ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

External Data Supports More Accurate Planning

Posted by ISG Research on 15 January 2025

I recently completed the latest edition of our Business Planning Buyers Guide, which reviews and assesses the offerings of 14 providers of this software. One of the points that I look at is whether and to what extent the software provider offers out-of-the-box external data useful for forecasting, planning, analysis and evaluation. What I discovered is that the availability of this type of vital... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Analytics, Business Planning, AI and Machine Learning

Let’s Put the “A” Back in FP&A

Posted by Robert Kugel on 09 January 2025

When considered at all, unintended consequences are expected to be negative. As enterprises and institutions rush to adopt artificial intelligence and generative AI, the focus is on the potentially unforeseen—and unforecastable—unfavorable outcomes. However, one very likely positive impact of AI investments in business computing is the near-effortless availability of consistently reliable data... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Analytics, Business Planning

A Planning Center of Excellence Delivers Performance Improvement

Posted by Robert Kugel on 07 November 2024

Artificial Intelligence and generative AI are beginning to change how enterprises do many things, especially planning and budgeting. This technology has the potential to significantly redefine the mission of the financial planning and analysis group. It will do so by substantially reducing the time spent on the purely mechanical aspects of day-to-day tasks. AI is also making it easier for... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Analytics, Business Planning, Workforce Management, AI and Machine Learning

Snowflake Offers a Platform for AI as well as Data

Posted by Matt Aslett on 19 September 2024

As I explained in our recent Buyers Guide for Data Platforms, the popularization of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has had a significant impact on the requirements for data platforms in the last 18 months. While there is an ongoing need for data platforms to support data warehousing workloads involving analytic reports and dashboards, there is increasing demand for analytic data... Read More

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

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

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

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

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

The CFO AI Trilemma: Cut Costs, Accomplish More or Both

Posted by Robert Kugel on 13 May 2024

We’re quickly approaching the moment when it becomes clear that artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) will not be free. As that happens, we will discover who’s willing to pay how much and for what. After nearly 18 months of unlimited use-case fantasizing, it should be obvious that not all the potential applications of AI can be realized over the next three to five years because... Read More

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

Wiiisdom Improves Trust in Data With Analytics Testing and Governance

Posted by Matt Aslett on 08 May 2024

Many organizations have adopted DataOps to apply agile development, DevOps and lean manufacturing processes to the development, testing, deployment and orchestration of data integration and processing pipelines. The most likely ultimate outcome of these pipelines is the analytics reports and dashboards enterprises rely on to make business decisions. However, as my colleague David Menninger... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Analytics and Data

GenAI has the Potential to Change the Face of Analytics

Posted by Matt Aslett on 30 April 2024

Analytics software is used by business analysts and decision-makers to facilitate the generation of insights from data. It encompasses business intelligence and decision intelligence software, including reports and dashboards as well as embedded analytics and the development of intelligent applications infused with the results of analytic processes. Analytics software enables enterprises to... Read More

Topics: Analytics, AI, Analytics and Data

Data Orchestration Automates and Accelerates Analytics and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 24 April 2024

I recently wrote about the development, testing and deployment of data pipelines as a fundamental accelerator of data-driven strategies. As I explained in the 2023 Data Orchestration Buyers Guide, today’s analytics environments require agile data pipelines that can traverse multiple data-processing locations and evolve with business needs. Given the increasing complexity of evolving data sources... Read More

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

Navigating the Enterprise IT Ops Labyrinth

Posted by Jeff Orr on 10 April 2024

Enterprises are increasingly recognizing the need to streamline operations for efficiency, agility and innovation. This has led to various “operations” or “Ops” initiatives, each focusing on a specific aspect of enterprise IT. From software development and data analytics to IT and cloud management, these Ops groups are transforming the way enterprises operate and compete. Mergers and... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Cloud Computing, Digital Technology, data operations, Analytic Operations, AIOps

DataOps.live Enables the Development of Data Products

Posted by Matt Aslett on 10 April 2024

I wrote recently about the role that data intelligence has in enabling enterprises to facilitate data democratization and the delivery of data as a product. Data intelligence provides a holistic view of how, when, and why data is produced and consumed across an enterprise, and by whom. This information can be used by data teams to ensure business users and data analysts are provided with... Read More

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

AI Innovations in Data and Analytics at SAP

Posted by David Menninger on 09 April 2024

Data and analytics have become increasingly important to all aspects of business. The modern data and analytics stack includes many components, which creates challenges for enterprises and software providers alike. As my colleague Matt Aslett points out, a better term might be modern data and analytics smorgasbord. There are arguments for and against using an assortment of tools versus a... Read More

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

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

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

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

InterSystems Smart Data Fabric Supports Intelligent Applications

Posted by Matt Aslett on 14 February 2024

The increasing importance of intelligent operational applications driven by artificial intelligence (AI) is blurring the lines that have traditionally divided the requirements between operational and analytic data platforms. Operational data platforms have traditionally been deployed to support applications targeted at business users and decision-makers to run the business, with analytic data... Read More

Topics: embedded analytics, Analytics, Cloud Computing, analytic data platforms, Analytics and Data