ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives | Office of Revenue

It’s Not a Hiring Problem. It’s a Role Design Problem

Posted by Barika Pace on 07 May 2026

Revenue leaders entered 2026 under pressure to deliver predictable growth while navigating tighter budgets, higher expectations from finance and rapid adoption of enterprise artificial intelligence (AI). Many organizations are responding by slowing hiring or reassessing the size of their sales teams, even as pipeline targets and growth expectations remain unchanged. The result is a growing... Read More

Topics: Revenue Performance Management, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Stop Buying Sales Tools

Posted by Barika Pace on 30 April 2026

Revenue leaders entered 2026 under intense pressure to adopt enterprise artificial intelligence (AI), modernize their go-to-market operations and improve forecast accuracy at the same time. Many organizations are responding by adding new sales tools, AI assistants and workflow applications to an already crowded technology stack. The unintended consequence is that revenue teams often end up with... Read More

Topics: Subscription Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Everyone Says SaaS is Dying; My Pipeline Says Otherwise

Posted by Barika Pace on 14 April 2026

Over the past year a number of investors and commentators have begun using the term SaaS-Pocalypse to describe slowing growth rates, layoffs and consolidation across enterprise software providers. Here is the complication: Revenue leaders are hearing this narrative at the same time they are being asked to deliver more predictable growth with tighter budgets and greater financial scrutiny. And... Read More

Topics: Revenue Performance Management, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Conga Connect 2026: Why Connected Commercial Execution Is the Next Imperative

Posted by Barika Pace on 08 April 2026

Conga Connect 2026 underscored a shift that revenue leaders can no longer ignore. The core technology challenge facing commercial organizations is not a lack of tools, automation or even artificial intelligence (AI), but the growing fragmentation across the systems and teams responsible for moving deals from initial pricing through contract execution and into revenue realization. New research... Read More

Topics: Revenue Performance Management, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Why Revenue Execution Needs a New Stack Built for Motion

Posted by Barika Pace on 31 March 2026

Revenue Operations (RevOps) was supposed to unify sales, marketing and customer success into a single high-performance go-to-market machine. But for many organizations, it’s turned into another layer of complexity—more dashboards, more meetings, more disconnected tools pretending to collaborate. What’s worse, the metrics are lagging. Sales cycles are longer, buyer trust is thinner and even the... Read More

Topics: Subscription Management, sales engagement, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

ZohoDay Addresses the Tensions Facing CROs

Posted by Barika Pace on 12 March 2026

This year at ZohoDay 2026, the conversation did not center on product features, competitive positioning or even individual applications. Instead, it focused on a tension many CROs are already experiencing. Revenue leaders are being asked to deliver higher forecast confidence, manage margin pressure and incorporate AI into selling motions while simultaneously reducing operational complexity. The... Read More

Topics: Revenue Performance Management, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Beyond Commerce: Tech That Closes Revenue Gaps

Posted by Barika Pace on 04 March 2026

There is a growing disconnect between what digital commerce platforms were originally built to do and what modern revenue teams now need them to deliver. Most traditional platforms were designed to manage storefronts, catalogs and transactions. They perform well when the goal is to display products, enforce static pricing and process payments. But in today’s revenue environment, the challenge is... Read More

Topics: Digital Commerce, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Building a Revenue Strategy That Scales

Posted by Barika Pace on 19 February 2026

Chief revenue officers are being asked to scale growth at a time when revenue systems are under more strain than at any point in the past decade. Buyer journeys are longer and less linear, sellers are operating across an expanding set of digital and partner channels and revenue technology stacks have grown faster than the operating models meant to govern them. In this environment, revenue... Read More

Topics: sales engagement, Revenue Performance Management, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

A Data Pantry is the Foundation of AI-Enabled Business Software

Posted by Robert Kugel on 04 February 2026

I have been using the term “data pantry” (somewhat tongue in cheek) to describe a curated, governed and readily accessible collection of enterprise data that business users can draw on to support the use of core business software. This includes ERP, CRM and supply chain management software, as well as essential business processes such as analytics, forecasting and planning. This form of data... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Analytics, Digital Business, digital finance, Generative AI, Customers and CX - Business & Technologies, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies, Supply Chain and Operations, AI & Machine Learning

Closing the Talent–Tech Gap: A 100-Day Playbook for Modern CROs

Posted by Barika Pace on 21 January 2026

Revenue organizations are running out of room to hide. With increasingly complex buyer journeys, longer sales cycles and rising expectations for personalized outreach, today’s CROs face a mounting challenge: deliver predictable growth in a market that’s anything but predictable while simultaneously building a team that doesn’t burn out. ISG asserts that through 2027, more than one-half of... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance Management, Revenue Performance Management, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Ready for the Next Revenue Era? The CRO Stack That Will Define 2026

Posted by Barika Pace on 09 December 2025

Revenue leaders face a defining moment, which is why the time to define capabilities is now. As organizations brace for economic uncertainty, margin pressure and board scrutiny, the long-promised ROI of go-to-market technology is under intense evaluation. Sales productivity is declining, seller attrition is rising and CFOs are no longer tolerating technology bloat without measurable performance... Read More

Topics: Revenue Performance Management, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Why We’re Afraid To Let Machines Sell: 5 Imperatives for Preparing for the Age of Autonomous Commerce

Posted by Barika Pace on 18 November 2025

Autonomous commerce is no longer a distant prospect; it is actively transforming procurement systems, digital marketplaces and B2B revenue platforms today. Intelligent systems can now interpret buying intent, evaluate margin risk and negotiate terms with increasing sophistication. Yet, according to ISG’s State of Agentic AI Market Report, only 25% of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions operate... Read More

Topics: Revenue Performance, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Why the ‘Messy Middle’ for Office of Revenue Needs AI and Salesforce

Posted by Barika Pace on 06 November 2025

I attended Salesforce’s Dreamforce event in San Francisco to learn more about the company’s expanding vision for artificial intelligence (AI) and its newest capability, Agentforce Revenue Management. Salesforce has steadily evolved from being a CRM leader to positioning itself as an AI-first business platform. The introduction of Agentforce marks the company’s most ambitious step yet in... Read More

Topics: Subscription Management, partner management, Revenue Performance Management, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Why I Joined ISG and the Software Research Office of Revenue Practice

Posted by Barika Pace on 04 November 2025

I am excited to announce that I have joined ISG as Research Director for the Office of Revenue practice, where I will lead coverage across a spectrum of revenue, sales and product technologies that shape how organizations operate and engage customers, align go-to-market functions and operationalize growth. This includes CRM, Commerce, Partner Relationship Management (PRM), Product Experiences,... Read More

Topics: Subscription Management, partner management, Revenue Performance Management, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Oracle AI Direction for Business Applications

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 25 June 2025

Oracle, long known for its dominance in databases and enterprise software, has a new message for the business world: Artificial intelligence (AI) isn't just a technology trend, it's a business imperative. At the recent Oracle Industry and Application Analyst Event, company executives made their most compelling case yet for why non-technical executives should care about a deeply integrated tech... Read More

Topics: Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies