ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Domo Enables Data Integration, Analytics and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 05 March 2025

As enterprises seek to expand and accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) many are finding that longstanding analytics and data challenges are a barrier to success. As was explained in ISG’s State of Generative AI Market Report, AI requires data that is clean, well-organized and compliant with regulatory standards. The need for good data management is by no means new, but the...

Explore Wide-Column Stores for Database Flexibility

Posted by Matt Aslett on 07 February 2024

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...

Topics: Data, data operations

Edge and Local Data Processing Growing in Importance

Posted by Matt Aslett on 18 January 2024

Discussion about potential deployment locations for analytics and data workloads is often based on the assumption that, for enterprise workloads, there is a binary choice between on-premises data centers and public cloud. However, the low-latency performance or sovereignty characteristics of a significant and growing proportion of workloads make them better suited to data and analytics processing...

Actian Accelerates Insight with Unified Cloud Data Platform

Posted by Matt Aslett on 10 January 2024

As articulated in Ventana Research’s Data Platforms Buyer’s Guide and DataOps Buyer’s Guide research, the combination of cloud computing and advanced analytics has lowered the cost of storing and processing large volumes of data, accelerating the emergence of new data platform and data operations products that enable organizations to gain operational efficiency and competitive advantage. The...

Explorium Facilitates the Use of External Data for Analytics and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 03 January 2024

The phrase ‘big data’ may have largely gone out of fashion, but the concept of storing and processing all relevant data continues to be important for enterprises seeking to be more data-driven. Doing so requires analytic data platforms capable of storing and processing data in multiple formats and data models. This will be an important focus for the forthcoming Data Platforms Buyer’s Guide 2024.

Avoiding the Complexity and Cost of the Modern Data Stack

Posted by Matt Aslett on 19 December 2023

I recently discussed how fashion has a surprisingly significant role to play in the data market as various architectural approaches to data storage and processing take turns enjoying a phase in the limelight. Pendulum swing is a theory of fashion that describes the periodic movement of trends between two extremes, such as short and long hemlines or skinny and baggy/flared trousers. Pendulum swing...

Oracle Evolves Database Services for Generative AI and Multi-Cloud

Posted by Matt Aslett on 13 December 2023

I previously described how Oracle had positioned its database portfolio to address any and all data platform requirements. The caveat to that statement at the time was that any organization wanting to take advantage of the company’s flagship Oracle Autonomous Database could only do so using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) cloud computing service, their own datacenter or a hybrid cloud...

Boomi Promotes Business-Focused Integration Modernization

Posted by Matt Aslett on 29 November 2023

I recently articulated some of the reasons why IT teams can fail to deliver on the business requirements for data and analytics projects. This is an age-old and multifaceted problem that is not easily solved. Organizations have a role to play in alleviating the issue by ensuring that their business processes and project planning support a collaborative approach in which business and IT...

MongoDB Targets Relational and Generative AI Workloads

Posted by Matt Aslett on 21 November 2023

I previously wrote about how document-database providers have added support for ACID transactions and the SQL query language, making their products increasingly suitable for use as replacements for applications that previously depended on relational databases. Adoption of non-relational NoSQL databases is by no means reliant on displacing incumbent relational databases, and initial adoption is...

Topics: Data

The Key Value of Database Simplicity

Posted by Matt Aslett on 15 November 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...

Snowflake Expands Data Platform with Container Services

Posted by Matt Aslett on 07 November 2023

I previously wrote about the challenge facing distributed SQL database providers to avoid becoming pigeonholed as only being suitable for a niche set of requirements. Factors including performance, reliability, security and scalability provide a focal point for new vendors to differentiate from established providers and get a foot in the door with customer accounts. Expanding and retaining those...

Vector Search and RAG Improve Trust in Generative AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 31 October 2023

I previously discussed the trust and accuracy limitations of large language models, suggesting that data and analytics vendors provide guidance about potentially inaccurate results and the risks of creating a misplaced level of trust. In the months that have followed, we are seeing some clarity from these vendors about the approaches organizations can take to increase trust and accuracy when...

The Buyers Guide for Data Observability Classifies and Rates Vendors

Posted by Matt Aslett on 26 October 2023

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. TheVentana Research 2023 Data Observability Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories that reflect the...

Topics: Data, data operations

Data Observability Buyers Guide: Market Observations

Posted by Matt Aslett on 25 October 2023

The 2023 Ventana Research Buyers Guide for Data Observability research enables me to provide observations about how the market has advanced.

Topics: Data, data operations

Stream and Event Processing Require Real-Time Analytics

Posted by David Menninger on 25 October 2023

In my past perspectives, I’ve written about the evolution from data at rest to data in motion and the fact that you can’t rely on dashboards for real-time analytics. Organizations are becoming more and more event-driven and operating based on streaming data. As well, analytics are becoming more and more intertwined with operations. More than one-fifth of organizations (22%) describe their...

The Buyers Guide for Data Orchestration Classifies and Rates Vendors

Posted by Matt Aslett on 24 October 2023

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research 2023 Data Orchestration Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories that reflect the...

Topics: Data, data operations

Data Orchestration Buyers Guide: Market Observations

Posted by Matt Aslett on 23 October 2023

The 2023 Ventana Research Buyers Guide for Data Orchestration research enables me to provide observations about how the market has advanced.

Topics: Data, data operations

The Buyers Guide for Data Pipelines Classifies and Rates Vendors

Posted by Matt Aslett on 20 October 2023

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research 2023 Data Pipelines Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories that reflect the...

Topics: Data, data operations

Data Pipelines Buyers Guide: Market Observations

Posted by Matt Aslett on 19 October 2023

The 2023 Ventana Research Buyers Guide for Data Pipelines research enables me to provide observations about how the market has advanced.

Topics: Data, data operations

The Buyers Guide for DataOps Classifies and Rates Vendors

Posted by Matt Aslett on 18 October 2023

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research 2023 DataOps Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories that reflect the real-world...

Topics: Data, Data Ops, data operations

Databricks Utilizes Unity Catalog to Support Generative AI Development

Posted by Matt Aslett on 17 October 2023

I previously described how Databricks had positioned its Lakehouse Platform as the basis for data engineering, data science and data warehousing. The lakehouse design pattern provides a flexible environment for storing and processing data from multiple enterprise applications and workloads for multiple use cases. I assert that by 2025, 8 in 10 current data lake adopters will invest in data...

DataOps Buyers Guide: Market Observations

Posted by Matt Aslett on 16 October 2023

The 2023 Ventana Research Buyers Guide for DataOps research enables me to provide observations about how the market has advanced.

Topics: Data, Data Ops, data operations

Cloudera Facilitates Versatility with Enterprise Data and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 03 October 2023

The data platforms market may appear to have little or nothing to do with haute couture, but it is one of the data sectors most strongly influenced by the fickle finger of fashion. In recent years, various architectural approaches to data storage and processing have enjoyed a phase in the limelight, including data warehouse, data mart, data hub, data lake, cloud data warehouse, object storage,...

Generative AI Boosts Value Creation with Outcome-Led Data Integration

Posted by Matt Aslett on 27 September 2023

Despite a focus on being data-driven, many organizations find that data and analytics projects fail to deliver on expectations. These initiatives can underwhelm for many reasons, because success requires a delicate balance of people, processes, information and technology. Small deviations from perfection in any of those factors can send projects off the rails.

Microsoft Fabric Stitches Together Data and Analytics

Posted by Matt Aslett on 20 September 2023

I have written before about the rising popularity of the data fabric approach for managing and governing data spread across distributed environments comprised of multiple data centers, systems and applications. I assert that by 2025, more than 6 in 10 organizations will adopt data fabric technologies to facilitate the management and processing of data across multiple data platforms and cloud...

Reversing the ETL Process Improves Data Operations

Posted by David Menninger on 19 September 2023

At one point, analytics and business intelligence were considered non-mission critical activities. One of the primary concerns in designing analytics systems was to ensure they didn’t interfere with or draw computing resources away from operational systems. But today, analytical systems are integral to many aspects of operations. More than 9 in 10 participants in our Analytics and Data Benchmark...

Incorta Empowers Data Delivery and Analysis for Business

Posted by Matt Aslett on 07 September 2023

Organizations today have an ever-increasing appetite for platforms that improve the speed and efficiency of data analytics and business intelligence (BI). The ability to quickly process data enables organizations to make well-informed decisions in real time. This agile approach to data processing is crucial for staying ahead in today's competitive landscape. With the rising need for data-driven...

Confluent’s Streaming Analytics Expands Stream Processing Use Cases

Posted by Matt Aslett on 05 September 2023

I recently wrote about the various technologies used by organizations to process and analyze data in real time. I explained that while the terms streaming data and events and streaming analytics are often used interchangeably, they are separate disciplines that make use of common underlying concepts and technologies such as events, event brokers and event-driven architecture. Confluent’s...

EDA with Event Brokers Enable Stream Processing

Posted by Matt Aslett on 15 August 2023

Real-time business is a modern phenomenon, and business transformation has accelerated many business events in recent years. However, the execution of business events has always occurred in real time. Rather, it is the processing of the data related to business events that has accelerated instead of the event itself.

IBM’s Watsonx Provides a Foundation for Generative AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 09 August 2023

It is a mark of the rapid, current pace of development in artificial intelligence (AI) that machine learning (ML) models, until recently considered state of the art, are now routinely being referred to by developers and vendors as “traditional.” Generative AI, and large language models (LLMs) in particular, have taken the AI world by storm in the past year, automating and accelerating the...

DataStax Adds Vector Search to Address Generative AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 03 August 2023

As I have previously explained, we expect an increased demand for intelligent operational applications infused with the results of analytic processes, such as personalization and artificial intelligence-driven recommendations. These systems rely on the analysis of data in the operational data platform to accelerate worker decision-making or improve customer 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...

Topics: Data

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...

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...

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...

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....

Yugabyte Facilitates Migration to Distributed SQL Database

Posted by Matt Aslett on 15 June 2023

I previously explained the arguments in favor of adoption of distributed SQL databases, the new generation of operational data platforms designed to combine the benefits of the relational database model and native support for distributed cloud architecture. It is critical for distributed SQL vendors to engage with developers to ensure they are considering the importance of resilience that spans...

SAP Datasphere Simplifies Management and Use of Distributed Data

Posted by Matt Aslett on 13 June 2023

Data fabric has grown in popularity as organizations struggle to manage data spread across multiple data centers, systems and applications. By providing a technology-driven approach to automating data management and governance across distributed environments, data fabric is attractive to organizations seeking to simplify and standardize data management. I assert that by 2025, more than 6 in 10...

Large Language Models and Generative AI: Beware Misplaced Trust

Posted by Matt Aslett on 06 June 2023

The data and analytics sector rightly places great importance on data quality: Almost two-thirds (64%) of participants in Ventana Research’s Analytics and Data Benchmark Research cite reviewing data for quality and consistency issues as the most time-consuming task in analyzing data. Data and analytics vendors would not recommend that customers use tools known to have data quality problems. It is...

Improve Trust in Data with Master Data Management

Posted by Matt Aslett on 18 May 2023

Master data management may not attract the same level of excitement as fashionable topics such as DataOps or Data Platforms, but it remains one of the most significant aspects of an organization’s strategic approach to data management. Having trust in data is critical to the ability of an organization to make data-driven business decisions. Along with data quality, MDM enables organizations to...

Snowflake Expands Beyond Analytics in the Cloud

Posted by Matt Aslett on 11 May 2023

The data platforms market has traditionally been divided between products specifically designed to support operational or analytic workloads, with other market segments having emerged in recent years for data platforms targeted specifically at data science and machine learning (ML), as well as real-time analytics. More recently, we have seen vendor strategies evolving to provide a more...

MongoDB’s Atlas Delivers Data-Driven Applications

Posted by Matt Aslett on 19 April 2023

The recent publication of our Value Index research highlights the impact of intelligent applications on the operational data platforms sector. While we continue to believe that, for most use cases, there is a clear, functional requirement for either analytic or operational data platforms, recent growth in the development of intelligent applications infused with the results of analytic processes,...

