ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives (25)

Not Your Grandpa’s Consolidate and Close Software

Posted by Robert Kugel on 27 July 2023

The six costliest words in managing a finance department are, “we’ve always done it this way.” Closing the books is the process of finalizing and summarizing the financial activities of a business for a specific accounting period (typically a month, quarter, or fiscal year). It involves completing various tasks to ensure that all revenue, expense, and other financial transactions are properly... Read More

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

Salesforce Adds Generative AI to Enhance Digital Commerce

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 26 July 2023

While I do not have an MBA, I have a very academic degree in economics and three decades of experience in different facets of business. Why is this important or relevant? Well, an entire industry has sprung up to promote the latest business ideas, the adoption of which will, supposedly, if not guarantee success, improve the probability of success in any endeavor. And while some of these ideas... Read More

Topics: Digital Commerce, Office of Revenue

Strategic Onboarding Increases Business Success

Posted by ISG Research on 26 July 2023

For decades, most organizations thought of onboarding as a basic housekeeping item, akin to filling out tax withholding paperwork, having a picture taken for a badge, getting a uniform or signing for a handbook. In reality, true onboarding encompasses much more. It’s considerably more strategic than tactical, including all processes required to successfully integrate a new employee into an... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Talent Management, employee experience

Explore Document Databases for Application Agility

Posted by Matt Aslett on 26 July 2023

I have previously written about the functional evolution and emerging use cases for NoSQL databases, a category of non-relational databases that first emerged 15 or so years ago and are now well established as potential alternatives to relational databases. NoSQL is a term used to describe a variety of databases that fall into four primary functional categories: key-value stores, wide-column... Read More

Topics: Data

AI Advances Automation for Enhanced Efficiency

Posted by Jeff Orr on 25 July 2023

Intelligent automation is a powerful tool that can help the CIO and IT leaders optimize business processes and outcomes while reducing costs, risks and errors. Automation takes many forms, each with its own applications, benefits and limitations. In a previous perspective, I shared how technology helps organizations automate processes and enhance workflow efficiency. This perspective explains the... Read More

Topics: Digital Technology, robotic automation, AI and Machine Learning

The Question of Generative AI Costs

Posted by Robert Kugel on 25 July 2023

As we celebrate the first half of what seems to be the year of generative artificial intelligence, with an apparently unlimited discussion of use cases and bogeymen, my attention is turning to the very mundane question of costs. Specifically, how costs incurred – through investment and operation – will be distributed along the value chain and how this will affect the demand for AI ‒ by whom and... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Continuous Planning, Business Planning, Enterprise Resource Planning, natural language processing, AI and Machine Learning, Continuous Supply Chain & ERP

Intelligent Automation Unlocks the Full Potential of Technology

Posted by Jeff Orr on 18 July 2023

Automation uses technology to perform tasks or functions that would otherwise require human intervention or effort. Automation has existed for decades, and it takes many forms. It handles routine tasks, freeing time for knowledge workers to perform other activities that require creativity, subjectivity or empathy. Automation can also improve the quality, efficiency and consistency of business... Read More

Topics: Digital Technology, robotic automation, AI and Machine Learning

SingleStore Highlights Multi-Format Data Storage for Vector Search

Posted by Matt Aslett on 11 July 2023

The publication of Ventana Research’s 2023 Operational Data Platforms Value Index earlier this year highlighted the importance of incorporating analytic processing into operational applications to deliver personalization and recommendations for workers, partners and customers. This importance is being accelerated by interest in generative AI, especially large language models. The emergence of... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Cloud Computing, Data, Digital Technology, analytic data platforms, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

Digital Security Posture Is a Strategic Imperative for the CIO

Posted by Jeff Orr on 06 July 2023

Increasing threats and challenges from cyberattacks, data breaches and other incidents have made digital security a critical concern for organizations. These dangers have devastating consequences, including financial loss, reputational damage, legal liabilities and operational disruption. Adopting effective and efficient digital security strategies is key to protecting data, assets and customers... Read More

Sage Positioned to Gain from Seismic Shift in ERP Market

Posted by Robert Kugel on 06 July 2023

I recently attended Sage Software’s Partner Summit. Implementation partners account for most of the sales and implementation of finance and accounting applications designed for small and midsize businesses, so they are important to the success of the software vendor. These events are designed to inform partners of product enhancements and the product and technology roadmap as well as provide a... Read More

