ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives (15)

The Buyers Guides for Subscription Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 24 July 2024

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well software providers’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Subscription Management: Ventana Research Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by ISG and Ventana Research. The era of subscriptions has transformed the way businesses operate and consumers engage with... Read More

Topics: Subscription Management, Office of Revenue

The Buyers Guides for AI Platforms Classifies and Rates Software Providers

Posted by David Menninger on 23 July 2024

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well software providers’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The AI Platforms: Ventana Research Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. While Artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved over many decades, it is front and center due to a combination of... Read More

Topics: AI

The Buyers Guides for Data Platforms Classifies and Rates Software Providers

Posted by Matt Aslett on 18 July 2024

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well software providers’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Data Platforms Ventana Research Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by ISG and Ventana Research. Data platforms provide an environment for organizing and managing the storage, processing, analysis, and... Read More

Topics: analytic data platforms, Analytics and Data

Solace Shines for Event-Driven Integration

Posted by Matt Aslett on 16 July 2024

I previously wrote about the ongoing importance of event brokers and event management in enabling enterprises to adopt event-driven architecture and event stream processing. Many enterprises adopt EDA as the design pattern for maximizing events to deliver real-time business processes. There are many advantages to using EDA, including a cultural shift away from batch processing towards real-time... Read More

Topics: Streaming Data Events, Analytics and Data

Boomi Offers Innovation in API and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 10 July 2024

I previously wrote about the potential for generative artificial intelligence technology to enhance the integration sector by facilitating outcome-driven approaches for automatically generating integration pipelines in response to declared business requirements. The use of GenAI in data and application integration remains nascent, but multiple software providers are embracing the potential for... Read More

Topics: Analytics and Data

Who Poisoned the AI Watering Hole: Adversarial Threats in AI

Posted by Jeff Orr on 09 July 2024

Embracing artificial intelligence technologies opens doors for innovation and efficiency. Alongside these opportunities, however, come risks. Threat actors are keenly aware of the potential impact of AI systems and are actively exploring ways to manipulate them. In this Analyst Perspective, I explore the world of adversarial machine-learning threats and provide practical guidance for securing AI... Read More

Topics: Digital Technology, DevOps and Platforms, AI and Machine Learning

Monte Carlo Addresses Performance as a Measure of Data Reliability

Posted by Matt Aslett on 27 June 2024

I recently wrote about the role data observability plays in generating value from data by providing an environment for monitoring its quality and reliability. Data observability is a critical functional aspect of Data Operations, alongside the development, testing and deployment of data pipelines and data orchestration, as I explained in our Data Observability Buyers Guide. Maintaining data... Read More

Topics: data operations, Analytics and Data

Businesses Need a More Expansive View of Self-Service’s Value

Posted by Keith Dawson on 20 June 2024

Self-service has changed immensely in recent years. It has gotten better, qualitatively, in delivering answers and resolutions to customers. But it has also gotten extremely complex, relying on a basket of new technologies to achieve results. It helps to look at it through the eyes of the three main constituencies that are affected by it: customers, contact centers and the businesses they sit in.... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center

ServiceNow Puts AI to Work at Knowledge 2024 Conference

Posted by Jeff Orr on 17 June 2024

ServiceNow is a global software provider that has developed a cloud computing platform that helps organizations manage digital workflows for enterprise operations. The provider uses its annual Knowledge user conference to educate customers and showcase product announcements. Ventana Research had the opportunity to attend the Knowledge 2024 event and provides this analyst perspective to summarize... Read More

Topics: IT Service Management, Digital Technology, natural language processing, AI and Machine Learning

Verint Turns Focus to CX Automation and AI

Posted by Keith Dawson on 12 June 2024

Verint held its analyst conference recently, using the opportunity to flesh out how it is responding to the rapid developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and data-related technologies and to changes in the way enterprises consider the purchasing process for contact center-related tools. The market for contact center technology is changing very quickly. It has historically focused on... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center

Data Operations Improves Trust in Data for Analytics and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 12 June 2024

Enterprises are embracing the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver improvements in productivity and efficiency. As they move from initial pilots and trial projects to deployment into production at scale, many are realizing the importance of agile and responsive data processes, as well as tools and platforms that facilitate data management, with the goal of improving trust in the... Read More

