ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

HR Tech 2025 Takeaways: The Future Is Ready—Are We?

Posted by Matthew Brown on 16 October 2025

For nearly 20 years, I have attended the Human Resources Technology Conference and Expo to take the temperature of the market. This year, the energy felt different—less showy, more grounded. I was able to engage with more than 40 software providers for deeper-dive discussions, and I left with three big takeaways and one nagging concern that I can’t shake. The first theme is about shrinking the... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Post-Go-Live Reality: Building a Continuous Adoption Practice

Posted by Matthew Brown on 14 October 2025

It’s easy to celebrate a go-live. It’s visible, it’s measurable and it comes with a finish line. But anyone who’s been through an HR technology implementation knows that go-live isn’t the end. It’s the beginning. The real value of an HR system doesn’t show up in the configuration. It shows up in the usage, which is often underwhelming. It shows up in whether employees can navigate it without... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Shift Happens: How Smart Scheduling and AI Are Reshaping Frontline Work

Posted by Matthew Brown on 08 July 2025

Frontline work is being reshaped from every direction: tighter labor pools, unpredictable demand and a workforce that expects more than just a paycheck. Yet too many organizations are still treating workforce scheduling like a game of Tetris—moving blocks around and hoping they fit. It’s time to admit that smart scheduling isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a frontline imperative. And if the... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Employee Engagement, Workforce Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Learning That Learns: How AI is Changing the LMS Game

Posted by Matthew Brown on 02 July 2025

The learning management system (LMS) market is evolving, with the lines that once rigidly defined categories becoming increasingly blurred. Today, an LMS that lacks Learning Experience Platform (LXP) capabilities risks becoming obsolete in an environment where user expectations are shifting rapidly. In a similar vein, an LMS and LXP that fail to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI)... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Oracle Summit 2025: Agentic HCM Moves from Hype to Hands On

Posted by Matthew Brown on 24 June 2025

I recently attended the Oracle Apps & Industry Analyst Summit in Redwood City, California. Over the course of two days, Oracle offered a concentrated look at a market that is both racing ahead and tripping over its own shoelaces. Generative, predictive and now agentic artificial intelligence (AI) have become the new currency of competitive advantage across HCM; Oracle alone has delivered more... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Workforce Planning Reimagined: AI Makes Forecasting Smarter

Posted by Matthew Brown on 17 April 2025

Workforce planning has long been a cornerstone of business strategy, yet many enterprises still approach it with outdated methods. Traditionally, it has been rigid, reactive, subjective and often siloed. But as industries evolve—especially those with high turnover and a large frontline workforce, like retail, healthcare and hospitality—companies must rethink how they forecast talent needs.... Read More

Topics: HCM, Human Capital Management, Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Total Compensation Management

isolved’s Bold Vision for HR Tech and Services: After the Summit

Posted by Matthew Brown on 15 April 2025

Attending isolved’s first Analyst Summit was more than just an opportunity to hear about their latest innovations—it was a front-row seat to their vision for the future of HR technology and services. A central theme emerged quickly—they are deeply committed to supporting small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), not just with technology but also with robust services and an ecosystem of partners that... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management

Skills vs. Jobs: Using Tech to Power Talent and Workforce Development

Posted by Matthew Brown on 26 March 2025

If you’ve ever held the same job title at two different companies, you know firsthand how misleading job-based approaches to work can be. I’ve had the same title across different organizations, and the roles couldn’t have been more different. The responsibilities, expectations and even the skills required varied so significantly that it made me question why we continue to define work through the... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Total Compensation Management

HiBob: A Modern HCM That Puts Culture and Simplicity at the Core

Posted by Matthew Brown on 05 March 2025

The HCM market has undergone a significant transformation in recent years. Legacy providers, long the dominant force, built their platforms primarily for administrative efficiency—streamlining HR processes but often overlooking the broader employee experience. However, today’s workforce expects more. Employees and managers now demand intuitive, engaging and connected HR experiences that extend... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management

HCM Market Agenda: A Focus on Experience and Engagement

Posted by ISG Research on 26 January 2023

Ventana Research recently announced its 2023 Market Agenda for Human Capital Management, continuing the guidance we’ve offered for two decades to help organizations derive maximum potential from workforce- and people-related technology investments and initiatives. In crafting this Market Agenda, we focused on three critical themes top-of-mind for both HCM vendors and buyers: Organizational... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, employee experience

The Mission of Human Capital Management for 2018

Posted by ISG Research on 28 February 2018

The HCM software market continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace. The innovations we’re seeing are exciting new features and capabilities, but many have more profound impacts: They provide organizations with more effective ways to serve their customers and enhance their experience. HR’s customers –employees, managers, retirees, candidates, leadership and external partners – can now access and... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Employee Engagement, Employee Productivity, HR technology, HCM Systems

