ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Assessing the Health of the MySQL Ecosystem

Posted by Matt Aslett on 10 June 2026

I recently wrote about the increasing popularity and range of adoption choices for the PostgreSQL database. Having done so, it is also worth taking the time to assess the health of another significant open-source database: MySQL. As with PostgreSQL, potential adopters of MySQL have a variety of different options available, thanks to a broad ecosystem of service, support and software providers.... Read More

Topics: Data Platforms, AI & Technologies

Providers to Watch: The Platform War Reshaping Revenue Intelligence

Posted by Barika Pace on 09 June 2026

Revenue intelligence was never supposed to become a platform war, but that is exactly what is happening. What started as a category focused on pipeline visibility, conversation capture and forecast accuracy has rapidly expanded into something far more strategic. Providers are no longer competing to provide insights; they are competing to own execution. For CROs, that shift changes the buying... Read More

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

ServiceNow Reframes AI as Governed Autonomous Work

Posted by Jeff Orr on 04 June 2026

ServiceNow used the Knowledge 26 conference to make a clear market claim: Enterprise AI will not scale through disconnected assistants, isolated copilots or unmanaged agent experiments. It will scale through governed autonomous work tied to workflow execution, operational data, identity controls and measurable business outcomes. That is the right conversation for enterprise IT leaders. The risk... Read More

Topics: ITSM, Cybersecurity, Intelligent Automation, AIOps, IT & Technologies, ADM & DevOps, Platforms, Non-Human Identity, IT Management & Operations, ServiceNow, ESM, Cybersecurity Automation, AI Governance, Autonomous Workforce, ITAM, Identity Governance, Workflow Automation

Salesforce Adds Knowledge to Tableau for Agentic Analytics

Posted by Matt Aslett on 03 June 2026

I recently wrote about the growing importance of semantics as a context layer for business intelligence and artificial intelligence agents. Semantic modeling has always been a critical enabler for business intelligence, adding meaning to data that provides the conceptual context for its use. It has become essential as a key enabler of multiple trends driving innovation in the analytics sector,... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Data Platforms, Generative AI, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning

Vonage Finds an Alternate Route to CCaaS

Posted by Keith Dawson on 28 May 2026

The contact center market is no longer organized around the same buying logic that defined it for decades. While enterprises still need routing, workforce tools, quality management, analytics and reliable voice infrastructure, those capabilities have become table stakes. A more important question is whether the contact center can operate as part of a broader customer engagement system via... Read More

Topics: Contact Center, CPaaS, Customers and CX - Business & Technologies, Collaboration and Communication, Service Management

The Best HR Tech Is Often the Stuff You Never Notice

Posted by Matthew Brown on 27 May 2026

The market loves flashy HR tech, but much of the real value sits behind the interface. That is easy to forget in a market shaped by polished demos, hot buzzwords and high-visibility features designed to win attention quickly. Copilots, assistants, dashboards and sleek user experiences tend to dominate the conversation. They are easy to see, easy to explain and easy to remember. But some of the... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

The End of Passive IT Service Management

Posted by Jeff Orr on 26 May 2026

IT service management (ITSM) is at an inflection point. For two decades, ITSM platforms have operated as structured systems of record and workflow orchestration layers, capturing tickets, routing tasks and enforcing process consistency. That model assumed humans were the primary actors and automation was deterministic, limited and rule-based. That assumption no longer holds. Artificial... Read More

Topics: ITSM, Observability, AIOps, IT & Technologies, AI & Technologies, AI and Machine Learning, IT Management & Operations, Autonomous IT, AI-Driven Workflow

Teradata Advances Autonomous Knowledge Platform for Agentic AI

Posted by Mukesh Ranjan on 21 May 2026

A core challenge faced by enterprises due to the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and agentic AI is how to operationalize AI systems that rely on vast volumes of unstructured and multimodal data without compromising governance, scalability or performance. While early retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) experiments fuelled interest in vector databases, many organizations... Read More

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

Why Learning Stacks Still Fail Frontline Workers

Posted by Matthew Brown on 21 May 2026

Learning is often an afterthought for the business, even when leaders say it is not. You can see it in how learning gets funded, how it is supported and how it is threaded throughout the business. Too often, learning enters the conversation at the end when it should be there from the beginning. That applies to the technology, the content, the support model, the team structure and the broader... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Buyer Beware: Choosing a PostgreSQL Database Provider

Posted by Matt Aslett on 20 May 2026

Most technological innovations associated with the 1980s are now more likely to be found in a museum than a home or data center. Video cassette recorders, portable cassette players, compact discs, camcorders and fax machines have mostly been relegated to the trash heap. Mainframes and personal computers remain in use today but are largely unrecognizable from their 1980s counterparts in terms of... Read More

