ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives (43)

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

Strategic Planning for Performance Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 12 October 2021

Strategic planning has always been difficult. But it is even more so in this age of rapid digital transformation and the pressure of business continuity, which has introduced disruptive changes. What’s needed, ironically, is a methodical approach to how an organization manages strategic planning to allow for beneficial disruption that is not avoidable, balancing finance and operations, engaging... Read More

Topics: Performance Management, Business Continuity, Digital transformation, Experience Management, Digital Communications

Data Virtualization Brings Data Together Quickly and Easily

Posted by David Menninger on 07 October 2021

The technology industry throws around a lot of similar terms with different meanings as well as entirely different terms with similar meanings. In this post, I don’t want to debate the meanings and origins of different terms; rather, I’d like to highlight a technology weapon that you should have in your data management arsenal. We currently refer to this technology as data virtualization. Other... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Data Governance, Data Integration, Data, Digital Technology, data lakes

Alteryx Tackles Analytics Ops

Posted by David Menninger on 05 October 2021

Alteryx is a data analytics software company that offers data preparation and analytics tools to simplify and automate data wrangling, data cleaning and modeling processes, enabling line-of-business personnel to quickly access, manipulate, analyze and output data. The platform features tools to run a variety of analytic functions such as diagnostic, predictive, prescriptive and geospatial... Read More

Topics: embedded analytics, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Collaboration, Data Preparation, Data, AI and Machine Learning

The Weak Link in Data Governance? Analytics

Posted by David Menninger on 30 September 2021

Data governance is a hot topic these days. In fact, we are conducting benchmark research on the subject here. With increasing regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), organizations face more external oversight of their data governance practices. The risk of significant fines associated with these and other regulations,... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Data Governance, Data, Digital Technology

The Transformation of Account-Based Marketing for Revenue Optimization

Posted by Keith Dawson on 29 September 2021

Account-based marketing (ABM) serves as a model for how a complex manual activity can be improved and automated. That does not mean it always goes well. ABM is a practice that many B2B marketers swear by, but it can be very difficult to get a technology-enhanced ABM program up and running. ABM is a method of identifying B2B targets for marketing communications and outreach based on specific... Read More

Topics: Marketing, Marketing Performance Management, Product Information Management, Digital Marketing, intelligent marketing, Digital Experience Platform

Collibra Brings Effective Data Governance to Line-of-Business

Posted by David Menninger on 28 September 2021

Collibra is a data governance software company that offers tools for metadata management and data cataloging. The software enables organizations to find data quickly, identify its source and assure its integrity. Line-of-business workers can use it to create, review and update the organization's policies on different data assets. Collibra’s software uses a microservice architecture and open... Read More

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

The Pandemic Heightens Need for Agent Management

Posted by Keith Dawson on 24 September 2021

The primary effect of the pandemic on agent/workforce management beginning in 2020 was a rush to re-site and re-equip contact centers and agents. This was achieved with a surprising speed and smoothness industrywide. But once achieved on a “temporary” or “emergency” basis, it became clear that this shift was going to be semi-permanent. Even if the majority of the agent population moves back into... Read More

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

Sisu Optimizes Analytics with Machine Learning for Actions & Decisions

Posted by David Menninger on 23 September 2021

Sisu Data is an analytics platform for structured data that uses machine learning and statistical analysis to automatically monitor changes in data sets and surface explanations. It can prioritize facts based on their impact and provide a detailed, interpretable context to refine and support conclusions. The product features fact boards, annotations and the ability to share facts and analysis... Read More

Topics: business intelligence, embedded analytics, Analytics, Collaboration, Data, AI and Machine Learning

BillingPlatform Bolsters the Rise of Subscription Services

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 22 September 2021

Subscription management and billing services help organizations offer unique benefits and enhance delivery to customers. By making services more personalized, organizations can acquire – and retain – more customers. Many business-to-business companies are shifting to a subscription business model to remain competitive, imposing new requirements on vendors to support pricing models that address... Read More

Topics: Sales, Office of Finance, Continuous Planning, embedded analytics, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Planning, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, natural language processing, revenue and lease accounting, continuous supply chain, Subscription Management, partner management, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, Supplier Relationship Management, AI and Machine Learning