USAN Integrates Management of Contact Centers and Communication Channels

Posted by ISG Research on 22 January 2017

Over the last few years the telecommunications and call center industries have undergone radical changes. Telecommunications was mainly in the hands of national and regional telecom companies, which essentially owned all the cables in the ground. The call center market was dominated by a small number of vendors that provided on-premises systems to manage and route calls when they arrived at a... Read More

Topics: Customer Analytics, Customer Engagement, Customer Experience, Speech Analytics, Employee Engagement, Analytics, Cloud Computing, Customer Service, Call Center, Contact Center, Contact Center Analytics, CRM, Text Analytics

CallMiner Advances Customer Engagement Analytics

Posted by ISG Research on 02 January 2017

Our benchmark research into the next-generation contact center in the cloud confirms what most people intuitively know – that consumers now engage with each other and organizations through more communication channels than a few years ago and that many of these are speech- and text-based. Companies are therefore generating large volumes of voice recordings and textual records. They contain vital... Read More

Topics: Customer Analytics, Customer Engagement, Customer Experience, Speech Analytics, Employee Engagement, Analytics, Cloud Computing, Customer Service, Call Center, Contact Center, Contact Center Analytics, CRM, Text Analytics

Zuora Empowers the Subscription Economy

Posted by ISG Research on 02 January 2017

Zuora provides software that supports the rapidly expanding subscription economy. I recently attended the company’s user event in London, called subscribe16. During his keynote speech CEO Tien Tzuo insisted that the subscription economy is not only here to stay but is likely to grow substantially. In the U.K. alone, he said, 40 million users are using subscription services, including 14 million... Read More

Topics: Customer Analytics, Customer Engagement, Customer Experience, Speech Analytics, Employee Engagement, Analytics, Cloud Computing, Customer Service, Call Center, Contact Center, Contact Center Analytics, CRM, Text Analytics

NICE Robotic Automation Improves Interaction Experience

Posted by ISG Research on 26 November 2016

Robotics is nothing new to some aspects of manufacturing and the IT industry, but it is relatively new in the customer experience (CX) market. The term often conjures up images of little gray machines taking over tasks previously handled by humans – machines making cars, programmed vacuum cleaners and the like. In the CX space, however, we are not talking about machines but about software that... Read More

Topics: Customer Analytics, Customer Engagement, Customer Experience, Speech Analytics, Employee Engagement, Analytics, Cloud Computing, Customer Service, Call Center, Contact Center, Contact Center Analytics, CRM, Text Analytics

Clarabridge Engages Customer Experience

Posted by ISG Research on 26 November 2016

Analysts have been talking and writing about a “360 degree” view of the customer for years. Our own benchmark research into customer relationship management shows that only37 percent of organizations are able to produce analysis and reports that yield such a comprehensive view. Other research into next-generation customer analytics reveals that the main issue in this area for nearly two-thirds... Read More

Topics: Customer Analytics, Customer Engagement, Customer Experience, Employee Engagement, Analytics, Cloud Computing, Customer Service, Call Center, Contact Center, Contact Center Analytics, CRM, Text Analytics

Oracle’s Larry Ellison Challenges Human Capital Management Market

Posted by ISG Research on 09 October 2014

This year Oracle OpenWorld conference opened with a fiery speech by Larry Ellison, who has stepped down from his role as CEO to become Executive Chairman and CTO. Filling his rhetoric with claims of market leadership and attacks on competitors SAP and Workday, Ellison set an aggressive tone for those who followed him. In a talk relevant to my research practice, Chris Leone, senior vice president... Read More

Topics: Mobile, Social Media, HCM, Human Capital Analytics, Human Capital Management, Core HR, Employee Engagement, Platform as a service, TM, Wellness, Analytics, Business Collaboration, Cloud Computing, Collaboration, Mobility, Oracle, HRMS, Talent Management, Social, PaaS

Cornerstone Improves Employee Engagement through Talent Management

Posted by ISG Research on 02 July 2014

Cornerstone OnDemand is a large pure-play vendor of talent management software, with more than 1,700 clients, more than 14.5 million users and more than 60 percent growth in revenue over the past 12 months. At the company’s annual customer conference this year, CEO Adam Miller talked about a trend in the market of talent management applications going beyond automating a series of processes to... Read More

Topics: Social Media, Human Capital Analytics, Human Capital Management, LMS, Employee Engagement, Employee Onboarding, Usability, Analytics, Business Analytics, Business Collaboration, Cloud Computing, Workforce Performance, Cornerstone OnDemand