Knowledge Base/Analytics/Resources

FAQ

Thomas Høst Andersen
posted this on August 02, 2011 12:59

Answers

Background

What is EQATEC Analytics?

EQATEC Analytics is a business intelligence solution (SaaS) used to analyze how your users are using your software applications.

Why should we use EQATEC Analytics?

Every organization developing software rely on gut-feelings when important decisions are taken. We believe you can make better decisions and improve your business if you can include relevant facts too. Many decisions are extremely simple to make when facts are available. EQATEC Analytics provides you with facts about your software.

Is this related to CEIP?

Yes, indeed. CEIP - Customer Experience Improvement Program is just one of the terms used within the software industry to name activities striving to answer the question "how are our users using our software?". Microsoft, Adobe, Apple have done this for years under different names. Until now it has only been feasible to realize CEIP for enterprise level companies. With EQATEC Analytics it is both simple and affordable to reap all the benefits that the large companies have used for years to stay ahead of competition. If you value your software you should consider how you would prioritize your ressource if you could base you decisions on facts rather than gut-feelings.

How does the system work?

EQATEC Analytics provides a small component, which you integrate into your software application. The component registers e.g. exceptions, version information and usage statistics at the granularity you specify. The information is send to a server on the Internet. EQATEC Analytics provides a web client that you use, when you want to analyze the data collected. The system also enables you to announce new software releases and automatically sends this information to your software installations.

What information does the system provide me?

EQATEC Analytics collects essential information: application usage, features usage, exception tracking, hardware information, OS information, custom logs and more. It also provides an option to inform your client applications about new versions of your software.

How do I integrate EQATEC into my application?

We provide a small library which you can integrate into your application. The library offers an easy to use API, which allows you to e.g. register usage, application exceptions and send log entries to our central server. You can also automate the integration work by using EQATEC Analytics GO that will automatically inject trackpoints of your choice.

How do I start using EQATEC Analytics?

Go to the registration page and sign up. You will receive an email with login and a password which you can use on the login page. Login to our service, view demo data and download the EQATEC Analytics Monitor and sample programs.

Functionality and Features

Can I track the usage of my software?

Yes. The system tracks every use of your application and the Analytics web client provides you with an easy to use view of the data collected.

Can I track individual feature usage in my software?

Yes. The system enables you to track individual features in your application and you can specify exactly the features you want to monitor.

Is it possible to track feature timing in my software?

Yes. The system enables you to track the timing of individual features in your application and you can specify exactly what features you want to monitor.

Can I track exceptions and errors in my software?

Yes. The library (EQATEC Analytics Monitor) that you integrate into your application allows you to pass your exception instances on an API call where the library will extract information from the exception instance and send this information back to the main server. All exception information gathered from your application are grouped into logical units to allow you to get a better overview of the different types and the frequency of exception occuring within your application. Note that you as an application programmer must decide which exception instances you wish to monitor. Typically you would want to monitor unhandled exceptions and exceptions caught in catch-all statements that you do not expect to be invoked.

Is it possible to filter the views e.g. only view results from Germany?

Yes. The Analytics web site allows you to set up filters on the data thus enabling you to only look at data originating from e.g. application usage from Germany. Other filters e.g. specific versions of the application or specific installation ids are also available.

Does the system support a proxy configuration?

Yes. Network infrastructures may vary for your application dependent on its deployement. The library you integrate into your application will attempt to deliver the data gathered during application usage to our central servers. By default the library will use the default internet settings from the client machine, typically found by opening up Internet Explorer and Connection settings. It is also possible to specify a specific proxy setup using the config file for the executable. More information on this can be found here (proxy Element (Network Settings)).

Does the application require internet connectivity?

Yes but certainly not all the time. The library will attempt to deliver the gathered data to the central servers but in failing to connect to the servers it will cache data locally. The library will attempt to send all cached data the next times it connects to the server. If it cannot connect for a longer period and the cached data grows too large the oldest usage data will be trimmed away.

What if the application never has internet connectivity?

The library will cache gathered usage data locally on the file system of the client computer and will attempt to send this data on each application usage. However there is a hard limit of the amount of data cached by the library. Hence, a client computer that is never connected to the internet will not flood the computer with data. Data will not grow in size but simply be continuously replaced by newer usage data.

Can I monitor the internal state of the library?

Yes, the AnalyticsMonitorSettings instance that you can pass into the AnalyticsMonitorFactory to create the monitor instance allows you to specify an ILogAnalyticsMonitor interface implementation which will receive calls from within the monitor instance for e.g. sending of data and internal errors.

Which development platforms does EQATEC Analytics supports?

EQATEC Analytics supports the following platforms
  • .Net framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0
  • .Net compact framework
  • Microsoft Silverlight
  • COM wrapper available to support unmanaged code e.g. C++, Delphi or VB 6.
  • Java
  • Android
  • Windows Phone 7

Privacy

Is EQATEC Analytics spyware?

No. Spyware collects information or act on computers without the users full knowledge or consent. EQATEC Analytics only collects data related to your client software and the client software developers can choose to start or stop the data collection at any time.

Will my software be flaged as spyware if I use EQATEC Anlytics?

No, we have never heard of client applications marked as spyware while using EQATEC Analytics.

Does the system collect other data, beside what is visible in the Analytics Client Application?

No, EQATEC Analytics client will expose all data collected in the client applications. Further all data transmitted is send as plain XML documents.

How is my customers privacy protected?

EQATEC Analytics does not automatically collect data which can uniquely identify your customers. But the EQATEC Analytics infrastructure does allow you to send any type of text data from the clients to the central server (installation id). As long as you don't provide data that can uniquely identify your users, we can ensure that data is anonynous and your customers privacy is respected.

Can I allow my customers to choose not to participate?

Yes. You, as software application developer, decides when EQATEC Analytics should send statistics data to the central server and when it should not. You can easily forward this option to your appliation customers if you like to.

Are my customers absolutly anonymous?

EQATEC Analytics supports application tracking on three levels. Anonymous, Unique but anonymous users, Identifiable users. It is up to your organization to decide which level of tracking you want to use in your application. If you choose 'Identifiable users' you must use a unique installation id for each software installation.
 
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