Topics: Data Platforms, AI & Technologies

The Channel Is Not Broken, Your Partner Experience Is

Posted by Barika Pace on 19 May 2026

There is a familiar refrain echoing across boardrooms and pipeline reviews that the channel is underperforming, that partners are not delivering and that ecosystems are noisy and inefficient and somehow past their prime. The implication is that something fundamental has broken. That conclusion is convenient, but it is wrong. The channel is not broken. What is broken is how most organizations... Read More

Topics: partner management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

You Want HR AI—but Your Data Says “Not Yet”

Posted by Matthew Brown on 14 May 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not a feature you just turn on. It requires readiness work that many HR organizations still have not done. That may sound blunt, but it reflects a reality that is getting lost in the current excitement around AI in HR. The market is moving quickly. Providers are rolling out copilots, assistants, recommendation engines and more advanced agentic capabilities across... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Oracle Addresses Combined AI and Data Platform Requirements

Posted by Matt Aslett on 13 May 2026

To mitigate cost and complexity, artificial intelligence (AI) and data initiatives must be aligned. Enterprises cannot afford fragmented approaches that duplicate effort or slow deployment, particularly as competitive pressure increases. Many providers have offered both AI platform and data platform capabilities for some time, but they have often addressed requirements with dedicated products... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Data Platforms, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning

Securing AI Moves to the Center of Enterprise Risk

Posted by Jeff Orr on 12 May 2026

A distinct security category is emerging around protecting artificial intelligence (AI) itself, driven by the shift from pilot projects to embedded operational use. As AI becomes part of everyday workflows, the risk surface expands beyond traditional controls. Enterprises now need visibility into how employees prompt and rely on AI systems, how autonomous agents execute tasks and where sensitive... Read More

Topics: Data Governance, Cybersecurity, Generative AI, IT & Technologies, AI and Machine Learning, Data Controls, Visibility, Behavior Monitoring, Policy Enforcement, Control Plane

It’s Not a Hiring Problem. It’s a Role Design Problem

Posted by Barika Pace on 07 May 2026

Revenue leaders entered 2026 under pressure to deliver predictable growth while navigating tighter budgets, higher expectations from finance and rapid adoption of enterprise artificial intelligence (AI). Many organizations are responding by slowing hiring or reassessing the size of their sales teams, even as pipeline targets and growth expectations remain unchanged. The result is a growing... Read More

Topics: Revenue Performance Management, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Why “Can It Do X?” Is the Wrong HR Tech Question

Posted by Matthew Brown on 06 May 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t a feature gate. It creates value when you’ve defined the decisions you want to improve and you have the data and workflows to support it, with permissions and consent boundaries that hold up in the real world and an audit trail that can explain what happened, why, and what the AI touched. Too many HR tech buying cycles begin with a shortcut: grab an RFI... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Salesforce Tackles the Entire Agent Development Lifecycle

Posted by David Menninger on 05 May 2026

Agentic AI is rapidly emerging as the next phase of enterprise automation, moving beyond static workflows and copilots toward systems capable of autonomous reasoning, decision-making and action. Enterprises are increasingly experimenting with AI agents to augment customer service, IT operations and business processes, yet many struggle to operationalize these systems at scale. The challenge is no... Read More

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

The Benefits and Risks of OLTP-On-Lakehouse Data Platforms

Posted by Matt Aslett on 05 May 2026

The emergence of cloud computing has had an enormous impact on all segments of the IT industry, including data platforms. All providers of data platform products have enabled their products to be deployed in the cloud and/or consumed as cloud-hosted managed services. To date, the cloud has arguably had the largest impact on analytic data platforms, where cloud infrastructure led to the emergence... Read More

Topics: Data Platforms, Data Lakehouse, AI & Technologies

Stop Buying Sales Tools

Posted by Barika Pace on 30 April 2026

Revenue leaders entered 2026 under intense pressure to adopt enterprise artificial intelligence (AI), modernize their go-to-market operations and improve forecast accuracy at the same time. Many organizations are responding by adding new sales tools, AI assistants and workflow applications to an already crowded technology stack. The unintended consequence is that revenue teams often end up with... Read More

Topics: Subscription Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

The AI Software Blueprint for the Autonomous Enterprise

Posted by Mark Smith on 29 April 2026

To achieve an autonomous enterprise, a strategy alone is not sufficient. Organizations need software architectures that can support artificial intelligence (AI) at full scale within defined governance and security boundaries. This must be foundational, not an afterthought. The architecture must be interconnected, orchestrated and policy-driven, operating across the entire enterprise. AI cannot... Read More

Topics: AI & Technologies