Tame Telemetry Data with Mezmo Observability Pipeline

Posted by Matt Aslett on 18 April 2023

As engagement with customers, suppliers and partners is increasingly conducted through digital channels, ensuring that infrastructure and applications are performing as expected is not just important but mission critical. My colleague, David Menninger, recently explained the increasing importance of observability to enable organizations to ensure that their systems and applications are operating...

Seek Solace for Event-Driven Architectures and Applications

Posted by Matt Aslett on 12 April 2023

I have written recently about the increasing importance of managing data in motion and at rest as the use of streaming data by enterprise organizations becomes more mainstream. While batch-based processing of application data has been a core component of enterprise IT architecture for decades, streaming data and event processing have often been niche disciplines typically reserved for...

Topics: Data, Streaming Data Events

Reltio Simplifies Connecting Data with Master Data Management

Posted by Matt Aslett on 06 April 2023

To execute more data-driven business strategies, organizations need linked and comprehensive data that is available in real time. By consistently managing data across siloed systems and ensuring that data definitions are agreed and current, organizations can overcome the challenges presented by data being distributed across an increasingly disparate range of applications and data-processing...

DataOps: Understanding the Definition and Differentiation

Posted by Matt Aslett on 04 April 2023

Data Operations (DataOps) has been part of the lexicon of the data market for almost a decade, with the term used to describe products, practices and processes designed to support agile and continuous delivery of data analytics. DataOps takes inspiration from DevOps, which describes a set of tools, practices and philosophy used to support the continuous delivery of software applications in the...

Alation’s Data Governance Accelerates Data Intelligence

Posted by Matt Aslett on 29 March 2023

As data continues to grow and evolve, organizations seek better tools and technologies to employ data faster and more efficiently. Finding and managing data remains a perennial challenge for most organizations, and is exacerbated by increasing volumes of data and an expanding array of data formats. At the same time, organizations must comply with a growing list of national and regional rules and...

Streaming Databases Enable Continuous Analysis and Data Persistence

Posted by Matt Aslett on 23 March 2023

Success with streaming data and events requires a more holistic approach to managing and governing data in motion and data at rest. The use of streaming data and event processing has been part of the data landscape for many decades. For much of that time, data streaming was a niche activity, however, with standalone data streaming and event-processing projects run in parallel with existing...

AWS Enables Data Democratization with Amazon DataZone

Posted by Matt Aslett on 21 March 2023

I have previously written about the importance of data democratization as a key element of a data-driven agenda. Removing barriers that prevent or delay users from gaining access to data enables it to be treated as a product that is generated and consumed, either internally by employees or externally by partners and customers. This is particularly important for organizations adopting the data mesh

Hitachi Vantara DataOps Improves Analytics and Decision-Making

Posted by David Menninger on 21 March 2023

Now more than ever, effective data management is crucial to enable decision-makers to better assess information and take calculated actions. It is also important to keep up with the latest trends and technologies to derive higher value from data and analytics and maintain a competitive edge in the market. However, every organization faces challenges with data management and analytics. And as...

Cockroach Labs Promotes Developer Efficiency for Distributed Databases

Posted by Matt Aslett on 15 March 2023

I recently wrote about the potential use cases for distributed SQL databases as well as techniques being employed by vendors to accelerate adoption. Distributed SQL is a term that is used by several vendors to describe operational data platform products that combine the benefits of the relational database model and native support for distributed cloud architecture, including resilience that spans...

Exasol Accelerates Analytics With an In-Memory Database

Posted by Matt Aslett on 07 March 2023

Organizations require faster analytics to continuously improve business operations and stay competitive in today’s market. However, many struggle with slow analytics due to a variety of factors such as slow databases, insufficient data storage capacity, poor data quality, lack of proper data cleansing and inadequate IT infrastructure. Challenges such as data silos can also decrease operational...

Explore Graph Databases for Better Relationships

Posted by Matt Aslett on 01 March 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 that is used to describe a variety of databases that fall into four primary functional categories: key-value stores, wide...

Topics: Data

Promethium Provides Data Fabric and Self-Service for Speed to Insights

Posted by Matt Aslett on 22 February 2023

The market for data and analytics products is constantly evolving, with the emergence of new approaches to data persistence, data processing and analytics. This enables organizations to constantly adapt data analytics architecture in response to emerging functional capabilities and business requirements. It can, however, also be a challenge. Investments in data platforms cannot be constantly...

Soda Provides Collaborative Approach to Data Observability

Posted by Matt Aslett on 16 February 2023

Data observability was a hot topic in 2022 and looks likely to be a continued area of focus for innovation in 2023 and beyond. As I have previously described, data observability software is designed to automate the monitoring of data platforms and data pipelines, as well as the detection and remediation of data quality and data reliability issues. There has been a Cambrian explosion of data...

Data-Intensive Applications Need Real-Time Analytic Processing

Posted by Matt Aslett on 14 February 2023

I have written about the increased demand for data-intensive operational applications infused with the results of analytic processes, such as personalization and artificial intelligence-driven recommendations. I previously described the use of hybrid data processing to enable analytics on application data within operational data platforms. As is often the case in the data platforms sector,...

Tamr Directs Data Integrity

Posted by Matt Aslett on 08 February 2023

Organizations across various industries collect multiple types of data from disparate systems to answer key business questions and deliver personalized experiences for customers. The expanding volume of data increases complexity, and data management becomes a challenge if the process is manual and rules-based. There can be numerous siloed, incomplete and outdated data sources that result in...

SnapLogic Promotes Intelligent Automation for All

Posted by Matt Aslett on 31 January 2023

Despite the emphasis on organizations being more data-driven and making an increasing proportion of business decisions based on data and analytics, it remains the case that some of the most fundamental questions about an organization are difficult to answer using data and analytics. Ostensibly simple questions such as, “how many customers does the organization have?” can be fiendishly difficult...

Analytic Data Platforms Ranked and Rated for 2023

Posted by Matt Aslett on 26 January 2023

I am happy to share insights from our latest Ventana Research Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2023 Analytic Data Platforms Value Index is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories that reflect...

The 2023 Analytic Data Platforms Value Index: Market Observations

Posted by Matt Aslett on 23 January 2023

Ventana Research recently published the 2023 Analytic Data Platforms Value Index. As organizations strive to be more data-driven, increasing reliance on data as a fundamental factor in business decision-making, the importance of the analytic data platform has never been greater. In this post, I’ll share some of my observations about how the analytic data platforms market is evolving.

Operational Data Platforms: Which Software Best Meets Your Needs?

Posted by Matt Aslett on 19 January 2023

I am happy to share insights from our latest Ventana Research Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2023 Operational Data Platforms Value Index is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories that reflect...

2023 Market Agenda for Data: Accelerating Data Agility

Posted by Matt Aslett on 18 January 2023

Ventana Research recently announced its 2023 Market Agenda for Data, continuing the guidance we have offered for two decades to help organizations derive optimal value and improve business outcomes.

The 2023 Market Agenda for Analytics: Empowering Workforces to Engage

Posted by David Menninger on 17 January 2023

Ventana Research recently announced its 2023 Market Agenda for Analytics, continuing the guidance we have offered for nearly two decades to help organizations derive optimal value from technology investments to improve business outcomes.

2023 Operational Data Platforms Value Index: Observations and Insights

Posted by Matt Aslett on 17 January 2023

Ventana Research recently published the 2023 Operational Data Platforms Value Index. The importance of the operational data platform has never been greater as organizations strive to be more data-driven, incorporating intelligence into operational applications via personalization and recommendations for workers, partners and customers. In this post, I’ll share some of my observations on how the...

The Revolution in Revenue in 2023: Ventana Research Market Agenda

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 13 January 2023

Ventana Research recently announced its 2023 research agenda for the Office of Revenue, continuing the guidance we’ve offered for nearly two decades to help organizations realize their optimal value from applying technology to improve business outcomes. Chief Sales and Revenue Officers face an imperative to manage their sales and revenue organizations, but they don’t always have the guidance they...

The Vendor Assessment Guide for Data Platforms: Ranked and Rated

Posted by Matt Aslett on 12 January 2023

I am happy to share insights from our latest Ventana Research Value Index, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2023 Data Platforms Value Index is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories that reflect real-world criteria...

2023 Digital Technology Market Agenda: Innovation for Digital Agility

Posted by David Menninger on 11 January 2023

I’m proud to share Ventana Research’s 2023 Market Agenda for Digital Technology. Our focus in this agenda is to deliver expertise to help organizations prioritize technology investments that improve customer, partner and workforce experiences while also increasing organizational effectiveness and agility.

Acceldata Enables Data Observability

Posted by Matt Aslett on 10 January 2023

Data observability is a hot topic and trend. I have written about the importance of data observability for ensuring healthy data pipelines, and have covered multiple vendors with data observability capabilities, offered both as standalone and part of a larger data engineering system. Data observability software provides an environment that takes advantage of machine learning and DataOps to...

2023 Data Platforms Value Index: Market Observations and Insights

Posted by Matt Aslett on 09 January 2023

Having recently completed the 2023 Data Platforms Value Index, I want to share some of my observations about how the market is evolving. Although this is our inaugural assessment of the market for data platforms, the sector is mature and products from many of the vendors we assess can be used to effectively support operational and analytic use cases.

2023 Market Agenda: Digitalization Evolves for Business Revitalization

Posted by Mark Smith on 06 January 2023

Ventana Research has announced its market agenda for 2023, continuing a 20-year tradition of credibility and trust in our objective efforts to educate and guide the technology market. Our research and insights are backed by our expertise and independence, as we do not share our Market Agenda or our market research – including analyst and market perspectives – with any external party before it is...

Pyramid Analytics Expands Decision Intelligence Across the Organization

Posted by Mark Smith on 30 December 2022

In today’s organization, the myriad of analytics and permutations of dashboards challenge workers’ ability to take contextual actions efficiently. Unfortunately, conventional wisdom for investing in analytics does not recognize the benefits of empowering the workforce to understand the situation, examine options and work together to make the best possible decision.

InterSystems Transforming Organizations with Cloud Smart Data Fabric

Posted by Matt Aslett on 27 December 2022

The shift from on-premises server infrastructure to cloud-based and software-as-a-service (SaaS) models has had a profound impact on the data and analytics architecture of many organizations in recent years. More than one-half of participants (59%) in Ventana Research’s Analytics and Data Benchmark research are deploying data and analytics workloads in the cloud, and a further 30% plan to do so....

Master Metrics with Kyligence Zen

Posted by David Menninger on 23 December 2022

Analytics processes are all about how organizations use data to create metrics that help manage and improve operations. Yet, the discipline applied to analytics processes seems to be lacking compared to data processes. I’ve pointed out that the weak link in data governance is often analytics. Organizations can also do a better job tying AnalyticOps to DataOps and do more to define and manage...

Exploring the Case for Distributed SQL Databases

Posted by Matt Aslett on 22 December 2022

There is always space for innovation in the data platforms sector, and new vendors continue to emerge at regular intervals with new approaches designed to serve specialist data storage and processing requirements. Factors including performance, reliability, security and scalability provide a focal point for new vendors to differentiate from established vendors, especially for the most demanding...

Topics: Cloud Computing, Data

The Data Pantry Accelerates Actionable Analytics for Decision-Making

Posted by Robert Kugel on 22 December 2022

Ventana Research uses the term “data pantry” to describe a method of data storage (and the technology and process blueprint for its construction) created for a specific set of users and use cases in business-focused software. It’s a pantry because all the data one needs is readily available and easily accessible, with labels that are immediately recognized and understood by the users of the...

The Business and Technology Trends for 2023 and Beyond

Posted by Mark Smith on 13 December 2022

The technology industry has established itself as a pivotal force in its ability to help organizations become more intelligent and automated. But doing so has required a journey of epic proportions for most organizations that have had to endure a transition of competencies and skills that was, in many places, transitioned to consulting firms who were hired appropriately to manage changes....

Monte Carlo Bets on the Future of Data Observability

Posted by Matt Aslett on 13 December 2022

Earlier this year, I wrote about the increasing importance of data observability, an emerging product category that takes advantage of machine learning (ML) and Data Operations (DataOps) to automate the monitoring of data used for analytics projects to ensure its quality and lineage. Monitoring the quality and lineage of data is nothing new. Manual tools exist to ensure that it is complete, valid...

