Net Zero Gravity: Competitive Analysis

Competitive Analysis Overview

Our review for this project was focused on assessing the associated costs and benefits of investing in the Google Analytics 360 premium plan to track our website performance and improve our customer engagement through targeted marketing. This review presents 3 potential substitutes for GA360 and they are listed below:

SAP Analytics https://www.sap.com/products/cloud-analytics.html
IBM Digital Analytics (formerly Coremetrics) https://www.ibm.com/customer-engagement/coremetrics-software
Flurry Analytics (via Yahoo) https://developer.yahoo.com/analytics/?guccounter=1

System Costs

SAP Analytics is all cloud based technology. They offer three versions, free, business intelligence and finally, planning. The free version only offers reporting on data with few capabilities for smart assist. The business intelligence version of the software offers more assistance from their own professionals. They give the option to have 24/7 support as well as access to a customer success manager. This option also opens up the opportunity to view, but not use, planning models. The last version is the planning version and the only difference between business and planning is the ability to use all of the planning models that SAP Analytics has. With the addition of eight planning models, the price goes up significantly from $23 per month (business intelligence) to $152 per month (planning). The ability to do planning with data is a great option, but I don’t believe that it warrants the drastic rise in price.

Within IBM Digital Analytics, there is the option to have Watson Digital Marketing. This tool is all about the customer experience and how this is able to improve customer insights. Features that come with the subscription are: managing digital marketing, calculating ROI, exploiting analytics, eliminating obstacles to actions. With this being another cloud-based service, there is an emphasis on security. The price for this is a pay as you need service, which is nice if all you want is to subscribe to individual services. There are 10 offerings that range from $2.56 per device to $1,500 for an entire month of service. As a student researcher, I found it difficult to find the information I was looking for. The information is displayed in a way that is best-suited for people who are looking to purchase.

Flurry Analytics via Yahoo is an online tool that focuses on reporting information for apps that companies use; the subscription is compatible for both IOS and Android platforms. Essentially this is a tool that developers can use when creating apps. This data collection software is based on improving user experience and how through the use of analytics companies are able to understand how their products work and how customers are interacting with them. This is a free service.

Risks

SAP Analytics

Migrating a business to the cloud can be a daunting task full of unknowns as an organization embarks on new digital territory with new risk landscape parameters to contend with. There is a perceived complexity that comes along with transferring business systems into the cloud, but that can be mitigated by working with experienced vendor providers whose business interests are aligned with the firms it services1. Another common concern is the security risk posed by adopting cloud-based systems, but this is also a largely a misconception. Still, any cloud integration project must include a strict and comprehensive approach to security, and in so doing, include measures like authentication, authorisation, logging, and encryption, to ensure a secure setup from the initial configuration to the subsequent managing and administration of the system1. Dispelling these two common risk concerns: 1) the perceived complexity and 2) the security issues of the cloud there is one other risk that should be top of mind when implementing cloud-based systems and that is with regards to the initial project implementation itself. Failure for SAP technology partners to deliver their cloud based service environment on time can lead to business shutdowns or delayed services to a firm's’ customers and this is an outcome no business wants to see happen. Following the implementation phase, assuming it has gone as planned and on-time, the SAP cloud system must now be managed and maintained. For organizations who are new to the cloud, this will require adequate training and knowledge-transfer, or the system integration may turn out to cost more to maintain than the value that it is worth. Each of these risks are manageable with the right technology implementation partner or vendor to guide through the process at every step of the way.

IBM Digital Analytics (formerly Coremetrics)

Many of the same risks apply to IBM Digital Analytics as, like SAP Analytics, it also operates in the cloud environment. What is noteworthy with IBM is that it is considered an “enterprise solution seller of software and services” and thus buying and working with a single IBM product is not ideal2. It’s a powerful AI-driven customer analytics system, but switching over to it means switching all other IT systems you may have in place and this could create added cost and run the risk of runaway project syndrome if the new adoption runs into unforeseen hurdles to implementation.

Flurry Analytics (via Yahoo)

Yahoo’s Flurry Analytics is optimized for mobile, not for web. This makes it a fairly poor substitute for our needs since it is primarily focused on the mobile platform engagement and not desktop web. Depending on a business’ goals, going all-in on mobile could be seen as a risk3. For our purposes, we are seeking a multi-faceted approach so we would agree with that line of thinking. But for the sake of argument, this would be great for a business focused on mobile app development, but not so great for those focused on desktop-based website interaction. It was difficult to find detailed information regarding the risks of Flurry Analytics system, but a few “cons” discovered are:

Some of the metrics could be inaccurate (issue with broken links in-apps and losing some of that engagement data)

Exporting data to excel could be updated and would be improved with better support

Value

Ultimately, our value assessment comes down to what will be the most effective tool in helping us achieve our goal of carbon neutral travel to Mars by attracting interest, investors, and eventually customers. When compared with our needs as a lean, startup like company, the freemium model is appealing, but likely does not meet our needs in terms of support, data privacy, and robustness. In our eyes, it seems that the adage of “you get what you pay for” applies. A comparison matrix of competitive products is shown below.