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Why SharePoint Statistics?

  • by Vincent de Winter
  • 16 April 2025
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At We Are North, we started with SharePoint statistics for strategic and practical reasons that align with our focus on privacy-friendly technology, customized solutions, and data-driven decision-making. Our experience over the years has taught us that there is a fundamental difference between statistics for your public website and the intranet based on SharePoint Online.

The two main differences are:

  • Technology - how and what can I measure within SharePoint Online Objective - the objectives of an intranet are often fundamentally different from those of a public website
  • Objective - the objectives of an intranet are often fundamentally different from those of a public website

Technology: which tools are available on the market?

There are various solutions on the market to measure and analyze the usage of your visitors on your SharePoint Online environment. All these tools are characterized by their advantages and disadvantages in terms of technology. We specifically look at the following aspects:

  • Is privacy and GDPR compliance important?
  • Are custom dashboards needed?
  • Is quick insight without extra costs required?
  • Are in-depth SharePoint analyses needed?

 

Tool Advantages Disadvantages
Piwik PRO
  • Privacy-friendly (GDPR-compliant)
  • Advanced analytics (user flows, behavior)
  • Free version of Piwik PRO Analytics available
  • Implementation requires technical knowledge
  • Costs can increase depending on scale
Microsoft
Power BI
  • Flexible reports and visual dashboards
  • Excellent for custom reports
  • Requires integration with SharePoint data and potentially Power BI licenses
  • Less real-time insights than specific analytics tools
CardioLog Analytics
  • Specifically designed for SharePoint, in-depth insights
  • Supports on-premises and cloud SharePoint
  • Costs can be high for smaller organizations
  • Complex setup required
Matomo (Piwik)
  • Open-source and on-premises options available
  • Privacy-friendly
  • More technical configuration needed
  • Less suitable for very large organizations
Google Analytics
  • Free (basic version), easy to use
  • Extensive reporting capabilities
  • Limited GDPR compliance and potential privacy risks
  • Requires extra tracking configuration in SharePoint
SharePoint Usage Reports
  • Built-in, no extra costs
  • Suitable for basic monitoring
  • Limited functionality and insights
  • Advanced user analyses possible

Technology: SharePoint tracker + Piwik PRO

The SharePoint tracker developed by We Are North uses the Piwik PRO Analytics platform. Users can easily get started with the Piwik PRO Core platform (free up to 500,000 actions per month). The SharePoint tracker can be easily published by a SharePoint administrator within the SharePoint Online environment. Subsequently, the correct configuration can be set:

  • Which data may and may not be measured?
  • How do we handle the privacy of visitors?
  • Do we want to measure detailed information from visitors (department/roles/etc.)?
  • Which additional reports do I want?

From the moment the SharePoint tracker is configured, the data is stored within your own Piwik PRO Analytics account, and the first users can start working with the various reports.

Do you want to get more out of your SharePoint?

With this article, you have gained insight into how you can use the SharePoint tracker in combination with Piwik PRO Analytics to gain insight into the usage of your intranet. Do you have any questions, or would you like to know how you can specifically apply this to your organization? Please do not hesitate to contact us. Together we will look at how you can take your intranet to a higher level with the help of the SharePoint tracker and better understand visitors.

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