Adobe Updates Analysis Workspace to Improve Analytic Visualizations

Adobe Systems has released new capabilities in its analytics platform to help companies better analyze experiences on web and mobile applications. 

The fall release includes improvements to Analysis Workspace, a product that provides Adobe Analytics users the abilities to drag-and-drop dimensions, metrics, segments and time granularities into a table to create quick, complex, on-the-fly reports and visualizations.

Jeff Allen, senior director of product marketing for Adobe Analytics, told CMSWire Adobe usually provides a spring release for its analytics platform ahead of its yearly digital marketing customer summit. 

However, in response to customer feedback, Adobe released improvements ahead of schedule to allow companies to better see activity through digital experiences, check for disengagement points and share data in real-time with colleagues.

Competing with SAS, Google

Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner has ranked Adobe, SAS and Google the leaders in two successive Magic Quadrant’s for Digital Marketing Analytics.

Adobe stands slightly behind SAS in Gartner’s “ability to execute” category. Each are well ahead of Google in that capacity, but the search giant beats Adobe and SAS in “completeness of vision.” Last year, Adobe held the lead over SAS in “ability to execute.”

Gartner report authors Martin Kihn, Adam Sarner, Andrew Frank, Christi Eubanks and Lizzy Foo Kune praised Adobe Analytics for its innovation and rich functionality, strong marketing cloud integration and segment analysis capabilities. They cautioned over Adobe’s complexity, web analytics legacy and certain unfinished marketing cloud product integrations, such as data collection and real-time campaign orchestration.

Allen said Adobe’s analytics stands ahead of Google’s because it provides a holistic view of a customer’s journey where Google focuses on advertising metrics. Gartner backed that up in its report this month, saying, Google is “less in tune with marketers seeking a more CRM-oriented approach to analytics.”

Adobe Analytics is part of the company’s eight-tier Adobe Marketing Cloud. It also includes Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Social, Adobe Target, Adobe Audience Manager, Adobe Campaign, Media Optimizer and Adobe Primetime.

Insights on Conversion, Churn

The new capabilities that Adobe Analytics released today include:

Flow exploration and fallout analysis. The exploration capability within Analysis Workspace allows brands visualize customer movement through digital experiences, noting data from entry point through to conversion or churn. The “fallout analysis” feature allows users to drag, drop and rearrange steps along the user experience. Where do they disengage? What do they do afterward? 

Starter projects. Allen promised a “more natural ramp-up for those trying Analysis Workspace for the first time.” Users do not have to be data scientists to leverage insights within the platform, Allen said. 

New visualizations. Within line graphs, users can now forecast expected future outcomes or automatically detect data anomalies and run contribution. Users can identify high and low value users. Users can also now compare data year over year, month over month or day over day. 

Adobe Analytics includes more than 140,000 active users. It’s part of the $1.36 billion Adobe Digital Marketing Cloud. Adobe acquired the Omniture analytics platform in 2009. It includes web and mobile analytics, multi-site grouping, visitor segmentation, action alerts, data sources, cross-category analysis, video measurement and reporting and web 2.0 optimization.