ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives (17)

Data Pipelines Integrate Data Processing and Enable AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 02 April 2024

The development, testing and deployment of data pipelines is a fundamental accelerator of data-driven strategies, enabling enterprises to extract data from the operational applications and data platforms designed to run the business and load, integrate and transform it into the analytic data platforms and tools used to analyze the business. As I explained in our recent Data Pipelines Buyers... Read More

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

Data Intelligence: Fundamental to Data Architecture

Posted by Matt Aslett on 27 March 2024

As enterprises seek to increase data-driven decision-making, many are investing in strategic data democratization initiatives to provide business users and data analysts with self-service access to data across the enterprise. Such access has long been a goal of many enterprises, but few have achieved it. Only 15% of participants in Ventana Research’s Analytics and Data Benchmark Research say... Read More

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

Smart Manufacturing Increases Productivity and Resilience

Posted by Robert Kugel on 26 March 2024

Smart manufacturing is a strategic operating approach that aligns advanced manufacturing technology with system and process design principles to promote adaptability. It is a digital, event-driven, collaborative orchestration of physical and digital processes designed to increase productivity, efficiency, adaptability and resilience. These systems use technologies to coordinate the planning and... Read More

Topics: Continuous Planning, S&OP, Operations & Supply Chain, supply chain management, Continuous Supply Chain & ERP, Smart Manufacturing

Refocus on AI, Skill-Building for the Greatest Operational Impact

Posted by David Menninger on 21 March 2024

In the technology industry, 2023 will be remembered as the year of generative artificial intelligence. Yes, the world was made aware of GenAI when ChatGPT was publicly launched in November of 2022, but few knew the impact it would have at that point in time. Since then, GenAI has taken the world by storm, with vendors applying the technology to make it easier to ask questions about data, write... Read More

Topics: Artificial intelligence, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

Technology Maximizes Investment in Learning Experiences

Posted by Matthew Brown on 21 March 2024

The workforce of today has been very clear with their needs, wants and expectations. They need to feel seen, valued, heard, included and empowered. They want to work in an organization that feels like a community and aligns with their personal value systems. Importantly, they expect access to technology and to be developed and supported as they navigate their careers. Learning opportunities can... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Learning Management

AI Makes Accounts Receivable a Customer-Facing Organization

Posted by Robert Kugel on 20 March 2024

Artificial intelligence seems poised to change everything, although naturally a great deal of attention tends to be paid to the cool things it makes possible. AI can also make the humdrum less tedious and even transform the dullest of back-office operations into something more meaningful. For example, AI can take accounts receivable automation to the next level. Infusing AI into managing the... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, AI, AI and Machine Learning, Order-to-Cash

Zendesk Shifts the Conversation from Service to Enterprise CX

Posted by Keith Dawson on 20 March 2024

The next phase of buying for contact centers and adjoining service/customer experience (CX) teams is going to be heavily influenced by how vendors develop tightly integrated ecosystems and define use cases and benefits across enterprise personas. There are more people involved in the work of delivering customer service, and a broader technology landscape from which buyers can choose their... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center, agent management

Maximizing Technology to Engage Generations in the Workplace

Posted by Matthew Brown on 19 March 2024

By the year 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that the generational makeup of our workforce will be: 11.4% Gen Z. 43.9% Millennials. 28.8% Gen X. 15.5% Boomers. 0.4% Traditionalists. By the late 2020s, Gen Alpha will move into the workforce, introducing a new dynamic. With the potential for up to five or six generations in the workplace, enterprises are often challenged to understand... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, employee experience

Navigating Security Threats with CTEM Integration

Posted by Jeff Orr on 19 March 2024

Is your organization prepared for the increasingly sophisticated and pervasive cyber threats that are challenging enterprise CIOs and IT leaders? Our previous analyst perspective underscored the importance of protecting digital assets and driving business growth with Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) — a proactive approach to identifying and managing cyber threats. In this perspective,... Read More

Topics: Digital Technology

Voice of the Customer Measurement Is Well Beyond Surveys

Posted by Keith Dawson on 14 March 2024

Contact centers have collected customer feedback almost as long as there have been telephones. The simple binary question "Did I provide you with good service today," or some variation is a common feature of agent scripts that contact center leadership uses to produce snap assessments of agent performance. Today’s analytic approaches are becoming more common, producing more insightful and nuanced... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center

