Omniture, WebTrends and Google Analytics = Ford, Chevy and Chrysler

What kind of car did you learn to drive with? For me, growing up in the country, I learned to drive on a Ford F-350 flatbed truck with 4 wheel drive and a manual transmission with 6 forward gears and two reverse. It was big, loud, powerful and dirtier in the cab than it was on the fenders. You might have learned on the family sedan, a Chevy perhaps. But once you learn to drive a Chevy does that mean you can only drive Chevys? Of course not. If you can drive a Chevy you can drive a Ford, a Toyota or even a Bentley.

It’s the same with web analytics packages. But short sighted managers and HR departments don’t see it that way.

I’ve used Omniture, WebTrends and fooled around with Google Analytics on this site. If I know how to track and analyze an email campaign in Omniture I can do it in WebTrends even if I’ve never seen the package before. It’s the concepts that matter, not the interface.

But I’ve spoken with recruiters, managers and HR reps that absolutely insist you have X years working in analytics package Y. That’s dumb and limiting the pool of candidates. So, this is a plea to those who are the hiring decision makers (almost used ‘deciders’, couldn’t do it): open your minds. A good analyst is someone who finds insights, pulls learnings from obscure data and deeply understands KPIs. It’s not someone who is familiar with a particular software’s interface.

Start hiring smart.