Coremetrics Acquires IBM’s Surfaid Analytics Business

Published 6th April 2006

IBM WebSphere and Coremetrics also announce partnership to deliver multichannel analytics...

Coremetrics, the leading provider of hosted web analytics and precision marketing solutions, today announced the acquisition of the IBM SurfAid Analytics business, a premier on-demand web analytics service, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. In addition, IBM WebSphere, the leading
software platform for on demand business, and Coremetrics have joined forces to deliver a best-of-breed multichannel business analytics solution tailored for websites running WebSphere Commerce software.

SurfAid Analytics, launched by IBM Global Services in 1996, has long been known in the web analytics community for its commitment to service, powerful adhoc report building capabilities, segment analysis, business language reporting paradigm, flexibility to meet unique customer needs and pervasive application use. Its customer base spans multiple industries including communications, manufacturing, media, publishing, retail, financial services and travel/transportation as well as corporate intranets.

Beyond SurfAid’s innovative technology, which is complementary to Coremetrics’ offering, Coremetrics acquires significant web analytics talent, a diverse customer base servicing multiple industries and a growing, profitable business. Companies serviced by IBM SurfAid include ACS Publications, AMD, Cirque du Soleil, IBM, Moody’s KMV, Toyota Motor Sales, Union Bank of California, Verizon Super Pages, and MPS Technologies — a leading provider of service to the publishing industry.

“Our strategy has always been to offer highly tailored digital marketing solutions for specific verticals. The approach has led us to a dominant position in retail and rapidly growing market share in financial services and travel/transportation. The addition of the SurfAid team with its expertise and customer concentration in content sites enables us to further expand our vertical strategy,” said Joe Davis, president and CEO at Coremetrics.

Coremetrics plans to merge the best of each platform as part of an integrated roadmap to provide maximum value to its customers. Combining Coremetrics’ deep analytics and industry best practices with SurfAid’s solutions — such as visitor experience analysis, action ready reports,
real-time monitor, report/notebook scheduler, adhoc report builder, and its dynamic distributed computing architecture — will provide powerful analytics enhancements and improved usability for clients.

“The benefits of the combined organisation will be realised by our collective customers in new innovation and continued market leadership,” said John Payne, executive and co-founder of SurfAid Analytics. “We are merging two of the web analytics industry’s most successful and tenured organisations. Together, we will remain focused on delivering market-leading solutions and functions which will continue to set the standard for the industry.”

“At the heart of our strategy is a dedication to client success. Coremetrics and SurfAid customers will benefit greatly from the combination of two market-leading web analytics solutions and the collective web analytics expertise of the combined teams,” continued Davis.

“Furthermore, our customers are deeply interested in a convenient way to perform multichannel business analytics, and the announcement of the WebSphere Commerce partnership conveniently enables that vision. We are delighted about the opportunity to work directly with IBM WebSphere
Commerce, the industry’s leading commerce platform, and our common customers will find tremendous value from this partnership.”

As part of the announcement, IBM and Coremetrics have joined forces to deliver a best-of-breed cross-channel business analytics solution specifically for use with IBM WebSphere Commerce software. While IBM WebSphere Commerce and Coremetrics already share a number of joint
customers, the two product groups are jointly collaborating to innovate and will become each other’s lead partners in the area of e-commerce.

By offering WebSphere Commerce Analytics powered by Coremetrics, IBM is able to deliver the metrics and analysis capabilities that allow commerce customers to transform data insights into business action. The two product groups are jointly collaborating on a solution that provides insight into all WebSphere Commerce-driven channels including web, partner sites, in-store kiosks, contact centre, gift registries, hand held devices and more. By combining insightful merchandise reporting, push button data sharing and rapid implementation with Coremetrics’ rich reporting interface, deep commerce expertise, aptitude for integrating data across channels, and detailed visitor and transaction data collection, customers will spend less time
investigating and more time taking action on the data. Furthermore, this synergy puts the offerings in lockstep to ensure that WebSphere Commerce customers’ analytics needs are continually addressed.

“Coremetrics’ reputation in the commerce analytics space is unparalleled. As our customers expand the use of WebSphere Commerce to provide business services across multiple channels and customer touch points such as in-store kiosks and in-bound call centres, we have an
opportunity to provide a view as to what’s happening across channels. This approach is unique — it isn’t a web-only thought, it is about integrated dashboards, convenient user action and reporting that provide rich analysis for all WebSphere Commerce-driven channels,” said Jim Caldwell, director of IBM WebSphere Commerce.