CEO Blog: The Evolving World of Online Merchandising

I learned of, and subsequently got to know, Gary Angel long before I joined Infobright. He and his firm, Semphonic, have quite a strong reputation in Web analytics, especially in the online merchandising world. Anyone dealing with Omniture, Webtrends, or similar online data has probably heard of, if not worked with, Gary and his team. We recently kicked off a joint initiative with Semphonic and our partner Pentaho specifically around Web analytics and digital measurement. While I am clearly biased, I think the work they do is great, and find it to be a very cool space. I am amazed at how far it has progressed and how sophisticated it has become. The idea of individual targeting on a product level has clearly evolved to a place where the product initiatives are enhanced by much more macroscopic analysis based on ultra-rich data and the ability to see and act quickly on opportunities that may have been opaque in the past.

Next week I will be attending the X-Change conference put on by Semphonic. It will be a sharing of ideas among some of the most sophisticated users anywhere. I am looking forward to hearing the stories. I am looking forward to interacting with our customers who are there. But mostly, I am looking forward to learning more about what once may have been technologically possible, but far-fetched, but which has now become practical, and a reality for many.

I think some people see machine-generated data as one of the more boring subjects on Earth. I find it stimulating. The range of ultra cool things that are fueled by machine-generated data is amazing, and most certainly exploding.

Regards,

Don