Concerity, a Utah-based startup, today released an analytics solution that it said will shine a light into how software is used in the real world.
Concerity Analytics instruments Windows and .NET applications to monitor performance and feature usage, and then sends that information to a Web-based analytics engine for processing. Its Web service offers users the ability to customize analytics as well as reports and visualizations about application usage.
Final pricing has not been set, but the product will become available on a subscription basis, said CEO Matt Cupal. Multiple pricing tiers will be offered based upon total users, he added. It will be competing with a free tool from PreEmptive (separate from its commercial product) that will ship with Visual Studio 2010 on April 12.
Microsoft has collected end-user analytics from its applications for several years under its Customer Experience Improvement Program; most Windows developers lacked the resources to collect user analytics on their own. Although Microsoft isn’t sharing its technology, Visual Studio 2010 closes the gap by providing analytics through a partnership with PreEmptive Solutions. Concerity says its solution is more user-friendly.
Concerity Analytics differs from PreEmptive’s tool by how it instruments applications, Cupal said. PreEmptive is a “powerful solution” that requires developers to select which function calls are integrated with the solution, whereas Concerity instruments entire applications by automatically identifying the application’s controls, he explained.
Test points, called “breadcrumbs,” are automatically attached to all the user controls, and can be enabled or disabled on an individual basis through the Web interface, Cupal said. Developers can also pair controls together by logical function, and can rename controls to create customized dashboards.
