web site managers can better understand the search terms visitors commonly use, the subsequent activities those searches drive (cart additions, lead form submittals, conversions or new searches), as well as the queries that produce zero search results. This information allows web site managers to focus on improving meta tags and fixing other page elements identified by WebXM that will have the biggest impact on business performance.

"We chose to partner with WebTrends not only because they are a recognized leader in web analytics, but also because of a number of strategic synergies, including a mutual enterprise focus and expertise beyond just retail, including financial services, government and healthcare," said Carey Stanton, vice president, business and corporate development, Watchfire. "By leveraging flexible industry-leading analytics alongside our award-winning online risk management solutions, customers will have the best insight available to decrease operational costs, reduce compliance risks and increase customer trust while also improving site and marketing performance."

"Our integration with Watchfire effectively closes the loop for those charged with site development and maintenance," said Tore Steen, vice president of corporate development, WebTrends. "We're excited to partner with Watchfire as it is another great example of how deep solution integrations can dramatically streamline users' workflows, saving time and resources with comprehensive insight to optimize visitors' experiences and business results."

WebTrends/Watchfire Availability

The integrated WebTrends-Watchfire solution is available now, and is sold by WebTrends and Watchfire's sales teams as well as select partners. Current WebXM Analytics customers who migrate to WebTrends Analytics On Demand or software will receive special incentives to make the transition simple and cost-effective.

About Watchfire

Watchfire provides Online Risk Management software and services to help ensure the security and compliance of websites. More than 500 enterprises and government agencies, including AXA Financial, SunTrust, HSBC, Vodafone, Veterans Affairs and Dell rely on Watchfire to audit and report on issues impacting their online business. Watchfire has been the recipient of several industry honors including the HP/IAPP Privacy Innovation Award, InfoSecurity Product Guide's Hot Security Company 2006, Computerworld's Innovative Technology Award, and "Recommended" rating by Computer Reseller News. Watchfire was named by IDC as the worldwide market share leader in web application vulnerability assessment software. Watchfire's partners include IBM Global Services, WebTrends, Sapient, PricewaterhouseCoopers, TRUSTe, Microsoft, Interwoven, EMC Documentum and Mercury. Watchfire is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. For more information, please visit www.watchfire.com.

About WebTrends Inc.

As the acknowledged global web analytics market leader for more than twelve years, WebTrends is now leading the category into Marketing Performance Management. With an uncompromising focus on delivering the most accurate and actionable metrics, WebTrends enables thousands of web-smart organizations to easily improve campaign performance and web site conversion as well as build stronger relationships with their customers. With WebTrends Marketing Lab, the company stands alone in offering comprehensive, flexible and scalable web analytics as well as sophisticated, on-the-fly data exploration and customer targeting solutions for relationship marketing. Companies such as Microsoft, Ticketmaster, IKEA, Reuters, General Mills, US Bank and more than half of the Fortune and Global 500 rely on WebTrends as their trusted standard, not only for the award-winning technology, but also for a full range of consulting services and unmatched industry expertise across the broadest range of vertical markets. Through software and on-demand options and a full range of data collection methods, WebTrends is unique in its ability to meet any analysis objective with leading data integrity, privacy and security best practices. For more information, visit www.WebTrends.com.

WebTrends, WebTrends On Demand, WebTrends Analytics and WebTrends Marketing Lab are trademarks or registered trademarks of WebTrends Inc. in the United States and other countries. Watchfire, WebXM, AppScan, PowerTools, the Bobby Logo and the Flame Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Watchfire Corporation. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.