ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Evaluating the State of Automation in Data Management and Operations

Posted by Matt Aslett on 22 October 2026

Data management and operations have always been potential facilitators of business insight, as well as potential barriers. Data management and operations tasks, including data governance, data integration and data quality, can improve trust in data and enable faster business decisions. These tasks are also traditionally highly complex and manual, providing the potential for badly managed data... Read More

Topics: Governance, Operations, Data Intelligence, AI & Technologies

Cost-Effective Agents Advancing Safely in Business Applications

Posted by Robert Kugel on 21 October 2026

Against the backdrop of today’s generalized freakout about the potential existential threat posed by artificial intelligence (AI), business software providers are rapidly building out AI agents that can safely and reliably improve human productivity and compress operational and decision-making cycles to boost responsiveness and resiliency as well as cut costs. In addition to embedding... Read More

Topics: Governance, Office of Finance, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, digital finance, Procure-to-Pay, Generative AI, Consolidate and Close Management, Order-to-Cash, AI & Machine Learning

Rethinking CXM as a Market Segment

Posted by Keith Dawson on 21 October 2026

Since 2022, we have been watching the evolution of the customer experience management (CXM) market as it coalesced from multiple related point solutions spanning contact center, marketing and sales technologies. The theory I had at that time was that providers were creating platforms out of their CX-related niche tools and that those platforms would be used to knit departments and functions... Read More

Topics: Contact Center, Customer Experience Management, CXM, Customers and CX - Business & Technologies

The Hidden Bill Behind Your “Autonomous” Sales Team

Posted by Barika Pace on 20 October 2026

Before you approve another artificial intelligence (AI) sales agent, ask your team a simple question: What does it cost us to produce a qualified opportunity, an approved quote or a successful renewal with this technology? If the answer is a license price or a count of automated tasks, you do not yet have the information needed to scale the investment. ISG Research asserts that, through 2028, the... Read More

Topics: sales engagement, Contract Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies, CLM

Capital One Offers Cost and Security Management for Data and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 20 October 2026

Widespread adoption of cloud-based data platform services provided many enterprises with flexibility and agility as well as lowered costs through the avoidance of overspending on infrastructure. Many early adopters also found that delivering sustainable cost and flexibility benefits from cloud-based data platforms was dependent upon dedicated investment of time and resources in cost and... Read More

Topics: Governance, Operations, Cybersecurity, Data Platforms, IT & Technologies, AI & Technologies, Compute, Edge, Network & IOT

Denodo’s Platform Enhancements to Extend Logical Data Management Era

Posted by Mukesh Ranjan on 15 October 2026

As enterprises accelerate investments in agentic artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics and data-driven decision-making, the ability to provide trusted, governed and real-time access to distributed data has become increasingly important. Many enterprises continue to contend with fragmented data estates spanning cloud platforms, on-premises systems, software-as-a-service (SaaS)... Read More

Topics: Operations, Analytics, Generative AI, Data Intelligence, AI & Technologies

Salesforce All in on AI at Dreamforce 2026

Posted by David Menninger on 14 October 2026

Salesforce’s Dreamforce event was an event of epic proportions. Pre-pandemic attendance peaked at 170,000 about 10 years ago. This year’s event garnered nearly as much attention with 50,000 attendees and 122,000 online viewers. The event took over the entire Moscone Convention Center, including the North, South and West pavilions, as well as surrounding venues. If the agentic future that... Read More

Topics: Generative AI, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning

Starburst Provides a Platform for Enterprise Intelligence

Posted by Matt Aslett on 14 October 2026

The ability to access and analyze data from multiple data sources has always been critical to business intelligence (BI), driving the evolution of the market for data integration products to ensure data from operational workloads is available for analytics use cases. Despite that, data silos continue to be a perennial challenge with the potential to stifle innovation given the speed and... Read More

Topics: Data Platforms, Generative AI, Data Intelligence, AI & Technologies

When the Recovery Time Objective Is Not Soon Enough

Posted by Jeff Orr on 13 October 2026

A software provider recently described a familiar exchange between enterprise IT and executive leadership during a disruption: IT: Systems are down. We are confident we can achieve the company’s Recovery Time Objective of eight hours. CEO: I need it sooner. What can you do? IT: We can achieve a Minimum Viable Organization in three hours. CEO: Do it. The exchange captures what happens when a... Read More

Topics: Disaster Recovery, Cybersecurity, IT & Technologies, Data Resilience, RTO, Return Time Objective, Minimum Viable Organization, Cyber Resilience, Operational Resilience, Enterprise Control Architecture, MVO

CLM Software Providers to Watch: Turning Contracts Into Value

Posted by Barika Pace on 13 October 2026

The Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) market is entering a new phase as providers move beyond repositories, workflows and electronic signatures toward contract intelligence. Yet many CLM systems still meet the needs of only some buying centers, leaving legal, procurement, finance, sales and operations to contend with fragmented processes, difficult handoffs, inconsistent data and tools that are... Read More

Topics: Revenue Lifecycle Management, Contract Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies, CLM