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

AI is Changing the Market for Consolidation Software

Posted by Robert Kugel on 11 June 2024

Until recently, dedicated consolidation software had been a sleepy category. First introduced in the 1980s as a tool designed to run on personal computers (freeing the accounting department from reliance on its IT department), offerings basically achieved feature and function parity by the next decade. The last major technology innovation—moving the software to the cloud—began in the mid-2000s.... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, ERP and Continuous Accounting

Google Advances Cloud Data Platforms and Analytics Services with GenAI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 05 June 2024

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has significant implications at all levels of the technology stack, not least analytics and data products, which serve to support the development, training and deployment of GenAI models, and also stand to benefit from the advances in automation enabled by GenAI. The intersection of analytics and data and GenAI was a significant focus of... Read More

Topics: Analytics, AI, natural language processing, AI and Machine Learning

Resilient Supply Chains and AI to Manage Costs

Posted by Robert Kugel on 23 May 2024

Rebalancing supply chains to improve resiliency has been a focus of enterprises with even moderately complex and long supply chains for the past four years. One aspect of this rebalancing is that it almost always involves higher costs. Volume discounts and bargaining power are reduced when more suppliers are used, or an alternate supplier may have higher factor costs and therefore must charge... Read More

Topics: Continuous Planning, Business Planning, Product Information Management, Operations & Supply Chain, Continuous Supply Chain & ERP

Data Observability Improves Trust in Data for Decision-Making

Posted by Matt Aslett on 22 May 2024

I recently wrote about the development, testing and deployment of data pipelines as a fundamental accelerator of data-driven strategies as well as the importance of data orchestration to accelerate analytics and artificial intelligence. As I explained in the recent Data Observability Buyers Guide, data observability software is also a critical aspect of data-driven decision-making. Data... Read More

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

The Decomplexification of IT: Simplifying Enterprise Technology

Posted by Jeff Orr on 21 May 2024

The technology landscape for enterprise IT faces a daunting challenge: complexity. As systems grow more intricate, organizations must actively seek ways to simplify the technology stack. This process, known as decomplexification, is crucial for enhancing efficiency, security and collaboration within an enterprise. Decomplexification—a term that encapsulates the act of simplifying—has become a... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, IT Service Management, Digital Technology, DevOps and Platforms

Oracle Demonstrates Embedded AI for Productivity Gains

Posted by Robert Kugel on 21 May 2024

Oracle held an industry analyst summit recently where the focus was on artificial intelligence (AI) and embedded AI. At the event, Oracle demonstrated progress in adding useful AI-enabled capabilities to its business applications, especially in finance and accounting, supply chain, HR and revenue management. To put this into context, across the software industry, AI is already at work in many... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Analytics, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, AI and Machine Learning, Order-to-Cash

The Path to Equitable Compensation

Posted by Matthew Brown on 16 May 2024

Today’s workforce places a high expectation on an enterprise’s commitment to fostering a fair and inclusive workplace. Numerous advances have been made in technology and employment regulations in the past few years, elevating the need and urgency for equitable and transparent operations relative to employee compensation. Technology plays a critical role in unlocking an enterprise’s ability to... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Total Compensation Management, employee experience

Automation Addresses VAT Tax Challenges

Posted by Robert Kugel on 16 May 2024

Value-added tax is a consumption tax levied at every point in a supply chain—from production to final sale. It’s based on the difference between the cost of production and the selling price of a product or service, or the value added. Sales taxes are different in that they are generally collected only at the final point of sale to the ultimate consumer. Enterprises collect the value-added tax... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Tax, tax compliance, VAT, Order-to-Cash, Value-Added Tax, Sales Tax

Dremio Enables Self-Service Analytics for the Data Lakehouse

Posted by Matt Aslett on 15 May 2024

I previously wrote about the potential for rapid adoption of the data lakehouse concept as enterprises combined the benefits of data lakes based on low-cost cloud object storage with the structured data processing functionality normally associated with data warehousing. By layering support for table formats, metadata management and transactional updates and deletes as well as query engine and... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Analytics and Data