Member Spotlight

Name: Jim Parker
Company: The Portal Group
Job Title: Manager of Enterprise Analytics
Website: In progress, target Q1 2014
Blog: In progress, target Q1 2014
Twitter Handle: @ontargetmetrics

What is your favorite blog?
My primary source for industry trends with new technologies, vendors and products are the bloggers contributing to webanalyticsdemystified.com. They also share their expertise on advanced analytics that address many of the challenges in our multi-channel and multi-platform world.

How is big data impacting your daily job?
Our biggest challenge has been the ability to tie visitors’ online behavior to an actual offline sale. With such a lengthy shopping process that moves across multiple devices and digital experiences, the effort to accurately attribute ROI to our digital presence and marketing efforts is still fluid. Over the past two years, there has been an abundance of new companies pitching solutions that are intended to meet this specific market need; however, after conducting several proofs of concept, we find that those solutions don’t completely deliver on their grand promises.

What analytics tools do you find most useful?
To handle monitoring data quality of over 1,200 domains, Adobe’s Report Builder tool meets our need. Its’ flexibility and compatibility with Excel allows for setting up advanced formulas, filters, and formatting capabilities to quickly view changes in visitor activity, data integrity, or implementation. I have several Report Builder workbooks that are set up for automated delivery.

What analytics myth is the most common?
From people outside the industry, it’s the perception that analytics practitioners are either supporting or are creating a Big Brother type society.

What is the greatest challenge facing the industry?
Some of the press about government intervention or creating strict industry regulations could have adverse consequences. These not only impact marketing efforts in general, but the industry growth prospects as well.

What is the greatest opportunity facing the industry?
Education is hands down the greatest opportunity. By educating the public on what we do and the value we provide, we can calm their fears. We also benefit by inspiring more talent to get involved to grow our industry.