SQream if You Want to Analyze Data Faster

Posted by Matt Aslett on 08 December 2022

One of the most significant considerations when choosing an analytic data platform is performance. As organizations compete to benefit most from being data-driven, the lower the time to insight the better. As data practitioners have learnt over time, however, lowering time to insight is about more than just high-performance queries. There are opportunities to improve time to insight throughout...

Teradata Goes Cloud Native with VantageCloud Lake

Posted by Matt Aslett on 01 December 2022

Organizations are increasingly utilizing cloud object storage as the foundation for analytic initiatives. There are multiple advantages to this approach, not least of which is enabling organizations to keep higher volumes of data relatively inexpensively, increasing the amount of data queried in analytics initiatives. I assert that by 2024, 6 in ten organizations will use cloud-based technology...

The Arguments For, and Against, In-Database Machine Learning

Posted by Matt Aslett on 23 November 2022

Almost all organizations are investing in data science, or planning to, as they seek to encourage experimentation and exploration to identify new business challenges and opportunities as part of the drive toward creating a more data-driven culture. My colleague, David Menninger, has written about how organizations using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) report gaining...

Databricks Lakehouse Platform Maximizes Analytical Value

Posted by Matt Aslett on 16 November 2022

I have previously written about growing interest in the data lakehouse as one of the design patterns for delivering hydroanalytics analysis of data in a data lake. Many organizations have invested in data lakes as a relatively inexpensive way of storing large volumes of data from multiple enterprise applications and workloads, especially semi- and unstructured data that is unsuitable for storing...

IBM’s Cloud Pak for Data Builds a Foundation for Data Fabric

Posted by Matt Aslett on 08 November 2022

I have written recently about the similarities and differences between data mesh and data fabric. The two are potentially complementary. Data mesh is an organizational and cultural approach to data ownership, access and governance. Data fabric is a technical approach to automating data management and data governance in a distributed architecture. There are various definitions of data fabric, but...

Actian Manages Avalanches of Data

Posted by Matt Aslett on 01 November 2022

In their pursuit to be data-driven, organizations are collecting and managing more data than ever before as they attempt to gain competitive advantage and respond faster to worker and customer demands for more innovative, data-rich applications and personalized experiences. As data is increasingly spread across multiple data centers, clouds and regions, organizations need to manage data on...

Orchestrating Data Pipelines Facilitates Data-Driven Analytics

Posted by Matt Aslett on 25 October 2022

I have written a few times in recent months about vendors offering functionality that addresses data orchestration. This is a concept that has been growing in popularity in the past five years amid the rise of Data Operations (DataOps), which describes more agile approaches to data integration and data management. In a nutshell, data orchestration is the process of combining data from multiple...

Cloudera Embraces SaaS with Data Lakehouse Launch

Posted by Matt Aslett on 18 October 2022

Ventana Research’s Data Lakes Dynamics Insights research illustrates that while data lakes are fulfilling their promise of enabling organizations to economically store and process large volumes of raw data, data lake environments continue to evolve. Data lakes were initially based primarily on Apache Hadoop deployed on-premises but are now increasingly based on cloud object storage. Adopters are...

Ocient Delivers Ad Hoc Analytics on Hyperscale Workloads

Posted by Matt Aslett on 12 October 2022

I have written before about the continued use of specialist operational and analytic data platforms. Most database products can be used for operational or analytic workloads, and the number of use cases for hybrid data processing is growing. However, a general-purpose database is unlikely to meet the most demanding operational or analytic data platform requirements. Factors including performance,...

Aerospike Has a Data Platform for Real-Time Intelligent Applications

Posted by Matt Aslett on 06 October 2022

Earlier this year I described the growing use-cases for hybrid data processing. Although it is anticipated that the majority of database workloads will continue to be served by specialist data platforms targeting operational and analytic workloads respectively, there is increased demand for intelligent operational applications infused with the results of analytic processes, such as...

Astronomer’s Cloud-Based Data Orchestration Brings Efficiency

Posted by Matt Aslett on 29 September 2022

I have recently written about the organizational and cultural aspects of being data-driven, and the potential advantages data-driven organizations stand to gain by responding faster to worker and customer demands for more innovative, data-rich applications and personalized experiences. I have also explained that data-driven processes require more agile, continuous data processing, with an...

The Data Catalog is Indispensable for Good Data Governance

Posted by Matt Aslett on 21 September 2022

The data catalog has become an integral component of organizational data strategies over the past decade, serving as a conduit for good data governance and facilitating self-service analytics initiatives. The data catalog has become so important, in fact, that it is easy to forget that just 10 years ago it did not exist in terms of a standalone product category. Metadata-based data management...

Zoho One Reaching Needs of Larger Organizations

Posted by Keith Dawson on 07 September 2022

Zoho presented analysts with a deep look at its strategy and roadmap at its July analyst conference, describing how it intends to meld its many business applications together through integration at the level of the platform. The company, which is privately owned and funded, has generally sought to build its own tools rather than buy or partner. This approach has allowed the firm to create a suite...

Rockset Offers Cloud-Based Real-Time Analytics

Posted by Matt Aslett on 30 August 2022

I have written recently about increased demand for data-intensive applications infused with the results of analytic processes, such as personalization and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven recommendations. Almost one-quarter of respondents (22%) to Ventana Research’s Analytics and Data Benchmark Research are currently analyzing data in real time, with an additional 10% analyzing data every...

Streaming Data Success Relies on Managing Data in Motion and At Rest

Posted by Matt Aslett on 16 August 2022

I recently noted that as demand for real-time interactive applications becomes more pervasive, the use of streaming data is becoming more mainstream. Streaming data and event processing has been part of the data landscape for many decades, but for much of that time, data streaming was a niche activity. Although adopted in industry segments with high-performance, real-time data processing and...

Ascend.io Automates Data Engineering

Posted by Matt Aslett on 09 August 2022

I have recently written about the importance of healthy data pipelines to ensure data is integrated and processed in the sequence required to generate business intelligence, and the need for data pipelines to be agile in the context of real-time data processing requirements. Data engineers, who are responsible for monitoring, managing and maintaining data pipelines, are under increasing pressure...

Neo4j Expands Data Science Focus with New Managed Service

Posted by Matt Aslett on 03 August 2022

I recently explained how emerging application requirements were expanding the range of use cases for NoSQL databases, increasing adoption based on the availability of enhanced functionality. These intelligent applications require a close relationship between operational data platforms and the output of data science and machine learning projects. This ensures that machine learning and predictive...

DataStax Provides a Platform for Data in Motion and at Rest

Posted by Matt Aslett on 27 July 2022

Streaming data has been part of the industry landscape for decades but has largely been focused on niche applications in segments with the highest real-time data processing and analytics performance requirements, such as financial services and telecommunications. As demand for real-time interactive applications becomes more pervasive, streaming data is becoming a more mainstream pursuit, aided by...

Data-Driven Agenda for Organizations

Posted by Matt Aslett on 21 July 2022

When joining Ventana Research, I noted that the need to be more data-driven has become a mantra among large and small organizations alike. Data-driven organizations stand to gain competitive advantage, responding faster to worker and customer demands for more innovative, data-rich applications and personalized experiences. Being data-driven is clearly something to aspire to. However, it is also a...

TigerGraph Promotes Graph Database for Data Science with ML Workbench

Posted by Matt Aslett on 14 July 2022

I recently wrote about the growing range of use cases for which NoSQL databases can be considered, given increased breadth and depth of functionality available from providers of the various non-relational data platforms. As I noted, one category of NoSQL databases — graph databases — are inherently suitable for use cases that rely on relationships, such as social media, fraud detection and...

Ahana Offers Managed-Services Approach to Simplify Presto Adoption

Posted by Matt Aslett on 29 June 2022

I previously described the concept of hydroanalytic data platforms, which combine the structured data processing and analytics acceleration capabilities associated with data warehousing with the low-cost and multi-structured data storage advantages of the data lake. One of the key enablers of this approach is interactive SQL query engine functionality, which facilitates the use of existing...

Dremio Embraces Data Lakehouse with Cloud Launch

Posted by Matt Aslett on 24 June 2022

I previously explained how the data lakehouse is one of two primary approaches being adopted to deliver what I have called a hydroanalytic data platform. Hydroanalytics involves the combination of data warehouse and data lake functionality to enable and accelerate analysis of data in cloud storage services. The term data lakehouse has been rapidly adopted by several vendors in recent years to...

MariaDB Offers One Database for All Workloads

Posted by Matt Aslett on 14 June 2022

As I recently described, it is anticipated that the majority of database workloads will continue to be served by specialist data platforms targeting operational and analytic workloads, albeit with growing demand for hybrid data processing use-cases and functionality. Specialist operational and analytic data platforms have historically been the since preferred option, but there have always been...

Disentangling and Demystifying Data Mesh and Data Fabric

Posted by Matt Aslett on 02 June 2022

I recently wrote about the potential benefits of data mesh. As I noted, data mesh is not a product that can be acquired, or even a technical architecture that can be built. It’s an organizational and cultural approach to data ownership, access and governance. While the concept of data mesh is agnostic to the technology used to implement it, technology is clearly an enabler for data mesh. For many...

SingleStore Positions Hybrid Data Processing for Data Intensity

Posted by Matt Aslett on 25 May 2022

I recently described the use cases driving interest in hybrid data processing capabilities that enable analysis of data in an operational data platform without impacting operational application performance or requiring data to be extracted to an external analytic data platform. Hybrid data processing functionality is becoming increasingly attractive to aid the development of intelligent...

Are Serverless Databases the Best Fit for Your Organization?

Posted by Matt Aslett on 18 May 2022

The server is a key component of enterprise computing, providing the functional compute resources required to support software applications. Historically, the server was so fundamentally important that it – along with the processor, or processor core – was also a definitional unit by which software was measured, priced and sold. That changed with the advent of cloud-based service delivery and...

Yugabyte Targets Developers to Accelerate Distributed SQL Database Adoption

Posted by Matt Aslett on 11 May 2022

Over a decade ago, I coined the term NewSQL to describe the new breed of horizontally scalable, relational database products. The term was adopted by a variety of vendors that sought to combine the transactional consistency of the relational database model with elastic, cloud-native scalability. Many of the early NewSQL vendors struggled to gain traction, however, and were either acquired or...

Oracle Positions to Address Any and All Data Platform Needs

Posted by Matt Aslett on 05 May 2022

I recently described how the operational data platforms sector is in a state of flux. There are multiple trends at play, including the increasing need for hybrid and multicloud data platforms, the evolution of NoSQL database functionality and applicable use-cases, and the drivers for hybrid data processing. The past decade has seen significant change in the emergence of new vendors, data models...

Real-Time Data Processing Requires More Agile Data Pipelines

Posted by Matt Aslett on 26 April 2022

I recently wrote about the importance of data pipelines and the role they play in transporting data between the stages of data processing and analytics. Healthy data pipelines are necessary to ensure data is integrated and processed in the sequence required to generate business intelligence. The concept of the data pipeline is nothing new of course, but it is becoming increasingly important as...

Regional Attitudes to Data Governance and Regulatory Compliance

Posted by Matt Aslett on 20 April 2022

Data governance is an issue that impacts all organizations large and small, new and old, in every industry, and every region of the world. Data governance ensures that an organization’s data can be cataloged, trusted and protected, improving business processes to accelerate analytics initiatives and support compliance with regulatory requirements. Not all data governance initiatives will be...

Starburst Accelerates Analysis of Distributed Data

Posted by Matt Aslett on 12 April 2022

I recently described the growing level of interest in data mesh which provides an organizational and cultural approach to data ownership, access and governance that facilitates distributed data processing. As I stated in my Analyst Perspective, data mesh is not a product that can be acquired or even a technical architecture that can be built. Adopting the data mesh approach is dependent on people...