Salesforce Puts Context at the Center of the AI/CX Stack

Posted by Keith Dawson on 08 October 2026

Dreamforce is usually a performative exercise, one in which Salesforce uses the gathering to solidify messaging around products that act as tentpole explanations of its strategy, even if many of those announced products aren’t going to be GA for the better part of a year. This year was markedly different. Product announcements were less flashy, but potentially far more consequential to the... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Contact Center, Dreamforce, Customer Experience Management, Generative AI, Customers and CX - Business & Technologies, AI and Machine Learning, Service Management, Context, Agentic

The Chief Revenue Officer Job Report 2026

Posted by Barika Pace on 06 October 2026

What job postings reveal about the mandate of the CRO? The Chief Revenue Officer is no longer simply the executive responsible for closing more deals. ISG Research analysis of 102 current CRO job postings finds that organizations expect the role to connect sales, marketing, customer success, revenue operations (RevOps), partnerships, pricing and technology into a coordinated revenue engine. Sales... Read More

Topics: sales engagement, Revenue Performance Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

The Critical Importance of Critical Data Elements

Posted by Matt Aslett on 01 October 2026

I have written before about how enterprises are realizing the importance of data management if they are to succeed in implementing artificial intelligence and enabling agentic decision-making. Data quality and veracity are important aspects of increasing trust in the data used to generate content and automate decisions. More fundamentally, however, a successful data strategy depends on an... Read More

Topics: Governance, Operations, Data Intelligence, AI & Technologies

Designing Agents for People-Centric Processes

Posted by Robert Kugel on 29 September 2026

You may be old enough to remember the Talking Heads 1984 concert film, “Stop Making Sense.” I think that phrase is a fitting warning to anyone designing agents for human-centric business processes who assumes that their behavior must always be rational. Despite significant advances in applied analytics, behavior modeling and process intelligence, achieving the right balance between achievable... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Employee Engagement, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Revenue Performance Management, Office of Revenue, Generative AI, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning, Agentic Systems, Agents

The State of AI and Agents in Supply Chain Planning

Posted by Robert Kugel on 24 September 2026

We stand at a watershed in enterprise planning activities as a result of the availability of artificial intelligence (AI) and agentic systems. In particular, AI and agents will facilitate the process of continuous supply chain planning through better cross-functional coordination, significantly shortening the time it takes to iteratively juggle and resolve supply and demand chain objectives and... Read More

Topics: Governance, Supply Chain Planning, Business Planning, Enterprise Resource Planning, supply chain management, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Energy, Automotive, CPG & Retail, Supply Chain and Operations, AI & Machine Learning

Payment Technology is Transforming Treasury and Finance Operations

Posted by Robert Kugel on 22 September 2026

Finance has been a hotbed of technology adaptation, especially in the digital age, because money is just numbers and therefore easily lends itself to new types of digital innovation. For centuries, fortunes were found in removing friction from financial transactions. For example, starting in ancient times, coins were minted to reduce the need for weighing metal in every transaction, along with... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, ERP and Continuous Accounting, blockchain, digital finance, Procure-to-Pay, Consolidate and Close Management, Treasury, Order-to-Cash, Payments, Stablecoins

Connecting Enterprise AI Governance to Operational Control

Posted by Jeff Orr on 22 September 2026

Enterprise AI governance is advancing faster than the operational controls needed to support it. Organizations are defining principles, policies, risk tiers, review boards, lifecycle gates and accountability models for AI. These efforts establish what should be allowed, required or prohibited. They do not always determine how those requirements will be enforced once AI is embedded in... Read More

Topics: Cybersecurity, Observability, Intelligent Automation, IT & Technologies, ADM & DevOps, Cloud Infrastructure, IT Management & Operations, AI Governance, Control Layer, Operational Control

Tying the Contact Center to the Back Office

Posted by Keith Dawson on 16 September 2026

When we talk about “enterprise CX,” we’re describing a process in which multiple teams inside a business try to analyze and anticipate customer behavior and then act on those insights towards desired outcomes. But try to make that happen and you soon find that the contact center remains woefully cut off from the people and systems that need to be involved. The links between service centers and... Read More

Topics: automation, Contact Center, Customer Experience Management, Intelligent Self-Service, Customers and CX - Business & Technologies, Back Office, Front Office

The AI Skills That Set Top Sellers Apart

Posted by Barika Pace on 15 September 2026

For Chief Revenue Officers, the central question about artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer whether sellers will use it. The question is whether they will use it well enough to improve revenue performance. Most sales organizations now have access to generative AI (GenAI), embedded copilots, conversation intelligence and predictive insights. Yet access alone does not create an advantage. As... Read More

Topics: sales engagement, Generative AI, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

CCaaS in the 2030s

Posted by Keith Dawson on 10 September 2026

We are experiencing a generational transformation of service delivery, and it’s not just about artificial intelligence (AI). I believe we are also seeing a reordering of how software providers organize the tools used in contact centers. We call it Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) because that’s what people are used to, even though “as a Service” doesn’t accurately describe an environment where... Read More

Topics: Contact Center, agent management, Customer Experience Management, CCaaS, Intelligent Self-Service, Conversational AI, Customers and CX - Business & Technologies, Conversational Intelligence, Hyperscaler

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