ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives (132)

IBM’s Advances Business Analytics and Optimization in First Year

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

At its Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO) analyst summit in Washington, D.C., IBM provided direction on the state of its software and services in this category of business technology. This annual event goes back to 2005 when IBM started making BAO-related software acquisitions in earnest. I have written before about IBM’s focus on analytics and optimization (See: “IBM Fuses New Generation... Read More

Topics: Operational Performance, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Performance, IBM

Sales Compensation Easier To Manage with Varicent 7

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

To help sales teams to maximize their value to the company, sales operations and management must find the right balance of compensation and incentives to motivate them to achieve their quotas. To do this requires the ability to design compensation plans that take into consideration products, territories and accounts and of course the number of customers and prospects. Sales managers also need... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance, Sales Compensation, Operational Performance, Sales Performance Management, Varicent

Information Applications is a New Technology Category Designed for Business and IT

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

In today’s world, without information there is no business. That is, without having the right information and making it available to the right people at the right time, an organization cannot be fully informed, make the right decisions and act on them, and compete effectively enough to survive and prosper. That much is a given. Finding ways to ensure that an organization’s information is... Read More

Topics: IT Performance, Business Intelligence, Information Applications, Information Management, Data, Information Availability

Informatica Simplifies Cloud Integration with New Data Plugs

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

Businesses continually need to improve their abilities to utilize data generated by their activities and interactions. Retrieving, cleaning and sharing data are ongoing processes, and along with data within the enterprise, applications in cloud computing are becoming critical sources. Vital data about customers and even employees among many other types is distributed across the cloud and must be... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Data Integration, Informatica, Information Management

Plateau Advances Talent Management in the Cloud

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

The market for talent management continues to grow as organizations realize that they have not invested enough to make their workforces more productive and valuable. Not many human resources organizations have enabled innovation in their workforce processes or taken the next step to work more strategically with finance and operations executives. Now savvy HR organizations have been renting a new... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Plateau, Business Performance, Workforce Performance, Talent Management

Merced Systems Customer Summit Advances Sales and Customer Service Organizations

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

Many organizations want to improve the performance of their sales and customer service operations but have difficulty increasing efficiency and producing better results. One barrier to improvement is sticking with the status quo of managing sales operations and performance through spreadsheets, as 47 percent of organizations still do, according to Ventana Research’s benchmark research on sales... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance, Merced Systems, Operational Performance, Analytics, Financial Performance, Sales Performance Management

iWay Software Deepens Information Management Expands to Cloud Computing

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

At the Information Builders 2010 conference I spent some time to learn about the latest in its business intelligence (BI) technology and also performance management, which my colleague has analyzed recently (See: “IBI’s Eye Popping New Performance Management Software”). But I focused more on information management, which is becoming a strategic component of the company’s portfolio. Its iWay... Read More

Topics: IT Performance, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Integration, Information Builders, Information Management

Softscape Demonstrates Leadership in Managing Talent with New Release

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

Cliché or not, a business’s most valuable asset is its people, and for 15 years Softscape has been dedicated to providing applications that help human resources organizations handle a range of processes that I call workforce performance management, including what the industry refers to as talent management. Privately held Softscape operates in 156 countries, and its customers range from large... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Softscape, Workforce Performance, Talent Management