Don’t Rely on Dashboards for Real-Time Analytics

Posted by David Menninger on 31 March 2022

I have written previously that the world of data and analytics will become more and more centered around real-time, streaming data. Data is created constantly and increasingly is being collected simultaneously. Technology advances now enable organizations to process and analyze information as it is being collected to respond in real time to opportunities and threats. Not all use cases require...

The Benefits of Data Mesh Extend to Organizational and Cultural Change

Posted by Matt Aslett on 29 March 2022

Data mesh is the latest trend to grip the data and analytics sector. The term has been rapidly adopted by numerous vendors — as well as a growing number of organizations —as a means of embracing distributed data processing. Understanding and adopting data mesh remains a challenge, however. Data mesh is not a product that can be acquired, or even a technical architecture that can be built. It is...

Working Across the Aisle in Analytics: Involving IT and LOB

Posted by David Menninger on 23 March 2022

For years, maybe decades, we have heard about the struggles between IT and line-of-business functions. In this perspective, we will look at some of the data from our Analytics and Data Benchmark Research about the roles of IT and line-of-business teams in analytics and data processes. We will also look at some of the disconnects between these two groups. And, by looking at how organizations are...

Yellowbrick Paves the Way to Distributed Cloud

Posted by Matt Aslett on 22 March 2022

Despite widespread and increasing use of the cloud for data and analytics workloads, it has become clear in recent years that, for most organizations, a proportion of data-processing workloads will remain on-premises in centralized data centers or distributed-edge processing infrastructure. As we recently noted, as compute and storage are distributed across a hybrid and multi-cloud architecture,...

Expanded NoSQL Use Cases Deserve a Second Look

Posted by Matt Aslett on 15 March 2022

I recently examined how evolving functionality had fueled the adoption of NoSQL databases, recommending that organizations evaluate NoSQL databases when assessing options for data transformation and modernization efforts. This recommendation was based on the breadth and depth of functionality offered by NoSQL database providers today, which has expanded the range of use cases for which NoSQL...

Topics: NoSQL, Data

Evolving NoSQL Database Functionality Fuels Adoption

Posted by Matt Aslett on 08 March 2022

The various NoSQL databases have become a staple of the data platforms landscape since the term entered the IT industry lexicon in 2009 to describe a new generation of non-relational databases. While NoSQL began as a ragtag collection of loosely affiliated, open-source database projects, several commercial NoSQL database providers are now established as credible alternatives to the various...

Bigeye Provides Visibility into Data Reliability

Posted by Matt Aslett on 01 March 2022

As businesses become more data-driven, they are increasingly dependent on the quality of their data and the reliability of their data pipelines. Making decisions based on data does not guarantee success, especially if the business cannot ensure that the data is accurate and trustworthy. While there is potential value in capturing all data — good or bad — making decisions based on low-quality data...

Improving the State of Analytics in Organizations

Posted by David Menninger on 24 February 2022

Despite all the advances organizations have made with respect to analytics, our most recent research shows the majority of the workforce in the majority of organizations are not using analytics and business intelligence (BI). Less than one-quarter (23%) report that one-half or more of their workforce is using analytics and BI. This is a problem. It means organizations are not enabling their...

Data Observability is Key to Ensuring Healthy Data Pipelines

Posted by Matt Aslett on 22 February 2022

I recently described the emergence of hydroanalytic data platforms, outlining how the processes involved in generating energy from a lake or reservoir were analogous to those required to generate intelligence from a data lake. I explained how structured data processing and analytics acceleration capabilities are the equivalent of turbines, generators and transformers in a hydroelectric power...

Good Data Governance Improves Business Processes

Posted by David Menninger on 17 February 2022

Many organizations invest in data governance out of concern over misuse of data or potential data breaches. These are important considerations and valid aspects of data governance programs. However, good data governance also has positive impacts on organizations. For example, I have previously written about the valuable connection between the use of data catalogs and satisfaction with an...

Incorta Unifies Data Processing to Accelerate Analytics & BI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 16 February 2022

As I stated when joining Ventana Research, the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic and its aftereffects have highlighted more than ever the differences between organizations that can turn data into insights and are agile enough to act upon it and those that are incapable of seeing or responding to the need for change. Data-driven organizations stand to gain competitive advantage, responding...

Hybrid Data Processing Use Cases

Posted by Matt Aslett on 11 February 2022

I recently described how the data platforms landscape will remain divided between analytic and operational workloads for the foreseeable future. Analytic data platforms are designed to store, manage, process and analyze data, enabling organizations to maximize data to operate with greater efficiency, while operational data platforms are designed to store, manage and process data to support...

AtScale Universal Semantic Layer Democratizes and Scales Analytics

Posted by David Menninger on 10 February 2022

Organizations of all sizes are dealing with exponentially increasing data volume and data sources, which creates challenges such as siloed information, increased technical complexities across various systems and slow reporting of important business metrics. Migrating to the cloud does not solve the problems associated with performing analytics and business intelligence on data stored in disparate...

The 2022 Market Agenda for Office of Revenue: New Performance Priority

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 08 February 2022

Ventana Research recently announced its 2022 Market Agenda for the Office of Revenue, continuing the guidance we have offered for nearly two decades to help organizations realize optimal value from applying technology to improve business outcomes. Chief sales and revenue officers and their associated operations teams are experts in their respective fields but may not have the guidance needed to...

Managing Data Effectively in 2022: Ventana Research Market Agenda

Posted by Matt Aslett on 01 February 2022

Ventana Research recently announced its 2022 Market Agenda for Data, continuing the guidance we have offered for nearly two decades to help organizations derive optimal value and improve business outcomes.

The Digital Technology Market Agenda for 2022: Innovation for Business Resilience

Posted by David Menninger on 31 January 2022

I’m proud to share Ventana Research’s 2022 Market Agenda for Digital Technology. Our focus in this agenda is to deliver expertise to help organizations prioritize technology investments that increase workforce effectiveness and organizational agility, ensuring ongoing operations during any type of disruption.

2022 Market Agenda: Digital Business Enables Organizational Resilience

Posted by Mark Smith on 24 January 2022

Ventana Research has announced its market agenda for 2022, continuing the tradition of reliability in our efforts to educate and guide the technology market. Our assessments are backed by our expertise and independence, as we do not share our market agenda or our research – including analyst and market perspectives or our Value Index – with any external party until it is published. We review and...

ThoughtSpot Enables Simpler Analytics with AI and NLP

Posted by David Menninger on 21 January 2022

Organizations today have huge volumes of data across various cloud and on-premises systems which keep growing by the second. To derive value from this data, organizations must query the data regularly and share insights with relevant teams and departments. Automating this process using natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) enables...

AWS Cloud Data Platform Services Expand Workload Placement Options

Posted by Matt Aslett on 19 January 2022

Few trends have had a bigger impact on the data platforms landscape than the emergence of cloud computing. The adoption of cloud computing infrastructure as an alternative to on-premises datacenters has resulted in significant workloads being migrated to the cloud, displacing traditional server and storage vendors. Almost one-half (49%) of respondents to Ventana Research’s Analytics and Data...

Reltio Connects MDM in the Cloud for Business

Posted by David Menninger on 11 January 2022

Organizations today are working with multiple applications and systems, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) and other systems, where data can easily become fragmented and siloed. And as the organization increases its data sources and adds more systems and custom applications, it becomes challenging to manage the data...

Couchbase Modernizing Relational Database Workloads

Posted by Matt Aslett on 30 December 2021

The term NoSQL has been a misnomer ever since it appeared in 2009 to describe a group of emerging databases. It was true that a lack of support for Structured Query Language (SQL) was common to the various databases referred to as NoSQL. However, it was always one of a number of common characteristics, including flexible schema, distributed data processing, open source licensing, and the use of...

Hydroanalytic Data Platforms Power Data Lakes’ Strategic Value

Posted by Matt Aslett on 23 December 2021

Data lakes have enormous potential as a source of business intelligence. However, many early adopters of data lakes have found that simply storing large amounts of data in a data lake environment is not enough to generate business intelligence from that data. Similarly, lakes and reservoirs have enormous potential as sources of energy. However, simply storing large amounts of water in a lake is...

Data Platforms Landscape Divided Between Analytic and Operational

Posted by Matt Aslett on 14 December 2021

As I noted when joining Ventana Research, the range of options faced by organizations in relation to data processing and analytics can be bewildering. When it comes to data platforms, however, there is one fundamental consideration that comes before all others: Is the workload primarily operational or analytic? Although most database products can be used for operational or analytic workloads, the...

Cockroach Labs Brings Developers and Serverless Database Together

Posted by Matt Aslett on 02 December 2021

Breaking into the database market as a new vendor is easier said than done given the dominance of the sector by established database and data management giants, as well as the cloud computing providers. We recently described the emergence of a new breed of distributed SQL database providers with products designed to address hybrid and multi-cloud data processing. These databases are...

Automating Workflows for a Better Customer Experience

Posted by Keith Dawson on 01 December 2021

Any organization that relies heavily on a large labor force looks to automation to reduce costs, and contact centers are no exception. They handle interactions at such large scale that almost any effort to automate some part of the process can deliver measurable efficiencies. Two factors have ratcheted up attention on automating customer experience workflows: the dramatic expansion of digital...

TIBCO Broadens Portfolio for Improved Analytics Efficiency

Posted by David Menninger on 30 November 2021

TIBCO is a large, independent cloud-computing and data analytics software company that offers integration, analytics, business intelligence and events processing software. It enables organizations to analyze streaming data in real time and provides the capability to automate analytics processes. It offers more than 200 connectors, more than 200 enterprise cloud computing and application adapters,...

Blockchains for Medical Identity Management Face Challenges

Posted by Robert Kugel on 24 November 2021

The need for a COVID-19 vaccination “passport” has prompted some to suggest using blockchain technology as a means of reliably verifying an individual’s status at an international level. There are precedents: for example, until smallpox was eradicated, all international travelers were obliged to carry an immunization record for that disease on a standard paper form to gain entrance to a country....

The Potential for Hybrid and Multicloud Platforms to Safeguard Data

Posted by Matt Aslett on 24 November 2021

It has been clear for some time that future enterprise IT architecture will span multiple cloud providers as well as on-premises data centers. As Ventana Research noted in the market perspective on data architectures, the rapid adoption of cloud computing has fragmented where data is accessed or consolidated. We are already seeing that almost one-half (49%) of respondents to Ventana Research’s...

Analytic Ops: The Last Mile of Data Ops

Posted by David Menninger on 24 November 2021

Organizations have become more agile and responsive, in part, as a result of being more agile with their information technology. Adopting a DevOps approach to application deployment has allowed organizations to deploy new and revised applications more quickly. DataOps is enabling organizations to be more agile in their data processes. As organizations are embracing artificial intelligence (AI)...

Talend Data Fabric Simplifies Data Life Cycle Management

Posted by David Menninger on 16 November 2021

Talend is a data integration and management software company that offers applications for cloud computing, big data integration, application integration, data quality and master data management. The platform enables personnel to work with relational databases, Apache Hadoop, Spark and NoSQL databases for cloud or on-premises jobs. Talend data integration software offers an open and scalable...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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,...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

Rapidminer Platform Supports Entire Data Science Lifecycle

Posted by David Menninger on 16 September 2021

Rapidminer is a visual enterprise data science platform that includes data extraction, data mining, deep learning, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) and predictive analytics. It can support AI/ML processes with data preparation, model validation, results visualization and model optimization. Rapidminer Studio is its visual workflow designer for the creation of predictive...

Confluent Helps Organizations Tackle Streaming Data

Posted by David Menninger on 09 September 2021

Confluent Platform is a streaming platform built by the original creators of Apache Kafka. It enables organizations to organize and manage streaming data from various sources. Confluent launched its IPO in June this year and raised $828 million to further expand its business. Confluent Platform was brought to several public cloud vendor marketplaces last year as Confluent Cloud. The offering is...

Informatica Earns Data Digital Innovation Award for 2021

Posted by David Menninger on 01 September 2021

The annual Ventana Research Digital Innovation Awards showcase advances in the productivity and potential of business applications, as well as technology that contributes significantly to the improved processes and performance of an organization. Our goal is to recognize technology and vendors that have introduced noteworthy digital innovations to advance business and IT.

