Free white paper on Tag Management Systems
This last week I was in London thanks to the good graces of our friends at Tealeaf to deliver a keynote speech at their EMEA customer conference. After the event, both reporters and conference attendees asked me “What is the most important technology trend in web analytics today?”
I have been asked this hundreds of times in my career as an analyst and consultant and the answer used to be tricky. In the past I’ve opined “multichannel integration”, “segmentation”, “application usability” and even “none, it’s about people and process, not technology.”
This time, however, my answer was clear: Tag Management Systems.
Tag management has become a nightmare for many companies. As we outlined in our white paper with ObservePoint on the need for a “Chief Data Officer”, tagging and data collection has gotten out of control in companies of all sizes. Information Technology supports one set of tag-based tools, marketing deploys their own stuff via content management systems (CMS), advertising and other individual stakeholders drop their tags, and before you know it you have a dozen or more scripts included at various points across your site.
In a way, because of fragmentation in the marketplace this situation was inevitable. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Emerging tag management systems (TMS) are rapidly transforming the data capture and technology deployment landscape, replacing inefficient, individual installations with a “one stop shop” able to manage any number of tag-based technologies via a single user interface. Early adopters of these systems are reporting a profound transformation of both their ability to manage data capture and their relationship with Information Technology.
From a web analytics perspective this is what we call a “win/win.”
One of these vendors is Ensighten, a company founded by a group of folks who have a long established reputation in digital measurement. Their CEO Josh Manion and I go back pretty far, and so when he told me about their platform I was immediately intrigued but somewhat skeptical.
I had already seen nearly all of the competing solutions in the market and walked away a variety of concerns. I’d even gone so far as trying to establish an “Open Tag Alliance” initiative with one vendor, which unfortunately collapsed due to time constraints.
Needless to say, I was impressed with Ensighten, so much so that I asked Josh if we could partner with him (something we rarely do with technology vendors.) He agreed, and so we are proud to announce that we are the first deployment and integration partner to sign up with Ensighten.
In support of our partnership we agreed to write a paper detailing what we see as the advantages of tag management systems. Titled “The Myth of the Universal Tag and the Future of Digital Data Collection”, this short paper outlines the need for TMS, the rationale behind deployments, and the opportunity for return on the investment. The paper is freely available now at the Ensighten web site or you can write us directly for a complimentary copy.
Readers should note that there are a handful of tag management solutions in the market today. At Web Analytics Demystified we believe the growth in the sector is validation of the opportunity — each of these companies have good stories to tell and an expanding customer base.
You should consider a tag management system if you are:
- Frustrated with the “one tag, one project, one timeline” model of tag deployment;
- Switching vendors and looking to gain leverage over future deployments;
- Heavily invested in Flash but have long struggled to measure the technology;
- Managing globally distributed sites but have little centralized control over tags;
- Looking to add Q/A and workflow management to your tag deployments;
- Concerned at all about the quality and data accuracy from your web analytics.
If any of these criteria apply to you I would strongly encourage you to give John or I a call. We’ll be more than happy to walk you through the current tag management system vendor landscape at no charge and point you towards whatever solutions seems right for you.
We welcome you to the age of tag management systems and we hope you will join us in welcoming Ensighten to the market.
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