ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Databricks Unites Operational and Analytic Workloads on the Lakehouse

Posted by Matt Aslett on 08 July 2026

I recently wrote about the emerging category of data platform products that facilitate the deployment of Online Transaction Processing workloads on data lakehouse architecture. Databricks Lakebase is a prime example of this OLTP-on-lakehouse approach, which was added to its Databricks Data Intelligence Platform in 2025 and became generally available earlier this year. At the company’s recent Data... Read More

Topics: Governance, Data Platforms, Generative AI, Data Intelligence, AI & Technologies, Streaming & Events, AI & Machine Learning

NiCE World: How Cognigy Looks One Year In

Posted by Keith Dawson on 07 July 2026

Ten years ago, NiCE acquired inContact, and, in the process, began a radical transformation from its core business as a workforce application provider into a full-blown CCaaS and platform provider. It was a transformation as audacious and (ultimately) as well-executed as any I’ve seen in this industry. Now it’s clear that buying Cognigy last year will turn out to be just as significant a bet on a... Read More

Topics: Governance, Contact Center, agent management, Intelligent Self-Service, Conversational AI, Customers and CX - Business & Technologies, Conversational Intelligence, Cognigy

AI in Learning: What Helps and What Just Looks Cool

Posted by Matthew Brown on 07 July 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) has given the learning market new energy, but not all of it is pointed in the right direction. Providers are racing to show generative AI (GenAI) features, buyers are trying to understand what matters and the media cycle keeps rewarding whatever sounds most futuristic. That creates a familiar market problem. The easiest things to see are not always the most valuable... Read More

Topics: Learning Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Digital Commerce in the Agentic AI Era: Why the Storefront Is Becoming a Decision Engine

Posted by Barika Pace on 02 July 2026

Digital commerce is moving from a transactional storefront to an intelligent decision environment. Buyers no longer expect a site to simply display products, accept orders and process payments. They expect it to understand intent, guide comparison, reduce uncertainty and help them make the right decision faster. This changes the role of digital commerce leaders. The storefront can no longer be... Read More

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

IBM Addresses Autonomous Database Administration for Db2

Posted by Matt Aslett on 01 July 2026

I have previously written about the emerging requirements for database management systems, including the use of artificial intelligence to automate and accelerate the execution of database administration tasks. These emerging requirements have provided an opportunity for new and established data platform providers to differentiate in a crowded and competitive market. IBM is a prime example of an... Read More

Topics: Operations, Business Planning, Data Platforms, Generative AI, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning

Performance Software: Progress Engine or Ritual Machine?

Posted by Matthew Brown on 30 June 2026

Performance management has always carried an uncomfortable contradiction. Organizations say they want better goals, coaching, feedback and decisions, but many still anchor the process in reviewing events that arrive too late to change performance. The language has evolved. The software has improved. Workflows have become more continuous, automated and AI-enabled. Yet too many organizations still... Read More

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

The Room Where It Happens: Digital Sales

Posted by Barika Pace on 18 June 2026

B2B buying has moved into a more fragmented operating model: more stakeholders, more digital research, more internal consensus-building and fewer moments where the seller actually controls the conversation. The implication for CROs is clear: Revenue teams need better technology to manage what happens between meetings, not just what happens inside the CRM. The complication is that many sales... Read More

Topics: sales engagement, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Is Sprinklr the Model for a Post-CCaaS CX?

Posted by Keith Dawson on 16 June 2026

Nothing illustrates the degree to which the contact center market has changed as much as the emergence of Sprinklr as a competitive player in CCaaS. Here is a company that comes directly at the service environment from a role in MarTech (specifically social media management and monitoring), with no legacy baggage to weigh it down. The change we’re seeing is the convergence of once-separate... Read More

Topics: Contact Center, Field Service, CCaaS, Customers and CX - Business & Technologies, Sprinklr, Unified CXM

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