ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Verint Wants You to Think Differently About Contact Centers

Posted by Keith Dawson on 30 June 2023

Verint came to its Engage customer conference in June with the goal of changing the industry’s conversation around Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS). The industry commonly considers CCaaS to be equivalent to cloud-based voice routing, an old and perhaps outdated way of thinking about provisioning contact centers. Verint wants to flip the narrative: voice routing is not special enough anymore to... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management

Fivetran Automates Data Movement and Transformation

Posted by Matt Aslett on 29 June 2023

Despite best intentions, many organizations still struggle with some fundamental aspects of data processing and analytics. Taking data from operational applications and making it available for analysis is a first step, but data management remains a perennial challenge. Data movement and transformation difficulties can lead to delays and data quality problems that prevent organizations from... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Data Management, Data, Digital Technology, data operations, Analytics and Data

NICE Shines Spotlight on Enlighten AI

Posted by Keith Dawson on 28 June 2023

Since acquiring InContact in 2016, NICE has moved far from its roots in call recording and contact center quality optimization. That acquisition birthed what was effectively a hybrid that married cloud contact center operations (CCaaS) with a focus on advanced customer experience (CX) analytics. NICE held its annual customer event, Interactions 2023, in June in New York, gathering end users to... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management

Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Architecture Enables Digital Modernization

Posted by Jeff Orr on 28 June 2023

Cloud computing has emerged as the catalyst for a shift from digital transformation to digital modernization. This technology offers many advantages, including heightened agility, cost reduction, improved collaboration, enhanced security and accelerated innovation. Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies offer distinctive strengths that enable organizations to optimize the IT infrastructure necessary... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Digital Technology

How Data Observability and Data Quality Achieve Data Management

Posted by Matt Aslett on 27 June 2023

Maintaining data quality and trust is a perennial data management challenge, often preventing organizations from operating at the speed of business. Recent years have seen the emergence of data observability as a category of DataOps focused on monitoring the quality and reliability of data used for analytics and governance projects and associated data pipelines. There is clear overlap with data... Read More

Topics: Data Management, Data, data operations

CelerData Enables Real-Time Analytics for the Data Lakehouse

Posted by Matt Aslett on 21 June 2023

Organizations increasingly rely on real-time analytics to make informed decisions and stay competitive in today’s data-driven business landscape. As the complexity of data grows with the continuous addition of diverse sources, customers and workers alike expect real-time responsiveness. Accelerated query performance is crucial to process and extract valuable insights from data in a timely manner.... Read More

Topics: Data Management, Data, data operations, Streaming Data Events, analytic data platforms

Why Incentive Compensation Is Right for More Than Sales

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 21 June 2023

A lot has changed in business over the past ten years. The rise of e-commerce and omnichannel buying and engagement, the increasing digitization of the economy and the broader adoption of pricing and revenue models such as subscription and usage. And these are all having an impact on how business leaders need to think about their organizations. One of the more significant changes has been an... Read More

Topics: Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Revenue Performance Management, Office of Revenue

Collaborative Supply Chain Forecasting Improves Performance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 20 June 2023

Organizations engage in collaborative supply chain planning in order to have more accurate, timely and actionable information, including forecasts and stock-on-hand. The objective is to achieve lower costs and reduce risk while ensuring order fulfillment to achieve optimal supplier and customer relationships. Unfortunately, our research shows that that few companies manage collaboration well in... Read More

Topics: Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Continuous Supply Chain & ERP

Digital Security Requires CIO and CISO Leadership

Posted by Jeff Orr on 20 June 2023

With the growing threat landscape and increasing reliance on technology, digital security has become a critical concern. What constitutes digital security, and how is it different from cybersecurity? How are the roles of the chief information officer and chief information security officer evolving to meet digital security needs? To explore these questions, we must understand the impact of digital... Read More

PROS Brings Intelligent Pricing Applications to Market

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 15 June 2023

PROS has been in business since 1985, but over the past 10 years, the company has transformed itself from being primarily a vendor of on-premises price optimization software supporting the airline industry to providing a cloud-based set of applications that use data and artificial intelligence (AI) to aid in price determination. PROS also offers a scalable configure, price, quote (CPQ)... Read More

Topics: Digital Commerce, Office of Revenue

Yugabyte Facilitates Migration to Distributed SQL Database

Posted by Matt Aslett on 15 June 2023

I previously explained the arguments in favor of adoption of distributed SQL databases, the new generation of operational data platforms designed to combine the benefits of the relational database model and native support for distributed cloud architecture. It is critical for distributed SQL vendors to engage with developers to ensure they are considering the importance of resilience that spans... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Data, Digital Technology, Analytics and Data

