That is according to Ross Weston, business development manager at Synergy Computing, the distributor of NetInsight Software. "Web analytics is a burgeoning trend, since most companies have realised that they need to be able to move beyond measuring a Web site's effectiveness through pre-configured reports and be able to manage a site's success through investigative Web analysis," he adds.

Weston says analysis and Web site usage tracking are necessary tools for individuals performing a variety of functions within the company "Marketing, sales and service managers need answers to questions such as how much of their 'offline' business is influenced by the Web and their pay-per-click advertising? And what is the impact of their catalogue or direct marketing on Web traffic and conversion?" he explains.

NetInsight aims to allow businesses to analyse Web traffic, online customer behaviour and Internet marketing initiatives in order to make fact-based marketing decisions that deliver success, says Weston.

"Using an analysis suite like NetInsight means that companies have the ability to track issues such as how many people responded to a specific e-mail campaign, which Google keywords generate the highest conversions, and what content drives the best revenue and leads for your salesforce," he says.

"This insight can be turned into immediate action, such as a follow up e-mail to an individual who abandoned a shopping cart, or a real-time call to an individual inquiring about a new product, thereby furthering your cross-channel marketing success," adds Weston. "In effect, Web analysis allows integration of the company Web site with its Internet marketing."

Weston claims that while there are many analytics packages available, the majority simply assemble data, whereas NetInsight continuously monitors a wide variety of built-in and user-specified business objectives through configurable key performance indicators (KPIs), which can be analysed in a tabular or visual format.