John Lovett at Aberdeen has produced a review of the educational opportunities out there for folks interested in learning web analytics.  It’s a wide ranging piece covering everything from the Yahoo Group to the various agencies to the WAA courses to the Master of Science in Analytics from NC State.  John says:

“Web analytics usage has reached mainstream status with 82% adoption among companies surveyed recently by Aberdeen.  However, a vast range of maturity exists regarding analytics process, data analysis and corporate understanding of web metrics.  A fundamental impediment precluding many companies from building a successful analytics program is a lack of skilled employees required to manage, distribute and analyze web analytics.”

He addresses this situation in two parts:

Vendor sponsored programs and consultants, blogs, and guru sessions

Community forums, industry associations, and academic programs

These are unlocked research reports, no charge to view. 

The NC State effort is quite interesting; they are taking the “blended approach” I feel is where we are headed.  Data is data, behavior is behavior, and many of the offline analytical disciplines have a lot to offer the folks in web analytics.  We’re already seeing web analytics job postings with phrases like “strong knowledge of SAS and SPSS highly desirable” meaning employers are looking for cross-platform, cross-tool, cross-channel analysts.

The folks with this cross-knowledge set who can also “speak business” are going to be a very hot commodity going forward.  Fortunately, most web analysts already “speak business”, it’s part of the WA culture – and speaking business is the hard part for most analytical minds.  Like I said, the data is data, the behavior is behavior – and the tools are just tools.  Web analytics is patient zero, infecting the corporation with a proper analytical culture.

If you’re a web analyst and are offered a chance to do SAS / SPSS / Business Objects / etc. training, I would jump on it.

Thanks John / Aberdeen for a great “Sector Insight” piece of research.