Orchestrating Experiences Is a Big Lift for Contact Centers

Posted by Keith Dawson on 14 June 2023

The underlying idea behind trying to manage customer experiences is that of the journey: that customers follow a path through distinct stages, with different needs and modes of contact at each stage. The default mode for controlling experiences has long been to react to what the customer does and, to a great extent, build an enormous and costly infrastructure around having to wait for customers... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center

Harnessing Generative AI: Fueling Collaboration and Conversation

Posted by Jeff Orr on 14 June 2023

A lot has been written about the definition of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs), though less has been written about the business considerations for an organization to evaluate adopting and implementing these technologies. And more importantly, does the technology align with the Office of the CIO objectives and the goals of the business? The value of... Read More

Topics: Digital Technology, natural language processing, Collaborative & Conversational Computing, AI and Machine Learning

SAP Datasphere Simplifies Management and Use of Distributed Data

Posted by Matt Aslett on 13 June 2023

Data fabric has grown in popularity as organizations struggle to manage data spread across multiple data centers, systems and applications. By providing a technology-driven approach to automating data management and governance across distributed environments, data fabric is attractive to organizations seeking to simplify and standardize data management. I assert that by 2025, more than 6 in 10... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Data Management, Data, Digital Technology, data operations, analytic data platforms, Analytics and Data

Planful Invests in Finance and Accounting Effectiveness

Posted by Robert Kugel on 13 June 2023

Planful, a financial planning and consolidation software vendor, held its annual Perform23 user conference in May. The event showcased the company’s ongoing investments to provide finance and accounting departments with the means to improve effectiveness by enhancing efficiency. Over the past four years, Planful has steadily improved its planning platform to address the growing demand for... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

WorkForce Software Focuses on the Essentials of Workforce Management

Posted by ISG Research on 09 June 2023

Workforce management software is used to automate and streamline core processes that organizations use to optimize their hourly workforce. These include capabilities like labor forecasting, scheduling, time tracking, absence management and compliance. In today’s competitive labor market with the complexities that accompany hyper-localized workforce rules and regulations, workforce management... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Workforce Management

The Digital Era of Business Transformation to Modernization for CIOs

Posted by Jeff Orr on 08 June 2023

The digital transformation movement was about making wholesale changes in the use of technology across all lines of business and functions. It required organizational change on a large scale, including adapting the organization’s culture, retraining or rehiring the workforce and process realignment. Change management and a significant time commitment to implement change were necessary while... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Digital Technology

Planning Matters to Sales and Revenue Performance Management

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 08 June 2023

While many vendors have focused on developing new technologies and features to improve sales execution through more personalized and targeted sales enablement, lead and sales opportunity progress tracking and scoring, manager coaching and conversational intelligence, it seems that sales and revenue teams are realizing that this is not, in and of itself, enough to arrest the decline in quota... Read More

Topics: Revenue Performance Management, Office of Revenue

Data is the Strategic Raw Material of Finance Departments

Posted by Robert Kugel on 07 June 2023

The Office of Finance can be compared to a numbers factory where the main raw material, data, is transformed into financial statements, management accounting, analyses, forecasts, budgets, regulatory filings, tax returns and all kinds of reports. Data is the strategic raw material of the finance and accounting department. It is the key ingredient in every sale and purchase as well as every... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, embedded analytics, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Management, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, data operations, analytic data platforms, AI and Machine Learning

Digital Modernization Helps CIOs Align to Business Growth

Posted by Jeff Orr on 06 June 2023

I am happy to announce that I have taken on a new role at Ventana Research to lead the firm’s overall research and advisory for the CIO and technology leader practice. The area focuses on digital modernization and the transformation necessary for IT teams to be successful across an organization. The market coverage spans Cloud Computing, Digital Security, Generative AI and the technologies... Read More

Topics: Digital Technology

Large Language Models and Generative AI: Beware Misplaced Trust

Posted by Matt Aslett on 06 June 2023

The data and analytics sector rightly places great importance on data quality: Almost two-thirds (64%) of participants in Ventana Research’s Analytics and Data Benchmark Research cite reviewing data for quality and consistency issues as the most time-consuming task in analyzing data. Data and analytics vendors would not recommend that customers use tools known to have data quality problems. It is... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Data Governance, Data Management, Data, Digital Technology, natural language processing, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

Why Pricing Should Matter for Everyone

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 06 June 2023

I wrote last year about how interest in pricing management is now expanding from the traditional use cases in industries such as manufacturing and chemicals. In part, this has been helped by technology changes that are allowing vendors to offer the advantages of pricing optimization and management without the “science project” approach, which has previously convinced many that the returns did not... Read More

Topics: Office of Revenue