ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

The Contact Center Technology Revolution in 2011

Posted by ISG Research on 09 March 2011

With the new year has come a significant advance in contact center technologies, enabling enterprises to roll out new applications and interaction-handling processes in record time. What used to take six months to a year to develop and deploy – and that was considered fast! – can now be done in a week or two, creating more potential for innovation in contact centers than I have seen in the last... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Operational Performance, Analytics, Cloud Computing, Call Center, Contact Center, Contact Center Analytics, CRM

Aster Data is Now Part of the New Teradata

Posted by ISG Research on 04 March 2011

There has been a spate of acquisitions in the data warehousing and business analytics market in recent months. In May 2010 SAP announced an agreement to acquire Sybase, primarily for its mobility technology and had already been advancing its efforts with SAP HANA and BI. In July 2010 EMC agreed to acquire data warehouse appliance vendor Greenplum. In September 2010 IBM countered by acquiring... Read More

Topics: Data Warehousing, Microsoft, RDBMS, SAS, Teradata, IT Performance, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Management, HP, IBM, Information Management, Oracle

Secrets Revealed in Columnar Database Technology

Posted by ISG Research on 03 March 2011

This is the second in a series of posts on the architectures of analytic databases. The first post addressed massively parallel processing (MPP) and database technology. In this post, we’ll look at columnar database technology. Given the recent announcement of HP’s plan to acquire Vertica, a columnar database vendor, there is likely to be even more interest in columnar database technology, how it... Read More

Topics: Data Warehousing, RDBMS, IT Performance, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Management, Information Management

Human Concepts Brings Workforce Analytics and Mobility to the Cloud

Posted by ISG Research on 03 March 2011

Recently Human Concepts sold its personal organizational structure software OrgPlus to Administaff . Since it retains other products with the OrgPlus name, this step might seem puzzling, but it makes sense in terms of the company’s developing product strategy. The sale also frees Human Concepts to focus on organizations with more than 1,000 employees, where growth is more readily available. Human... Read More

Topics: Learning, Performance, Business Performance, Cloud Computing, Mobility, Operational Intelligence, Workforce Performance, Compensation, Talent Management, Workforce Analytics

Living in the Era of Hadoop and Large-Scale Data

Posted by ISG Research on 02 March 2011

It’s clear that now we are living in the era of big data. The stores of data on which modern businesses rely are already vast and increasing at an unprecedented pace. Organizations are capturing data at deeper levels of detail and keeping more history than they ever have before. Managing all of the data is thus emerging as one of the key challenges of the new decade. The solutions to this... Read More

Topics: Data Warehousing, RDBMS, IT Performance, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Management, Information Management, Strata+Hadoop

SAP Business Intelligence 4.0

Posted by ISG Research on 01 March 2011

Last week SAP launched the 4.0 Release of its Business Intelligence and Enterprise Information Management products in conjunction with the New York City stop on its “SAP Run Better Tour”. My colleague Mark Smith has already covered the announcement in the context of some of today’s major technology trends. In this post, I’ll focus on the specifics of the product announcements. SAP BusinessObjects... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance, SAP, Social Media, IT Performance, Operational Performance, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Performance, Business Technology, CIO, Collaboration, Enterprise Software, Financial Performance, Information Management, Information Technology, Mobility, Operational Intelligence, Workforce Performance

Bringing Tax Into Mainstream Finance

Posted by ISG Research on 01 March 2011

Taxes are a big expense for most companies, profitable or not. Many larger and midsize companies must traverse a complex and constantly shifting landscape of tax rules, rates, and jurisdictions. I’ve previously written about the need for corporations to manage their taxes more intelligently, and that that may require someone in the tax department who understands both the department’s functional... Read More

Topics: Tax, Business Performance, Financial Performance, CFO, Corporate Finance, Financial Performance Management

Informatica Stays with Its Strengths in Data Integration

Posted by ISG Research on 27 February 2011

At Informatica’s recent industry analyst summit, Chris Boorman, the company’s chief marketing officer, opened the event by describing Informatica as expanding beyond its core offering in data integration in a broader sense. He compared this growth to Amazon expanding from being an online bookseller to offering computing resources via Amazon Web Services. I see it almost the opposite way.... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Customer & Contact Center, Data Integration, Informatica, Information Management, Workforce Performance

Alcatel-Lucent Future Depends on Software

Posted by ISG Research on 16 February 2011

Recently I wrote that Genesys is transforming itself from a near-pure-play CTI/call routing vendor into an agent performance and customer experience management vendor. If you look at its parent company, Alcatel-Lucent, you can begin to understand why. Alcatel-Lucent has three basic businesses – voice networks, data networks and Genesys. Its 2010 results show that voice represents 48 percent of... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Lucent, Operational Performance, Cloud Computing, Call Center, Contact Center, Contact Center Analytics, CRM

NICE Systems Reports Great Financial Results and Acquisition

Posted by ISG Research on 15 February 2011

NICE Systems has announced its financial results for 2010, and they make impressive reading in what many consider a difficult market, for contact center systems. I’m not prone to quoting financial figures, but with revenues up to US$695 million (from US$589 million) and non-GAAP profit and margin up to US$451.9 million and 65%, respectively (from US$371.1 million and 63.1%), it certainly seems... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, NICE Systems, Operational Performance, Cloud Computing, Customer & Contact Center, Call Center, Contact Center, Contact Center Analytics, CRM