Meet the Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting Challenge

Posted by Robert Kugel on 30 August 2021

Environmental, social and governance reporting by public corporations has become a top-of-mind issue for senior executives and boards of directors as countries increasingly consider or mandate its implementation in some form. The fundamental rationale for ESG reporting is rooted in the inability of purely financial measures to capture externalities (such as greenhouse gas emissions) or provide...

Innovit Named a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 17 August 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Innovit MDM drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Viamedici Named a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 13 August 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Viamedici EPIM drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Reltio Earns Marketing Digital Innovation Award for 2021

Posted by Keith Dawson on 12 August 2021

The annual Ventana Research Digital Innovation Awards showcase advances in the productivity and potential of business applications, as well as technology that contributes significantly to the improved processes and performance of an organization. Our goal is to recognize technology and vendors that have introduced noteworthy digital innovations to advance business and IT.

Contentserv is a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 11 August 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Contentserv CS drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Perfion Named a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 09 August 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Perfion drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Winshuttle is a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 06 August 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Winshuttle EnterWorks drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Palantir Earns Overall Digital Innovation Award for 2021

Posted by Mark Smith on 04 August 2021

The annual Ventana Research Digital Innovation Awards showcase advances in the productivity and potential of business applications, as well as technology that contributes significantly to the improved processes and performance of an organization. Our goal is to recognize technology and vendors that have introduced noteworthy digital innovations to advance business and IT.

inRiver is a Vendor of Assurance in the 2021 PIM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 30 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about inRiver PIM drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Using Event Data in Manufacturing to Improve Business Processes

Posted by David Menninger on 28 July 2021

Event data can be used to enhance existing processes, but it can also be used to dramatically impact operations, revenue models and the bottom line for manufacturers. Our Benchmark Research shows 95% of manufacturers consider it important to speed the flow of information and improve responsiveness within business processes. In this perspective I’ll share how manufacturers are working with event...

The Market and Value Index for Collaborative Analytics and Data

Posted by David Menninger on 23 July 2021

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Value Index research, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2021 Ventana Research Value Index: Collaborative Analytics and Data is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. See our prior post for a description of our methodology and included vendors.

Riversand is Exemplary and a Leader in the 2021 PIM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 21 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Riversand PX 360 drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Vendors Ranked and Rated for Embedded Analytics in Value Index

Posted by David Menninger on 21 July 2021

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Value Index research, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2021 Ventana Research Value Index: Embedded Analytics and Data is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. See our prior post for a description of our methodology and included vendors.

Magnitude is Exemplary in the 2021 PIM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 19 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Magnitude Agility PIM drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

The Value Index for Vendors Providing Analytics and Data on Mobile Devices

Posted by David Menninger on 19 July 2021

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Value Index research, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index: Mobile Analytics and Data 2021 is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. See our prior post for a description of our methodology and which vendors are included.

Salsify is Exemplary and a Leader in the 2021 PIM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 15 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Salsify ProductXM drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Amazon is a Vendor of Merit in 2021 Value Index for Analytics and Data

Posted by David Menninger on 15 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Amazon QuickSight drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Pimcore Named Exemplary and Overall Leader in 2021 PIM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 13 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Pimcore Platform drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Google is a Vendor of Merit in 2021 Value Index for Analytics and Data

Posted by David Menninger on 13 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Google Looker drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Akeneo Rated Exemplary Leader in the 2021 PIM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 12 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Akeneo Serenity drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

ThoughtSpot Earns Merit Ranking in 2021 Value Index

Posted by David Menninger on 12 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about ThoughtSpot drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Informatica is Exemplary and Leader in the 2021 PIM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 09 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Informatica's Product 360 drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

TIBCO Rated with Merit in 2021 Value Index in Analytics and Data

Posted by David Menninger on 09 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about TIBCO Spotfire drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Sisense is Vendor of Merit for Analytics and Data Value Index

Posted by David Menninger on 08 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Sisense drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Infor Gets Assurance Rating for Analytics and Data Value Index

Posted by David Menninger on 07 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Infor Birst drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

2021 Value Index for Analytics Rates Microsoft with Assurance

Posted by David Menninger on 03 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Microsoft Power BI drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Salesforce Tableau has Assurance in 2021 Value Index on Analytics

Posted by David Menninger on 02 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Tableau drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

SAS Rated with Assurance in Analytics and Data Value Index

Posted by David Menninger on 01 July 2021

We are happy to share some insights about SAS drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Teradata Expands Vantage Enterprise Data Platform

Posted by David Menninger on 24 June 2021

Teradata introduced some enhancements to its Vantage platform last year in which they expanded its analytics functions and language support, and strengthened tools to improve collaboration between data scientists, business analysts, data engineers and business personnel. Some of the key enhancements included expanding the native support for R and Python, extending the ability to execute a wide...

SAP Excels in Value Index for Analytics with its Customer Experience

Posted by David Menninger on 22 June 2021

We are happy to share some insights about SAP drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Board International Gains Exemplary Vendor Ranking in Value Index

Posted by David Menninger on 17 June 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Board International drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Yellowfin is Innovative Leader in Mobile and Collaborative Analytics

Posted by David Menninger on 16 June 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Yellowfin drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Domo Rated Exemplary and Collaborative Leader in 2021 Value Index on Analytics and Data

Posted by David Menninger on 10 June 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Domo drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Oracle Earns Innovative Vendor Rating in 2021 Analytics and Data Value Index

Posted by David Menninger on 09 June 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Oracle Analytics Cloud drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Qlik is Exemplary and Value Index Leader in Customer Experience for 2021 Value Index for Analytics and Data

Posted by David Menninger on 08 June 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Qlik drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

TIBCO Information Builders is Named an Innovative Vendor in 2021 Value Index

Posted by David Menninger on 04 June 2021

We are happy to share some insights about Information Builders’ WebFOCUS Business Intelligence and Analytics Platform drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

MicroStrategy Earns Value Index Rating of Exemplary in Analytics and Data

Posted by David Menninger on 03 June 2021

We are happy to share some insights about MicroStrategy drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Alation Helps Organizations Get More Value From Data

Posted by David Menninger on 20 May 2021

Alation recently announced the release of its 2021.1 version, introducing new data governance capabilities, enhancements in search and discovery through data domains, and extended connector and query coverage for data sources. Alation’s new federated authentication enables users to query cloud services such as Amazon Web Services, Snowflake, Tableau and more, using a single sign-on. The release...

Why Your Data Lake Needs Bad Data

Posted by David Menninger on 13 May 2021

Everyone talks about data quality, as they should. Our research shows that improving the quality of information is the top benefit of data preparation activities. Data quality efforts are focused on clean data. Yes, clean data is important. but so is bad data. To be more accurate, the original data as recorded by an organization’s various devices and systems is important.

DataRobot Automates and Simplifies AI/ML

Posted by David Menninger on 05 May 2021

Machine learning is valuable for organizations, but it can be hard to deploy. Our Machine Learning Dynamic Insights research identifies that not having enough skilled resources and difficulty building and maintaining ML systems are pressing challenges organizations face in applying ML. Traditional ML model development is resource-intensive, requiring significant domain knowledge and time to...

Incorta Streamlines Analytics with Direct Data Access

Posted by David Menninger on 21 April 2021

The amount of data flowing into organizations is growing exponentially, creating a need to process more data more quickly than ever before. Our Data Preparation Benchmark Research shows that accessing and preparing data continues to be the most time-consuming part of making data available for analysis. This can potentially slow down the organizational functions which depend on the analysis...

Dataiku Streamlines AI/ML

Posted by David Menninger on 14 April 2021

Organizations are becoming more and more data-driven and are looking for ways to accelerate the usage of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). Developing and deploying AI/ML models can be complicated in many ways, often involving different tools and services to manage these solutions from end to end. Accessing and preparing data is the most common challenge organizations face in...

Informatica Continues to Evolve Data Management Platform

Posted by David Menninger on 08 April 2021

Organizations are accelerating their digital transformation and looking for innovative ways to engage with customers in this new digital era of data management. The goal is to understand how to manage the growing volume of data in real time, across all sources and platforms, and use it to inform, streamline and transform internal operations. Over the years, the adoption of cloud computing has...

Microsoft Azure: Cloud Computing for Data and Analytics

Posted by David Menninger on 17 March 2021

Organizations are increasingly using data as a strategic asset, which makes data services critical. Huge volumes of data need to be stored, managed, discovered and analyzed. Cloud computing and storage approaches provide enterprises with various capabilities to store and process their data in third-party data centers. The advent of data platforms previously discussed here are essential for...

Customer Data Platforms: Essential for Effective Customer Experience

Posted by Keith Dawson on 16 March 2021

Since customer data platforms (CDP) emerged in the marketplace about five years ago, there has been debate about what roles they fill, especially within customer service organizations. They were originally developed by small software firms to provide marketing teams with a comprehensive view of customer records. Those records could be scattered throughout an organization, siloed by system and...

Oracle Sales has Priority on Engagement and AI

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 03 March 2021

The current pandemic has disrupted many of the traditional sales methods used by field-sales organizations to engage, and sell to, buyers. In an effort to provide help, many vendors have recently announced new features that focus less on the management of sales organizations and more on tools to help salespeople sell. This has been coupled with a renewed interest in using data to help with the...

Data in 2021: Ventana Research Market Agenda

Posted by David Menninger on 26 February 2021

Ventana Research recently announced its 2021 Market Agenda for data, continuing the guidance we have offered for nearly two decades to help organizations derive optimal value and improve business outcomes.

The 2021 Market Agenda for Office of Sales: The Revolution for Revenue

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 25 February 2021

Ventana Research recently announced its 2021 research agenda for the Office of Sales, continuing the guidance we’ve offered for nearly two decades to help organizations realize optimal value from applying technology to improve business outcomes. Chief sales and revenue officers are experts in their respective fields but may not have the guidance needed to employ technology effectively. As we look...

The Ventana Research 2021 Market Agenda: How Digital Effectiveness Impacts Organizational Agility

Posted by Mark Smith on 17 February 2021

Ventana Research has announced its market agenda for 2021, continuing the tradition of transparency in our efforts to educate and guide the technology market but also our independence as we do not share our market agenda or analyst perspectives with any external party. Each year, we proudly formulate our market agenda that is not biased by clients or the technology industry, focusing on education...

Introducing Precisely for Data Integrity

Posted by David Menninger on 25 January 2021

Data is becoming more valuable and more important to organizations. At the same time, organizations have become more disciplined about the data on which they rely to ensure it is robust, accurate and governed properly. Without data integrity, organizations cannot trust the information produced by their data processes, and will be discouraged from using that data, resulting in inefficiencies and...

Cloudera Consolidates Its Data Platform

Posted by David Menninger on 22 January 2021

Organizations are dealing with exponentially increasing data that ranges broadly from customer-generated information, financial transactions, edge-generated data and even operational IT server logs. A combination of complex data lake and data warehouse capabilities are required to leverage this data. Our research shows that nearly three-quarters of organizations deploy both data lakes and data...

Tableau and Salesforce bring New Look to Business Analytics

Posted by David Menninger on 20 January 2021

Businesses are transforming their organizations, building a data culture and deploying sophisticated analytics more broadly than ever. However, the process of using data and analytics is not always easy. The necessary tools are often separate, but our research shows organizations prefer an integrated environment. In our Data Preparation Benchmark Research, we found that 41% of participants use...

Snowflake Builds on Its Success

Posted by David Menninger on 15 January 2021

Traditional on-premises data processing solutions have led to a hugely complex and expensive set of data silos where IT spends more time managing the infrastructure than extracting value from the data. Big data architectures have attempted to solve the problem with large pools of cost-effective storage, but in doing so have often created on-premises management and administration challenges. These...

Emerging Data Platforms Tackle Big Challenges

Posted by David Menninger on 14 January 2021

Organizations are always looking to improve their ability to use data and AI to gain meaningful and actionable insights into their operations, services and customer needs. But unlocking value from data requires multiple analytics workloads, data science tools and machine learning algorithms to run against the same diverse data sets. Organizations still struggle with limited data visibility and...

