The rise of hosted services – in site search and beyond
Industry reports estimate that more than half of the web analytics market involves hosted rather than installed software models. In the site search and navigation technology market, hosted service currently has a much smaller share, but the pendulum is swinging the other way, contends Steve Kusmer, CEO of search and navigation provider Atomz, which was is being acquired by web analytics firm WebSideStory and which provides hosted search technology.
Kusmer, who estimates that less than 10% of site search is currently being provided on a hosted model, nevertheless says Atomz’s entire growth over the past six years has been driven by an increasing preference for hosted service. In contrast to other providers of site search, Atomz’ is exclusively an ASP.
“It’s faster to deploy, its easier to make improvements to the implementation, and the upfront cost is lower,” says Kusmer. He adds that software installations may cost initially in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and require programmers` time for integration. Kusmer says that by contrast, Bloomingdales, which implemented hosted service from Atomz on its web site last fall, was up and live with full search and navigation functionality within weeks, while customer Lego has reported it achieved ROI on its implementation of Atomz site search within 90 days.
“We are focused on the same things the installed vendors are, but our delivery method is different,” says Kusmer. “You can log onto our system from anywhere and do your merchandising, target your keywords, change how you navigation works.”
Kusmer adds that with the pending acquisition of Atomz by WebSideStory, the two companies are working to develop a complete offering of hosted software applications for building and operating a web site. It’s a reflection of a rise in web services that spans a variety of technologies and applications, he adds. “What you’re starting to see now is the ascendancy of hosted services, not only for analyzing web sites but for actually running them,” he says.
Back...