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

Plum Provides Insights for Better Talent Management

Posted by ISG Research on 05 July 2023

Perhaps no human capital management-related topic has been more widely examined in recent years than the struggle to find and retain top talent. Software has flooded the market to address the challenge from every angle — automated sourcing and stack ranking of candidates; artificial intelligence-powered employee sentiment analysis for identifying and reducing the risk of attrition; and internal... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Talent Management

Verint Wants You to Think Differently About Contact Centers

Posted by Keith Dawson on 30 June 2023

Verint came to its Engage customer conference in June with the goal of changing the industry’s conversation around Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS). The industry commonly considers CCaaS to be equivalent to cloud-based voice routing, an old and perhaps outdated way of thinking about provisioning contact centers. Verint wants to flip the narrative: voice routing is not special enough anymore to... Read More

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

Fivetran Automates Data Movement and Transformation

Posted by Matt Aslett on 29 June 2023

Despite best intentions, many organizations still struggle with some fundamental aspects of data processing and analytics. Taking data from operational applications and making it available for analysis is a first step, but data management remains a perennial challenge. Data movement and transformation difficulties can lead to delays and data quality problems that prevent organizations from... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Data Management, Data, Digital Technology, data operations, Analytics and Data

NICE Shines Spotlight on Enlighten AI

Posted by Keith Dawson on 28 June 2023

Since acquiring InContact in 2016, NICE has moved far from its roots in call recording and contact center quality optimization. That acquisition birthed what was effectively a hybrid that married cloud contact center operations (CCaaS) with a focus on advanced customer experience (CX) analytics. NICE held its annual customer event, Interactions 2023, in June in New York, gathering end users to... Read More

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

Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Architecture Enables Digital Modernization

Posted by Jeff Orr on 28 June 2023

Cloud computing has emerged as the catalyst for a shift from digital transformation to digital modernization. This technology offers many advantages, including heightened agility, cost reduction, improved collaboration, enhanced security and accelerated innovation. Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies offer distinctive strengths that enable organizations to optimize the IT infrastructure necessary... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Digital Technology

How Data Observability and Data Quality Achieve Data Management

Posted by Matt Aslett on 27 June 2023

Maintaining data quality and trust is a perennial data management challenge, often preventing organizations from operating at the speed of business. Recent years have seen the emergence of data observability as a category of DataOps focused on monitoring the quality and reliability of data used for analytics and governance projects and associated data pipelines. There is clear overlap with data... Read More

Topics: Data Management, Data, data operations

CelerData Enables Real-Time Analytics for the Data Lakehouse

Posted by Matt Aslett on 21 June 2023

Organizations increasingly rely on real-time analytics to make informed decisions and stay competitive in today’s data-driven business landscape. As the complexity of data grows with the continuous addition of diverse sources, customers and workers alike expect real-time responsiveness. Accelerated query performance is crucial to process and extract valuable insights from data in a timely manner.... Read More

Topics: Data Management, Data, data operations, Streaming Data Events, analytic data platforms

Why Incentive Compensation Is Right for More Than Sales

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 21 June 2023

A lot has changed in business over the past ten years. The rise of e-commerce and omnichannel buying and engagement, the increasing digitization of the economy and the broader adoption of pricing and revenue models such as subscription and usage. And these are all having an impact on how business leaders need to think about their organizations. One of the more significant changes has been an... Read More

Topics: Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Revenue Performance Management, Office of Revenue

Collaborative Supply Chain Forecasting Improves Performance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 20 June 2023

Organizations engage in collaborative supply chain planning in order to have more accurate, timely and actionable information, including forecasts and stock-on-hand. The objective is to achieve lower costs and reduce risk while ensuring order fulfillment to achieve optimal supplier and customer relationships. Unfortunately, our research shows that that few companies manage collaboration well in... Read More

Topics: Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Continuous Supply Chain & ERP

Digital Security Requires CIO and CISO Leadership

Posted by Jeff Orr on 20 June 2023

With the growing threat landscape and increasing reliance on technology, digital security has become a critical concern. What constitutes digital security, and how is it different from cybersecurity? How are the roles of the chief information officer and chief information security officer evolving to meet digital security needs? To explore these questions, we must understand the impact of digital... Read More