Teradata Vantage CX: The Real Customer Data Platform

Posted by Keith Dawson on 08 December 2020

Teradata is not a name that is commonly associated with the customer experience marketplace, but that is likely to change as customer experience (CX) practitioners wrestle with the problems created by the multiple streams of data thrown off by the many applications and customer touchpoints they have to manage. Teradata’s Vantage CX is a tool for ingesting and managing customer information at...

Molecula Earns Ventana Research 13th Digital Innovation Award for Data

Posted by Mark Smith on 20 November 2020

The annual Ventana Research Digital Innovation Awards showcases advances in the productivity and potential of business applications, as well as technology that contributes significantly to improved efficiency and productivity in the processes and the performance of an organization. Our goal is to recognize technology and vendors that have introduced noteworthy digital innovations that advance...

ShipChain Earns our 13th Digital Innovation Award for Operations and Supply Chain

Posted by Mark Smith on 17 November 2020

The annual Ventana Research Digital Innovation Awards showcases advances in the productivity and potential of business applications, as well as technology that contributes significantly to improved efficiency and productivity in the processes and the performance of an organization. Our goal is to recognize technology and vendors that have introduced noteworthy digital innovations that advance...

Diving Deeper into the Data Lake

Posted by David Menninger on 13 November 2020

A data lake is a centralized repository designed to house big data in structured, semi-structured and unstructured form. I have been covering the data lake topic for several years and encourage you to check out an earlier perspective called Data Lakes: Safe Way to Swim in Big Data? for background. Our data lake research has uncovered some points to consider in your efforts, and I’d like to offer...

Why Collaboration Matters in Analytic Processes

Posted by David Menninger on 29 October 2020

Every organization performing analytics with multiple employees needs to collaborate. They should be collaborating in the analytics process and in communicating the results of those analyses. As I continue my evaluation of analytics and data vendors, I have to admit some disappointment at the level of collaborative capabilities some analytics vendors provide. To be fair, the level of capabilities...

8x8: Open Communications Platform earns our 13th Digital Innovation Award for Digital Technology

Posted by Mark Smith on 09 October 2020

The annual Ventana Research Digital Innovation Awards showcases advances in the productivity and potential of business applications, as well as technology that contributes significantly to improved efficiency and productivity in the processes and performance of an organization. Our goal is to recognize technology and vendors that have introduced noteworthy digital innovations that advance...

DADs Address the Mother of All Data Problems

Posted by Robert Kugel on 25 September 2020

An important recent development in software designed for the Office of Finance is the addition of what we’re calling a data aggregation device (DAD) for analytical applications. A DAD automates the collection of data from disparate sources using, for example, application programming interfaces (APIs) and robotic process automation (RPA). With a DAD, users of the analytical application have...

Why I Joined Ventana Research to Lead Office of Sales

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 21 August 2020

I’m very excited to announce to my network as well as the ever-expanding Ventana Research community that I’m now directing Ventana Research’s Office of Sales practice. The focus is to guide and educate sales and business professionals on the selling applications and technology including digital commerce, price and revenue management, product information management, sales enablement, sales...

The Business Continuity Imperative: Price and Revenue Management for Resilience in 2020 and Beyond

Posted by Mark Smith on 02 August 2020

Economic dynamics and market pressures during a black-swan event can wreak havoc on efforts to effectively manage revenue operations and pricing for business continuity. For many organizations, environmental changes disrupt the methods by which these essential business processes are managed can be disrupted, damaging the revenue streams that create profitability. The array of pricing strategies...

The Business Continuity Imperative: Experience Management across Business for Organizational Effectiveness in 2020 and Beyond

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 July 2020

Over the past several months, I have discussed a wide range of topics that organizations must consider and appropriately prioritize to maintain business continuity during periods of upheaval. But sometimes it’s important to take a step back and reflect on a critical and recurring theme: experiences. The array of experiences across the workforce and business processes both inside and outside of...

The Business Continuity Imperative: The Continuous Planning Experience and Organizational Agility in 2020 and Beyond

Posted by Mark Smith on 19 July 2020

Business planning is an essential part of an organization’s focus on its future performance and overall potential because it ensures continuous operations, even in black-swan events. Planning across the entire organization needs to be a critical priority and leadership should give it the attention it deserves. In challenging times, a focus on execution tends to take hold — this is not...

The Business Continuity Imperative: Analytics and Data for Engaging Digital Experiences in 2020 and Beyond

Posted by Mark Smith on 05 July 2020

Analytics and data provide visibility into an organization’s past, present and potential performance. However, not all organizations are using analytics that provide timely insights — insights that not just reflect what happen but direct a successful course for the future. Demand for personalized and relevant insight only intensifies in a black-swan event. To maintain business continuity in times...

The Business Continuity Imperative: The Digital Experience in Marketing for 2020 and Beyond

Posted by Mark Smith on 28 June 2020

Marketing is inextricably linked to business success, and digital technology is essential to an organization’s overall marketing potential because it generates interest and brand awareness. In a black-swan event, the marketing department often is overwhelmed by short-term demands, so in these situations it’s of the essence that digital transformation gets the attention it deserves. In challenging...

The Business Continuity Imperative: The Agent and Customer with Contact Centers in 2020 and Beyond

Posted by ISG Software Research on 21 June 2020

Contact centers play a substantial role in an organization’s success. The customer journey is engaged here, at each moment of interaction. Agents, whether human or machine-driven, are intrinsic to the customer experience and the value of the contact center. Customers are essential to an organizations’ overall business potential because they generate revenue. In a black-swan event, demand for...

The Business Continuity Imperative: The Subscriber Experience and Subscription Management in 2020 and Beyond

Posted by Mark Smith on 14 June 2020

Subscriptions are the future of business. Subscribers are essential to an organization’s overall business potential because they generate recurring revenue. In a black-swan event, demand for a subscription may spike or dip, so in these situations it’s of the essence that subscriptions get the attention they deserve. In challenging times, a “subscriber-first” mentality tends to take hold — this is...

The Business Continuity Imperative: The Partner Experience and Channel Performance Agenda

Posted by Mark Smith on 10 June 2020

Partners play a key role in the revenue and growth of every organization. Whether channel selling is in assistance to internal sales or independent, what happens in partnering has ramifications that are simply too important to underestimate. The imperative to maintain business continuity with channel partners becomes painfully clear in a global pandemic, and that imperative demands that...

The Business Continuity Imperative: The Product Experience for Buyer and Customer Delight in 2020 and Beyond

Posted by Mark Smith on 31 May 2020

Products and services are the foundation of every organization, regardless of its industry or size. Products are essential to an organization’s overall business health because they generate revenue and engage buyers and customers. In a black-swan event, demand for a product may spike or dip, so in these situations it’s of the essence that products get the attention they deserve as they are...

The Business Continuity Imperative: The Supplier Relationship and Experience

Posted by Mark Smith on 10 May 2020

Suppliers play a critical role in supporting the operations and processes of every organization. Whether direct or indirect, an organization’s relationship with its suppliers has ramifications that are perilous to underestimate. The imperative to maintain business continuity becomes painfully clear in a global pandemic, and that imperative demands that organizations cultivate excellent supplier...

The Business Continuity Imperative: The Voice and Mission of Your Customer Experience

Posted by Mark Smith on 03 May 2020

Supercharging the customer experience (CX) is more than just an opportunity. It’s essential for every organization that looks to optimize engagement at every moment of the customer journey. In times such as these, when business continuity is a top priority, organizations must address the customer experience, especially if it has not been a focal point of the executive team.

The Business Continuity Imperative: Digital Technology for Optimal Operations in 2020 and Beyond

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 April 2020

The imperative to infuse digital technology into your organization is not new, but it’s more essential than ever that organizations embrace digital transformation and business continuity to improve processes. I have recently written about the need for digital innovation in business continuity, outlining the steps every organization needs to take. These steps involve a close examination of the...

Five Modern Data Architecture Trends

Posted by David Menninger on 30 March 2020

I was recently asked to identify key modern data architecture trends. Data architectures have changed significantly to accommodate larger volumes of data as well as new types of data such as streaming and unstructured data. Here are some of the trends I see continuing to impact data architectures.

MicroStrategy World 2020

Posted by David Menninger on 18 March 2020

MicroStrategy recently held its annual user conference, which focused on the theme of the “Intelligent Enterprise.” HyperIntelligence, an innovative product for delivering analytics throughout organizations that they introduced a year ago, was the star of the event. The company announced enhancements to HyperIntelligence and the latest version of its flagship platform, MicroStrategy 2020, as well...

Data in 2020: Ventana Research Agenda

Posted by David Menninger on 21 February 2020

Ventana Research recently announced its 2020 research agenda for data, continuing the guidance we’ve offered for nearly two decades to help organizations derive optimal value and improve business outcomes. Data volumes continue to grow while data latency requirements continue to shrink. Meanwhile, virtually every organization is confronting a need for good data governance.

The Ventana Research Digital Technology Agenda in 2020

Posted by Mark Smith on 13 February 2020

Ventana Research recently announced its 2020 research agenda for digital technology, continuing the guidance we’ve offered for nearly two decades to help organizations derive optimal value and improve business outcomes. While we have seen more than four decades of digital transformation in the systems and tools businesses rely on, recent years have yielded transformative approaches to technology...

Blockchains Pose Problems of Persistence and Trust

Posted by Robert Kugel on 15 January 2020

I’ve written before about blockchain’s significant potential. A lot of the current discussion on the topic centers on cryptocurrencies and financial trading platforms, both of which are already in operation. However, my focus is on its applicability to business generally, especially in B2B commerce, where I believe there is significant potential for it to serve as a universal data connector....

Incentive Solutions Shows Potential in Sales Performance Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 20 December 2019

Here are some insights on Incentive Solutions drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic assessment of how well vendor offerings address buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index on Sales Performance Management 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We evaluated Incentive Solutions and eight other...

NICE is a Leader in Reliability for Sales Performance Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 18 December 2019

Here are some insights on NICE drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic assessment of how well vendor offerings address buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index on Sales Performance Management 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We evaluated NICE and eight other vendors in seven categories, five...

beqom is a Value Index Leader for Manageability in Sales Performance Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 16 December 2019

Here are some insights on beqom drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic assessment of how well vendor offerings address buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index on Sales Performance Management 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We evaluated beqom and eight other vendors in seven categories,...

SAP Provides Mature and Balanced Sales Performance Management Offering

Posted by Mark Smith on 13 December 2019

Here are some insights on SAP drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic assessment of how well vendor offerings address buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index on Sales Performance Management 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We evaluated SAP and eight other vendors in seven categories, five...

Optymyze Provides Robust Platform and Sales Performance Management Suite

Posted by Mark Smith on 11 December 2019

Here are some insights on Optymyze drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic assessment of how well vendor offerings address buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index on Sales Performance Management 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We evaluated Optymyze and eight other vendors in seven...

Anaplan is a Value Index Leader for Validation in Sales Performance Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 09 December 2019

Here are some insights on Anaplan drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic assessment of how well vendor offerings address buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index on Sales Performance Management 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We evaluated Anaplan and eight other vendors in seven...

Varicent is a Value Index Leader in Sales Performance Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 06 December 2019

With the backing of Great Hill Partners and Spectrum Equity, the company Varicent Software launched on Jan. 1st, purchasing IBM’s Sales Performance Management (SPM) assets and hiring employees from IBM’s SPM group. They will join a new team that includes Varicent’s original founders and key leadership.

This set of insights is drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic...

Xactly Demonstrates Strong Performance in SPM Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 04 December 2019

Here are some insights on Xactly drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic assessment of how well vendor offerings address buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index on Sales Performance Management 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We evaluated Xactly and eight other vendors in seven categories,...

Oracle Leads Sales Performance Management Value Index

Posted by Mark Smith on 02 December 2019

Here are some insights on Oracle drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic assessment of how well vendor offerings address buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index on Sales Performance Management 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We evaluated Oracle and eight other vendors in seven categories,...

