Editus // Interview
Stéphane Wutke ‐ Editus.lu
Luxembourg's Directories, Editus.lu, are available on the Internet, smartphones (Android, BlackBerry, iPhone), iPad and in paper format.
Practical or cultural information? A private or business contact? Editus has the answer - here and now - for the user's immediate and daily needs. Performance and relevance are the fundamental qualities of Editus' service.
A subsidiary of P&T Luxembourg and the PagesJaunes Groupe, Editus first used an internally developed search engine. Confronted with the limits of the in-house engine, the company's Data and Publications department decided to implement a higher performing and more powerful new search solution. They chose Pertimm.
Director of the Data and Publications department, Stéphane Wutke, explains why he chose the eDirectory solution and what it has brought to Editus.lu.
Why did you decide to find a new search solution?
Our in-house search engine had reached its limits. Its technology wasn't powerful enough and its performance was no longer adequate, especially during peak audience times. The saturation of the engine was causing display-time delays of 30 seconds or more.
Were you satisfied with the relevance of your former in-house search engine?
There wasn't a big problem with the engine's relevance, but it was very resource heavy. If I compare it now with the Pertimm engine, I can also say that its search technology was complicated and that its functional coverage wasn't large enough.
Did you consider other competing solutions before choosing Pertimm? Perhaps an open source solution like Solr or Sphinx, or another in-house development?
Of course! There was a team dedicated to the search portion for 4 or 5 years, so we first explored the in-house options. This track was quickly abandoned: it was too expensive, took too much energy and was beyond our expertise.
So we reoriented ourselves towards cartography and open source business intelligence software, without reaching a satisfactory outcome. In the end, we decided to bring in an external specialist in directory searches. We obviously met with other publishers that are competitors to Pertimm, but we didn't retain them. Their approach was too packaged and was lacking both in flexibility and engineering.
What were your goals with this change?
We had two objectives. The first was to evolve from a basic search, strongly identified with a "directory", to a free search, as those used by large search engines. The second was to pursue the long tail in order to be in sync with on-line consumption use and to optimize our referencing. Our goal was to surpass the 50% share of audience coming directly from Google.
What were the main steps to implement the project?
There were 4 main phases:
- Creating the multilingual proof of concept that made it possible to verify the interest of the tool in a real business environment;
- Adapting the eDirectory solution to our business rules and to the important constraints of our clients. For example, it was important for us to highlight certain advertisers at equal relevance, according to their budget;
- Releasing the new Editus with quality and performance monitoring, in September 2010;
- Launching Habiter.lu, specialist of real estate advertising, and its new on-line search service for classified ads, in September 2011.
What did you appreciate about the expertise of Pertimm's teams?
Since we are always on the lookout for "agile" methods, we were won over by the iterative development approach proposed by Pertimm. We especially appreciated how Pertimm's technical teams were able to adapt to our issues and specificities, as well as their "solution maker" approach, "there's always a solution with you".
But it isn't just a matter of expertise! The sales teams easily understand the engine, which helps in their talks with advertisers. A big plus!
There are even dedicated support tools, such as Explain, developed especially for Editus' sales force. Through scoring criteria, Explain allows our sales people to easily explain the advertiser's position in the search results, and encourages them to adjust their advertising budget (logical SEO).
This tool and this approach contributed indirectly to our revenue increasing by 15%.
Lastly, we were very appreciative of the human aspect of Pertimm's service. Sales contacts, technical execution, support... Pertimm was faultless!
What are the results of the implementation of eDirectory for Editus.lu?
They're excellent! In order to evaluate the results, we carried out a study between when Pertimm's engine went on line (September 2011), though today (2011).
The study showed a positive change in all the indicators: a 30% increase in audience size since the release of the new engine, but also an increase in the mobile audience, which rose from 9% to 12%.
Moreover, we reached our two goals, the development of our services towards a free search and the increase in shares of Google's long tail:
- Perfect matches in product and service searches doubled, growing from 6% to 11%. This change in usage forms a strategic asset for Editus because as are positioning ourselves, thanks to Luxembourg's unique market, as the "laboratory" for new practices in European directories;
- Our share of audience coming directly from Google went from 40% to 53%!
Lastly, in terms of performance, eDirectory made it possible to divide by 5 the SQL resources necessary for optimal use of the engine: the CPU load went from 80% to 20% during peak hours.
In short, Pertimm allowed us to increase the group's profitability!
How do you envision your collaboration with Pertimm evolving in the future?
We see three axes of collaboration in the future: intelligent recovery of web content ("big data"); voice search interfaces to optimize embedded systems and mobile devices; and most importantly, improving convergence between the directory and eCommerce, including on mobile media, especially in anticipating the development of mobile payments and highlighting our advertisers' digital showcases.