ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives (12)

Demystifying APIs: What Every HR Buyer Needs to Know

Posted by Matthew Brown on 18 March 2025

If you’re an HR professional, the term “API” might make you want to hand things off to IT and move on with your day. After all, you’re here to focus on people, not tech jargon, right? But here’s the thing—APIs play a major role in making sure your HR technology works for you. And no, you don’t need to be an engineer to understand why they matter. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) might... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, employee experience

Alteryx Refines AI Platform for Analytics

Posted by Matt Aslett on 13 March 2025

Increased enterprise focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) has served to sharpen the focus on the need for trusted data and reliable analytics and data operations. The ISG State of Generative AI Market Report highlighted that elevated expectations and demands associated with AI are a forcing function for enterprises to take long-overdue steps to improve data and... Read More

Topics: Analytics, AI, data operations, Analytics and Data

What Analysts Should Do When Anyone Can Analyze with AI

Posted by Robert Kugel on 12 March 2025

One of the promised benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), Generative AI (GenAI) and agents is that they can make everyone their own financial and business analyst. It’s true that these technologies can make it possible for everyone to access once hard-to-reach data (with suitable permissions), unleash agents to assemble the data into useful tables and charts along with commentary describing... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, AI, AI and Machine Learning

Actian Enables Data Discovery and Data Intelligence

Posted by Matt Aslett on 11 March 2025

Data catalogs provide an inventory of data assets that surface metadata from data platforms, analytics tools and applications that can be used to facilitate data discovery and data usage across an enterprise. As I recently explained, however, there are actually multiple types of data catalogs that offer functionality to address specific use cases and user roles, including data inventory, data... Read More

Topics: Governance, Operations

The State of Conversational Software Using Automation and AI

Posted by Jeff Orr on 06 March 2025

Conversational automation leverages artificial intelligence (AI)-powered agents, chatbots and virtual assistants to automate both customer interactions and internal processes. These systems understand natural language, sentiment and intent, generating relevant responses and executing actions based on user input. The software provider landscape is analyzed in the ISG Buyers Guide for... Read More

Topics: Self-service, natural language processing, Chatbots, Conversational Automation

Domo Enables Data Integration, Analytics and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 05 March 2025

As enterprises seek to expand and accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) many are finding that longstanding analytics and data challenges are a barrier to success. As was explained in ISG’s State of Generative AI Market Report, AI requires data that is clean, well-organized and compliant with regulatory standards. The need for good data management is by no means new, but the... Read More

Topics: Machine Learning, Analytics, Data, Artificial intelligence, natural language processing

HiBob: A Modern HCM That Puts Culture and Simplicity at the Core

Posted by Matthew Brown on 05 March 2025

The HCM market has undergone a significant transformation in recent years. Legacy providers, long the dominant force, built their platforms primarily for administrative efficiency—streamlining HR processes but often overlooking the broader employee experience. However, today’s workforce expects more. Employees and managers now demand intuitive, engaging and connected HR experiences that extend... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management

Agentic AI: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Posted by David Menninger on 04 March 2025

AI, like analytics, must lead to action. Too often, in both cases, too much of the exercise is left to the reader. We have tools to provide sophisticated analyses, including AI platforms that can be used to predict many types of behavior, but we fall short in helping the workforce know what to do with that information. Some examples are more obvious, such as fraud detection. If a transaction is... Read More

Topics: Artificial intelligence

A Strategic Approach to Replacing ERP Systems for Modernization and AI

Posted by Robert Kugel on 27 February 2025

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are comprehensive software platforms designed to integrate and manage all the core processes of an enterprise while recording transactions and their financial consequences to support the accounting and finance functions. ISG Software Research recently completed our Buyers Guide™ for ERP systems, designed to help enterprises that are replacing their... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Continuous Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, AI and Machine Learning

DataOps: Software for Operations and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 27 February 2025

Late 2024 saw the publication of the 2024 ISG Buyers Guides for DataOps, providing an assessment of 49 software providers offering products used by data engineers, data scientists, and data and AI professionals to facilitate the use of data for analytics and AI needs. The DataOps Buyers Guide research includes five reports which are focused on overall DataOps, Data Observability, Data... Read More