Kognitio Pablo Brings MDX to Data and Analytics

Posted by ISG Research on 14 February 2011

Kognitio announced the addition of MultiDimensional eXpressions (MDX) capabilities for its WX2 product line. John Thompson, CEO of U.S. operations, and Sean Jackson, VP of marketing, shared some of the details with me recently. I find the marriage of MDX and large-scale data both technically challenging and potentially valuable to the market. Kognitio develops and markets a massively parallel... Read More

Topics: Data Warehousing, MDX, RDBMS, IT Performance, Business Intelligence, Data Management, Information Management, Kognitio, MPP

Jacada Withdraws Analytics While Market Heats Up

Posted by ISG Research on 11 February 2011

My latest research into contact center analytics shows how important it has become for companies to improve the way they monitor and assess the performance of their centers. In fact 41% said they could significantly improve the performance of their centers by using analytics, and 47% think they could improve somewhat. Their main requirements are to have more real-time operational analysis and... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Jacada, Operational Performance, Cloud Computing, Call Center, Contact Center, Contact Center Analytics, CRM

Genesys Expanding to Agent Performance Management

Posted by ISG Research on 10 February 2011

In the contact center market Genesys is synonymous with computer/telephony integration (CTI) and call routing. It was the first vendor to combine routing of calls to agents and using CTI to pop screens onto the agent’s desktop when the call was put through. Genesys has been adding products to its portfolio and now has expanded into what Ventana Research terms agent performance management (APM)... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Genesys, Operational Performance, Cloud Computing, Call Center, Contact Center, Contact Center Analytics, CRM

MicroStrategy Combines Actions with Business Intelligence and Mobility

Posted by ISG Research on 07 February 2011

Last week I attended MicroStrategy World 2011 in Las Vegas, the North American version of the business intelligence (BI) vendor’s annual user conference. The event was well attended, and the company claimed attendance was up 40% over last year. The purpose of the post is to recap the announcements made, highlight the areas where MicroStrategy is making investments and comment on the overall... Read More

Topics: Data Warehousing, MicroStrategy, IT Performance, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Management, Information Management

Forecast: Sunshine, With Clouds

Posted by ISG Research on 07 February 2011

The sun is shining and the birds are singing here in the Bay Area; in other climes, they aren’t. In recent years, I’m pleased to report, I’ve been spared having to deal with weather challenges in getting to the office. That’s in part because snow, sleet and hail aren’t a normal part of our weather here, but also in part because our physical office is a less important part of our operations than... Read More

Topics: Operational Performance, Business Intelligence, Business Performance, Collaboration, Customer & Contact Center, Operational Intelligence, Business

Jaspersoft Releases Version 4 and Tackles Large-Scale Data

Posted by ISG Research on 28 January 2011

Open source business intelligence (BI) software vendor Jaspersoft recently announced general availability of its flagship product Jaspersoft 4 and earlier this week announced a new reporting project that provides data connectors to a variety of large-scale data sources. Jaspersoft claims millions of downloads of its software and has a staff of 120 employees. The company focuses on the information... Read More

Topics: Data Warehousing, IT Performance, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Management, Information Management

Secrets Revealed in Massively Parallel Processing and Database Technology

Posted by ISG Research on 19 January 2011

This is the first in a series of posts on the architectures of analytic databases. This is relational database technology that has been “supercharged” in some way to handle large amounts of data such as typical data warehouse workloads. The series will examine massively parallel processing (MPP), columnar databases, appliances and in-database analytics. Our purpose is to help those evaluating... Read More

Topics: Data Warehousing, RDBMS, IT Performance, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Management, Information Management

Is the World Ready for One Source of Customer Data?

Posted by ISG Research on 14 January 2011

If you listen to salesforce.com (SFDC) then you’d have to believe the answer is an emphatic “Yes.” Shortly before Christmas, Kevin Akeroyd, the general manager of salesforce.com’s Jigsaw Data Cloud, tried to convince a group of U.K. analysts that now that Jigsaw is part of SFDC, we can all rush out and put our company and customer data in the cloud and share it effectively with everyone else. And... Read More

Topics: Salesforce.com, Customer Experience, Customer Information Management, Operational Performance, Customer & Contact Center, Information Management, Call Center, CRM

Optimizing Tax Risk Exposure

Posted by ISG Research on 10 January 2011

I recently commented on why I believe companies must manage taxes more intelligently. One dimension of this is optimizing tax risk exposure. Most corporate tax codes are notoriously complex and at times ambiguous, leaving room for companies to interpret their application. These interpretations fall on a scale of “conservative” to “aggressive,” in which companies weigh the risk of penalties and... Read More

Topics: Tax, Business Performance, Financial Performance, CFO, Financial Performance Management

SumTotal Provides Clarity in the New Year

Posted by ISG Research on 06 January 2011

The new year started off with a bang in the human capital management software market as SumTotal Systems acquired GeoLearning, a leading learning management system (LMS) software vendor. If you think this is just another acquisition, think again. I see GeoLearning as a strategic acquisition and a clearly offensive move on SumTotal’s part. Strategic, because vendors are looking to consolidate... Read More

Topics: Learning, Performance, Operational Performance, Business Performance, Cloud Computing, Financial Performance, Workforce Performance, Compensation, SumTotal Systems, Talent Management, Workforce Analytics