Report Monkey: Hey Marketing! The Admin is More than a Button-Pusher

DEAR REPORT MONKEY,

I’ve been a Webtrends administrator for years, and I know more about the tool than anyone else in my company. So I was thrilled when our marketing department asked me to teach them how to use it! However, it didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped.

I had visions of teaching a fresh crew of marketers how to be data-driven. But they just wanted me to show them around the reports. “We can figure out the analysis part for ourselves,” they said. Ouch.

To them, I’m just a stodgy old admin who doesn’t understand what they do. How can I show them that this old dog knows some new tricks?

Sincerely,

UNDERAPPRECIATED IN ILLINOIS

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DEAR UNDERAPPRECIATED,

My heart goes out to you! What a sad thing: to be treated like you’re nothing more than a Toolmeister. Turn your marketing team’s eyes this direction, and I’ll help set the record straight.

Hey You Marketing Peeps!

Your Webtrends administrator is a key member of your analysis team. Why? Four important reasons. Let me break them down for you:

1. They know how your environment is set up, and how that environment can be tweaked to give you the kind of reporting that meets your needs. If they’re not part of the team doing the analysis, though, they’re out of the loop and can’t make recommendations to help you.
2. They know the numbers inside and out: where they come from, how they’re calculated, what they mean. Sure, you can “figure out the analysis part” for yourselves, but without the admin’s insight, you may be reading reports wrong. There’s nothing worse than misreading a measure and having to revise all your reports for a whole quarter. (Okay, redoing an entire year is worse.)
3. They make it easier to do analysis. I’m sure more than once you’ve felt lost trying to find a particular report or needed a little something more to get where you wanted to go. Your admin can help set up navigation that makes sense for you (Administrators: See my Report Monkey post about Navigation Templates). They can also unearth that nugget of insight you probably need to make better sense.
4. Last, but not least, they know what can be done in Webtrends, probably better than anyone else on your team. Bring them on board, and you’ll find you get more focused reporting based on the needs of the entire team — or multiple teams, once you make a habit of involving them.

A good Webtrends administrator is far, far more than a button-pusher.

That’s why we have Webtrends Certified Professional training: to ensure that your administrator has the knowledge and skills to be a real partner in your marketing process. That’s also why our Technical and Marketing training programs both encourage participants to work with the other side and foster collaboration, rather than isolation.

The more you work together, the more valuable you’ll become to one another and to your company as a whole.

Don’t believe me? Read some of the posts on Webtrends Outsider.

Webtrends Outsider is a cool blog that gives tons of tips and tricks on how to use Webtrends in smart and effective ways. I’m willing to bet that your marketing team will love some of the titles and won’t be able to make heads or tails of some of the articles without the experience you can offer.

That oughtta do it! I hope to get an email soon from “Collaborating and Loving It in Illinois”!

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