Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) is a great platform for an organization that needs to roll out an intranet with very little effort because MOSS offers an easy way to organize content based on a company’s organization model.

However, what many companies found was while it was easy to implement the website, trying to get accurate analytics on a MOSS portal was difficult, if not impossible.  Log file analytics yielded inaccurate results and advanced JavaScript tracking was nearly impossible for most organizations due to the complexity of the SharePoint code.  If your organization did not have a C# programmer with SharePoint Portal experience, you were out of luck.

After hearing this concern again and again, we decided there had to be a better way and we were going to find it. The current analytics experience was difficult and frustrating – this was unacceptable.  With this goal in mind, my colleague Michael Love and I researched the issue and came up with a simple solution: directly interact with the SharePoint Portal template structure.  The data is already there on the page; let’s use it.  Just as the Webtrends SmartSource Data Collector code pulls data like refers automatically, this altered code allows us to pull details about the portal experience automatically from the SharePoint templates.

So exactly how much development is required?  This is the best part; the effort involved in implementing the code is minimal.  No C# coding required.  No major template modifications are required.  Your developers should be able to apply the code and get you up and running in minutes.  Webtrends will provide you with the code you need to apply to MOSS 2007 to make this work.  Webtrends will do the rest.  We’ll set up the reporting and help you test the data output.

How rich is the data?  Using this methodology we can collect data on Content Areas, overall site traffic based on a Breadcrumb drilldown report, document tracking, Webpart views, onsite search results (including found vs. not found) and all of the standard reports you expect out of Webtrends Analytics.

The document reporting is probably my favorite functionality.  We can build a report that will track document interaction within a document library including check-outs, downloads, emails directly from SharePoint and a number of other options.  The best part is you get you pick the standard document interactions you want to track.  User level reporting is also available.  If you have an external list of departments that users belong to, we can create a report that will allow you to see activity based on departments.

How do I get it? If you are interested in this offering – touch base with your account manager for implementation details and pricing.

This is just the first step.  Webtrends is serious about getting you the data you need and giving you direct access to you.  Many of you saw our press release about integrating with WebSphere Portal.  The integration will be equally easy, giving step by step guidance on how to track your WebSphere Portal with minimal effort.

It’s time to make things easy!

Tags: JavaScript, MOSS, Portals, SDC, SharePoint, WebSphere

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Emerging Technologies, Partners, User Experience, Webtrends Innovations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.