A 360-Degree View of the Customer Journey Can Provide Customer Experience Insights

Posted by Mark Smith on 07 November 2019

For interactions with customers to go well, organizations must manage an ever-increasing array of engagement channels. Our research finds that organizations expect to see interaction volumes increase on all channels, especially digital ones such as text-based messaging, chat, mobile and social apps. Unfortunately, the systems that manage these channels are typically disparate and uncoordinated...

Technology Really Does Matter for Customer Analytics

Posted by Mark Smith on 05 November 2019

Using customer analytics effectively involves several challenges. Organizations must make it a business priority, cultivate leadership and set a course for ensuring data and analytics are being processed and governed effectively. But effectiveness also requires technology that will assist in the effective operations and management of customers and help an organization achieve its goals.

Identifying the Leaders in Sales Performance Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 31 October 2019

I am happy to share some insights from our latest Value Index research, which rates how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements in seven categories, five relevant to the product (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the vendor (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). The Ventana Research Value Index: Sales Performance Management 2019 is the...

Effective Customer Analytics Requires Comprehensive Data and Metrics

Posted by Mark Smith on 29 October 2019

Customer analytics have never been more important, but effectively creating and managing them is not easy. The data that’s required to achieve visibility into all customer activity involves many applications and systems and it’s a challenge to ensure the data used is accurate and consistent. Even once data is assembled, organizations often struggle to apply analytics to create the metrics that...

The Science of Sales Performance Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 24 October 2019

Ensuring that the sales organization contributes as fully as possible to the success of the organization — to revenue, growth, prof itability and the overall customer experience — requires not only dedication but effective strategy and planning. A well-developed strategy and plan to utilize current and future sales talent is essential for the best possible sales performance. To carry out this...

The Challenges in Customer Analytics

Posted by Mark Smith on 22 October 2019

Today’s intense competition requires that companies know as much as they can about their customers in order to anticipate their needs and deliver a superior customer experience. However, many organizations struggle to do this well. Implementing initiatives to improve customer value across any department or process involving customers requires both in-depth visibility into current operations and...

Dynamic Insights Research on Sales Analytics Guides Innovation, not Evolution

Posted by Mark Smith on 04 October 2019

Having effective analytics enables businesses to understand far better than ever before the data they’re collecting, and to do so in greater volumes and more forms. These new capabilities are especially relevant to sales organizations. When applied to sales data, analytics can help sales teams achieve quotas and forecast more consistently, as well as understand the impacts of incentives and...

Dynamic Insights from Research on Finance Analytics

Posted by Robert Kugel on 19 September 2019

By itself, data isn’t useful for business; the application of analytics is necessary to transform data into actionable information. Data analysis of one sort or another has long been a core competence of finance departments, applied to balance sheets, income statements or cash flow statements. Today, however, Finance must go beyond these basics by expanding the scope of the data being examined to...

TradeLens Emerges in a New Era of Trade

Posted by Robert Kugel on 17 September 2019

What’s the easiest way to completely immobilize a 500,000-ton ship?

Lose a sheet of paper.

The paperwork that accompanies international trade is a serious source of friction, inefficiency — and therefore cost — in supply chain execution. Trade documentation requires massive amounts of paper that today can be replaced by digital data. In 2018, Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, teamed...

Historical Databases: Becoming a Thing of the Past?

Posted by David Menninger on 13 August 2019

Organizations’ use of data and information is evolving as the amount of data and the frequency with which that data is collected increase. Data now streams into organizations from myriad sources, among them social media feeds and internet-of-things devices. These seemingly ever-increasing volumes of devices and data streams offer both challenges and opportunities to capture information about a...

How to Prove You Aren’t a Dog: Blockchains For Identity Management and Certification

Posted by Robert Kugel on 22 May 2019

Identity management is an old problem that has taken on new dimensions in the digital world. In 1993, at the dawn of the World Wide Web (WWW), The New Yorker ran a cartoon featuring two dogs talking, one perched in front of a computer. The caption reads: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” The phrase quickly evolved into a meme highlighting the issue of identity uncertainty in the new...

The Internet of Things: Real-Time Data and Analytics Enable Business Innovation

Posted by David Menninger on 20 May 2019

The emerging internet of things (IoT) is an extension of digital connectivity to devices and sensors in homes, businesses, vehicles and potentially almost anywhere. This innovation means that virtually any appropriately designed device can generate and transmit data about its operations, which can facilitate monitoring and a range of automatic functions. To do this IoT requires a set of...

Big Data for Business: A Requirement for Today’s Business Analytics

Posted by David Menninger on 13 May 2019

Organizations now must store, process and use data of significantly greater volume and variety than in the past. These factors plus the velocity of data today — the unrelentingly rapid rate at which it is generated, both in enterprise systems and on the internet — add to the challenge of getting the data into a form that can be used for business tasks.

BlackLine Exorcises Accounting Details

Posted by Robert Kugel on 10 January 2019

I recently attended BlackLine’s annual user conference. The company aims to automate time-consuming repetitive tasks and substantially reduce the amount of detail that individuals must handle in the department. The phrase “the devil is in the details” certainly applies to accounting, especially managing the details in the close-to-report phase of the accounting cycle, which is where BlackLine...

Teradata and the Analytics Universe

Posted by David Menninger on 26 October 2018

This year, Teradata rebranded the Teradata users conference from "Partners" to "Analytics Universe", and there is a reason for it. For decades, Teradata has represented the high end of the analytic database, but new innovations and technologies are adding flexibility to Teradata's licensing as they compete. For the full breakdown of Teradata's Analytics Universe 2018, and my analysis of all the...

Make Data and Information Management Work for You in 2018

Posted by David Menninger on 23 February 2018

We at Ventana Research recently published our research agendas for 2018. The world of data and information management continues to evolve, as does our research on the use of these technologies to improve your organization’s operations. Relational databases are no longer the only viable enterprise data store as more organizations adopt a polyglot database infrastructure. And while their exact form...

Workday Financial Management Gains Momentum

Posted by Robert Kugel on 02 December 2015

Workday Financial Management (which belongs in the broader ERP software category) appears to be gaining traction in the market, having matured sufficiently to be attractive to a large audience of buyers. It was built from the ground up as a cloud application. While that gives it the advantage of a fresh approach to structuring its data and process models for the cloud, the product has had to...

Evolving to the Next Generation of ERP Systems

Posted by Robert Kugel on 29 November 2015

The enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a pillar of nearly every company’s record-keeping and management of business processes. It is essential to the smooth functioning of the accounting and finance functions. In manufacturing and distribution, ERP also can help plan and manage inventory and logistics. Some companies use it to handle human resources functions such as tracking employees,...

Splunk Takes on Internet of Things and Bolsters Enterprise Security

Posted by ISG Software Research on 05 November 2015

Splunk’s annual gathering, this year called .conf 2015, in late September hosted almost 4,000 Splunk customers, partners and employees. It is one of the fastest-growing user conferences in the technology industry. The area dedicated to Splunk partners has grown from a handful of booths a few years ago to a vast showroom floor many times larger. While the conference’s main announcement was the ...

Oracle Must Pivot to Business Applications

Posted by ISG Software Research on 05 November 2015

Whatever Oracle’s cloud strategy had been the past, this year’s OpenWorld conference and trade show made it clear that the company is now all in. In his keynote address, co-CEO Mark Hurd presented predictions for the world of information technology in 2025, when the cloud will be central to companies’ IT environments. While his forecast that two (unnamed) companies will account for 80 percent of...

Big Data and Analytics has a New Spark

Posted by ISG Software Research on 29 October 2015

The concept and implementation of what is called big data are no longer new, and many organizations, especially larger ones, view it as a way to manage and understand the flood of data they receive. Our benchmark research on big data analytics shows that business intelligence (BI) is the most common type of system to which organizations deliver big data. However, BI systems aren’t a good fit for...

Continuous Accounting Enables a Strategic Finance Department

Posted by ISG Software Research on 29 October 2015

Many senior finance executives say they want their department to play a more strategic role in the management and operations of their company. They want Finance to shift its focus from processing transactions to higher-value functions in order to make more substantial contributions to the success of the organization. I use the term “continuous accounting” to represent an approach to managing the...

Cloud-Based Analytics Requires Hybrid Data Access and Integration

Posted by ISG Software Research on 08 October 2015

As I discussed in the state of data and analytics in the cloud recently, usability is a top evaluation criterion for organizations in selecting cloud-based analytics software. Data access of cloud and on-premises systems are essential antecedents of usability. They can help business people perform analytic tasks themselves without having to rely on IT. Some tools allow data integration by...

Data and Analytics in the Cloud is a Reality Today

Posted by ISG Software Research on 20 August 2015

Our recently completed benchmark research on data and analytics in the cloud shows that analytics deployed in cloud-based systems is gaining widespread adoption. Almost half (48%) of participating organizations are using cloud-based analytics, another 19 percent said they plan to begin using it within 12 months, and 31 percent said they will begin to use cloud-based analytics but do not know...

Effective Process Management Ensures a Fast Close

Posted by ISG Software Research on 08 April 2015

Because my research practice is centered on important business issues where technology is a key part of a solution, my written perspectives tend to focus on technology. However, it’s almost never the case that a company can just implement some application and fully resolve a business issue. Some progress may be achieved by using more effective tools, but in most cases results will fall short of...

How to Get Business Users to Switch from Spreadsheets

Posted by ISG Software Research on 26 February 2015

In our benchmark research at least half of participants that use spreadsheets to support a business process routinely say that these tools make it difficult for them to do their job. Yet spreadsheets continue to dominate in a range of business functions and processes. For example, our recent next-generation business planning research finds that this is the most common software used for performing...

Office of Finance Research Demonstrates Importance of Using Effective Financial Software

Posted by ISG Software Research on 02 February 2015

Our recently published Office of Finance benchmark research assesses a broad set of functions and capabilities of finance organizations. We asked research participants to identify the most important issues for a finance department to address in a dozen functional areas: accounting, budgeting, cost accounting, customer profitability management, external financial reporting, financial analysis,...

Make Automating the Office of Finance and Accounting a Priority

Posted by ISG Software Research on 27 January 2015

Our recent Office of Finance benchmark research demonstrates the importance of using automation to execute finance department functions. Information technology systems do at least two things very well that make better use of people’s time, and both of them can substantially improve organizational performance. First, they eliminate the need for people to do repetitive tasks, which frees them to...

Deciding When to Replace ERP Is Complicated

Posted by ISG Software Research on 19 December 2014

A company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is one of the pillars of its record-keeping and process management architecture and is central to many of its critical functions. It is the heart of its accounting and financial record-keeping processes. In manufacturing and distribution, ERP manages inventory and some elements of logistics. Companies also may use it to handle core human...

Data-Driven Business Processes Essential for Optimization

Posted by ISG Software Research on 16 October 2014

When applying information technology to drive better business performance, companies and the systems integrators that assist them often underestimate the importance of organizing data management around processes. For example, companies that do not execute their quote-to-cash cycle as an end-to-end process often experience a related set of issues in their sales, marketing, operations, accounting...

Finance Needs Better Analytics and Analytic Skills

Posted by ISG Software Research on 13 October 2014

Finance and accounting departments are staffed with numbers-oriented, naturally analytical people. Strong analytic skills are essential if a finance department is to deliver deep insights into performance and visibility into emerging opportunities and challenges. The conclusions of analyses enable fast, fully informed business decisions by executives and managers. Conversely, flawed analyses...

Businesses Must Make Self-Service Reporting a Priority

Posted by Robert Kugel on 03 August 2014

One of the charitable causes to which I devote time puts on an annual vintage car show. The Concours d’Élegance dates back to 17th century France, when wealthy aristocrats gathered with judges on a field to determine who had the best carriages and the most beautiful horsepower. Our event serves as the centerpiece of a broader mission to raise money for several charitable organizations. One of my...

Tagetik Advances Disclosure Management for Office of Finance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 16 July 2014

Tagetik provides financial performance management software. One particularly useful aspect of its suite is the Collaborative Disclosure Management (CDM). CDM addresses an important need in finance departments, which routinely generate highly formatted documents that combine words and numbers. Often these documents are assembled by contributors outside of the finance department; human resources,...

