ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives (43)

Vonage Buys Into Conversational Commerce With Jumper.ai

Posted by Keith Dawson on 12 November 2021

When migrating their communications stacks to the cloud, many organizations come face to face with a quandary: do they emphasize the business phone system and gravitate toward a unified communications vendor? Or should they focus on the specific applications needed for running their contact centers and seek out a CCaaS vendor? It turns out there is a third option, which is to build their own... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management, AI and Machine Learning

Google Cloud Advances to Multi-Cloud

Posted by Matt Aslett on 11 November 2021

Enterprises looking to adopt cloud-based data processing and analytics face a disorienting array of data storage, data processing, data management and analytics offerings. Departmental autonomy, shadow IT, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic choices mean that most enterprises now have the need to manage data across multiple locations, while each of the major cloud providers and data and... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Integration, Data, Digital Technology, data lakes, data operations, AI and Machine Learning

What Makes a Metric a KPI?

Posted by David Menninger on 09 November 2021

How does your organization define and display its metrics? I believe many organizations are not defining and displaying metrics in a way that benefits them most. If an organization goes through the trouble of measuring and reporting on a metric, the analysis ought to include all the information needed to evaluate that metric effectively. A number, by itself, does not provide any indication of... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Internet of Things, Data, Digital Technology, Streaming Analytics, AI and Machine Learning

Digitally Transform Purchasing to Improve Performance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 05 November 2021

Digital transformation of the Office of Finance has been a recurring theme for several years, but adoption accelerated when offices were locked down and organizations had to collaborate remotely. It involves shifting manual work, often completed via spreadsheets circulating in emails, to software and systems for improved performance. A practical approach to the transformation process involves a... Read More

Topics: Performance Management, Office of Finance, Digital transformation

NICE CXi Is a Pivot to the Post-Contact Center World

Posted by Keith Dawson on 04 November 2021

When NICE acquired inContact in 2016, it began a transformation that saw it broaden its product offering and positioned itself to play a larger role in the contact center and customer experience industries. It was a prescient move, creating a firm that could supply end-to-end contact center functionality in the cloud. And it anticipated today’s market dynamic, in which NICE and its competitors... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Business Continuity, Analytics, Contact Center, Data, Digital transformation, agent management, Experience Management, AI and Machine Learning

Using Event Data in Financial Services to Improve Business Processes

Posted by David Menninger on 03 November 2021

Our research shows that nearly all financial service organizations (97%) consider it important to accelerate the flow of information and improve responsiveness. Even just a few years ago, capturing and evaluating this information quickly was much more challenging, but with the advent of streaming data technologies that capture and process large volumes of data in real time, financial service... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Internet of Things, Data, Digital Technology, Streaming Analytics

Oracle Cloud HCM: Tackling the Tough Requirements Pays Off

Posted by ISG Research on 02 November 2021

In my recently published Analyst Perspective “Selecting an HCM System? Include the Tougher Use Cases in Evaluations,” I highlighted a few HCM systems use cases that have historically been under-supported across the vendor/product landscape. My view on “critical HCM use cases” is the same today as when I led global HR and HR technology initiatives: use cases flow from the business imperatives... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Learning Management, Workforce Management, Total Compensation Management, employee experience, candidate engagement, Continuous Payroll

Digital Communication Platforms Enable Better Work and Customer Experiences

Posted by Mark Smith on 30 October 2021

The age of digital communication platforms is upon us. The need has never been greater for an open and secure platform that satisfies the demand for enterprise-grade business and technology requirements. Overcoming today’s technology challenges is possible with a next-generation cloud-based delivery model that is both extensible and reliable. Organizations considering a digital communication... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Business Continuity, Contact Center, Digital transformation, Experience Management, Digital Communications

Why I Joined Ventana Research to Advance Digital Technology

Posted by Matt Aslett on 30 October 2021

I am very happy to announce that I have joined Ventana Research to help lead the expertise area of Digital Technology, including Analytics and Data, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, the Internet of Things, Robotic Automation, and Collaborative and Conversational Computing. While the breadth of applications and technology covered by our Digital Technology practice is... Read More

Topics: Digital Technology

AI’s Value to Contact Centers: What Are the Use Cases

Posted by Keith Dawson on 28 October 2021

In part one of this Analyst Perspective on the use of artificial intelligence within contact center applications, we focused on the evolution — and resulting benefits — of tools embedded with AI, including ease-of-use for non-data-scientists. In this Analyst Perspective, we’ll explore the most beneficial applications of this technology in contact centers. To understand how contact centers... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Analytics, agent management, AI and Machine Learning

Maximize Workforce Value with Technology for Work Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 October 2021

To maximize the value of the workforce and the work conducted, organizations need to increase the effectiveness of workers assigned to critical, interrelated tasks. Doing so requires a commitment to planning the best use of workers and resources. Failing to do so can limit an organization’s ability to reach essential milestones and complete work related to business processes with customers,... Read More

Topics: Business Continuity, Operations & Supply Chain, Digital transformation

Digitize Tax Departments for Increased Strategic Value

Posted by Robert Kugel on 26 October 2021

Managing corporate income taxes is a challenge for chief financial officers. Tax codes are often complex, so tax accounting as well as the data required for tax provisions and tax compliance are different enough from statutory accounting to create significant workloads for the tax department. Today, the worldwide trend to higher taxes and growing tax code complexity is increasing the payoff for... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting, Revenue, lease and tax accounting

Databricks Lakehouse Platform Streamlines Big Data Processing

Posted by David Menninger on 26 October 2021

Databricks is a data engineering and analytics cloud platform built on top of Apache Spark that processes and transforms huge volumes of data and offers data exploration capabilities through machine learning models. It can enable data engineers, data scientists, analysts and other workers to process big data and unify analytics through a single interface. The platform supports streaming data, SQL... Read More

Topics: embedded analytics, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Collaboration, Data Governance, Information Management, Data, data lakes, AI and Machine Learning

The Business of Work Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 25 October 2021

As the pace of digital innovation has accelerated, many organizations have found it harder to manage the portfolio of work conducted by the workforce to ensure timeliness and mitigate the risk of increased costs and resources. The challenges in managing the work related to project plans are not only to ensure the timeliness in performing and tracking the individual tasks and activities every... Read More

Topics: Business Continuity, Operations & Supply Chain, Digital transformation

The Digital Awakening of Business Process Intelligence

Posted by Mark Smith on 21 October 2021

The work environment today demands that your organization advances the efficiency to execute business processes for continuous operations to have a positive impact on business performance. The capability to be responsive to any range of minor to disruptive business events is required to support business continuity and level of organizational readiness to meet the needs of digital business.... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, embedded analytics, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Contact Center, Data, Digital Technology, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Digital transformation, natural language processing, continuous supply chain, agent management, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, Experience Management, AI and Machine Learning

AI’s Value to Contact Centers: Improved Customer and Agent Experiences

Posted by Keith Dawson on 21 October 2021

When artificial intelligence emerged from the labs and vendors started offering it as a component of their software, many contact-center buyers shied away from it. From their point of view, AI and machine learning tools were new, expensive, relatively untested and had an uncertain use case. This stance was understandable, as contact center professionals are traditionally expected to be... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Analytics, Contact Center, agent management, AI and Machine Learning

Vindicia Showcases Bundling and Subscription Intelligence

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 20 October 2021

The subscription business model has seen much growth in all aspects of the market in recent years. Now considered the standard for the digital age, the model’s implementation travels parallel to rising technology, leading to the demand for newer functionality and tools. As more and more vendors create their own versions, and as the subscription model is increasingly adopted, technology solutions... Read More

Topics: Sales, Subscription Billing, Subscription Management, partner management

Use External Data Platform to Improve Analytics

Posted by David Menninger on 19 October 2021

Access to external data can provide a competitive advantage. Our research shows that more than three-quarters (77%) of participants consider external data to be an important part of their machine learning (ML) efforts. The most important external data source identified is social media, followed by demographic data from data brokers. Organizations also identified government data, market data,... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Internet of Things, Data, Digital Technology, Lease Management, Streaming Data, Streaming Analytics, AI and Machine Learning

Calabrio Brings VoC to Larger CX Potential

Posted by Keith Dawson on 14 October 2021

Tools for contact center agent management have changed considerably in the past few years. The suite of software applications has grown from those that perform core functions in scheduling and quality control to include more advanced solutions for agent guidance, integrated desktops, and workflow and automation design. One area of intense investment by vendors has been analytics, specifically for... Read More

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

Pricing Optimization Software Helps Maximize Revenue

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 13 October 2021

Price management and optimization is not a new discipline, but until now, it has been restricted to particular industries — such as discrete manufacturing and chemicals — where there are potentially hundreds if not thousands of stock-keeping units covering many interdependent products. To ensure that pricing optimizes either revenue or margin, a variety of vendors have created specialist tools... Read More

Topics: Subscription Management