Conga Connect 2026 underscored a shift that revenue leaders can no longer ignore. The core technology challenge facing commercial organizations is not a lack of tools, automation or even artificial intelligence (AI), but the growing fragmentation across the systems and teams responsible for moving deals from initial pricing through contract execution and into revenue realization.
New research conducted by Conga and introduced at the event, based on more than 1,200 commerce and contracting decision-makers, highlights how widespread this issue has become. Nearly all respondents report friction as deals move across sales, legal, finance, pricing and IT, and 45% indicate they have lost deals in the past six months due to slow quote approvals. These findings reinforce a pattern ISG continues to observe across enterprise clients, where revenue breakdowns are rarely caused by a single point of failure but instead emerge in the transitions between systems, processes and decision-makers. In many cases, each individual function is operating as designed, but the lack of alignment between them introduces delays, rework and risk that compound over the course of a deal cycle.
This fragmentation is increasingly surfacing as a measurable business risk. Organizations report difficulty meeting executive expectations around commercial performance and risk management, while inconsistent data across systems continues to undermine forecast accuracy. Revenue is delayed or lost when approvals stall or when deal terms are not aligned across functions, with system handoffs frequently contributing to leakage. These issues are particularly pronounced in complex enterprise deals, where multiple approvals, non-standard terms and regional variations increase the likelihood of breakdowns. As deal cycles accelerate and pricing models become more dynamic, these challenges are becoming more visible and more consequential.
At the same time, many enterprises are attempting to address these issues by layering AI and automation onto existing workflows. Discussions at Conga Connect made clear that this approach has limits. AI depends on consistent inputs, well-defined workflows and shared context across teams. When commercial operations are fragmented, those conditions are difficult to achieve, and automation often reinforces existing inefficiencies rather than resolving them. Without addressing underlying process fragmentation, organizations risk scaling inconsistency rather than eliminating it.
A central theme throughout the event was the need to move from functionally aligned systems to more connected commercial execution. Conga’s updated positioning, bringing together PROS B2B and Conga under a unified brand, reflects a broader commitment to streamlining commercial operations and helping businesses move forward with confidence. The focus is on aligning pricing, quoting, contracting and revenue processes into a continuous operational flow, ensuring that teams remain synchronized and deals progress without unnecessary friction. This direction mirrors broader market movement, where providers are expanding beyond discrete capabilities toward platforms designed to reduce friction across the revenue lifecycle. It also reflects increasing buyer demand for solutions that can deliver both operational efficiency and greater transparency across the deal process.
This evolution is also changing how enterprise buyers evaluate commercial technology. Historically, organizations selected tools based on depth within a specific function such as configure, price and quote (CPQ) or contract lifecycle management, often resulting in strong individual capabilities but limited coordination across the deal lifecycle. As commercial environments become more complex, the cost of that fragmentation is increasing, contributing directly to delays, inconsistent pricing logic and gaps between contract terms and downstream processes. Organizations are beginning to recognize that optimizing individual components without addressing integration across the lifecycle creates diminishing returns over time.
Conga Connect also highlighted the growing importance of continuity between pre-sale and post-sale processes. Revenue does not end at contract signature, yet many systems remain
For revenue leaders, the implications are immediate. The priority is no longer to add incremental tools to the stack, but to identify where fragmentation is slowing or breaking the flow of revenue and to address those gaps with a focus on coordination, continuity and shared data across the commercial lifecycle. This often requires a more holistic view of commercial operations, bringing together stakeholders across sales, legal, finance and IT to align common processes and data standards. Over the next 12 to 24 months, leading organizations will shift their investment strategies accordingly, prioritizing technologies and operating models that connect workflows end to end rather than optimizing them in isolation.
Conga Connect 2026 made clear that the next phase of commercial transformation will not be defined by the introduction of new tools alone, but by how effectively organizations connect the systems they already have. As revenue models continue to evolve, closing the gaps between commercial functions will become a primary determinant of growth, efficiency and predictability. Organizations that can successfully reduce fragmentation will be better positioned to accelerate deal velocity, improve customer experience and deliver more consistent revenue outcomes in increasingly complex markets.
Regards
Barika Pace