Topics: Analytics, data operations, Analytics and Data

Agentic AI Reliability Requirements for Data

Posted by Matt Aslett on 25 February 2025

It is now more than two years since the launch of ChatGPT introduced the world to generative AI (GenAI) and large language models (LLMs). GenAI-based assistants and co-pilots are now widely adopted, with individuals and enterprises adopting GenAI models to automate the generation of text, digital images, audio, video and code, amongst other things. More than four-fifths (81%) of participants in... Read More

Topics: Analytics, AI, Analytics and Data

Trintech Provides Reliable Record-to-Report Productivity

Posted by Robert Kugel on 25 February 2025

Trintech provides finance departments in larger and midsize enterprises with software to accelerate their accounting close processes while achieving hard and fast accuracy and compliance requirements with less effort. The financial records of an enterprise must be periodically reviewed and summarized to create financial statements that inform executives and interested third parties of the... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, ERP and Continuous Accounting

The Power of Payroll: It’s More than Just a Paycheck

Posted by Matthew Brown on 20 February 2025

Payroll is one of the most universal touchpoints within any organization, impacting every employee on a regular basis. It’s the one thing every employee notices if it does not work perfectly. Yet, despite its far-reaching presence, payroll often operates quietly in the background, treated as an administrative function focused solely on ensuring people are paid accurately and on time. This... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Payroll Management, employee experience

Zoho Evolves Portfolio for Enterprises Using AI

Posted by Keith Dawson on 20 February 2025

Zoho’s recent analyst conference was an opportunity to explore how the India-founded software company is faring in its efforts to extend its enterprise business, and to place AI at the center of its product portfolio. It appears the company is having some success on both fronts. Zoho’s software suite includes nearly 60 applications that extend into almost every facet of business activity, from... Read More

Topics: Contact Center

Prophix’s FP&A Plus Brings Higher Performance to Midsize Enterprises

Posted by Robert Kugel on 19 February 2025

While headlines tend to focus on flashier topics, arguably the biggest business impact from technology advances over the past two decades has been on helping midsize enterprises improve their performance. These organizations have the same requirements as larger ones but have fewer resources to address those needs. Prophix has been at the forefront of using technology innovation to close that gap... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

SugarCRM as a Revenue Platform with AI for Sellers

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 19 February 2025

I was recently a guest of SugarCRM at their 2025 Analyst summit with an opportunity to meet with the executive team and new CEO, David Roberts. SugarCRM is a venerable CRM offering that started as an open-source project and over the years has matured into a very flexible CRM system with offerings for sales, marketing and service. The new CEO, David Roberts joined the company toward the end of... Read More

Topics: Revenue Performance Management, Office of Revenue

How Software Can Help Usage Pricing Adoption

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 13 February 2025

Based on the number of invitations I have received to speak on the topic, usage pricing (also referred to as consumption pricing) is hot. But as I have remarked elsewhere, it is not new. I recall a conversation with a customer over 30 years ago when I was involved with analytic software who asked, “Why can’t we just pay for the software we use?” And this of course makes sense: only pay for what... Read More

Topics: Subscription Management, Office of Revenue

Adapting to Higher Inflation Longer with Profitability Management

Posted by Robert Kugel on 05 February 2025

In anticipation of conditions that suggested accelerating price increases, I wrote in 2021 about how technology could be useful in an inflationary period, anticipating the world we live in now. Responding effectively to changes in costs is always challenging, but even more so because of the choppy and chaotic nature of the current environment. Inflation may have abated from its highs throughout... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, Subscription Management

Redpanda Lowers the Complexity and Cost of Streaming and Event Data

Posted by Matt Aslett on 04 February 2025

I recently wrote about the need for enterprises to harness events to process and act upon data at the speed of business. The core technologies that enable enterprises to process and analyze data in real time have been in existence for many years and are widely adopted. However, streaming and events technologies are also commonly seen as a niche requirement, separate from an enterprise’s primary... Read More

Topics: Streaming Data Events, Analytics and Data

Databricks Scores Massive Funding Round, Continues to Expand Its Offerings

Posted by David Menninger on 29 January 2025

Databricks recently announced its Series J funding round, successfully raising $10 billion at a valuation of $62 billion. Led by Thrive Capital alongside high-profile investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Insight Partners, the company intends to invest this capital towards new artificial intelligence (AI) products, acquisitions and significant expansion of its international operations. In the... Read More

Topics: Analytics, AI, Analytics and Data