Introducing Aurélie Pols …
René asked me if I wanted to join his company. I said yes, on one condition: that I could set-up a Web Analytics team. He frowned. A Web what?
That was in 2003 and the start of OX2, which turned out to be one of the leading independent Web Analytics consulting services agencies on the European market. We sold OX2 to the LBi Group, n° 1 Independent Interactive Agency in Europe, in 2008.
Eric asked me another question some years later. This blog post should explain why.
WebTrends’ Log Analyzer first landed on my European desk (Brussels based, Belgium) in 1999. I felt excited as I’d started my career -for amongst others Swiss Life- as a business analyst, used to answering the most challenging questions coming from the commercial &/or marketing departments but frustrated by the lack of available data.
The DotCom era and it’s promises would finally allow me to unleash my analytical creativity! I got hooked & despite encouraging video presentations by Jason Burby, I felt alone while trying to get the most out of this magical data crunching wonderful discipline called Web Analytics.
My French speaking mum always told me I got into the business because my favorite word while growing up in the Netherlands was “Pourquoi?”. This translates into Why in English and my feminine intuition tells me Jim Sterne might agree 
Nonetheless, while finding refuge during the DotCom shake-out at the Deutsche Bank, I pledged that no one in Europe should ever feel that way! I met frowning René at a Master in Ebusiness. He’s very perseverant. So much so that we ended up building a company together, OX2, getting married and having a son, Luca.
Through OX2 and my blog, I found a voice and vehicle to share my thoughts. I still remember the time when most people in Europe wondered why I was actually bothering with this thing called Web Analytics! And I will certainly never forget the positive as well as the negative comments we received when I stated our independent position when it came to vendors. After all, it was & still is about what you get out of the tool, not the tool itself!
To be quite frank, I used Google Analytics’ release in November 2005 as an excuse to ramp up to such independence. Google once again helped pave the way & comforted us in our beliefs when Brett Crosby announced the release of their Website Optimizer while we had been building an A/B & MVT tool, imbedded into one of OX2’s content management systems, over the summer.
Stars were continuing to align when the great Avinash Kaushik also picked up on my incessant abuse of the written word to include it in his world top 10 of blogs on Web Analytics. I can still precisely recall my first acquaintance with Avinash, at the eMetrics in London back in 2006. His performance and comments remain unforgettable
Eric, then with pony tail, bluffed me even more with his VisualSciences demo a couple of months later at the eMetrics summit in Washington DC. Following that unique & thrilling experience and after some email exchanges, this fortunate and mind boggling encounter was followed by a call which included the invitation to join Web Analytics Demystified’s Board of Advisors.
A relationship of trust and mutual respect has been building up ever since between Eric and me. I thoroughly enjoy is no nonsense approach to Web Analytics, his openness of mind and is curiosity. He’s one of the rare people that keep on surprising me!
He allowed me to keep up with all that was going on in the field of Web Analytics while I was running around like a headless chicken, heading my WA team first at OX2, then at LBi. Interest for Web Analytics was picking up all over Europe!
Not taking it easy during that last year, where, keeping the promise I’d made to myself about sharing the love for Web Analytics (that’s a shameless plug for Brian Clifton), I also reached out to the LBi group’s network, ranging from Sweden to New York while answering questions fusing from Amsterdam to Milan.
I armed my Web Analytics European DreamTeam (WAEDT) very early on with the first GAAC certification in Europe, a WebTrends Insight Network label (shared then only with our future colleagues at LBi UK). I also turned out to be the first IndexTools (now Yahoo! Web Analytics) Certified Analyst and attended the Omniture certification. Lately, we’d been enjoying working with Unica for a couple of clients. Clients such as Toyota Motor Europe, ING, NATO, Schering Plough, Bayer Schering, the Belgian Social Security, Philips, Deutsche Bank, Danfoss … for which I had the pleasure to work through all these years.
During the last year, I also gave birth to my son, Luca, but unfortunately lost my blogging voice and basically my license to think…
Today, the integration of OX2 within LBi is over and done with. My Belgian/Dutch/Spanish son, Luca (yes, that’s an Italian name), is teething and starting to walk. I took a month off. It’s now time for me to move on to new challenges.
I’m thrilled & delighted to start up the European presence for Web Analytics Demystified Inc., working alongside Eric to help advanced clients in Web Analytics with their strategic roadmap in order to assure real value from their investment. It will allow me to express my opinion about the industry after too many months of silence. I strongly believe that our times yearn for Data Driven Decision Making: responsibility, accountability, transparency & ROI. Building on a “Competing on Analytics” strategic vision, companies should embrace data transparency and optimal (human) resources allocation in order to foster innovation through experimentation.
Europe, prepare to have Web Analytics demystified!
