We are working on some interesting connections between user visits to a website and the development of that user’s digital profile.  What I mean is that a visitor to your website generally takes the form of a hit or visit.  But most users are now starting to connect with your website via some form of authentication or single sign on through their social network accounts. This enables us to build intelligence on that user so we can instantly respond to that user’s likes and needs.

Behind the scenes we can use intelligence to join the dots around that user and look to build a digital footprint that enables us to blend content and navigation around the user.  We can also use this intelligence to  understand the user(taking into account their consent) and segment according to their likes and dislikes.

The next generation website will use a combination of big data and connected intelligence to provide a more tailored browsing experience with content that is both more useful and intuitive.

This type of technology plays dividends when built into e-commerce solutions, both in terms of the templates that display product information but also the dashboard technology that enables e-commerce managers to keep track of the performance of their retail operations. It allows them to have a digital nerve centre monitoring all aspects of the commerce site.

The technology to do this exists in the identity layer of the site. We are seeing the development of SasS based identity management providers that can start to provide connected sign on, intelligence and reporting for your digital estate.  We will report more on this in the next few weeks.