Standard Life keeps faith with Webtrends to better understand its customers

Google Analytics will be used to supplement Webtrends analytics and reporting software

Financial services firm Standard Life has signed a two-year agreement with analytics provider Webtrends to provide access to in-depth reporting and actionable insights into the company's customers.

Standard Life had already been using Webtrends for two years before it conducted a full review into the software it wanted to use for the next two years.

"We had a relationship with Webtrends and we've decided to consolidate that for another two years," David Scott, director of group platform and customer data strategy, told Computing.

"We had deployed it across our 600-plus websites over the two-year period and it has become more mature and more transparent and provides us with valuable information. Part of the nature of our business is that we have tailored websites to corporate pension schemes, and Webtrends has been crucial in being able to improve the digital experience of our customers, clients and partners. If we don't measure [the experience], then we can't respond accordingly," he said.

The financial services provider selected Webtrends' Analytics 10 platform and Segments software and initially rolled it out in the UK, Ireland, and Canada, and plans to roll it out to its Asia and other emerging markets divisions later this year.

Although Standard Life had an existing relationship with Webtrends, this was not the main reason why it was selected, according to Scott.

"It was because they had the capability and solutions that we needed. It helped that we knew them but that was not the primary reason. It was that their solution was well matched with what we had in the business, but of course it was a contributing factor," he said.

"Things like Google Analytics [were considered], and that can still supplement Webtrends but Webtrends is the primary means of measurement," he added.

Scott said the company uses Webtrends to measure traffic from mobile devices and that this helps to ensure that those websites with a particularly high percentage of mobile users can be easily navigated using smatphones.

"We can also follow the customer's journey on our websites - it is broad but it depends on how we embed the software. We can see how customers interact and learn what is successful and what is not," he said.