Requirements for Becoming a Strategic Chief Risk Officer

Posted by Robert Kugel on 17 April 2014

The proliferation of chief “something” officer (CxO) titles over the past decades recognizes that there’s value in having a single individual focused on a specific critical problem. A CxO position can be strategic or it can be the ultimate middle management role, with far more responsibilities than authority. Many of those handed such a title find that it’s the latter. This may be because the...

Technology Makes a Difference for Location Analytics

Posted by Mark Smith on 01 April 2014

Our latest benchmark research into the market for location analytics software finds significant demand for location-related technology that can improve business outcomes and generate relevant information for various types of users. (Location analytics is an extension of business analytics that can enhance the sophistication of data and processes by adding a geographic context.) My last analyst...

The Virtues of Automating Reconciliation

Posted by Robert Kugel on 29 March 2014

Reconciling accounts at the end of a period is one of those mundane finance department tasks that are ripe for automation. Reconciliation is the process of comparing account data (at the balance or item level) that exists either in two accounting systems or in an accounting system and somewhere else (such as in a spreadsheet or on paper). The purpose of the reconciling process is to identify...

Business Analytics in 2014: Trends and Possibilities

Posted by ISG Software Research on 23 January 2014

Our benchmark research shows that analytics is the top business technology innovation priority; 39% of organizations rank it first. This is no surprise as new information sources and new technologies in data processing, storage, networking, databases and analytic software are combining to offer capabilities for using information never before possible. For businesses, the analytic priority is...

IBM Integrates Risk Management for Financial Services

Posted by Robert Kugel on 18 December 2013

Integrated risk management (IRM) was a major theme at IBM’s recent Smarter Risk Management analyst summit in London. In the market context, IBM sees this topic as a means to differentiate its product and messaging from those of its competitors. IRM includes cloud-based offerings in operational risk analytics, IT risk analytics and financial crimes management designed for financial institutions...

The Cloud Can Help You Get Smarter If You Let It

Posted by Robert Kugel on 08 November 2013

One of the potential benefits of cloud computing to access business applications and data is its potential to improve the situational awareness of executives and managers. By this I mean their understanding of what’s going on outside their company in addition to what’s happening within it. Today people have access to a trove of information about their own company, which is the result of decades...

Informatica and Exterro Partner for More Effective E-discovery

Posted by Robert Kugel on 01 November 2013

Informatica and Exterro have announced a partnership in the market for discovery of electronic data and documents (known as e-discovery). Exterro has made its reputation in e-discovery workflow and legal holds management while Informatica is a leader in data integration that our Value Index finds as the top and Hot rated provider. The partnership is designed to provide users of Exterro’s Fusion...

Oracle Hyperion Products Challenged by New Generation of Expectations

Posted by Robert Kugel on 16 October 2013

Oracle continues to enrich the capabilities of its Hyperion suite of applications that support the finance function, but I wonder if that will be enough to sustain its market share and new generation of expectations. At the recent Oracle OpenWorld these new features were on display, and spokespeople described how the company will be transitioning its software to cloud deployment. Our 2013 ...

Tableau Continues its Visual Analytics Revolution

Posted by ISG Software Research on 21 September 2013

In his keynote speech at the sixth annual Tableau Customer Conference, company co-founder and CEO Christian Chabot borrowed from Steve Jobs’ famous quote that the computer “is the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds,” to suggest that his company software is such a new bicycle. He went on to build an argument about the nature of invention and Tableau’s place in it. The people who make great...

The Personas that Matter the Most in Business Analytics

Posted by ISG Software Research on 30 August 2013

As a new generation of business professionals embraces a new generation of technology, the line between people and their tools begins to blur. This shift comes as organizations become flatter and leaner and roles, context and responsibilities become intertwined. These changes have introduced faster and easier ways to bring information to users, in a context that makes it quicker to collaborate,...

Eliminating the Strategy/Execution Disconnect

Posted by Robert Kugel on 19 August 2013

This is the beginning of the season when companies that are on a calendar year begin their strategic and long-term planning. Ventana Research performed an extensive investigation in this area with our long-range planning benchmark research. Strategic and long-range planning is a process and discipline that companies use to determine the best strategy for succeeding in the markets they serve and...

Cisco to Foster Smarter Network of Data by Acquiring Composite Software

Posted by Mark Smith on 23 June 2013

Cisco Systems has announced its intent to acquire Composite Software, which provides data virtualization to help IT departments interconnect data and systems; the purchase is scheduled to complete in early August. Cisco of course is known for its ability to interconnect just about anything with its networking technology; this acquisition will help it connect data better across networks. Over the...

Four Types of Discovery Technology For Using Big Data Intelligently

Posted by Mark Smith on 07 May 2013

Information technology for business is changing rapidly as organizations demand innovation to help them discover insights and facts. Our research into business technology innovation found analytics to be the top priority in 39 percent of organizations. Businesses feel pressure to be better, faster and smarter in operating processes, and understanding their various types of information is a key to...

Adaptive Planning “Suitens” Its Offering

Posted by Robert Kugel on 17 April 2013

For four years Adaptive Planning has been building out its cloud-based financial software. Starting with budgeting, planning and forecasting, it added analytics, data visualization, dashboards and alerting as well as flexible reporting and collaboration tools. It recently announced the general availability of consolidation functionality in its cloud-based suite. This addition eliminates a notable...

The Spreadsheet and the Whale

Posted by Robert Kugel on 29 January 2013

Banking giant JP Morgan raised eyebrows in 2012 when it revealed that it had lost a substantial amount of money because of poorly conceived trades it had made for its own account. The losses raised questions about the adequacy of its internal controls, and broader questions about the need for regulations to reduce systemic risk to the banking system. At the heart of the matter were the...

The Big Deal is in the 2013 Business Analytics Research Agenda

Posted by ISG Software Research on 16 January 2013

Did you catch all the big data analogies people used in 2012? There were many, like the refinement of oil analogy, or the spinning straw into gold analogy, and less useful but more entertaining ones, like big data is like a box of chocolates, or big data is like The Matrix (because “there’s no way Keanu Reeves learns Kung Fu in five seconds without using big data”). I tend to like the water...

Using the Close as a Finance Department Diagnostic

Posted by Robert Kugel on 07 December 2012

Earlier this year we published our Trends in Developing the Fast, Clean Close benchmark research findings. The most significant was that, on average, it takes longer for companies to close their books today than it did five years ago. In 2007, nearly half (47%) we closing their quarters within five or six days, but now only 38 percent can do it as quickly.

Encountering New Bottlenecks with Oracle’s Breakthrough Technology

Posted by Robert Kugel on 03 October 2012

Two key themes that emerged from Larry Ellison’s Sunday night keynote at this year’s Oracle OpenWorld were faster processing speed and cheaper storage. An underlying purpose to these themes was to assert the importance of Oracle’s strategic vertical integration of hardware and software with the acquisitions of Sun. I try to view technology keynotes like this from the perspective of a practical...

Plumbing the Salesforce Clouds is Your Business

Posted by Mark Smith on 25 September 2012

Salesforce is a global software-as-a-service (SaaS) company to be reckoned with. The swarming crowds at its Dreamforce event last week were estimated to exceed 90,000. The company is rapidly growing an ecosystem that includes Sales, Service and Marketing Clouds; Force.com for building applications; and Data.com for storing data in the cloud centrally for use across Salesforce products. It is also...

CIOs Need to Make Information Management a Real Priority

Posted by Mark Smith on 08 August 2012

Our recent benchmark research on information management uncovered some startling facts about the level of technology adoption necessary for efficient information-centric organizations. Chief information officers (CIO) are responsible for the availability of information to their businesses in a consistent and timely basis, but in most organizations, information management is seen as just a...

The Financial Close Measures CFO Effectiveness

Posted by Robert Kugel on 02 July 2012

What’s a fast, free and reasonably reliable way of gauging the effectiveness of a finance department’s management? It’s the number of days it takes it to close the books. Companies that take six days or fewer after the end of the period to close their monthly, quarterly or semiannual accounts demonstrate a basic level of effectiveness that those that take longer do not. In my judgment, finance...

Teradata Aster Standardizes Access to Hadoop with SQL-H

Posted by Mark Smith on 13 June 2012

Using Hadoop just got easier, thanks to Teradata’s introduction of SQL-H, a new query interface to analyze data from Hadoop. Most Hadoop access methods require preprocessing and staging of data from the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) using technologies such as MapReduce. These approaches require new skills and technologies, introducing more time and costs for users, which offset the...

Consolidation Software Is a Key to Faster Closing

Posted by Robert Kugel on 10 May 2012

For at least a couple of decades completing the financial close within five or six business days after the end of the period has been accepted as a best practice. As such, that creates an expectation that finance organizations that take longer should work to reduce their closing intervals. In updating our last benchmark research on the closing process, Ventana Research has found this not to be...

BizNet Enables Enterprise Spreadsheet-Based Reporting

Posted by Robert Kugel on 19 April 2012

I’ve been advocating more intelligent use of spreadsheets for the better part of a decade. Ventana Research coined the term “enterprise spreadsheet” in 2004 to describe software applications that marry a Microsoft Excel user interface with a business rules server and a relational or multidimensional data store. This approach offers the best of both worlds in the sense of taking advantage of...

Host Analytics Introduces Its Own Business Analytics

Posted by Robert Kugel on 16 April 2012

Host Analytics has added new analytics and reporting resources to its cloud-based performance management suite. Business Analytics will offer a broad set of built-in analytics and reporting capabilities or, for companies with an existing business intelligence infrastructure (from vendors such as IBM, Infor, Oracle or SAP), the option of a self-service approach. I believe these new analytics and...

Data Plays a Key Role in the Close-to-Report Cycle

Posted by Robert Kugel on 22 March 2012

Ventana Research recently completed an update to our last benchmark research on the financial closing process. It shows that many companies are taking longer to close today than they did five years ago. Whereas nearly half (47%) were able to close their quarter or half-year period within six business days five years ago, just 38 percent are able to do so in our latest benchmark. Similarly, five...

Alteryx’s Business Analytics Empowers New Generation of Data Artisans

Posted by Mark Smith on 01 March 2012

I attended the Alteryx user conference called Inspire 2012 (Twitter: #Inspire12) in Denver this week. This fairly new analytics software company has been gaining customers in a range of brand-name organizations such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Supervalu, U.S. Cellular and VF Corp. The company focuses on meeting the needs of analysts across the business analytic spectrum including a geographic and...

Host Analytics Decision Hub Offers Central Financial Repository

Posted by Robert Kugel on 04 November 2011

Host Analytics is taking advantage of one of the inherent advantages that vendors of software as a service (SaaS) have compared to on-premises ones: It’s easier for them to offer their customers data services and shared data repositories. The company’s Decision Hub has been available since last summer. Although it doesn’t break new ground, it is a solid offering of this type and its value should...

Hadoop Gets Easier with Cloudera Version 3

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010

Managing large volumes of enterprise data continues to challenge IT organizations as they deal with administration and storage of no longer just terabytes but now petabytes of data and costs increase accordingly. This massive size of data complicates the underlying issues of where and how to store it easily in low-cost hardware and manage the data efficiently. One attempt at a solution is Hadoop,...

Information Applications is a New Technology Category Designed for Business and IT

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010

In today’s world, without information there is no business. That is, without having the right information and making it available to the right people at the right time, an organization cannot be fully informed, make the right decisions and act on them, and compete effectively enough to survive and prosper. That much is a given. Finding ways to ensure that an organization’s information is...

Hadoop Gets Easier with Cloudera Version 3

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

Managing large volumes of enterprise data continues to challenge IT organizations as they deal with administration and storage of no longer just terabytes but now petabytes of data and costs increase accordingly. This massive size of data complicates the underlying issues of where and how to store it easily in low-cost hardware and manage the data efficiently. One attempt at a solution is Hadoop,...

Information Applications is a New Technology Category Designed for Business and IT

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

In today’s world, without information there is no business. That is, without having the right information and making it available to the right people at the right time, an organization cannot be fully informed, make the right decisions and act on them, and compete effectively enough to survive and prosper. That much is a given. Finding ways to ensure that an organization’s information is...

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