From Lead to Cash to Revenue Life Cycle Management

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 14 March 2024

Much development and marketing resource is being directed at technology that supports tracking and managing the customer experience (CX) and identifying prospects. All of this is good for business and highlights some of the exciting potential for artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) to really accelerate the basic need of matching buyers and sellers to create more efficient... Read More

Topics: Office of Revenue

As Interest in AI Scales, So Does Domino Data Lab

Posted by David Menninger on 13 March 2024

Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) is exploding driven in large part by the widespread interest in generative AI. ISG’s AI Buyer Behavior Survey reported that more than 6 in 10 participants have at least one AI application in production. However, despite the ease with which individuals can use AI as a result of natural language processing, creating and managing AI models is still a... Read More

Topics: Data Science, AI, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

Teradata Encourages AI and Analytics Experimentation

Posted by Matt Aslett on 13 March 2024

Cloud computing has had an enormous impact on the analytics and data industry in recent decades, with the on-demand provisioning of computational resources providing new opportunities for enterprises to lower costs and increase efficiency. Two-thirds of participants in Ventana Research’s Data Lakes Dynamic Insights research are using a cloud-based environment as the primary data platform for... Read More

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

Zoho’s Roadmap Addresses Evolving Enterprise Needs

Posted by Robert Kugel on 12 March 2024

Zoho recently held its annual analyst day to communicate its strategy, objectives and product roadmap. The privately held company, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, has an unconventional approach to the software market. Its self-described corporate philosophy emphasizes making bold moves that challenge assumptions. Its design engineering approach stresses simplicity and cost while... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Voice of the Customer, Digital Commerce, ERP and Continuous Accounting, Order-to-Cash

Zero-ETL Enables Real-Time Analytics on Single-Source Data

Posted by Matt Aslett on 07 March 2024

It is well known that data integration, transformation and preparation represent a significant proportion of the time and effort required in any analytics project. Traditionally, operational data platforms are designed to store, manage, and process data to support worker-, customer- and partner-facing operational applications, and data is then extracted, transformed, and loaded (or “ETLed”) into... Read More

Topics: Analytics and Data

CTEM: Proactive Security Defense for Business

Posted by Jeff Orr on 06 March 2024

Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated and pervasive, posing a major challenge for CIOs and IT leaders. To protect their digital assets and drive business growth, they need a new approach to security: Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM). CTEM software continuously monitors and manages the enterprise’s exposure to cyber risks, enabling a swift and effective response to any security... Read More

Topics: Digital Technology

Productivity by 1,000 Cuts: Building AI Feasibility From the Bottom Up

Posted by Robert Kugel on 05 March 2024

After a year of near-constant AI chatter, the broad strokes of how the technology will roll out in business over the next three to five years are coming into place. It’s almost trite but worth repeating that artificial intelligence will drive a substantial boost in productivity as it’s adopted. Rather than making large swathes of jobs obsolete, it will take the robotic work out of those job... Read More

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

Uniphore Puts AI to Work Automating Interactions

Posted by Keith Dawson on 05 March 2024

The first wave of discussions around artificial intelligence (AI) in the contact center was focused on providing software buyers with a general understanding of what the technology could do. Now the conversations are becoming more specific, focused and direct. Buyers are more aware of the spectrum of available use cases and appear to be exploring how to map new tools to the particular business... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center, AI, natural language processing, agent management

Why AI Should Be a Focus for the Office of Finance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 28 February 2024

With a year of AI-everywhere-all-the-time chatter now in the rearview mirror, finance and accounting department executives appear to be in a state of apprehension and well-tuned skepticism about the impact this technology will have on their organization. There are solid reasons to believe that the next few years will be transformative, making it important for departments to adopt a fast-follower... Read More

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

Couchbase Addresses Real-Time Analytics

Posted by Matt Aslett on 27 February 2024

I have previously written about the impact of intelligent operational applications on the requirements for data platforms. Intelligent applications are used to run the business but also deliver personalization, recommendations and other features generated by machine learning and artificial intelligence. As such, they require a combination of operational and analytic processing functionality. The... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Artificial intelligence, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning