White Paper
Empowering the Lines of Business with Packaged Analytics Applications
Packaged analytic applications help line-of-business personnel at all levels of the organization improve the effectiveness of their business operations by providing accessible KPIs, metrics and related analytics to enable better and faster decision-making. Organizations have access to more data – not just data in one department, but from across the organization. As a result, line-of-business personnel can take action on information in the context of their business processes and are more confident and satisfied with their data and analyses. Also, they are able to answer strategic questions in addition to operational or transaction-based questions.
Viewpoint
How Changing Data Patterns Are Impacting Analytics
To take advantage of increasing data velocities, organizations must adopt architectures, tools and workflows that support automated and continuous analyses.
Analyst Perspective
Data Lakes Meet Data Warehouses
In this analyst perspective, Dave Menninger takes a look at data lakes. He explains the term “data lake,” describes common use cases and shares his views on some of the latest market trends.
Analyst Perspective
Uncovering Trends in Data Governance
Effectively managing data privacy and security is a high-stakes matter.
Analyst Perspective
You Can’t Plan on AI and ML
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are all the rage right now.
White Paper
Cloud-Based Architecture for Data and Analytics
Data and analytic workloads are moving to the cloud. Organizations need a flexible architecture to support hybrid, multi-cloud and on-premises deployments.
Analyst Perspective
Get Your Analytics and Business Intelligence Any Time
For analytics to be effective, they need to be available to line-of-business personnel as needed in their normal course of conducting business, which today means providing rich mobile access to analytics through phones and tablets to support a mobile workforce seeking to conduct business in any location at any time.
Viewpoint
Eliminating Bottlenecks in Analytics
It’s time to rethink analytics processes to minimize or eliminate roadblocks so that organizations can use data to make decisions more easily and more quickly.
VentanaCast
Modern Analytics in the Digital Age
Modern analytics should be delivered in a way that improves the digital experience and minimizes line-of-business dependence on IT resources. Cloud-based applications enable line-of-business functions to access analytics almost immediately and to access them regardless of their location.
Buyers Guide
Delivering Value with Packaged Analytics
All organizations are becoming data driven today. The key question is how to use your data to improve your bottom line. Organizations need to look beyond the data from a single department and instead combine data from across the organization (and from other external sources) to enable more thorough analyses and more accurate insights.
Analyst Perspective
Evaluating Analytics and BI Software Vendors’ Capabilities
Ventana Research has been evaluating analytics and business intelligence (BI) software for a long time—almost 20 years. Our methodology for these assessments is referred to as a Value Index.
VentanaCast
The Analytics to AI Spectrum
Analytics and artificial intelligence (or AI) are different. Both are valuable and your organization should have a plan to provide both types of capabilities, but don’t expect that AI-based analyses will be a natural extension of your traditional analytics activities.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle Day by Day earns our 13th Digital Innovation Award for Analytics
Ventana Research has awarded Oracle Day by Day its 2020 Digital Innovation Award for Analytics. This award recognizes the technology vendor that best exemplifies innovation in the application of analytics.
Analyst Perspective
Why Collaboration Matters in Analytic Processes
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.
eBook
Boosting Production Quality with Advanced Analytics
Manufacturers today recognize the relationship between production quality and the bottom line. Quality is integral to overall operational processes and yields. Increasing output without maintaining quality results in higher costs in the form of rework and scrap while potentially reducing yields.
Analyst Perspective
How to Take Advantage of AI/ML Today
The industry is making huge strides with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). There is more data available to analyze. Analytics vendors have made it easier to build and deploy models, and AI/ML is being embedded into many types of applications.
Analyst Perspective
The Ventana Research 2021 Market Agenda: How Digital Effectiveness Impacts Organizational Agility
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.
Analyst Perspective
The 2021 Market Agenda for Analytics: Converting Data Into Insights
Ventana Research recently announced its 2021 market agenda for Analytics, continuing the guidance we’ve offered for nearly two decades to help organizations derive optimal value from technology investments to improve business outcomes.
Analyst Perspective
Microsoft Azure: Cloud Computing for Data and Analytics
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Value Index for Analytics and Data Classifies and Rates Vendors
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: Analytics and Data 2021 is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research.
Analyst Perspective
2021 Analytics and Data Value Index: Market Observations and Perspective
Having just completed the 2021 Ventana Research Value Index for Analytics and Data, I want to share some of my observations about how the market has advanced since our assessment two years ago.
Analyst Perspective
Process Mining: Improve Execution and Operations with Analytics
Process-mining software isn’t exactly new, but it’s also not widely known in the software technology market. The discipline has been around for at least a decade, but is generating more interest these days with both specialist vendors and major enterprise software vendors offering process-mining products and services.
Buyers Guide
Analytics and Data 2021 Value Index
This report evaluates the following vendors that offer products that deliver analytics and BI as we define it: Amazon.com Inc., Board International, Domo, Infor, Information Builders Inc., IBM, Google LLC, Microsoft Corporation, MicroStrategy, Oracle Corporation, QlikTech, SAP, SAS, Sisense, Tableau Software, ThoughtSpot, Tibco and Yellowfin International.
Buyers Guide
Mobile Analytics and Data 2021 Value Index
This report evaluates the following vendors that offer products that deliver analytics and BI as we define it: Amazon.com Inc., Board International, Domo, Infor, Information Builders Inc., IBM, Google LLC, Microsoft Corporation, MicroStrategy, Oracle Corporation, QlikTech, SAP, SAS, Sisense, Tableau Software, ThoughtSpot, Tibco and Yellowfin International.
Buyers Guide
Embedded Analytics and Data 2021 Value Index
This report evaluates the following vendors that offer products that deliver embedded analytics and business intelligence as we define it: Amazon.com Inc., Board International, Domo, Google LLC, Infor, Information Builders Inc., IBM, Microsoft Corporation, MicroStrategy, Oracle Corporation, QlikTech, SAP, SAS, Sisense, Tableau Software, ThoughtSpot, Tibco and Yellowfin International.
White Paper
Supporting Line of Business with an Analytics Continuum
In practical reality, “analytics” comprises many types of analysis, including reporting, visualization, planning, real-time processes, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), and natural language processing. The analytics continuum must not only support these analyses, but it must also include the appropriate data management, metadata management and governance capabilities to support access to this information.
Analyst Perspective
IBM is Exemplary and Leader in Analytics and Data Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about IBM drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
MicroStrategy Earns Value Index Rating of Exemplary in Analytics and Data
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.
Analyst Perspective
TIBCO Information Builders is Named an Innovative Vendor in 2021 Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Qlik is Exemplary and Value Index Leader in Customer Experience for 2021 Value Index for Analytics and Data
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.
White Paper
Optimize Analytical Processing
Apache Spark and massively parallel processing (MPP) analytical databases are designed for different things. The first generation of “big data” architectures relied upon the distributed Hadoop and MapReduce framework for analytical processing. This framework provided a breakthrough in that it increased the amount of data that could be processed, but it operated in batch mode which limited its applicability for interactive analyses. Spark removed the batch processing limitation of MapReduce thus making interactive analyses on big data practical. It also provided capabilities for streaming analyses and machine learning, but it does not include its own persistent storage layer.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle Earns Innovative Vendor Rating in 2021 Analytics and Data Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Domo Rated Exemplary and Collaborative Leader in 2021 Value Index on Analytics and Data
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.
Analyst Perspective
Yellowfin is Innovative Leader in Mobile and Collaborative Analytics
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.
Analyst Perspective
Board International Gains Exemplary Vendor Ranking in Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
SAP Excels in Value Index for Analytics with its Customer Experience
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.
White Paper
Enhance Analytics Performance and Impact in the Cloud
Data is moving to the cloud. As cloud applications have been adopted, this has meant that many critical sources of data for analytics now or soon will live in the cloud. In fact, almost two-thirds (61%) of participants in our research reported that they already use cloud-based business applications as a source of data in their analytics, and the overwhelming majority of organizations (86%) expect that most of their data will eventually be in the cloud.
Analyst Perspective
SAS Rated with Assurance in Analytics and Data Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Salesforce Tableau has Assurance in 2021 Value Index on Analytics
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.
Analyst Perspective
2021 Value Index for Analytics Rates Microsoft with Assurance
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.
Analyst Perspective
Infor Gets Assurance Rating for Analytics and Data Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Sisense is Vendor of Merit for Analytics and Data Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
TIBCO Rated with Merit in 2021 Value Index in Analytics and Data
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.
Analyst Perspective
ThoughtSpot Earns Merit Ranking in 2021 Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Google is a Vendor of Merit in 2021 Value Index for Analytics and Data
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.
Analyst Perspective
Amazon is a Vendor of Merit in 2021 Value Index for Analytics and Data
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Value Index for Vendors Providing Analytics and Data on Mobile Devices
I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Value Index research, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Vendors Ranked and Rated for Embedded Analytics in Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Market and Value Index for Collaborative Analytics and Data
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.
Analyst Perspective
Using Event Data in Manufacturing to Improve Business Processes
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.
Analyst Perspective
Sisense Earns Analytics Digital Innovation Award for 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.
Analyst Perspective
Informatica Earns Data Digital Innovation Award for 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.
Analyst Perspective
Key Requirements for Building Analytic Applications
The ultimate objective of analytics in organizations is to improve operations with better, fact based decision making. But doing so requires that decisions are made within the proper context so they are relevant and accurate. This context includes the relevant data needed to perform the analysis, and this can come from many sources both inside and outside the organization.
Webinar
Evaluate Analytics and Data Vendors for Successful Outcomes
Gain insights on the analytics market and an understanding on how to successfully evaluate existing and potential new vendors.
Analyst Perspective
Sisu Optimizes Analytics with Machine Learning for Actions & Decisions
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Weak Link in Data Governance? Analytics
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.
Analyst Perspective
Alteryx Tackles Analytics Ops
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.
Analyst Perspective
Use External Data Platform to Improve Analytics
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, environmental data and location data as important external data sources.
eBook
Five Key Requirements of an External Data Platform
External data can be valuable to many organizations. It can enrich the internal data that an organization collects and analyzes about its customers, prospects and partners. Planning and operations teams can benchmark an organization’s financial or operational performance. And it can supplement machine learning (ML) analyses to produce more accurate models.
White Paper
Decoupling the AI/MLPipeline for Scale
Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are extremely valuable to organizations. Our research shows that AI/ML help organizations gain a competitive advantage and improve customer experiences, and have a direct impact on the bottom line, increasing sales and lowering costs.
Market Perspective
H2O.ai Enables Smarter Applications with Open-Source ML Platform
The artificial intelligence industry is unique in that it has evolved to the point of making dramatic impacts across other markets.
Analyst Perspective
Using Event Data in Financial Services to Improve Business Processes
Our research shows that nearly all financial service organizations (97%) consider it important to accelerate the flow of information and improve responsiveness.
Analyst Perspective
What Makes a Metric a KPI?
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.
VentanaCast
Expanding Your Analytics Audience
In an ideal world, all employees serving across all job functions would be able to access and analyze all the information they need with ease. Unfortunately, today most analytics technologies still require specialized skills and expertise. As a business intelligence industry we try to overcome these obstacles by making self-service analysis easier with improvements to the user interface and streamlined processes. But we know that analysis, by nature, is complex and requires data literacy and skills.
Analyst Perspective
Talend Data Fabric Simplifies Data Life Cycle Management
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.
Analyst Perspective
Analytic Ops: The Last Mile of Data Ops
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) and machine learning (ML), they are recognizing the need to adopt MLOps. The same desire for agility suggests that organizations need to adopt AnalyticOps.
Analyst Perspective
TIBCO Broadens Portfolio for Improved Analytics Efficiency
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, and more than 30 non-relational structured query language databases, relational database management systems and data warehouses.
Research Perspective
The Case for Buying vs. Building an Embedded Analytics Platform
For decades, analytics have been separated from the business processes they are intended to support, primarily because productivity tools and applications that help workers complete their tasks have required IT intervention.
Analyst Perspective
Data Platforms Landscape Divided Between Analytic and Operational
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 market has been segmented between products targeting operational workloads, and those targeting analytic workloads for almost as long as there has been a database market.
Analyst Perspective
Hydroanalytic Data Platforms Power Data Lakes’ Strategic Value
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 not enough to generate energy from that water. A hydroelectric power station is required to harness and unleash the power-generating potential of a lake or reservoir, utilizing a combination of turbines, generators and transformers to convert the energy of the flowing water into electricity. A hydroanalytic data platform, the data equivalent of a hydroelectric power station, is required to harness and unleash the intelligence-generating potential of a data lake.
Analyst Perspective
Couchbase Modernizing Relational Database Workloads
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 non-relational data models (key value, document, graph) rather than relational tables. As the various NoSQL databases have matured and evolved, many of them have added support for SQL terms and concepts, as well as the ability to support SQL format queries. Couchbase has been at the forefront of this effort, recognizing that to drive greater adoption of NoSQL databases in general (and its distributed document database in particular) it was wise to increase compatibility with the concepts, tools and skills that have dominated the database market for the past 50 years.
Analyst Perspective
MongoDB Accelerates Data Platform Cloud Adoption with Atlas
The need for data-driven decision-making requires organizations to transform not only the approach to business intelligence and data science but also accelerate the development of new operational applications that support greater business agility, enable cloud- and mobile-based consumption, and deliver more interactive and personalized experiences. To stay competitive, organizations need to prioritize the development of new, data-driven applications. As a result, many have been encouraged to invest in new data platforms designed to support agile development and cloud-based delivery. This is one of the factors driving the growth of MongoDB, and continues to drive the evolution of its document database into what is now described as a cloud-based application data platform.
Market Perspective
WANdisco Enables Data Resilience for Cloud Computing
Industry challenges from demand, to supply chain latency, to fulfillment have created significant impediments for retailers, vendors, suppliers and customers across the globe, without a clear end in sight. Organizations that use digital technology to access information that informs actions — or reactions — to situations that arise unexpectedly demonstrate better digital readiness.
Market Perspective
Emerson Earns Digital Leadership Award in Analytics with Domo for 2021
The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT.
Analyst Perspective
Reltio Connects MDM in the Cloud for Business
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 consistently and keep data definitions up to date. This increases the need to use master data management (MDM) software that can provide a single source of truth to drive accurate analytics and business operations.
Analyst Perspective
AWS Cloud Data Platform Services Expand Workload Placement Options
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.
Analyst Perspective
ThoughtSpot Enables Simpler Analytics with AI and NLP
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.
Analyst Perspective
Digital Business Market Agenda for 2022: Resilience and Readiness
With the announcement of Ventana Research’s 2022 Market Agenda, our expertise in Digital Business continues to advance the market need for effective investments into technology, and I will outline here the key areas of focus to provide insights to organizations that can increase their organizational resilience and workforce readiness. We are proud to provide expertise on ensuring technological effectiveness through our market research and experience in providing guidance on trends and best practices.
Benchmark Research
Analytics and Data Benchmark Research
Today’s world runs on data, so to succeed organizations must use analytics to understand, plan and improve their operations. Ventana Research is conducting benchmark research to understand how organizations apply analytics to data, producing information and enabling effective business decision-making.
Analyst Perspective
The 2022 Market Agenda for Analytics: Enabling Actions and Effective Insights
Ventana Research recently announced its 2022 Market Agenda for Analytics, continuing the guidance we have offered for nearly two decades to help organizations derive optimal value from technology investments in order to improve business outcomes.
Analyst Perspective
AtScale Universal Semantic Layer Democratizes and Scales Analytics
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.
Benchmark Research
Analytics and Data 2022 Benchmark Research Report
Organizations analyze the data they collect in a myriad of ways, providing insights and guiding decision-making through mathematics-based metrics. The resulting information can be distributed via traditional reports, visualized in a variety of displays, embedded in applications and increasingly is being used to drive artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. Today’s world runs on data, so to succeed organizations must use analytics to understand, plan and improve their operations.
Analyst Perspective
Improving the State of Analytics in Organizations
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).
Analyst Perspective
Natural Language Processing Enables Self-service Analytics & BI
Natural language processing (NLP) is a field that combines artificial intelligence (AI), data science and linguistics that enables computers to understand, interpret and manipulate text or spoken words. NLP includes generating narratives based on a set of data values, using text or speech as inputs to access information, and analysing text or speech, for instance, to determine its sentiment.
Analyst Perspective
Working Across the Aisle in Analytics: Involving IT and LOB
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 operating today and the results they are achieving, we can discern some of the best practices for improving the outcomes of analytics and data processes.
Analyst Perspective
Don’t Rely on Dashboards for Real-Time Analytics
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.
Analyst Perspective
Denodo Advancing Data Virtualization in the Cloud
Organizations have been using data virtualization to collect and integrate data from various sources, and in different formats, to create a single source of truth without redundancy or overlap, thus improving and accelerating decision-making giving them a competitive advantage in the market.
Analyst Perspective
Data and Analytics Processes: Can We Get Personal?
There is a fundamental flaw in information technology, or at least in the way it is most commonly delivered. Most technology systems are developed under the assumption that all people will use the system primarily in the same way. Sure, there are some options built in — perhaps the same action can be initiated by either clicking on a button, selecting a menu item or invoking a keyboard short-cut. The problem is that when every variation needs to be coded into the system, the prospect of providing personalized software programs to every individual is impractical.
Analyst Perspective
Kyvos Accelerates Business Intelligence in the Cloud
Our Analytics and Data Benchmark Research finds some of the most pressing complaints about analytics and BI include difficulty integrating with other business processes and flexibility issues.
Analyst Perspective
Domo Enables Real-Time Collaboration for Analytics
Organizations are constantly trying to streamline and optimize business data to solve complex problems and identify opportunities to increase revenue and accelerate business growth.
Analyst Perspective
Semantic Models Benefit Analytical Processes
I’ve never been a fan of talking about semantic models because most of the workforce probably doesn’t understand what they are, or doesn’t recognize them by name.
Analyst Perspective
Zoho Unifies Data and Analytics
Organizations are continuously increasing the use of analytics and business intelligence to turn data into meaningful and actionable insights. Our Analytics and Data Benchmark Research shows some of the benefits of using analytics: Improved efficiency in business processes, improved communication and gaining a competitive edge in the market top the list. With a unified BI system, organizations can have a comprehensive view of all organizational data to better manage processes and identify opportunities.
Analyst Perspective
Tableau Brings Business Intelligence to Business Users
Organizations are collecting vast amounts of data every day, utilizing business intelligence software and data visualization to gain insights and identify patterns and errors in the data. Making sense of these patterns can enable an organization to gain an edge in the marketplace and plan more strategically.
Market Perspective
Pyramid Analytics Earns Analytics Digital Innovation Award for 2022
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 that optimizes organizational resilience and workforce readiness.
eBook
Boosting Production Quality with Advanced Analytics
Manufacturers today recognize the relationship between production quality and the bottom line. Quality is integral to overall operational processes and yields.
eBook
The 2020 Vision: The Next Decade for Enterprise Analytics
To gain the full benefit of the insights analytics can deliver, organizations need to embrace a new approach, one that will make the analytics not only useful but meaningful to each individual whose work can benefit from them.
eBook
Five Key Requirements of an External Data Platform
External data can be valuable to many organizations. It can enrich the internal data that an organization collects and analyzes about its customers, prospects and partners.
eBook
Disrupt or be Disrupted: The High Stakes of AI Adoption
Explore the critical need for businesses to adopt AI or risk being left behind in a rapidly evolving landscape. Download the full eBook for insights.
Analyst Perspective
Expanding the Analytics Continuum: From Analysis to Action
I often use the term “analytics” to refer to a broad set of capabilities, deliberately broader than business intelligence. In this Perspective, I’d like to share what decision-makers should consider as they evaluate the range of analytics requirements for their organization.
eBook
Simplify your Data and Analytics Architecture for Faster Insights
Organizations face increasing competition and compressed time frames that require intelligent use of all available data.
eBook
Building a Business Case for Mobile Applications
Attaining the level of success your organization deserves today requires mobile applications that can enable workers to fulfill their role and responsibilities at any time and any place with smartphones and tablets.
eBook
Collecting and Managing IoT Data for Analytics
While the Internet of Things (IoT) may still be unfamiliar to many consumers, businesses are well aware of its potential. More than 90% of participants in our research said that IoT is important to their future operations.
Research Perspective
Moving from Batch to Event Streaming
Operations are continuous in most organizations today and so too is the data these operations generate.
Research Perspective
The Impact of AI on Finance and Accounting
Futurists and software vendors have been pointing to a day when artificial intelligence (AI) using machine learning (ML) will perform miracles such as providing life-saving diagnoses and recommending treatments for even rare diseases in seconds.
Research Perspective
The Case for Buying vs. Building an Embedded Analytics Platform
For decades, analytics have been separated from the business processes they are intended to support, primarily because productivity tools and applications that help workers complete their tasks have required IT intervention. Since the very purpose of analytics is to support operational and strategic decision-making, these applications need to be more closely associated with or embedded into the day-to-day activities of line-of-business workers to increase effectiveness.
Research Perspective
The Imperative for Integrated Planning
The purpose of planning is not planning; it is decision making. And the purpose of reimagining operational planning as a continuous, connected process is to deliver business value, making these processes faster, more agile and more intelligent so that contributors from across the organization can make better data-driven decisions faster and more consistently.
Research Perspective
Innovation Needed in Enterprise Mobility for Business
Mobile devices have become part of our lives. Two-thirds of the world’s population is connected via one of these devices and 2017 saw more than 5 billion mobile subscribers around the world, according to the trade organization GSMA.
Research Perspective
Gaining an Edge in Banking with Business Analytics
Business analytics today involves far more than reports and spreadsheets. But despite significant investments in business intelligence (BI) software, many midsize banks continue to operate with a limited set of analytic capabilities, focused largely on querying and reporting.
Research Perspective
Selecting a Platform for Enterprise Cloud Data Integration
Integrating cloud-based data with data inside the enterprise is increasingly important to many organizations, yet many rely on exporting data to spreadsheets and text files for this purpose. But these are outdated approaches that cannot provide either secure access or accurate data.
Research Perspective
Embed Analytics for More-Informed Decisions
Self-service analytics is a goal for most organizations, but in many cases it has not become a reality. Just two out of five organizations (40%) report that users can analyze data without the assistance of IT. Yet those who are able to operate without IT are both more confident in (77% vs. 44%) and more satisfied with (74% vs. 58%) their analytic abilities.
White Paper
Intelligent Automation in the Cloud
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has evolved considerably beyond its original purpose of automating routine tasks to become a core technology for the intelligent automation of all parts of an organization, from the front office to the back office.
White Paper
Optimize Analytical Processing
Apache Spark and massively parallel processing (MPP) analytical databases are designed for different things. The first generation of “big data” architectures relied upon the distributed Hadoop and MapReduce framework for analytical processing. This framework provided a breakthrough in that it increased the amount of data that could be processed, but it operated in batch mode which limited its applicability for interactive analyses.
White Paper
Intelligent Insights for Everyone, Everywhere
In today’s dynamic business environment, organizations cannot fly blindly and expect to succeed. There is a trove of internal and externally sourced data available to organizations that can and should be used to improve decision-making.
White Paper
New Approaches to Master Data Management
Accurate data is critical for business processes and operations. Billing customers, for example, requires accurate information regarding the product or service, prices, customer names and addresses and personnel authorized to use the product or service.
White Paper
Data and AI Governance for Trusted Insights
Analytics are critical to the efficient and effective operation of most modern organizations; to that end, trusted analytics require trusted data.
White Paper
Data Warehouses Meet Data Lakes
For decades, organizations have recognized the need to perform analyses that draw upon information from various parts of an organization.
White Paper
A Practical AI Strategy for FP&A
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) that harnesses machine learning (ML) will be the single most important trend in business software this decade because it can multiply the investment value of such applications and provide software companies an important source of differentiation to achieve a competitive advantage.
Viewpoint
Can Your Data Keep Up with Your AI and ML Efforts?
As data volumes and data velocities increase, more and more decisions involving that data are being made using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI and ML) technologies. However, operationalizing AI and ML models requires a dynamic, modern data architecture.
White Paper
Unlocking the Promise of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) have quickly become difference makers for organizations looking to develop a competitive advantage.
White Paper
Empowering Line-of-Business Employees with Packaged Analytics Applications
Line-of-business personnel in today’s organizations increasingly have high expectations for how they can use data as they carry out their responsibilities. They want contextual, role-specific information delivered to them at the optimal point of impact for the organization.
White Paper
Empowering Business Users with Self-Service Analytics
Due to the importance of workforce and financial insights to overall business operations, improvements an organization can make to the analytics capabilities within the Human Resources and Finance functions will have wide-ranging impacts for the entire organization.
White Paper
Cloud-Based Architecture for Data and Analytics
Organizations today increasingly are choosing to store their data and perform their analyses in the cloud. Our research finds that almost one-half (49%) of organizations are already using cloud-based analytics systems, and data is being migrated to the cloud with almost five in six organizations (86%) either relying on the cloud today or expecting to rely on the cloud in the future for storage of the majority of their data.
White Paper
Decoupling the AI/ML Pipeline for Scale
Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are extremely valuable to organizations. Our research shows that AI/ML help organizations gain a competitive advantage and improve customer experiences, and have a direct impact on the bottom line, increasing sales and lowering costs.
White Paper
Embracing Modern Data Governance Practices
For too long, data governance has been about preventing people from doing things with data. Yes, restrictions and controls over data are absolutely necessary and should be part of every organization’s information architecture.
White Paper
Key Requirements for Building Analytic Applications
The ultimate objective of analytics in organizations is to improve operations with better, fact based decision making. But doing so requires that decisions are made within the proper context so they are relevant and accurate.
White Paper
Why Data and AI Matter in Sales
Revenue growth is a key indicator of competitive success. This is a given, yet for many companies, competing successfully is becoming more difficult.
White Paper
Avoiding Cloud Data Cost Overruns
The anticipated benefits of cloud computing have encouraged organizations to accelerate adoption of cloud-based applications and services. Data and analytics are no exception, especially as more and more of an organization’s data resides in the cloud.
White Paper
Enhance Analytics Performance and Impact in the Cloud
This we already know: Data is moving to the cloud. As cloud applications have been adopted, this has meant that many critical sources of data for analytics now or soon will live in the cloud.
QandA
Moving Analytics to the Cloud
Dave Menninger of Ventana Research answers questions and shares research on the adoption of cloud-based analytics. He addresses the latest trends and best practices for helping organizations adopt cloud analytics including the role that AI and IoT play in the desire for organizations to move to the cloud.
Analyst Perspective
Qlik Advances Self-Service Analytics and Business Intelligence
The analytics and business intelligence market landscape continues to grow as more organizations seek robust tools and capabilities to visualize and better understand data. BI systems are used to perform data analysis, identify market trends and opportunities and streamline business processes. They can collect and combine data from internal and external systems to present a holistic view.
Viewpoint
Scalability and Flexibility Critical to the Modern Data Warehouse
Today’s fast-paced world requires responsiveness in all types of interactions with customers, prospects, partners and employees.
Viewpoint
The Digital Potential of Data Intelligence
The digital age of data has dramatically transformed organizations by providing the insights that are necessary to confidently make decisions and take action.
Infographic
Adopting Contact Center in the Cloud
Early telephony-based call centers were built using proprietary on-premises systems. As companies added additional channels of engagement, call centers evolved into contact centers. Today vendors are providing cloud-based contact centers that manage multiple channels of engagement and a variety of contact center management applications. These services are run outside the organization’s data center.
VentanaCast
Delivering Value with Packaged Analytics
All organizations are becoming data driven today. The key question is how to use your data to improve your bottom line.
Webinar
Webinar: Digital Age of Data Intelligence
The age of data is here, and all that data has become integral to an organization’s ability to grow and thrive. However, companies struggle with combining data science and technological advancements to establish data intelligence that is unified, sophisticated and impactful.
VentanaCast
Delivering Data and Analytics to HR and Finance
In many cases traditional data warehouses and analytics are so disconnected from the business applications that it is difficult to use them to make well-informed decisions.
VentanaCast
Expanding Your Analytics Audience
In an ideal world, all employees serving across all job functions would be able to access and analyze all the information they need with ease.
Webinar
Webinar: Evaluate Analytics and Data Vendors for Successful Outcomes
In this webinar, David Menninger, SVP and Research Director of Analytics and Data Research at Ventana Research, will share his insights on the analytics market and an understanding on how to successfully evaluate existing and potential new vendors.
Viewpoint
Give Business Analysts Better Choices for BI on Data Lakes
Big data is valuable. Our benchmark research shows that using big data analytics results in better communication, better alignment of the business, a competitive advantage, better responsiveness and decreased time to market.
Analyst Perspective
Embed Analytics for Greater Reach and More Responsiveness
When I looked at the state of analytics recently, it was clear that analytics are not as widely deployed within organizations as they should be. Only 23% of participants in our Analytics and Data Benchmark Research reported that more than one-half of their organization’s workforce are using analytics.
Analyst Perspective
Palantir Operationalizes Analytics and Data for Actions and Decisions
Organizations are managing and analyzing large datasets every day, identifying patterns and generating insights to inform decisions. This can provide numerous benefits for an organization, such as improved operational efficiency, cost optimization, fraud detection, competitive advantage and enhanced business processes. By bringing the right, actionable data to the right user, organizations can potentially speed up processes and make more effective operational decisions.
Market Perspective
The Benefits of Cloud Analytics are Winning Converts
With the increasing exodus from on-premises solutions, organizations are migrating towards cloud computing for data analytics. Cloud computing supports rapid growth, collaborative analysis and real-time insights without requiring large capital investments in IT infrastructure. A cloud-based approach to analytics can help organizations be more agile and responsive to opportunities in the market.
Analyst Perspective
Augmented Intelligence Reduces Dependency on AI/ML Skill Sets
Business intelligence has evolved. It now includes a spectrum of analytics, one of the most promising of which has been described as augmented intelligence. Some organizations have used the term to describe the practical reality that artificial intelligence with machine learning is not replacing human intelligence, but augmenting it. The term also represents the application of AI/ML to make business intelligence and analytics tools more powerful and easier to use. It’s this latter usage that I prefer and I’d like to explore in this perspective.
eBook
Information Requirements Across the Organization
Organizations need a broad range of analytics to make data-driven business decisions that give them a competitive advantage. But in the face of data complexity challenges, it can be a struggle to make sense of what’s actually going on across the business.
Analyst Perspective
Process Mining Improves Business Processes
Process mining is defined as the analysis of application telemetry including log files, transaction data and other instrumentation to understand and improve operational processes.
Analyst Perspective
Celonis Improves Business Processes with Process Mining
Celonis offers an execution management system platform to enhance business performance by locating and fixing process issues.
Market Perspective
MicroStrategy Expands Flexibility to Access and Embed Analytics and BI
MicroStrategy’s analytics and BI software turns data into analytical applications, delivering greater business intelligence through improved data solutions.
Analyst Perspective
MLOps: A Disciplined Approach That Increases Organizational Agility
MLOps helps streamline processes necessary to deploy and maintain artificial intelligence/machine learning models.
Analyst Perspective
Mind the Gap Between Data and Analytics
When organizations adopt best practices to connect their data and analytics efforts, it maximizes the value of the data and promotes peak performance.
White Paper
Essential Requirements for an Analytics Platform
Organizations collect vast amounts of data every day, utilizing business intelligence software and data visualization to gain insights and identify patterns and errors.
Analyst Perspective
IBM Builds on Analytics and BI Foundation
IBM’s analytics technology simplifies data access for self-service applications, producing business decisions informed by insights, not guesswork.
Market Perspective
Sainsbury’s Earns 15th Annual Overall Digital Leadership Award with MicroStrategy
Sainsbury’s earned the Ventana Research 2022 Overall Digital Leadership Award for its work with MicroStrategy to transform and democratize analytics.
Analyst Perspective
Sisense is Sensible for Embedded Analytics and BI
Organizations that bring self-service and embedded analytics to their workforce increase the value of their data and enhance overall productivity.
Market Perspective
BD Earns 2022 Digital Leadership Award in Analytics with ThoughtSpot
BD earned the 2022 Annual Digital Leadership Award in Analytics for using ThoughtSpot’s embedded analytics engine to advance insights into patient care.
eBook
Evolving Requirements for Embedded Analytics
The migration to cloud and hybrid platforms is changing the way organizations handle analytics.
Analyst Perspective
Recognize and Plan for the AI and Machine Learning Skills Gap
A lack of specialized skills prevents most organizations from utilizing AI/ML; the answer is to invest in both automated analytics and data scientists.
Buyers Guide
Analytic Data Platforms Value Index 2023
As organizations strive to be more data-driven, increasing their reliance on data as a fundamental factor in business decision-making, the importance of the analytic data platform has never been greater.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle Links Analytics and Business Intelligence in the Cloud
Oracle Analytics Cloud is a unified platform that manages analytics and business intelligence across multiple environments and devices.
Analyst Perspective
Master Metrics with Kyligence Zen
The Kyligence Zen platform creates and manages metrics in a semantic model, providing the discipline to improve analytics and governance processes.
Analyst Perspective
Make Intelligent Decisions with Decision Intelligence
Decision intelligence is an emerging concept for integrating business data to compare the implications, likelihood and risks of different scenarios.
Research Perspective
Agile Analytic Applications in the Cloud
Embedded analytics should be deployed as part of an approach that includes investments into technologies that make analytics easier to use.
Analyst Perspective
The 2023 Market Agenda for Analytics: Empowering Workforces to Engage
The 2023 Market Agenda for Analytics spotlights how organizations can utilize this high-value digital tool to drive performance and operations.
Analyst Perspective
Prevedere Provides Predictive Insights with Analytics and Planning
Prevedere planning software helps organizations create forward-looking predictive models that help mitigate risk and navigate market volatility.
Research Perspective
The Future of Automation in the Enterprise
There is great value to automating business processes, since manual processes can be error-prone and inefficient.
Analyst Perspective
Advanced Analytics Enable More Informed Decision-Making
Maximizing advanced analytics may require specialized skills, but the results add value to decision-making across the organization.
Analyst Perspective
Wiiisdom Automates Analytics Operations for Trusted Analyses
Wiiisdom offers analytics governance software to automate analytics operations, enabling a self-service culture while limiting risks.
Analyst Perspective
Hitachi Vantara DataOps Improves Analytics and Decision-Making
Hitachi Vantara DataOps streamlines and automates data management, data discovery and analytics for increased productivity and better decision-making.
Research Perspective
Automating Analytics Processes
In recent years, the data stack has evolved to be more scalable, flexible and responsive. But there is a disconnect between available technology and organizations realizing the benefits.
Analyst Perspective
Tellius Enables Decision Intelligence
Tellius’ decision intelligence platform aggregates and processes data from multiple sources to accelerate analysis, speed insights, improve decision-making.
Analyst Perspective
Sigma Computing Makes Cloud Analytics More Accessible
Sigma Computing makes data more accessible by providing a spreadsheet-like data exploration tool to analyze data from multiple data sources.
Analyst Perspective
Make Better Decisions with Collaborative Analytics
Technology to support collaboration enhances the decision-making process, enabling stakeholders to easily and effectively contribute.
Analyst Perspective
Large Language Models Take AI World By Storm
Large language models are the superpower behind generative AI but aren’t invincible when it comes to accuracy, bias detection or security.
Analyst Perspective
MicroStrategy World Showcases the Power of One Platform
MicroStrategy unveils a roadmap for new enhancements in core analytics, augmented intelligence and generative AI at the 2023 MicroStrategy One event.
Market Perspective
Aera Technology Earns Analytics Digital Innovation Award for 2023
Aera Technology’s single-platform approach to digital intelligence, Aera Decision Cloud, earned it the 2023 Analytics Digital Innovation Award.
Analyst Perspective
GoodData’s Embedded Analytics Democratizes Data-Driven Decisions
GoodData’s cloud-based analytics and self-service business intelligence platform enables users to explore, analyze and derive insights from data.
Analyst Perspective
Combining Scenario Evaluation with BI Delivers Better Decisions
Combining scenario evaluation with business intelligence applications aids driver-based planning capabilities critical to decision intelligence.
Analyst Perspective
Reversing the ETL Process Improves Data Operations
Reverse ETL applications work with data from the data warehouse to help organizations use the output of analytic processes more effectively in operations.
Buyers Guide
Analytics and Data Buyers Guide 2023
This research evaluates the following vendors that offer products that address key elements of analytics and data as we define it: AWS, Cloud Software Group, Domo, GoodData, Google, IBM, Idera, Incorta, Infor, insightsoftware, Microsoft, MicroStrategy, Oracle, Pyramid Analytics, Qlik, SAP, SAS, Sigma Computing, Sisense, Tableau (Salesforce), ThoughtSpot and Zoho.
Buyers Guide
Augmented Analytics Buyers Guide 2023
This research evaluates the following analytics and data vendors that offer products that include key elements of augmented analytics as we define it: AWS, Cloud Software Group, Domo, GoodData, Google, IBM, Idera, Incorta, Infor, insightsoftware, Microsoft, MicroStrategy, Oracle, Pyramid Analytics, Qlik, SAP, SAS, Sigma Computing, Sisense, Tableau Software, ThoughtSpot and Zoho.
Buyers Guide
Embedded Analytics Buyers Guide 2023
This research evaluates the following vendors that offer products that address key elements of embedded analytics as we define it: AWS , Cloud Software Group, Domo, GoodData, Google, IBM, Idera, Incorta, Infor, insightsoftware, Microsoft, MicroStrategy, Oracle, Pyramid Analytics, Qlik, SAP, SAS, Sigma Computing, Sisense, Tableau Software, ThoughtSpot and Zoho.
Analyst Perspective
Altair Accelerates Data Analytics with RapidMiner
With the addition of RapidMiner, Altair’s cloud platform offers an end-to-end solution to accelerate data analytics and scale AI/ML initiatives.
Analyst Perspective
Analytics and Data Buyers Guide 2023: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Analytics and Data Buyers Guide 2023 for Analytics and Data software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Analytics and Data Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Analytics and Data Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 22 vendors match buyers’ requirements for analytics and data software products.
Analyst Perspective
Augmented Analytics Buyers Guide 2023: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Augmented Analytics Buyers Guide 2023 for AI/ML software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Augmented Analytics Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Augmented Analytics Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 22 vendors match buyers’ requirements for AI/ML software products.
Analyst Perspective
Embedded Analytics Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Embedded Analytics Buyers Guide 2023 for analytics software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Embedded Analytics Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Embedded Analytics Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 22 vendors match buyers’ requirements for analytics software products.
Analyst Perspective
Collaborative Analytics Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Collaborative Analytics Buyers Guide 2023 for analytics software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Collaborative Analytics Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Collaborative Analytics Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 22 vendors match buyers’ requirements for collaborative analytics software products.
Analyst Perspective
Mobile Analytics Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Mobile Analytics Buyers Guide 2023 for Mobile Analytics software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Mobile Analytics Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Mobile Analytics Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 22 vendors match buyers’ requirements for Mobile Analytics software products.
Market Perspective
SAP is Exemplary in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates SAP.
Market Perspective
IBM is Exemplary in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates IBM.
Market Perspective
Oracle is Exemplary in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Oracle.
Market Perspective
Qlik is Exemplary in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Qlik.
Market Perspective
Domo is Exemplary in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Domo.
Analyst Perspective
Stream and Event Processing Require Real-Time Analytics
As the demand to process streaming data rises, data platforms and stream-processing frameworks offer support to enable real-time analytics.
Market Perspective
Salesforce Tableau is Exemplary in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Salesforce Tableau.
Market Perspective
Microsoft is Innovative in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Microsoft.
Market Perspective
Zoho is Vendor of Assurance in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Zoho.
Market Perspective
MicroStrategy is Innovative in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates MicroStrategy.
Market Perspective
SAS is Innovative in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates SAS.
Analyst Perspective
Alteryx Uses Generative AI to Enhance Analytic Operations
Alteryx incorporates generative AI into its analytics offering, accelerating analytic operations while maintaining discipline, governance, repeatability.
Market Perspective
Sisense is Vendor of Assurance in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Sisense.
Market Perspective
Idera is Innovative in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Idera.
Market Perspective
insightsoftware is Vendor of Assurance in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates insightsoftware.
Market Perspective
Pyramid Analytics is Vendor of Assurance in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Pyramid Analytics.
Market Perspective
Cloud Software Group is Vendor of Merit in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Cloud Software Group.
Market Perspective
AWS is Vendor of Merit in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates AWS.
Market Perspective
Google is Vendor of Merit in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Google.
Market Perspective
Incorta is Vendor of Assurance in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Incorta.
Market Perspective
ThoughtSpot is Vendor of Merit in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates ThoughtSpot.
Market Perspective
GoodData is Vendor of Assurance in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates GoodData.
Market Perspective
Infor is Vendor of Merit in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Infor.
Market Perspective
Sigma Computing is Vendor of Merit in Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Analytics and Data evaluates Sigma Computing.
White Paper
Modernizing the Contact Center with AI
Contact centers generate an enormous amount of data in the course of handling customer interactions.
Market Perspective
Crane Worldwide Logistics Earns Analytics Digital Leadership Award with Fivetran for 2023
Crane Worldwide Logistics earned the 2023 Analytics Digital Leadership Award using Fivetran to provide analytics insights delivered through data pipelines.
Analyst Perspective
Edge and Local Data Processing Growing in Importance
A growing number of data workloads support intelligent applications, requiring processing at the edge as well as on-premises data centers and the cloud.
Analyst Perspective
2024 Market Agenda for Analytics and Data: Automating Intelligence
The 2024 Market Agenda for Analytics and Data will explore smarter methods for using analytics and data effectively, providing insights to guide decision-making.
Analyst Perspective
Keebo Automates Cloud Data Warehouse Optimization
Keebo’s Warehouse Optimization automatically adjusts warehouse size, clustering and memory to optimize data warehouse performance and resource utilization.
Market Perspective
Skidmore College Earns Data Digital Leadership Award with SnapLogic
Skidmore College earned the 2023 Data Digital Leadership Award for its use of SnapLogic to simplify and secure the integration of data across applications.
Analyst Perspective
Explore Wide-Column Stores for Database Flexibility
Wide-column stores offer database flexibility because they are non-relational and data can be distributed across multiple nodes.
Research Perspective
Govern Your Analytics, Not Just Your Data
Data governance is incomplete without analytics governance. Analytics often contain some of the most valuable data an enterprise works with, looks at and distributes.
Analyst Perspective
InterSystems Smart Data Fabric Supports Intelligent Applications
Get smart about intelligent applications: InterSystems’ smart data fabric delivers analytic capabilities with streamlined access to multi-source data.
White Paper
Data Drives Business
Data is an extremely valuable asset to almost every organization, and it informs nearly every decision an organization makes.
Analyst Perspective
Couchbase Addresses Real-Time Analytics
Couchbase has added columnar storage, massively-parallel processing and generative AI to better support intelligent operational applications and real-time analytics.
Analyst Perspective
Zero-ETL Enables Real-Time Analytics on Single-Source Data
Accelerate data processing by using zero-ETL which automates processes to make data immediately available for analysis in specific use cases.
Analyst Perspective
Teradata Encourages AI and Analytics Experimentation
Teradata offers a serverless artificial intelligence and machine learning engine to encourage developers to experiment and explore AI use cases in a non-production environment.
White Paper
Enhancing Business Agility with Trusted Data Products
To improve business agility, enterprises need access to linked and comprehensive data that is available in real time and that they can trust to be valid, consistent and current.
Analyst Perspective
Data Intelligence: Fundamental to Data Architecture
Data intelligence is fundamental to providing data analysts and business users with governed self-service access to data across an enterprise.
Viewpoint
Using AI to Simplify Master Data Management and Trusted 360-Degree Views
Enterprises seeking to become more data-driven are recommended to examine the AI-enhanced data unification and MDM products.
Analyst Perspective
Data Pipelines Integrate Data Processing and Enable AI
Increasing the agility of data pipelines reflects the need for adaptability in DataOps to keep up with ever-changing business conditions and requirements.
Analyst Perspective
DataOps.live Enables the Development of Data Products
DataOps.live promotes data-as-a-product approach to make data broadly accessible to users inside and outside the business.
Analyst Perspective
Stibo Systems Facilitates Trust in Data With AI-Driven MDM
Stibo Systems is incorporating AI to automate mastering data, reducing manual and time-consuming processes while improving trust in the data.
Analyst Perspective
Data Orchestration Automates and Accelerates Analytics and AI
Data orchestration has the potential to automate and coordinate data workflows and increase efficiency and agility in data and analytics projects.
Analyst Perspective
GenAI has the Potential to Change the Face of Analytics
With GenAI, business users no longer need expertise in query languages or analytics and business intelligence tools to generate business value from data.
Analyst Perspective
Wiiisdom Improves Trust in Data With Analytics Testing and Governance
Wiiisdom’s analytics governance software is designed to improve trust in data by ensuring it is accurate, current and consistent.
Analyst Perspective
Dremio Enables Self-Service Analytics for the Data Lakehouse
With the addition of data lakehouse management capabilities, Dremio addresses the advantages of self-service analytics and artificial intelligence.
Analyst Perspective
Data Observability Improves Trust in Data for Decision-Making
Data observability helps increase trust in data by providing an environment for monitoring the quality and reliability of data pipelines.
Analyst Perspective
Google Advances Cloud Data Platforms and Analytics Services with GenAI
New natural language capabilities and GenAI-based assistance front and center on Google’s data platforms to improve data management, analytics.
Analyst Perspective
Data Operations Improves Trust in Data for Analytics and AI
Robust DataOps practices ensure quality, flexibility and reliability of enterprise data to support data-driven strategies and deliver analytic insights.
Analyst Perspective
Monte Carlo Addresses Performance as a Measure of Data Reliability
Automated data observability and pipeline performance tools from Monte Carlo help data-driven enterprises ward off data quality and reliability issues.
Analyst Perspective
Boomi Offers Innovation in API and AI
Boomi’s integration and data and API management capabilities improve productivity for integration experts and facilitate self-service integration by non-experts.
Analyst Perspective
Solace Shines for Event-Driven Integration
Solace’s event integration and streaming platform enables enterprises to manage and govern events and event-driven applications to enhance real-time business processes.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guides for Data Platforms Classifies and Rates Software Providers
Ventana Research offers market observations and overall results from the Data Platforms Buyers Guides for data platform software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Evolving Strategic Needs for Successful AI and ML
Enterprises need to understand the investment requirements necessary to benefit from GenAI and traditional artificial intelligence and machine language.
Analyst Perspective
Confluent Enables Enterprises to Operate in Real Time
Confluent’s new capabilities enable enterprises to convert streaming data topics and schema into tables for long-term storage and batch processing of historical datasets.
White Paper
Generative AI and Analytics
GenAI can improve data democratization and lower the barriers to business users and decision-makers working directly with data and analytics.
Analyst Perspective
IBM Provides Architectural Choice for Data Platforms
IBM’s watsonx.data platform supports complex data management requirements with flexibility to address a combination of functional and architectural options.
White Paper
Powering Business Success with AI
Many organizations are looking to software providers to embed analytics and AI capabilities into their applications. Discover more.
Analyst Perspective
Harness Events to Process Data at the Speed of Business
Forward-looking enterprises should upgrade their data architecture to include streaming and events for continuous management, processing, analysis of data.
Analyst Perspective
Snowflake Offers a Platform for AI as well as Data
Snowflake’s enhanced AI Data Cloud platform provides native support for AI workloads and GenAI models, and improves data management and governance.
Analyst Perspective
Data as a Product: Needs and Requirements
Enterprises can streamline and accelerate the delivery of analytics and data initiatives by adopting technologies that facilitate data as a product.
Analyst Perspective
Collibra Provides a Platform for Data Intelligence
Collibra’s Data Intelligence Platform offers a holistic view of data that increases trust and self-service access through advanced governance and cataloging.
Analyst Perspective
Fauna’s Data Platform Combines Agility and Transaction Integrity
Fauna combines the flexibility of the document data model with the consistency and query capabilities associated with relational databases.
Market Perspective
Salesforce Earns Analytics and Data Digital Innovation Award for 2024
Salesforce Earns ISG Research Analytics and Data Digital Innovation Award for 2024.
Analyst Perspective
Denodo Provides a Logical Approach to Data Management
Denodo’s logical abstraction of physical data sources allows enterprises to share access to and gain insight from data without data movement.
Analyst Perspective
The Increasing Importance of Open Table Formats
Open table formats are key to enabling multiple business intelligence projects, data science and operational applications in data lakehouse environments.
Analyst Perspective
Capital One Offers Cost Controls for Cloud Data Warehouses
Capital One Software offers its internally developed Slingshot data management product to optimize the cost containment and efficiency of Snowflake.
Analyst Perspective
Bigeye Enable Monitoring, Quality and Lineage of Data
Bigeye’s data observability software eliminates key challenge in generating value from data by monitoring data quality and reliability on a continual basis.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Data Intelligence Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Data Intelligence Buyers Guide for data intelligence software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Application Integration Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Application Integration Buyers Guide for data intelligence software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Data Governance Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Data Governance Buyers Guide for data intelligence software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Data Integration Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Data Integration Buyers Guide for data intelligence software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Data Quality Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Data Quality Buyers Guide for data intelligence software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Master Data Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Master Data Management Buyers Guide for data intelligence software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Analytics and Data Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Analytics and Data Buyers Guide for analytics and data software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Collaborative Analytics Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Collaborative Analytics Buyers Guide for analytics and data software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Embedded Analytics Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Embedded Analytics Buyers Guide for analytics and data software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for GenAI Analytics Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the GenAI Analytics Buyers Guide for analytics and data software products.
Analyst Perspective
Cloudera Enables Hybrid Cloud Data and AI
Cloudera’s recent acquisitions and product development have helped it facilitate a versatile and hybrid cloud approach to data management and AI workloads.
Analyst Perspective
MongoDB Enhances Developer Data Platform
Latest MongoDB developer data platform improves security, performance and availability features along with a focus on the development of AI applications.
Analyst Perspective
The Impact of the Cloud and AI on Evolving Data Platform Requirements
Cloud computing and artificial intelligence are driving evolution in the data platforms market to meet the needs of today’s business operations.
Analyst Perspective
Data Catalogs Serve Multiple Roles and Use Cases
Data catalogs provide a platform for metadata-driven data management that spans multiple departments and use cases across an enterprise.
Analyst Perspective
Databricks Scores Massive Funding Round, Continues to Expand Its Offerings
Databricks focusing on GenAI integrations, unifying data engineering processes, among other advances supported by massive funding round.
Analyst Perspective
Redpanda Lowers the Complexity and Cost of Streaming and Event Data
Redpanda lowers the barrier to adoption of streaming and events technology with its cost-effective, reduced complexity, scalable platform.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for DataOps Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the DataOps Buyers Guide for Analytics and Data software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Data Observability Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Data Observability Buyers Guide for DataOps software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Data Orchestration Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Data Orchestration Buyers Guide for DataOps software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Data Pipelines Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Data Pipelines Buyers Guide for DataOps software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Data Products Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Data Products Buyers Guide for DataOps software products.
Analyst Perspective
Agentic AI Reliability Requirements for Data
Discover the rise of agentic AI and its impact on enterprise efficiency, business growth, and the critical need for reliable data management.
Analyst Perspective
DataOps: Software for Operations and AI
Discover the top software providers for DataOps, Data Observability, Data Orchestration and more, as evaluated in ISG Research's 2024 Buyers Guides.
eBook
Unlocking Analytics Value and Tackling Sprawl
When analytics are easily accessible and searchable, it increases their value and adoption.
Analyst Perspective
Domo Enables Data Integration, Analytics and AI
Discover how Domo's platform integrates AI and data analytics to enhance business intelligence, streamline data processes, and improve collaboration across enterprises.
Analyst Perspective
Actian Enables Data Discovery and Data Intelligence
Actian supports data democratization and intelligence initiatives with data products that deepen understanding of data use and make data easier to consume.
Analyst Perspective
Alteryx Refines AI Platform for Analytics
Explore how Alteryx's AI Platform advances analytics with AI-driven data operations, enhanced hybrid cloud support, and robust AI capabilities for optimized business intelligence.
Research Perspective
Agility and Control with the BYOC Model for Data Infrastructure
BYOC offers a balanced approach, combining managed and self-managed cloud services, enhancing data control, security, and cost-efficiency for enterprise data workloads.
Analyst Perspective
Headless BI and Data Democratization Enables AI and Data-Driven Enterprises
Headless BI and metrics layers, supported by self-service access and GenAI interfaces, enable the data democratization needed for a data-driven enterprise.
Analyst Perspective
ThoughtSpot Delivers Democratized AI-Based Analytics
ThoughtSpot offers GenAI-first interfaces to democratize access to data across the enterprise.
Analyst Perspective
Informatica Embraces AI for Data Intelligence and Operations
Informatica has adopted DataOps capabilities, maximizing AI to ensure the quality, flexibility and reliability of data and analytics initiatives.
Analyst Perspective
The Symbiotic Relationship Between Data Governance and AI
Data governance processes help improve AI, while AI improves data governance by automating and accelerating manual processes.
Analyst Perspective
Data Lakes Meet Data Warehouses
In this analyst perspective, Dave Menninger takes a look at data lakes. He explains the term “data lake,” describes common use cases and shares his views on some of the latest market trends.
Analyst Perspective
Data in 2020: Ventana Research Agenda
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.
Analyst Perspective
Uncovering Trends in Data Governance
Effectively managing data privacy and security is a high-stakes matter.
Analyst Perspective
Five Modern Data Architecture Trends
I was recently asked to identify key modern data architecture trends.
Analyst Perspective
MicroStrategy World 2020
MicroStrategy recently held its annual user conference, which focused on the theme of the “Intelligent Enterprise.”
Videocast
Key Requirements for Today’s Modern Data Warehouse
Organizations today need to rely on data more than at any point in the past. This is because understanding the details of your business operations can mean the difference between success and failure.
Analyst Perspective
DataOps: Managing the Process and Technology
For decades, data integration was a rigid process. Data was processed in batches once a month, once a week or once a day. Organizations needed to make sure those processes were completed successfully—and reliably—so they had the data necessary to make informed business decisions.
Viewpoint
Scalability and Flexibility Critical to the Modern Data Warehouse
Today’s fast-paced world requires responsiveness in all types of interactions with customers, prospects, partners and employees. Organizations must be able to respond in the moment or risk missing the opportunity altogether. To do this, the systems and process an organization has in place must be agile enough to deal with the constant changes it faces. And, with the volumes of data that organizations process today, they must be able to access data in place to enable analysis and exploration without requiring the data be moved or copied.
Viewpoint
Improve Financial Services with Event Stream Data
Streaming data will be transformative to the future of financial services organizations. It can provide the critical, timely information needed to deliver world-class customer service, detect and prevent fraud, tie together disparate legacy systems or power new services and sources of revenue.
Viewpoint
Insurers Use Event Stream Data to Transform Services
Streaming data is transforming how insurance companies provide their services. It can offer critical information needed to underwrite risks with better information, detect and prevent fraudulent claims, deliver world-class customer service and tie together disparate internal legacy systems.
Viewpoint
Retailers Improve Performance Using Event Stream Data
Streaming data is transforming how retailers operate. Retail’s evolution from brick-and-mortar to omnichannel has provided organizations with better information about customer behavior while also increasing the expectations of consumers regarding their customer experience. Online and mobile applications have become the norm and shoppers now expect real-time information about inventory levels and prices along with personalized recommendations and offers.
Analyst Perspective
Diving Deeper into the Data Lake
A data lake is a centralized repository designed to house big data in structured, semi-structured and unstructured form.
Analyst Perspective
Molecula Earns Ventana Research 13th Digital Innovation Award for Data
Ventana Research has awarded Molecula its 2020 Digital Innovation Award for Data. This award acknowledges the technology vendor that best exemplifies innovation in data and associated technologies for supporting information management-related needs.
White Paper
Data Warehouses Meet Data Lakes
For decades, organizations have recognized the need to perform analyses that draw upon information from various parts of an organization. Product profitability analyses require production costs, selling costs and customer service costs.
Viewpoint
Cloud Migration Tips, Tricks and Traps
For a variety of reasons, organizations are moving their workloads to the cloud. Our research shows that one-third of organizations have their primary data lake platforms in the cloud and most organizations (86%) expect the majority of their data to be in the cloud at some point in the future.
Analyst Perspective
Emerging Data Platforms Tackle Big Challenges
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.
Analyst Perspective
Snowflake Builds on Its Success
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.
Analyst Perspective
Tableau and Salesforce bring New Look to Business Analytics
Businesses are transforming their organizations, building a data culture and deploying sophisticated analytics more broadly than ever.
Analyst Perspective
Cloudera Consolidates Its Data Platform
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.
Analyst Perspective
Introducing Precisely for Data Integrity
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Ventana Research 2021 Market Agenda: How Digital Effectiveness Impacts Organizational Agility
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.
Analyst Perspective
Data in 2021: Ventana Research Market Agenda
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.
Analyst Perspective
Informatica Continues to Evolve Data Management Platform
Organizations are accelerating their digital transformation and looking for innovative ways to engage with customers in this new digital era of data management.
Analyst Perspective
Dataiku Streamlines AI/ML
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).
Buyers Guide
Analytics and Data 2021 Value Index
This report evaluates the following vendors that offer products that deliver analytics and BI as we define it: Amazon.com Inc., Board International, Domo, Infor, Information Builders Inc., IBM, Google LLC, Microsoft Corporation, MicroStrategy, Oracle Corporation, QlikTech, SAP, SAS, Sisense, Tableau Software, ThoughtSpot, Tibco and Yellowfin International.
Buyers Guide
Mobile Analytics and Data 2021 Value Index
This report evaluates the following vendors that offer products that deliver analytics and BI as we define it: Amazon.com Inc., Board International, Domo, Infor, Information Builders Inc., IBM, Google LLC, Microsoft Corporation, MicroStrategy, Oracle Corporation, QlikTech, SAP, SAS, Sisense, Tableau Software, ThoughtSpot, Tibco and Yellowfin International.
Buyers Guide
Embedded Analytics and Data 2021 Value Index
This report evaluates the following vendors that offer products that deliver embedded analytics and business intelligence as we define it: Amazon.com Inc., Board International, Domo, Google LLC, Infor, Information Builders Inc., IBM, Microsoft Corporation, MicroStrategy, Oracle Corporation, QlikTech, SAP, SAS, Sisense, Tableau Software, ThoughtSpot, Tibco and Yellowfin International.
Analyst Perspective
Incorta Streamlines Analytics with Direct Data Access
The amount of data flowing into organizations is growing exponentially, creating a need to process more data more quickly than ever before.
Analyst Perspective
DataRobot Automates and Simplifies AI/ML
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 produce and compare dozens of models.
Analyst Perspective
Why Your Data Lake Needs Bad Data
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.
Viewpoint
Time to Take Another Look at MDM
Master data management (MDM) as a discipline has been around for decades. And MDM software has been evolving over time to help organizations meet their changing data requirements. But if your understanding of MDM software is even a little bit dated, it’s time to take another look. The early days of MDM were not even about MDM software, because applications dedicated to the purpose hadn’t yet evolved. Let’s unpack the history.
Analyst Perspective
Alation Helps Organizations Get More Value From Data
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.
Viewpoint
Better Insights with External Data
External data can be valuable to many organizations for a variety of reasons. It can be used by planning and operations teams to benchmark an organization’s financial or operational performance. It can enrich the data an organization collects and analyzes about its customers, prospects and partners. It can augment machine learning analyses to produce more accurate models. For the CPG and retail sectors, demographic data is essential to understanding customers’ buying behaviors. In financial services, market data and economic indicators are essential to formulating financial strategies. For insurers, weather and geospatial data can be essential to minimizing claims from damaging storms.
Analyst Perspective
Teradata Expands Vantage Enterprise Data Platform
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.
eBook
Modern MDM Requirements
Master data management (MDM) is critical to ensuring that your organization has the clean, consistent data needed to operate efficiently and effectively. Excellent customer experiences and effective omnichannel engagement often depend on enrichment with third-party data and accurate identity resolution of interactions from any point of engagement.
VentanaCast
Delivering Data and Analytics to HR and Finance
Human Resources and Finance are critical business functions. Engaging with the analytics associated with these areas will help improve business operations, but in many cases traditional data warehouses and analytics are so disconnected from the business applications that it is difficult to use them to make well-informed decisions. Organizations can provide a better, more modern approach that enables more efficient analytics in their HR and finance applications that will help the organization meet its objectives.
Analyst Perspective
Innovit Named a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
White Paper
Embracing Modern Data Governance Practices
For too long, data governance has been about preventing people from doing things with data. Yes, restrictions and controls over data are absolutely necessary and should be part of every organization’s information architecture. These controls are necessary to protect the privacy of individuals and comply with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, CPRA and others.
Analyst Perspective
Confluent Helps Organizations Tackle Streaming Data
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.
White Paper
Avoiding Cloud Data Cost Overruns
The anticipated benefits of cloud computing have encouraged organizations to accelerate adoption of cloud-based applications and services. Data and analytics are no exception, especially as more and more of an organization’s data resides in the cloud.
eBook
Simplify your Data and Analytics Architecture for Faster Insights
Master data management (MDM) is critical to ensuring that your organization has the clean, consistent data needed to operate efficiently and effectively. Excellent customer experiences and effective omnichannel engagement often depend on enrichment with third-party data and accurate identity resolution of interactions from any point of engagement.
Analyst Perspective
Rapidminer Platform Supports Entire Data Science Lifecycle
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.
Analyst Perspective
Collibra Brings Effective Data Governance to Line-of-Business
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.
White Paper
The Digital Age of Data Intelligence
The age of data is here, and the value of all that data to organizations continues to increase. Data has, in fact, become integral to an organization’s ability to grow and thrive. So, it is essential that organizations tap into every available source of information that might help gain insight into operations.
Analyst Perspective
The Weak Link in Data Governance? Analytics
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.
Infographic
DATA GOVERNANCE Doesn’t Have to Be Hard
For years data governance has been challenging for organizations. There have been too many different data-related technologies to manage and too many manual processes involved. As a result, data governance policies were restrictive and interfered with the ability for individuals to work with data.
Analyst Perspective
Data Virtualization Brings Data Together Quickly and Easily
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.
Analyst Perspective
Use External Data Platform to Improve Analytics
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, environmental data and location data as important external data sources.
Market Perspective
Solace Event-Driven Architecture Enables Hybrid Cloud Computing
When you think about it, events are at the very core of computing, right down to the simplest if-then operation in a spreadsheet. Each event leads to a set of choices, often binary, which then become events in themselves.
Analyst Perspective
Databricks Lakehouse Platform Streamlines Big Data Processing
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.
Market Perspective
Virtualizing Data Architectures for Hybrid Cloud-Computing
The virtualization of business and the evolution of digital transformation to applications and systems that operate in cloud computing — or the “as-a-service” environment — has fragmented enterprise and data architectures.
Webinar
Digital Age of Data Intelligence: Five Steps to Optimize Your Revenue Potential
The age of data is here, and all that data has become integral to an organization’s ability to grow and thrive. However, companies struggle with combining data science and technological advancements to establish data intelligence that is unified, sophisticated and impactful.
VentanaCast
Data in Motion
The availability of real-time data is changing the way we live and the types of systems we build. Organizations need more immediacy in their operations. Nearly half the participants in our Internet of Things research study indicated that it was essential to their organization to process event data in seconds or sub-seconds. Another fifth (21%) said they consider processing time measured in no more than minutes essential. The research also shows that more than nine in 10 organizations view speeding the flow of information to customers or consumers as crucial.
Analyst Perspective
Google Cloud Advances to Multi-Cloud
Enterprises looking to adopt cloud-based data processing and analytics face a disorienting array of data storage, data processing, data management and analytics offerings.
Market Perspective
Domino Manages Data Science Life Cycle
With more and more data available to analyze, organizations are realizing the value that sophisticated analyses using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) can provide. The benefits of these analyses are significant: our Dynamic Insights research on machine learning finds that organizations most often benefit through competitive advantage, but also improved customer experiences, increased sales, the ability to respond quickly to opportunities in the market, and lower costs. However, the need for specialized skills to deploy AI/ML models can stall data science initiatives. An organization’s efforts to scale data science and apply models are often complicated by a lack of self-service access to infrastructure, tools and data.
Analyst Perspective
Blockchains for Medical Identity Management Face Challenges
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.
Analyst Perspective
Cockroach Labs Brings Developers and Serverless Database Together
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 architecturally and functionally differentiated from both the traditional relational incumbents (in terms of global scalability) and the NoSQL providers (in terms of the relational model and transactional consistency). Having differentiated functionality is the bare minimum a new database vendor needs to make itself known in a such a crowded market, however.
Analyst Perspective
The Potential for Hybrid and Multicloud Platforms to Safeguard Data
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 Analytics and Data Benchmark Research are using cloud computing for analytics and data, of which 42% are currently using more than one cloud provider.
VentanaCast
Current Data Market Trends
Data Catalogs are fundamentally changing the way organizations think about and manage their data.
Market Perspective
Kyligence Brings Simplification to Data Processes for Analytics
Data platforms are designed to manage and analyze big data, enabling organizations to leverage their data to operate with greater efficiency across on-premises, hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Our Analytics and Data Benchmark Research finds that while 58% are using big data in their analytics processes, less than one quarter (23%) are satisfied with their technology’s support for big data. Looking at the statistics, it is safe to say that organizations have been slow to adopt modern technology that was built to help manage and organize big data so that it can be used for analysis. With advancements in technology, organizations are now able to provide a platform that makes it easier for line of business workers to access and analyze big data.
Market Perspective
Chewy Earns Digital Leadership Award in Data with Alation for 2021
The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.
Market Perspective
Semarchy Brings Master Data Management to Line-of-Business Users
Digital transformation efforts are widespread, with most organizations focusing on the innovative use of data. Business users demand real-time, integrated analytics deployed through a unified platform with built-in machine learning (ML) that delivers the highest level of performance at massive scale. While beneficial for its strategic insights, extensive data analysis conducted by line-of-business users across the organization brings challenges: operational inefficiencies, regulatory compliance, data protection and data accuracy.
Analyst Perspective
Digital Business Market Agenda for 2022: Resilience and Readiness
With the announcement of Ventana Research’s 2022 Market Agenda, our expertise in Digital Business continues to advance the market need for effective investments into technology, and I will outline here the key areas of focus to provide insights to organizations that can increase their organizational resilience and workforce readiness. We are proud to provide expertise on ensuring technological effectiveness through our market research and experience in providing guidance on trends and best practices.
Analyst Perspective
Managing Data Effectively in 2022: Ventana Research Market Agenda
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.
Benchmark Research
Analytics and Data Benchmark Research
Today’s world runs on data, so to succeed organizations must use analytics to understand, plan and improve their operations. Ventana Research is conducting benchmark research to understand how organizations apply analytics to data, producing information and enabling effective business decision-making.
Analyst Perspective
Hybrid Data Processing Use Cases
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 worker-, customer- and partner-facing operational applications.
Benchmark Research
Analytics and Data 2022 Benchmark Research Report
Organizations analyze the data they collect in a myriad of ways, providing insights and guiding decision-making through mathematics-based metrics. The resulting information can be distributed via traditional reports, visualized in a variety of displays, embedded in applications and increasingly is being used to drive artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. Today’s world runs on data, so to succeed organizations must use analytics to understand, plan and improve their operations.
Analyst Perspective
Incorta Unifies Data Processing to Accelerate Analytics & BI
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.
Analyst Perspective
Good Data Governance Improves Business Processes
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.
Analyst Perspective
Data Observability is Key to Ensuring Healthy Data Pipelines
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 station.
Analyst Perspective
Bigeye Provides Visibility into Data Reliability
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 may do more harm than good.
Analyst Perspective
Evolving NoSQL Database Functionality Fuels Adoption
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 relational database providers, while all the major cloud providers and relational database giants now also have NoSQL database offerings.
Analyst Perspective
Explorium Improves Machine Learning Models With External Data
Today, organizations understand the importance of good external data that can be integrated with internal data to train machine learning models. Our Machine Learning Dynamic Insights research showed that external data adds a significant value in gaining competitive advantage, improving customer experience and increasing sales. But getting the right external data for a particular requirement is not always easy. Internal data is usually not enough to train different models because of its narrow scope of usage and lack of relevance. Manual data acquisition methods are resource-intensive and can take weeks or months to get the data ready to feed into models.
Analyst Perspective
Expanded NoSQL Use Cases Deserve a Second Look
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 databases are potentially viable.
Analyst Perspective
Looker Simplifies Business Intelligence in the Cloud
Organizations face various challenges with analytics and business intelligence processes, including data curation and modeling across disparate sources and data warehouses, maintaining data quality and ensuring security and governance.
Analyst Perspective
Yellowbrick Paves the Way to Distributed Cloud
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Benefits of Data Mesh Extend to Organizational and Cultural Change
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 an organizational and cultural approach to data ownership, access and governance. Adopting data mesh requires cultural and organizational change. Data mesh promises multiple benefits to organizations that embrace this change, but doing so may be far from easy.
Analyst Perspective
Starburst Accelerates Analysis of Distributed Data
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.
Market Perspective
Alteryx Accelerates Trifacta Push to Make Big Data Manageable
Improving the quality of information is cited by organizations as the leading benefit of data preparation activities. Data quality efforts are focused on clean data, but increasingly, the importance of bad data is also recognized. To be more accurate, the original data as recorded by an organization’s various devices and systems is important. To fully perform data preparation, organizations must know what data exists – both good and bad.
Analyst Perspective
Regional Attitudes to Data Governance and Regulatory Compliance
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.
Analyst Perspective
Real-Time Data Processing Requires More Agile Data Pipelines
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 organizations adapt data management processes to be more data driven.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle Positions to Address Any and All Data Platform Needs
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.
Market Perspective
Vertica Unifies Analytics and Business Intelligence at Scale
Organizations face a variety of data and analytics challenges resulting from growth and increased scale. Multiple tools and techniques are needed to derive value from various databases. But, adding more systems means adding more complexities, which can slow operations and add costs for maintaining additional systems. SQL databases have been very popular among organizations for storing and managing data. These databases enable workers to manage and analyze massive volumes of data quickly and reliably.
Analyst Perspective
Yugabyte Targets Developers to Accelerate Distributed SQL Database Adoption
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.
Analyst Perspective
Are Serverless Databases the Best Fit for Your Organization?
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 consumption models.
Analyst Perspective
Accelerate Business Outcomes with Immuta Data Access Governance
The data governance landscape is growing rapidly. Organizations handling vast amounts of data face multiple challenges as more regulations are added to govern sensitive information. Adoption of multi-cloud strategies increases governance concerns with new data sources that are accessed in real time.
Analyst Perspective
SingleStore Positions Hybrid Data Processing for Data Intensity
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 applications infused with personalization and artificial intelligence-driven recommendations. These applications can be used to improve customer service; engagement, detect and prevent fraud; and increase operational efficiency. Several database providers now offer hybrid data processing capabilities to support these application requirements. One of the vendors addressing this opportunity is SingleStore.
Analyst Perspective
Disentangling and Demystifying Data Mesh and Data Fabric
For many organizations, new technological investment and evolution will be required to facilitate adoption of data mesh. Meanwhile, the concept of the data fabric, a technology-driven approach to managing and governing data across distributed environments, is rising in popularity.
Analyst Perspective
MariaDB Offers One Database for All Workloads
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 general-purpose databases that could be used for both analytic and operational workloads, with tuning and extensions to meet the specific requirements of each.
Benchmark Research
Data Governance 2022 Benchmark Research Report
Data governance has always been a critical part of the data and analytics landscape but was for many years seen as a preventative function that was designed to limit access to data to ensure compliance with security and data privacy requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Dremio Embraces Data Lakehouse with Cloud Launch
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.
Analyst Perspective
Ahana Offers Managed-Services Approach to Simplify Presto Adoption
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.
Analyst Perspective
TigerGraph Promotes Graph Database for Data Science with ML Workbench
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 recommendation engines, since the graph data model represents the entities and values and also the relationships between them. The native representation of relationships can also be significant in surfacing “features” for use in machine learning modeling. There has been a concerted effort in recent years by graph database providers, including TigerGraph, to encourage and facilitate the use of graph databases by data scientists to support the development, testing and deployment of machine learning models.
Analyst Perspective
Data Governance, Then and Now
We’ve recently published our latest Benchmark Research on Data Governance and it’s fair to say, “you’ve come a long way, baby.” Many of you reading this weren’t around when that phrase was introduced in 1968 to promote Virginia Slims cigarettes, but you may have heard the phrase because it went on to become a part of popular culture. We’ve learned a lot about cigarettes since then, and we’ve learned a lot about data governance, too.
Analyst Perspective
Data-Driven Agenda for Organizations
In this Analyst Perspective, I will outline the four key traits that I believe are required for a company to be considered data-driven.
Analyst Perspective
DataStax Provides a Platform for Data in Motion and at Rest
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 the proliferation of open-source streaming data and event technologies, which have lowered the cost and technical barriers to developing new applications that take advantage of data in motion.
eBook
Modern MDM Requirements
Master data management (MDM) is critical to ensuring that your organization has the clean, consistent data needed to operate efficiently and effectively.
Market Perspective
MongoDB Earns Data Digital Innovation Award for 2022
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 that optimizes organizational resilience and workforce readiness.
Analyst Perspective
Neo4j Expands Data Science Focus with New Managed Service
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.
eBook
Simplify your Data and Analytics Architecture for Faster Insights
Organizations face increasing competition and compressed time frames that require intelligent use of all available data.
eBook
Future-Proof Your Data Lake Environment
Data lakes can provide organizations significant value and help them improve their business processes.
eBook
Collecting and Managing IoT Data for Analytics
While the Internet of Things (IoT) may still be unfamiliar to many consumers, businesses are well aware of its potential. More than 90% of participants in our research said that IoT is important to their future operations.
Research Perspective
External Data Is Valuable. Now What?
As organizations become more sophisticated in the use of data, the integration of external data grows in importance and frequency.
Viewpoint
Five Factors Driving Data-Intensive Information Architectures
Digital transformation is driving organizations to become much more data intensive. Organizations now process information from an increasing number of internal and external sources. There are many more devices generating information, including IoT sensors.
Viewpoint
The Distributed Cloud Requires a Distributed Data Platform
Adoption of cloud and edge computing infrastructure has brought many benefits to organizations of all sizes. It has improved business agility by reducing the need for upfront purchasing, configuration and deployment of infrastructure, and reduced the complexity and cost of data movement by taking data processing closer to where the data is generated.
Research Perspective
Moving from Batch to Event Streaming
Operations are continuous in most organizations today and so too is the data these operations generate.
Research Perspective
Embed Analytics for More-Informed Decisions
Self-service analytics is a goal for most organizations, but in many cases it has not become a reality. Just two out of five organizations (40%) report that users can analyze data without the assistance of IT. Yet those who are able to operate without IT are both more confident in (77% vs. 44%) and more satisfied with (74% vs. 58%) their analytic abilities.
White Paper
Optimize Analytical Processing
Apache Spark and massively parallel processing (MPP) analytical databases are designed for different things. The first generation of “big data” architectures relied upon the distributed Hadoop and MapReduce framework for analytical processing. This framework provided a breakthrough in that it increased the amount of data that could be processed, but it operated in batch mode which limited its applicability for interactive analyses.
White Paper
Intelligent Insights for Everyone, Everywhere
In today’s dynamic business environment, organizations cannot fly blindly and expect to succeed. There is a trove of internal and externally sourced data available to organizations that can and should be used to improve decision-making.
White Paper
Data Drives Business
Data is an extremely valuable asset to almost every organization, and it informs nearly every decision an organization makes.
White Paper
Making Big Data Valuable
Big data, the massive amounts of data that today’s organizations collect, store and analyze, can be valuable in many places and many ways.
White Paper
New Approaches to Master Data Management
Accurate data is critical for business processes and operations. Billing customers, for example, requires accurate information regarding the product or service, prices, customer names and addresses and personnel authorized to use the product or service.
White Paper
Data and AI Governance for Trusted Insights
Analytics are critical to the efficient and effective operation of most modern organizations; to that end, trusted analytics require trusted data. Inaccurate and untrustworthy data means organizations cannot rely on the analyses produced using that data.
White Paper
Data Warehouses Meet Data Lakes
For decades, organizations have recognized the need to perform analyses that draw upon information from various parts of an organization.
White Paper
Unlocking the Business Value of the Data Lake
Data lakes have enormous potential as a source of business intelligence when included as part of an advanced open data architecture.
White Paper
Cloud-Based Architecture for Data and Analytics
Organizations today increasingly are choosing to store their data and perform their analyses in the cloud. Our research finds that almost one-half (49%) of organizations are already using cloud-based analytics systems, and data is being migrated to the cloud with almost five in six organizations (86%) either relying on the cloud today or expecting to rely on the cloud in the future for storage of the majority of their data.
White Paper
Decoupling the AI/ML Pipeline for Scale
Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are extremely valuable to organizations. Our research shows that AI/ML help organizations gain a competitive advantage and improve customer experiences, and have a direct impact on the bottom line, increasing sales and lowering costs.
White Paper
Embracing Modern Data Governance Practices
For too long, data governance has been about preventing people from doing things with data. Yes, restrictions and controls over data are absolutely necessary and should be part of every organization’s information architecture.
White Paper
Avoiding Cloud Data Cost Overruns
The anticipated benefits of cloud computing have encouraged organizations to accelerate adoption of cloud-based applications and services. Data and analytics are no exception, especially as more and more of an organization’s data resides in the cloud.
White Paper
Enhance Analytics Performance and Impact in the Cloud
Data is moving to the cloud. As cloud applications have been adopted, this has meant that many critical sources of data for analytics now or soon will live in the cloud. In fact, almost two-thirds (61%) of participants in our research reported that they already use cloud-based business applications as a source of data in their analytics, and the overwhelming majority of organizations (86%) expect that most of their data will eventually be in the cloud.
Analyst Perspective
Ascend.io Automates Data Engineering
Data engineers, who are responsible for monitoring, managing and maintaining data pipelines, are under increasing pressure to deliver high-performance and flexible data integration and processing pipelines that are capable of handling the rising volume and frequency of data. Automation is a potential solution to this challenge, and several vendors, such as Ascend.io, have emerged in recent years to reduce the manual effort involved in data engineering.
Videocast
Key Requirements for Today’s Modern Data Warehous
Operating without data is like driving blindfolded. Organizations today need to rely on data more than at any point in the past. This is because understanding the details of your business operations can mean the difference between success and failure.
Infographic
DATA GOVERNANCE Doesn’t Have to Be Hard
For years data governance has been challenging for organizations. There have been too many different data-related technologies to manage and too many manual processes involved. As a result, data governance policies were restrictive and interfered with the ability for individuals to work with data.
Webinar
Webinar: Digital Age of Data Intelligence
The age of data is here, and all that data has become integral to an organization’s ability to grow and thrive. However, companies struggle with combining data science and technological advancements to establish data intelligence that is unified, sophisticated and impactful.
VentanaCast
Data in Motion
The availability of real-time data is changing the way we live and the types of systems we build. Organizations need more immediacy in their operations.
Webinar
Webinar: Evaluate Analytics and Data Vendors for Successful Outcomes
In this webinar, David Menninger, SVP and Research Director of Analytics and Data Research at Ventana Research, will share his insights on the analytics market and an understanding on how to successfully evaluate existing and potential new vendors.
Viewpoint
Give Business Analysts Better Choices for BI on Data Lakes
Big data is valuable. Our benchmark research shows that using big data analytics results in better communication, better alignment of the business, a competitive advantage, better responsiveness and decreased time to market.
Analyst Perspective
Streaming Data Success Relies on Managing Data in Motion and At Rest
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.
Market Perspective
Data Lakes are Evolving and Delivering on Expectations
Data lakes began to emerge 10 years ago in response to the desire for analytic data platforms that could economically store and process large volumes of raw data. These platforms access data from multiple operational applications in a variety of formats to be queried by multiple business departments for a variety of analytic workloads.
White Paper
Top Five AI Considerations for Chief Data and Analytics Executives
Data is an extremely valuable asset for every organization, but it is meaningless until it is used to make actionable decisions. Given the volume of data generated and collected today, using artificial intelligence with machine learning (AI/ML) is the most efficient way for organizations to sift through data and extract value. All industries and line-of-business functions find value by integrating AI/ML into data science efforts.
Analyst Perspective
Rockset Offers Cloud-Based Real-Time Analytics
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 hour.
Analyst Perspective
Confluent Addresses Data Governance for Data in Motion
I recently wrote about the need for organizations to take a holistic approach to the management and governance of data in motion alongside data at rest. As adoption of streaming data and event processing increases, it is no longer sufficient for streaming data projects to exist in isolation.
Research Perspective
MDM is Better with Intelligent Data Quality
Accurate data is critical for efficient business processes and operations, and to inform decision-making, but there are significant challenges to protecting data and ensuring its accuracy.
Analyst Perspective
The Data Catalog is Indispensable for Good Data Governance
Metadata-based data management functionality has had a role to play within products for data governance and business intelligence for much longer than that, of course, but the emergence of the data catalog as a product category provided a platform for metadata-based data inventory and discovery that could span an entire organization, serving multiple departments, use cases and initiatives.
Analyst Perspective
Enhancing Data Catalog with AI
Organizations are collecting data from multiple data sources and a variety of systems to enrich their analytics and business intelligence (BI). But collecting data is only half of the equation.
eBook
Information Requirements Across the Organization
Information Requirements Across the Organization
Viewpoint
Debunking the Myths of Data and Analytics
Business analytics doesn’t have to be a mystery, yet there are many myths that persist about how to become a data-driven organization. In the age of disruption, organizations need to have access to all of their data, and they must be able to apply a wide range of timely analytics. To do so can be challenging.
Analyst Perspective
Astronomer’s Cloud-Based Data Orchestration Brings Efficiency
Safeguarding the health of data pipelines is fundamental to ensuring data is integrated and processed in the sequence required to generate business intelligence. The significance of these data pipelines to delivering data-driven business strategies has led to the emergence of vendors, such as Astronomer, focused on enabling organizations to orchestrate data engineering pipelines and workflows.
Analyst Perspective
Aerospike Has a Data Platform for Real-Time Intelligent Applications
Aerospike’s Real-time Data Platform supports intelligent operational applications with high-performance real-time read-write capabilities.
Research Perspective
Using External Data to Enhance Market Segmentation
Customer segmentation helps improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the marketing spend, enabling sales to focus on the right leads and companies to improve their margins by targeting high-value opportunities.
Research Perspective
The Value of Using a Semantic Layer for AI and BI
A semantic layer fills a void left in many analytic architectures. It is a centralized place to define business logic, ensure reporting is consistent, accelerate insights and make data more consumable.
Analyst Perspective
Ocient Delivers Ad Hoc Analytics on Hyperscale Workloads
For organizations with large datasets, Ocient’s analytic platform enables complex analytics while offering a high-touch approach to customer engagement.
Analyst Perspective
Cloudera Embraces SaaS with Data Lakehouse Launch
Cloudera brings the benefits of large-scale data processing and analytics to its easy-to-use, self-service data platform via a single SaaS offering.
Analyst Perspective
Orchestrating Data Pipelines Facilitates Data-Driven Analytics
If you’re looking to create a more agile, comprehensive DataOps process, consider data orchestration to meet the needs of modern analytics environments.
Analyst Perspective
Actian Manages Avalanches of Data
Actian’s Avalanche data platform eliminates data silos, blind spots with a single environment for data integration, management, processing and analytics.
Analyst Perspective
IBM’s Cloud Pak for Data Builds a Foundation for Data Fabric
IBM’s Cloud Pak for Data helps organizations employ a data fabric approach, improving data integration and use of AI and machine learning.
Analyst Perspective
Databricks Lakehouse Platform Maximizes Analytical Value
Databricks has developed its data lakehouse platform to maximize analytical outcomes from combined data lake and data warehouse functionality.
Analyst Perspective
The Arguments For, and Against, In-Database Machine Learning
Organizations must choose wisely when deciding between in-database analytics or a standalone analytics platform to gain most value, benefit from their data.
Market Perspective
Stibo Systems is a Master of Governing Data for the Enterprise
Stibo Systems’ Product Master Data Management application enables consistent product data, improving supply chain visibility for informed decision-making.
Analyst Perspective
Teradata Goes Cloud Native with VantageCloud Lake
Teradata VantageCloud Lake is an important offering that provides a cloud-native architecture, enabling elastic scalability and support for object storage.
Viewpoint
Unlocking the Value of Telemetry Data with Observability Pipelines
By monitoring and analyzing telemetry data in the form of logs, traces and metrics, organizations can detect issues and act faster to remedy failures and performance problems.
Podcast
Explore Data Fabrics with Ventana Research and Tableau
Today’s episode features David Menninger, SVP & Research Director of Technology Research at Ventana Research, talking with Volker Metten and Jeremy Siewert of Tableau about data fabrics, data catalogues, and effective governance for data and analytics efforts.
Analyst Perspective
SQream if You Want to Analyze Data Faster
By accelerating every stage of the analytics life cycle, organizations can achieve the greatest impact in lowering time to insight.
Market Perspective
Oldcastle Infrastructure Earns Digital Leadership Award with Fivetran
Oldcastle Infrastructure earned the 2022 Annual Digital Leadership Award in Data for using Fivetran to transform into a data-driven organization.
Analyst Perspective
Monte Carlo Bets on the Future of Data Observability
To speed data-quality review and get to analysis faster, consider data observability software that uses AI/ML and automation to monitor data.
Buyers Guide
Data Platforms 2023 Value Index
This Value Index report evaluates the following vendors that offer products that address key elements of data platforms to support a combination of both operational and analytic workloads: Actian, Amazon Web Services, Cloudera, EDB, Google, IBM, InterSystems, MariaDB, Microsoft, Oracle, PingCAP, SAP and SingleStore.
Buyers Guide
Analytic Data Platforms Value Index 2023
This Value Index report evaluates the following vendors which offer products that are considered analytic data platforms as we define it: Actian, Amazon Web Services, Cloudera, Databricks, EDB, Google, IBM, MariaDB, Micro Focus, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Snowflake and Teradata.
Buyers Guide
Operational Data Platforms 2023 Value Index
This Value Index market report evaluates the following vendors which offer products that are considered operational data platforms as we define it: Actian, Amazon Web Services, Cloudera, Cockroach Labs, Couchbase, DataStax, EDB, Google, IBM, InterSystems, MariaDB, Microsoft, MongoDB, Neo4j, Oracle, PingCAP, Redis, SAP and SingleStore.
Analyst Perspective
Exploring the Case for Distributed SQL Databases
Distributed SQL databases support operational workloads used to run the business, providing scalability and resiliency necessary for business continuity.
Analyst Perspective
The Data Pantry Accelerates Actionable Analytics for Decision-Making
An organized, well-stocked data pantry reduces time spent on data preparation, incorporates a wide range of data sources and accelerates analysis, insights.
Analyst Perspective
InterSystems Transforming Organizations with Cloud Smart Data Fabric
InterSystems’ cloud data platform supports easy integration, connects data and application silos and provides database management, analytics capabilities.
Analyst Perspective
2023 Data Platforms Value Index: Market Observations and Insights
Analyst Matt Aslett shares his observations on the evolution of the data platforms market as vendors advance products in response to customer demands.
Analyst Perspective
Acceldata Enables Data Observability
Acceldata monitors and manages the reliability of data pipelines and data infrastructure by addressing data infrastructure scaling and performance issues.
Analyst Perspective
The Vendor Assessment Guide for Data Platforms: Ranked and Rated
The 2023 Data Platforms Value Index uses a structured methodology to assess how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
2023 Operational Data Platforms Value Index: Observations and Insights
Analyst Matt Aslett shares his observations on the evolution of the operational data platforms market and the implications for operational applications.
Analyst Perspective
2023 Market Agenda for Data: Accelerating Data Agility
The 2023 Market Agenda for Data will explore smarter methods for using data effectively, providing insights to guide decision-making.
Analyst Perspective
Operational Data Platforms: Which Software Best Meets Your Needs?
The 2023 Operational Data Platforms Value Index uses a structured methodology to assess how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
The 2023 Analytic Data Platforms Value Index: Market Observations
Analyst Matt Aslett shares observations on the evolution of the analytic data platforms market and the implications for analytics applications.
Market Perspective
IBM Is Exemplary and a Leader in Data Platforms Value Indexes
IBM leads the field in Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Indexes on data platforms, receiving high marks across analytic, operational and overall evaluations.
Analyst Perspective
Analytic Data Platforms Ranked and Rated for 2023
The 2023 Analytic Data Platforms Value Index uses a structured methodology to assess how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Oracle Is Exemplary and a Leader in Data Platforms Value Indexes
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on data platforms evaluates Oracle.
Market Perspective
InterSystems Is Exemplary and a Leader in Data Platforms Value Indexes
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on data platforms evaluates InterSystems.
Analyst Perspective
SnapLogic Promotes Intelligent Automation for All
SnapLogic’s Intelligent Integration Platform simplifies and accelerates data integration to make data conveniently available to decision-makers.
Market Perspective
Microsoft Is Exemplary and a Leader in Data Platforms Value Indexes
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on data platforms evaluates Microsoft.
Market Perspective
Teradata Is Innovative and a Leader in Analytic Data Platforms Value Index
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates Teradata.
Market Perspective
Actian Is Innovative and a Leader in Data Platforms Value Indexes
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates Actian.
Market Perspective
SAP Is Exemplary and a Leader in Data Platforms Value Indexes
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates SAP.
Market Perspective
Amazon Web Services Is Exemplary and a Leader in Data Platforms Value Indexes
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates Amazon Web Services.
Market Perspective
Couchbase Is Innovative in Operational Data Platforms Value Index
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates Couchbase.
Analyst Perspective
Tamr Directs Data Integrity
Tamr’s master data management software uses AI/ML to overcome the challenges of maintaining data quality amid the growing volume and variety of data.
Market Perspective
Google Is a Vendor of Assurance and a Leader in Data Platforms Value Indexes
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates Google.
Market Perspective
Micro Focus Is Innovative and a Leader in Analytic Data Platforms Value Index
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates Micro Focus.
eBook
Getting the Most Value from Telemetry Data
Monitoring telemetry data and computing infrastructure through observability platforms is challenging but key to detecting issues and acting quickly to remedy failures and performance problems.
White Paper
Real-Time Intelligent Applications: The Art of the Possible
Data is a fundamental enabler of new business processes and applications, allowing organizations to deliver contextually relevant recommendations, predictions and forecasting to customers and workers, increasing efficiency and improving customer service.
Market Perspective
MongoDB Is Exemplary in Operational Data Platforms Value Index
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates MongoDB.
Market Perspective
Cloudera Is a Vendor of Merit in Data Platforms Value Indexes
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates Cloudera.
Analyst Perspective
Data-Intensive Applications Need Real-Time Analytic Processing
The growing use of data-intensive operational applications reinforces the need for organizations to adopt real-time analytic processing.
Market Perspective
MariaDB Is a Vendor of Merit and a Leader in Data Platforms Value Indexes
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates MariaDB.
Analyst Perspective
Soda Provides Collaborative Approach to Data Observability
Soda’s data observability software helps data teams and data consumers work collaboratively, building trust in data to boost value, improve decision-making.
Market Perspective
Databricks Is a Vendor of Assurance and a Leader in Analytic Data Platforms Value Index
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates Databricks.
Market Perspective
SingleStore Is a Vendor of Merit in Data Platforms Value Indexes
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates SingleStore.
Market Perspective
PingCAP Is a Vendor of Merit in Data Platforms Value Indexes
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates PingCAP.
Market Perspective
EDB Is a Vendor of Merit in Data Platforms Value Indexes
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates EDB.
Analyst Perspective
Promethium Provides Data Fabric and Self-Service for Speed to Insights
Promethium provides data fabric and self-service augmented analytics to accelerate time to insight from disparate and distributed data sources.
Market Perspective
Snowflake Is a Vendor of Merit in Analytic Data Platforms Value Index
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates Snowflake.
Market Perspective
Cockroach Labs Is a Vendor of Merit in Operational Data Platforms Value Index
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates Cockroach Labs.
Market Perspective
Neo4j Is a Vendor of Merit in Operational Data Platforms Value Index
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates Neo4j.
Market Perspective
DataStax Is Vendor of Merit in Operational Data Platforms Value Index
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates DataStax.
Market Perspective
Redis Is Vendor of Assurance in Operational Data Platforms Value Index
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on analytic data platforms evaluates Redis.
Analyst Perspective
Explore Graph Databases for Better Relationships
Adoption of graph databases may get a boost from increased standardization, as well as user interfaces targeted at developers and data scientists.
Analyst Perspective
Exasol Accelerates Analytics With an In-Memory Database
Exasol offers an in-memory database to accelerate analytics on an existing data warehouse, or to unify data from multiple analytic data platforms.
Analyst Perspective
Cockroach Labs Promotes Developer Efficiency for Distributed Databases
CockroachDB increases compatibility with existing database tools and skills to enable developers to work efficiently with distributed data processing.
White Paper
Empowering Data & AI Practitioners with Modern Data Integration
In today’s competitive business environment, organizations must effectively harness and maximize the power of data to be successful.
Analyst Perspective
AWS Enables Data Democratization with Amazon DataZone
Amazon DataZone enables business teams to create data products, facilitates self-service data discovery and accelerates data democratization initiatives.
Analyst Perspective
Streaming Databases Enable Continuous Analysis and Data Persistence
Streaming databases help organizations gain a big-picture view of both historical and real-time data to advance data-driven decision-making.
Analyst Perspective
Alation’s Data Governance Accelerates Data Intelligence
Alation’s data catalog uses automation and machine learning to support data governance, paving the way for self-service analytics.
Analyst Perspective
DataOps: Understanding the Definition and Differentiation
Defining DataOps: what it is, what it isn’t, and how this approach ensures the quality, flexibility and reliability of data engineering processes.
Analyst Perspective
Reltio Simplifies Connecting Data with Master Data Management
Reltio offers MDM products designed to help customers improve trust in data by unifying and cleansing complex data from multiple sources in real time.
Analyst Perspective
Seek Solace for Event-Driven Architectures and Applications
Organizations looking to invest in, and benefit from, event-driven architecture should consider Solace’s comprehensive event-streaming, management platform.
Analyst Perspective
Tame Telemetry Data with Mezmo Observability Pipeline
Gain greater business insight from (business and) telemetry data using Mezmo’s Telemetry Pipeline to automatically centralize, unify and transform data.
Analyst Perspective
MongoDB’s Atlas Delivers Data-Driven Applications
MongoDB’s Atlas combines a flexible document database with broad development and integration functionality to support the use of intelligent applications.
Analyst Perspective
Snowflake Expands Beyond Analytics in the Cloud
Snowflake’s Data Cloud will soon provide access to data across workloads in the cloud or on premises to support an increasing range of use cases.
Analyst Perspective
Improve Trust in Data with Master Data Management
Applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to master data management software helps make data more accessible, usable and trusted.
Viewpoint
Delivering Increased Business Value from Observability with Open Standards
Collecting, monitoring and correlating the telemetry data generated by computing infrastructure and applications along with business data is essential to operating as a digitally focused organization.
Market Perspective
Ascend.io Earns Data Digital Innovation Award for 2023
Ascend.io takes home the 2023 Data Digital Innovation Award for its efficient, single-platform approach to data pipeline monitoring and management.
Analyst Perspective
Large Language Models and Generative AI: Beware Misplaced Trust
Content generated by large language models and generative AI can be remarkably coherent, but there is no guarantee that the content is factual or accurate.
Analyst Perspective
SAP Datasphere Simplifies Management and Use of Distributed Data
SAP Datasphere provides data warehousing plus additional capabilities for managing and processing data across a distributed architecture.
Analyst Perspective
Yugabyte Facilitates Migration to Distributed SQL Database
YugabyteDB Voyager assists in assessing migration readiness, analyzing schema complexity for planning, optimizing and conducting data and database migration.
Analyst Perspective
CelerData Enables Real-Time Analytics for the Data Lakehouse
CelerData offers a flexible data analytics platform that queries operational applications and the data lakehouse in real time.
Analyst Perspective
How Data Observability and Data Quality Achieve Data Management
Data quality and data observability software products are complementary and combine to deliver comprehensive data management.
Analyst Perspective
Fivetran Automates Data Movement and Transformation
Fivetran’s software simplifies and automates data movement and transformation via cloud-based extract, load and transform data pipelines.
Analyst Perspective
SingleStore Highlights Multi-Format Data Storage for Vector Search
SingleStore supports hybrid data processing and multi-format data storage to allow for real-time analytic functionality and vector search.
Analyst Perspective
Explore Document Databases for Application Agility
Flexible document databases are suitable for new application development as well as replacements for applications that depend on relational databases.
Analyst Perspective
DataStax Adds Vector Search to Address Generative AI
DataStax has enhanced its data platforms by incorporating streaming data, machine learning and vector search to address generative AI.
Analyst Perspective
IBM’s Watsonx Provides a Foundation for Generative AI
Watsonx is a comprehensive platform from IBM that supports an enterprise’s strategic adoption of machine learning and foundation models for AI development.
Infographic
The Missing Element in the Data Stack: Automation
Organizations are modernizing their data stacks to handle increasing demands on their data, from a growing number of data sources to changing market conditions.
Analyst Perspective
EDA with Events Brokers Enable Stream Processing
Event brokers are fundamental enablers of event-driven architecture, which supports stream processing for real-time business processes and insights.
Analyst Perspective
Confluent’s Streaming Analytics Expands Stream Processing Use Cases
With the acquisition of Immerok, Confluent can address the full spectrum of operational and analytic stream processing use cases.
Analyst Perspective
Incorta Empowers Data Delivery and Analysis for Business
Incorta’s unified data platform with real-time operational analytics capabilities delivers agile data processing to support informed decision-making.
Analyst Perspective
Microsoft Fabric Stitches Together Data and Analytics
Microsoft Fabric offers targeted user experiences within a single, unified platform for data integration, processing and analytics.
Analyst Perspective
Generative AI Boosts Value Creation with Outcome-Led Data Integration
Generative AI and large language models facilitate outcome-driven data integration to increase automation, accuracy, agility and enhanced business value.
Analyst Perspective
Cloudera Facilitates Versatility with Enterprise Data and AI
The Cloudera Data Platform provides versatility to support multiple workloads, AI/ML, deployment locations and architectural approaches.
Viewpoint
Accelerating Business Transformation with Cloud-Native Databases
Real-time data processing and intelligence are becoming essential in the development of intelligent enterprise applications that deliver content and recommendations driven by predictive and generative AI.
Analyst Perspective
DataOps Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the DataOps Buyers Guide 2023 for data operations software products.
Analyst Perspective
Databricks Utilizes Unity Catalog to Support Generative AI Development
Databricks has expanded its Lakehouse Platform functionality to include generative AI, combining data and AI for more efficient development of models.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for DataOps Classifies and Rates Vendors
The DataOps Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 18 vendors match buyers’ requirements for DataOps software products.
Analyst Perspective
Data Pipelines Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Data Pipelines Buyers Guide 2023 for data software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Data Pipelines Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Data Pipelines Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 18 vendors match buyers’ requirements for data pipelines software products.
Analyst Perspective
Data Orchestration Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Data Orchestration Buyers Guide 2023 for data orchestration software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Data Orchestration Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Data Orchestration Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 19 vendors match buyers’ requirements for data orchestration software products.
Analyst Perspective
Data Observability Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Data Observability Buyers Guide 2023 for data observability software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Data Observability Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Data Observability Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from seven vendors match buyers’ requirements for data observability software products.
Market Perspective
IBM is Exemplary in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates IBM.
Market Perspective
DataKitchen is Exemplary in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates DataKitchen.
Analyst Perspective
Vector Search and RAG Improve Trust in Generative AI
Organizations can increase trust of generative AI models using vector search and retrieval-augmented generation to incorporate proprietary data.
Market Perspective
Microsoft is Exemplary in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates Microsoft.
Market Perspective
Alteryx is Exemplary in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates Alteryx.
Market Perspective
Databricks is Exemplary in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates Databricks.
Market Perspective
Google is Exemplary in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates Google.
Market Perspective
BMC is Exemplary in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates BMC.
Analyst Perspective
Snowflake Expands Data Platform with Container Services
Snowflake’s cloud-based analytic platform supports a complex, interconnected ecosystem of data and analytic workloads, applications and cloud services.
Market Perspective
SAP is Exemplary in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates SAP.
Viewpoint
Accelerating Insight with Unified Data Platforms
The combination of cloud computing and advanced analytics has lowered the cost of storing and processing large volumes of data with a view to identifying new business opportunities and responding to competitive threats.
Market Perspective
AWS is Exemplary in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates AWS.
Market Perspective
StreamSets is Vendor of Merit in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates StreamSets.
Market Perspective
Matillion is Vendor of Assurance in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates Matillion.
Market Perspective
Astronomer is Vendor of Merit in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates Astronomer.
Analyst Perspective
The Key Value of Database Simplicity
Key-value stores are quick, flexible and efficient when handling simple queries.
Market Perspective
Hitachi Vantara is Vendor of Merit in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates Hitachi Vantara.
Market Perspective
Y42 is Vendor of Merit in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates Y42.
Market Perspective
Infoworks.io is Vendor of Merit in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates Infoworks.io.
Market Perspective
Prefect is Vendor of Merit in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates Prefect.
Analyst Perspective
MongoDB Targets Relational and Generative AI Workloads
MongoDB provides support for generative AI, compatibility with key relational database features and can facilitate migration from the relational model.
Market Perspective
Stonebranch is Vendor of Merit in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates Stonebranch.
Market Perspective
Rivery is Vendor of Merit in DataOps Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on DataOps evaluates Rivery.
Market Perspective
Monte Carlo is Exemplary in Data Observability Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Data Observability evaluates Monte Carlo.
Market Perspective
Acceldata is Innovative in Data Observability Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Data Observability evaluates Acceldata.
Analyst Perspective
Boomi Promotes Business-Focused Integration Modernization
Boomi Platform’s suite of services optimizes the development, deployment and management of integrations.
Market Perspective
Collibra is Exemplary in Data Observability Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Data Observability evaluates Collibra.
Market Perspective
Precisely is Vendor of Merit in Data Observability Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Data Observability evaluates Precisely.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle Evolves Database Services for Generative AI and Multi-Cloud
Through a partnership with Microsoft, Oracle Database@Azure expands the reach of Oracle’s database and generative AI capabilities to multi-cloud users.
Analyst Perspective
Avoiding the Complexity and Cost of the Modern Data Stack
The desire to choose among software tools gave rise to the modern data stack, but consolidated platforms may offer cost-effective data management support.
Analyst Perspective
Explorium Facilitates the Use of External Data for Analytics and AI
Explorium helps customers better integrate external data to accelerate the development of analytics projects and machine learning models.
Analyst Perspective
Actian Accelerates Insight with Unified Cloud Data Platform
Actian combines storage and processing with data ingestion, integration and transformation to speed access to data and deliver informed business decisions.
Analyst Perspective
2024 Market Agenda for Artificial Intelligence: Improving Productivity and Experiences
The 2024 Market Agenda for Artificial Intelligence will help enterprises form a strategy to realize the full business value of AI and process automation.
Analyst Perspective
Generative AI Makes Natural Language Analytics a Reality
Generative AI boosts natural language analytics beyond just queries to include data preparation and governance, and generate SQL, reports and dashboards.
Analyst Perspective
Look Out: Computer Vision in AI is Coming Into Sight
Advances in computer vision are enabling enterprises to expand use cases and build the skills necessary to maximize value from unstructured data.
Analyst Perspective
As Interest in AI Scales, So Does Domino Data Lab
Domino Enterprise AI platform encompasses all aspects of model development and deployment to help enterprises build and operate AI at scale.
Analyst Perspective
Refocus on AI, Skill-Building for the Greatest Operational Impact
While GenAI offers promise, AI/ML can deliver high-value use cases now if enterprises focus on building skills and mastering the technology.
eBook
Revolutionize Your Analytics with Artificial Intelligence
BI vendors that embrace GenAI help improve productivity for everyone who works with data.
Analyst Perspective
AI Innovations in Data and Analytics at SAP
Upgraded capabilities, improved integrations at center of enhancements to SAP platform to streamline enterprise data and analytics processes.
Analyst Perspective
Salesforce Wants Everyone to be an Einstein with AI
Einstein 1 Studio targets those building AI, with the objective of making more functionality available to end users of Salesforce applications.
Analyst Perspective
Google Expands AI Capabilities at Cloud Next ’24
Google advances AI capabilities to deliver innovative GenAI experiences across its platform, along with improved performance, scalability and security.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guides for AI Platforms Classifies and Rates Software Providers
Ventana Research offers market observations and overall results from the AI Platforms Buyers Guides for artificial intelligence software products.
Analyst Perspective
Market Observations on AI Governance
AI platform providers fortifying AI governance capabilities to build trust in models, safeguard data, establish catalogs to improve business processes.
White Paper
Integrating GenAI into Software Development
This paper combines the industry standard frameworks for Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) with multiple surveys and interviews conducted by ISG to assess the impact of GenAI on software development.
Analyst Perspective
Avoiding Toxicity in Generative AI
LLMs can produce toxic content, but prevention practices include curating the data used to train models and using AI to test model accuracy.
Analyst Perspective
Detecting and Preventing Bias: A Crucial Element of AI Governance
Prioritize the creation of fair, transparent and trustworthy AI systems by establishing committed, consistent AI governance processes.
Market Perspective
IBM Earns Artificial Intelligence Digital Innovation Award for 2024
IBM Earns ISG Research Artificial Intelligence Digital Innovation Award for 2024.
Market Perspective
The ISG Buyers Guide for Cloud-Native AI and Data Platforms Rates and Ranks Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Cloud-Native AI and Data Platforms Buyers Guides for artificial intelligence software products.
Market Perspective
The ISG Buyers Guide for AI and Data Platforms Rates and Ranks Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the AI and Data Platforms Buyers Guides for artificial intelligence software products.
eBook
Disrupt or be Disrupted: The High Stakes of AI Adoption
Explore the critical need for businesses to adopt AI or risk being left behind in a rapidly evolving landscape. Download the full eBook for insights.
Analyst Perspective
Agentic AI: Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Explore how agentic AI can transform predictive analytics into actionable steps, enhancing decision-making and operational efficiency across various industries.
Analyst Perspective
SAP Unleashes Business Data Cloud for Unified AI Strategy
SAP’s unified data and AI capabilities advance the benefits of embedded AI while simplifying access to, and customization of, both SAP and external data.
Analyst Perspective
Progress Enables Knowledge Graphs for Semantic AI
The Progress Data Platform brings together multiple products to help customers accelerate data management, AI projects and knowledge graph functionality.
Analyst Perspective
The Imperative for Customer Experience in 2020: Ventana Research Agenda
Ventana Research recently announced its 2020 research agenda in the area of the customer experience.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Product Experience for Buyer and Customer Delight in 2020 and Beyond
Products and services are the foundation of every organization, regardless of its industry or size.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Voice and Mission of Your Customer Experience
Supercharging the customer experience (CX) is more than just an opportunity.
Analyst Perspective
A 360-Degree View of the Customer Journey Can Provide Customer Experience Insights
For interactions with customers to go well, organizations must manage an ever-increasing array of engagement channels.
Analyst Perspective
Technology Really Does Matter for Customer Analytics
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.
Analyst Perspective
Identifying the Leaders in Sales Performance Management
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).
Analyst Perspective
Effective Customer Analytics Requires Comprehensive Data and Metrics
Customer analytics have never been more important, but effectively creating and managing them is not easy.
eBook
How to Achieve an ROI from PIM
PIM can provide a ROI and deliver value across the entire organization thanks to the streamlined integration of products into the roles of almost every business employee.
Analyst Perspective
The Challenges in Customer Analytics
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Partner Experience and Channel Performance Agenda
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Agent and Customer with Contact Centers in 2020 and Beyond
Contact centers play a substantial role in an organization’s success. The customer journey is engaged here, at each moment of interaction.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Subscriber Experience and Subscription Management in 2020 and Beyond
Subscriptions are the future of business. Subscribers are essential to an organization’s overall business potential because they generate recurring revenue.
White Paper
Empower the Modern and Agile Agent Workforce
A focus on workforce agility will enable organizations to adapt and continue to meet customer service expectations during challenging periods.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Digital Experience in Marketing for 2020 and Beyond
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.
Analyst Perspective
Modernizing PIM for Product Experience Management
Today’s businesses must manage a continually expanding array of data, content and digital assets as well as satisfy the demands of consumers for comprehensive product information.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Workforce Experience and Human Capital Management in 2020 and Beyond
The workforce is an essential part of an organization’s overall business potential because it ensures continuous operations, even in black-swan events.
Analyst Perspective
Subscription and Usage Management Technology Needs for the Modern Economy
Subscription-based business models have seen exponential growth over the last decade. The growth of this recurring revenue business model, where a subscriber commits to repeatedly pay for a good or device for a fixed or indefinite timeline, has been caused by the shift from the one-time selling of physical products to selling digital services on a subscription basis.
QandA
Open Communications, Business Continuity and the Digital Work Experience
Maintaining business continuity when the workforce is functioning virtually requires the organization to be as responsive as possible. During times when work-from-home (WFH) is a necessity, it’s even more important that the communication tools in use are efficient, can be easily managed by the organization and address cyber security policies.
Analyst Perspective
Why I Joined Ventana Research
It’s very exciting to embark on a new chapter of one’s career, so I am thrilled to be joining Ventana Research to lead the practice of expertise in customer experience (CX).
White Paper
Modern Customer Analytics for Customer Experience
Truly transformational value gains from optimizing customer experiences have yet to be realized. Even after decades of focusing on CRM as the main tool for improving customer relationships, organizations still struggle to fully understand their customers.
Analyst Perspective
Talkdesk: CX Cloud earns our 13th Digital Innovation Award for Customer Experience
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.
Analyst Perspective
Trends in Contact Center Market for 2020 and Beyond
This has been a dramatic year for contact centers. The underlying technology has been changing for some time, but that change is now accelerating because of the urgent operational shifts forced by the pandemic.
Infographic
Adopting Contact Center in the Cloud
Early telephony-based call centers were built using proprietary on-premises systems. As companies added additional channels of engagement, call centers evolved into contact centers.
Analyst Perspective
Teradata Vantage CX: The Real Customer Data Platform
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.
Analyst Perspective
Intelligent Virtual Agents Are an Imperative for Digital Self-Service
The pandemic has raised the stakes for self-service in every part of the customer journey.
Viewpoint
Rethinking Customer Engagement Strategies at Increasing Scale
Organizations are facing a mounting gap between the services and connections customers want, and their capacity to actually deliver them. This capacity gap challenges budgets and planning and stifles innovation.
Presentation
Customer Experience Management and the Future of Work
How can organizations balance the growing ability to automate interactions with the power of the human element and the need to maintain authentic customer relationships? What are the key technologies organizations must adopt now to succeed as the future of work changes?
eBook
Closing the Customer Engagement Gap
In the near future, contact center agents will still work from home. People will still buy online and expect curbside pickup from retail stores. For simple or routine issues, many customers move past a phone call to chat, messaging, email or choose to work with an automated self-service persona. So what’s wrong with this picture?
Analyst Perspective
The Opportunity for CX is Beyond Your Contact Center
The contact center has long represented the starting point for customer experience initiatives. Now, however, most organizations are finding that they need to invest beyond this singular point of engagement.
Webinar
Insights Into the Changing Customer Experience Environment
Interaction volume is increasing, and customer journeys are more complex. A stark gap has emerged between the kinds of experiences customers expect, and the resources that businesses have available to fulfill them. But this is not bad news. Awareness of the gap presents an opportunity to rethink old processes to meet the extended needs of today’s customers.
Analyst Perspective
The Ventana Research 2021 Market Agenda: How Digital Effectiveness Impacts Organizational Agility
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.
VentanaCast
Building Friction-Free Customer Experiences
Every organization strives to make their customer experiences work better, but this can be challenging when the tools for the job are siloed applications that are scattered across different departments. If you want to create experiences that bring customers back and turn them into advocates for your brand, it’s important to choose software tools that work together, seamlessly.
Research Perspective
Contact Center Software Buying Advice
No matter how large or small an organization may be, customers will judge it by the quality of service it delivers. But for small and mid-sized businesses (those with between 30 and 300 contact center seats), the stakes are often higher: they must compete against larger rivals that have had deeper resources to build advanced contact centers over time.
QandA
Choosing a CCaaS for Small and Mid-Sized Organizations
Customers don’t care how big a firm is; they care about the quality of their customer experience. And today’s smaller and growing businesses can level the playing field by offering customer interactions that are every bit as sophisticated, responsive and high touch as what is offered by their larger enterprise peers.
Research Perspective
The Value of a Lifetime Customer
It is a long-accepted truism that it costs more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. For any small business that is looking to grow, it makes sense to devote considerable resources to the challenge of keeping customers happy and satisfied because they represent a unique, developable asset.
VentanaCast
The Challenges of Modern Customer Experience
The problem with managing Customer Experience these days is that it covers a lot of ground, and touches a lot of people with different roles within an organization. There are so many technology components that contribute to a clear and successful CX strategy, and there are just as many people- and process-related issues to address.
Analyst Perspective
The 2021 Market Agenda for Customer Experience: Achieving Excellence in Engagement
Ventana Research recently announced its 2021 market agenda in the expertise area of Customer Experience. Most organizations have some degree of focus on managing how they interact with their customers, but it is often a disjointed and constrained process.
Analyst Perspective
SAP Service Cloud Bridges the Contact Center and the Back Office
The contact center is still, for most businesses, where customer experience is designed, delivered and measured. And as we might expect, customer experience (CX) tools are migrating from where they started point solutions based on narrow functions into broader suites that encompass multi-departmental functions and reach across customer journeys.
Analyst Perspective
The New Verint: Experiences and Engagement with Customers
Verint has recently separated into two companies, one of which is a dedicated provider of software focused on customer engagement and will keep the Verint name. (The other is called Cognyte and focused on security analytics.)
Analyst Perspective
Customer Data Platforms: Essential for Effective Customer Experience
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.
Analyst Perspective
Content Guru Brings CCaaS with Confidence to US
Shifts in the market due to the pandemic have upended the contact center marketplace, accelerating the inevitable migration of infrastructure to the cloud and changing the way agents are managed.
Analyst Perspective
The Mandate for Contact Center and Agent Management
The ways in which consumers engage with organizations have changed. Long-established communication channels such as the telephone, email and company websites are still used, but many consumers now prefer to use text messages, online chat, social media, virtual agents and applications on their mobile devices to contact the company and address issues.
Analyst Perspective
Salesforce Service Cloud: Contact Center with Workforce Engagement
The modern contact center relies heavily on software that enables agents to perform multiple complex tasks while simultaneously managing the customer-facing side of interactions.
Analyst Perspective
8x8 Shows Why CCaaS and UCaaS Should be Unified
The pandemic accelerated several trends in the contact-center industry that were already underway, chiefly: moving infrastructure and software applications to the cloud, and rethinking the process of managing agents.
Analyst Perspective
Avaya: Adapting and Focused on CX, CCaaS Success
Business phone systems and contact center platforms received renewed attention in 2020 as organizations acquired tools for agents working from home. That put the spotlight on vendors, like Avaya, that have feet in both worlds.
eBook
Cloud Contact Center Buyer’s Guide
Today’s contact centers have the opportunity to refine old processes and adopt innovative new technologies. Organizations should make these changes now to serve a new generation of highly demanding, highly connected consumers who expect advanced automated self-service and the freedom to use the contact channels of their choice. Much of the legacy contact center infrastructure cannot provide these enhanced interactions successfully at scale.
Analyst Perspective
The Voice of the Customer Is Really a Chorus of Voices
Voice of the Customer (VoC) is a catch-all term that refers to the collection of customer feedback in various formats. Sometimes this feedback is in the form of quick surveys or reactions to questions like, "Did I resolve your issue today?" or "Would you recommend our service to a friend?" Alternatively, it can be derived from less specific but more numerous data signals that span multiple interactions or across a customer base. Most businesses make an effort to capture some customer feedback.
Analyst Perspective
Zoho Builds a CX Suite Inside Zoho One
There are many software components that facilitate contact center operations. Historically, the industry has relied, in part, on niche or best-of-breed applications but this is shifting in favor of broadly integrated suites or ecosystems.
Analyst Perspective
Customer Service and Support: Expanded Role and Need for Software
Customer service and support (CSS) is a term with two meanings. Most generally, it refers to the functions of a contact center in handling post-sales customer inquiries that require some effort or action on the part of the business. More specifically, it refers to the elements of the software stack that facilitate those operations, primarily case tracking and trouble ticketing.
Analyst Perspective
The Market for Contact Center in the Cloud Software
Having just completed the 2021 Ventana Research Value Index for Contact Center in the Cloud, I want to share some of my observations about how the market has advanced since our assessment three years ago.
Analyst Perspective
The Value Index for Contact Center in the Cloud: Classification and Rating of 14 Vendors
I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Value Index research, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
NICE inContact is Exemplary and Overall Value Index Leader in Contact Center in the Cloud
We are happy to share some insights about NICE drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Talkdesk is Exemplary in the Contact Center in the Cloud Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Talkdesk drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Zendesk Advances a Suite for CX
The outlines of a post-pandemic customer experience (CX) landscape are emerging, and it appears that the market dynamic is bringing companies from different segments into heightened competition with one another.
Analyst Perspective
Genesys is Exemplary in 2021 Contact Center in the Cloud Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Genesys drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Content Guru is Exemplary in 2021 Value Index for Contact Centers
We are happy to share some insights about Content Guru drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Avaya is Innovative in 2021 Contact Center in the Cloud Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Avaya drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Cisco is Innovative in 2021 Contact Center in the Cloud Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Cisco drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Aspect has Assurance in 2021 Contact Center in the Cloud Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Aspect drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Five9 is Innovative in the 2021 Contact Center in the Cloud Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Five9 drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
8x8 Provides Assurance in Contact Center in the Cloud Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about 8x8 drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
RingCentral Brings Merit to Market for Contact Center in the Cloud
We are happy to share some insights about RingCentral drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Enghouse Altitude Rated with Assurance in Contact Center Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Altitude, now part of Enghouse, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Vonage has Merit for Contact Center in the Cloud
We are happy to share some insights about Vonage drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Amazon has Merit in the Contact Center in the Cloud Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Amazon drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Twilio is Vendor of Merit in Contact Center in the Cloud Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Twilio drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
CX Suites Focus on Managing Customer Experiences
When we speak of the “customer experience,” we are really referring to the results of a broad spectrum of activities that collectively we describe as a journey or a lifecycle.
Analyst Perspective
ServiceNow Brings Customer Workflows with Automation and Intelligence
Customer Service & Support (CSS) is a software segment that provides tools for tracking and resolving customer problems, primarily through contact centers. The segment has been mature for decades but today is reinvigorated by a new emphasis on workflows and automation.
Analyst Perspective
Are DXPs Really Needed in a CX World?
Customer experience (CX) tools are going through a transition, from piecemeal applications designed to solve narrowly defined problems, to broader suites with integrated functionality. This is occurring along multiple fronts in CX.
Analyst Perspective
ServiceNow Earns Customer Experience Digital Innovation Award for 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.
Analyst Perspective
Field Service Transformation for CX Differentiation
Field service is one element of the service-delivery process that an organization must get right or risk alienating important customers and causing friction in the relationship.
Analyst Perspective
Reltio Earns Marketing Digital Innovation Award for 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.
Analyst Perspective
Dialpad Stresses the Unity of UCaaS and CCaaS
Dialpad provides contact center and business phone services, a market that is in transition due to a convergence of technologies and business conditions.
QandA
Managing Experiences Across Roles
We increasingly define the success of modern business processes through the prism of “experiences”—what customers, users and employees encounter when they deal with technology and each other. Why has it been so difficult for organizations to design experiences for these different groups, and then to knit these experiences together into a whole? Read more.
Analyst Perspective
Uniphore Automates Intelligent Conversations
Customer support operations increasingly rely on automation and complex workflow processes to reduce costs and improve experiences.
Analyst Perspective
The Pandemic Heightens Need for Agent Management
The primary effect of the pandemic on agent/workforce management beginning in 2020 was a rush to re-site and re-equip contact centers and agents.
Analyst Perspective
Calabrio Brings VoC to Larger CX Potential
Tools for contact center agent management have changed considerably in the past few years. The suite of software applications has grown from those that perform core functions in scheduling and quality control to include more advanced solutions for agent guidance, integrated desktops, and workflow and automation design.
Analyst Perspective
AI’s Value to Contact Centers: Improved Customer and Agent Experiences
When artificial intelligence emerged from the labs and vendors started offering it as a component of their software, many contact-center buyers shied away from it.
Analyst Perspective
AI’s Value to Contact Centers: What Are the Use Cases
In part one of this Analyst Perspective on the use of artificial intelligence within contact center applications, we focused on the evolution — and resulting benefits — of tools embedded with AI, including ease-of-use for non-data-scientists.
Analyst Perspective
Digital Communication Platforms Enable Better Work and Customer Experiences
The age of digital communication platforms is upon us. The need has never been greater for an open and secure platform that satisfies the demand for enterprise-grade business and technology requirements.
Analyst Perspective
NICE CXi Is a Pivot to the Post-Contact Center World
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.
Analyst Perspective
Vonage Buys Into Conversational Commerce With Jumper.ai
When migrating their communications stacks to the cloud, many organizations come face to face with a quandary: do they emphasize the business phone system and gravitate toward a unified communications vendor? Or should they focus on the specific applications needed for running their contact centers and seek out a CCaaS vendor?
Analyst Perspective
Automating Workflows for a Better Customer Experience
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 interaction channels, and the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to facilitate workflow deployment.
Buyers Guide
Agent Management 2022 Value Index
This Value Index report evaluates the following vendors that offer products that address key elements of agent management as we define it: 8x8 Inc., Alvaria, Inc., Avaya Inc., Calabrio, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Redwood Technologies Group Ltd. (Content Guru), Enghouse Interactive Inc., Five9 Inc., Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., Lifesize, Inc., Mitel Networks Corporation, NICE Ltd., RingCentral, Inc., Playvox, Salesforce.com Inc., Talkdesk, Inc., Verint Systems Inc., ZOOM International (Elevēo)
Market Perspective
Technical College System Earns Digital Leadership Award in Customer Experience with Salesforce and TargetX for 2021
The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.
Analyst Perspective
Customer Experience Needs Accountability with Executive Leadership
The contact center is where much of customer experience management happens, but it is by no means the beginning or end of the CX story. Other departments, notably marketing and revenue, have a stake in what happens during the customer’s lifecycle. Whether it’s developing offers, orchestrating interactions or assessing behavior and intent, handling the complexity of the relationship requires a broad set of participants who are not always in alignment.
Analyst Perspective
Shifts in Agent Management Software Benefit Agent Experiences
The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index for agent management software is published, offering interesting observations about how the market is advancing to provide more sophistication to agents and the management of them. The market is now characterized by applications integrated into multifunction suites, a significant change accelerated by the pandemic in the short term and vendor consolidation over a longer period.
Analyst Perspective
The 2022 Value Index for Agent Management Classifies and Rates Vendors
Ventana Research is sharing insights gleaned from our latest Value Index research, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management 2022 is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research.
Market Perspective
NICE is Exemplary in the Agent Management Value Index
Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about NICE, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
The 2022 Market Agenda for CX: Enabling Resilience in Experiences
Ventana Research recently announced its Market Agenda in the expertise area of Customer Experience. For the past several years, many organizations have found it challenging to provide excellent customer experiences in the face of drastic technology changes and the ongoing pandemic.
Market Perspective
Verint is Exemplary in the Agent Management Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Verint, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Avaya is an Exemplary Vendor in Agent Management
Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about Avaya, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Calabrio is Exemplary in Agent Management Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Calabrio, drawn from our Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Genesys is Exemplary in Agent Management Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Genesys, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Talkdesk is an Exemplary Vendor in the Agent Management Value Index
Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about Talkdesk, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Alvaria is a Vendor of Assurance for Agent Management
We are happy to share some insights about Alvaria, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Content Guru is Exemplary in Agent Management Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Content Guru, drawn from our Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Cisco is Innovative in Agent Management Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Cisco, drawn from our Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Salesforce is Vendor of Assurance in the Agent Management Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Salesforce drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Five9 is a Vendor of Merit in the Agent Management Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Five9, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
8x8 is Innovative in Agent Management Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about 8x8, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Top Trends in VoC Analytics
A formal Voice of the Customer (VoC) program is a necessity for any organization that wants to grow its customer base and differentiate from its competitors. Unfortunately, many organizations have not updated their notion of “formal” in quite a few years.
Market Perspective
RingCentral is a Vendor of Merit in the Agent Management Value Index
Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about RingCentral, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Playvox is a Vendor of Merit in the Agent Management Value Index
Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about Playvox, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Elevēo is a Vendor of Merit in the Agent Management Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Elevēo, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Contact Center Cost Control, Part 1: Rethinking Modern Operations
Contact centers have always been very cost-centric and attuned to the kinds of constraints that they have to operate in, but many organizations were diverted from that kind of focus when the pandemic first hit.
Market Perspective
Lifesize is a Vendor of Merit in the Agent Management Value Index
Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about Lifesize, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Mitel is a Vendor of Merit in the Agent Management Value Index
Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about Mitel, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Blue Yonder is a Workforce Management Value Index Vendor of Merit
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Blue Yonder, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Enghouse Interactive is a Vendor of Merit in Agent Management Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Enghouse Interactive, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Contact Center Cost Control, Part 2: Getting Granular
In a previous Analyst Perspective, we discussed some of the big-picture trends that are bringing cost control back as a core driver of contact center operations. In this report we will tackle some of the practical ramifications: how those trends affect decision-making and operations.
Analyst Perspective
Why We Need a New Definition for CX Software Platforms
The technology underpinning customer experience (CX) is a hodgepodge of tools that have been developed for niche use cases and then expanded to fill broader roles. Examples include the old (CRM, help desk software and speech analytics) and the new (customer data platforms and conversational AI). This is because CX is a set of very specialized processes that happen in different parts of the enterprise, managed by people who often do not connect with peers handling related processes. Service-related activities are focused in the contact center, personalization and loyalty in marketing departments, and so forth.
Analyst Perspective
OnviSource Brings Intelligence to Contact Center Automation
Today’s contact center agents find themselves handling increasingly more complex interactions due to changes in consumer demand, advances in self-service and the proliferation of digital contact channels. This added complexity requires continuous agent support for successful customer experience outcomes. Intelligent software can reduce agent workload and improve customer interactions by picking up customer cues.
Analyst Perspective
Ujet Simplifies Omnichannel Interactions in the Contact Center
Although the bulk of contact center seats are still served by on-premises equipment, there appears to be a consensus that the cloud is better suited to delivering a successful, omnichannel customer experience, and that most new contact center deployments will be run on cloud-computing platforms.
Analyst Perspective
Technology Trends in Customer Support Software
Customer Service and Support (CSS) software is about more than case tracking and trouble tickets. Many organizations view the service call as an opportunity to solidify a positive customer relationship and perhaps enhance the loyalty and value of the customer. That has propelled interest in the emphasis on workflows and automation that now/currently drives CSS, particularly when it comes to managing self-service and field service, and the ability to provide agents with contextually relevant information during interactions.
Market Perspective
Alvaria’s CX Platform Delivers Personalized Experiences
In the present-day market where the gap between consumers and the vendors they engage is shrinking, an organization’s ability to deliver a personalized customer experience is more important than ever. Consumers expect interactions that are intuitive, agile and accessible across a wide variety of channels. Ensuring an experience that exceeds expectation and creates an environment that is relational rather than transactional, however, is becoming increasingly challenging.
Analyst Perspective
Work-From-Anywhere Has a Communications Impact
Contact centers are undergoing a radical reshuffling of the workforce, partly because the pandemic shifted agents to remote work. But the trends were in place to reorganize the world of work long before the pandemic. Digital contact channels, which are gaining in popularity, require workers that are better informed and capable of handling more complex and interdependent interactions and processes. That’s changing the nature of training, management and even process design between departments.
Analyst Perspective
Amazon Connect Adds Workforce Optimization Capabilities
At Enterprise Connect in March, Amazon announced new functionality in its cloud contact center platform, Amazon Connect. The company is now including a full Workforce Optimization component, which includes built-in forecasting, capacity planning and scheduling capabilities. It's no surprise that Amazon is adding these capabilities, as WFO has become a core component of a complete CCaaS platform.
Viewpoint
Contact Center Quality Processes Must Modernize for the Digital Era
The tried-and-true quality assurance processes that many contact center practitioners relied on for years are probably well out of date. It is time to reevaluate how quality is tracked and measured, and to implement some sensible new practices that take into consideration the ways in which operations have evolved.
Analyst Perspective
Field Service Heads for Greater Automation and Integration
Field service is a segment of customer experience that is dominated by two elements: the complexity of the issues handled, and the high cost of providing on-site services. It is recognized as a critical component of the service experience, especially when managing the condition of high-precision equipment in the medical, manufacturing and utility industries. It is also a high-risk moment in the customer life cycle. Consumers often experience the process as a series of disconnected visits and handoffs that fail to resolve issues the first time.
eBook
Elevating Agent Engagement
In order to elevate the customer experience, organizations must develop programs and best practices that elevate the agent experience.
Market Perspective
NICE Earns Customer Experience Digital Innovation Award for 2022
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 that optimizes organizational resilience and workforce readiness.
eBook
Hidden Resources Can Close the Capacity Gap
With new workforce dynamics, ever expanding customer engagement channels and exponentially more customer interactions, organizations are facing an engagement capacity gap.
eBook
Closing the Customer Engagement Gap
In the near future, contact center agents will still work from home. People will still buy online and expect curbside pickup from retail stores. For simple or routine issues, many customers move past a phone call to chat, messaging, email or choose to work with an automated self-service persona. So what’s wrong with this picture?
eBook
How to Achieve an ROI from PIM
Modern product information management (PIM) has the potential to deliver value far beyond the efficiency gains of the current operational approach.
eBook
Taking Stock of Legacy Software
It can be hard to spot deterioration in software. Performance degradation happens subtly over time in all software, including finance department software such as performance management and ERP systems. However, our research finds a correlation between the age of an ERP system and satisfaction with it.
eBook
Cloud Contact Center Buyer’s Guide
Today’s contact centers have the opportunity to refine old processes and adopt innovative new technologies.
Viewpoint
Get Ready for the New Era of Customer Experience
Organizations had to move quickly to cope with the shock caused by the pandemic in 2020. They had to recreate their operations in remote form, using technology to extend into workers’ homes to stay open.
eBook
Overcoming Customer Engagement Obstacles
In today’s highly competitive and increasingly digital markets, customers can switch suppliers at the click of a button; therefore, a determined focus on customer retention is essential, and a key to retention is the quality of the customer experience.
Analyst Perspective
Preparing Agents for Success in Automated, Distributed Contact Centers
The contact center industry is reexamining how organizations engage with contact center agents. One thing that we learned from the forced movement to work-from-home was that organizations have to provide agents with appropriate tools to collaborate and communicate with peers and supervisors as well as workers in the back office who participate in all sorts of customer-facing or customer-adjacent processes. It is also important to provide supervisors with visibility into agent activity. That means extending existing coaching and evaluation methods. Ventana Research believes that by 2025, nearly every organization will have dedicated systems or processes that help supervisors manage remotely.
Research Perspective
The Future Contact Center is Here Now
For contact centers, the pandemic upended everything—from agents to costs to service levels. Much of the agent population will continue to work remotely indefinitely. As a result, many organizations find themselves confronting a gap in their ability to handle customer engagements.
Research Perspective
Making Subscriptions Part of Modern Business Models
Subscription was once the Next Big Thing in business. But now, e-commerce and subscription/usage business models are simply the way that customers—and organizations—want to conduct business.
Viewpoint
Why Unifying UCaaS and CCaaS Makes Sense
The drive to move communications tools into the cloud was not supposed to create more silos, but unfortunately the division between internally focused business communications tools like phone and chat (Unified Communications as a Service, or “UCaaS”) and contact center solutions (Contact Center as a Service, or “CCaaS”) did just that.
Research Perspective
Putting Customer Conversations to Work
Customers have conversations across the organization. They interact with people in Sales, Service, Support and in some cases even with an organization’s products or services via smart speakers. While our research confirms that the telephone is still the most widely supported customer-engagement channel, other forms of verbal and digital interactions are growing at a rapid pace.
Research Perspective
Innovation Sharpens the Customer Focus
Customer behavior has changed. Customers today use significantly more channels of communication to engage with companies. When they shop, the convenience of online access has led them to be more demanding because they can go elsewhere with a few clicks. They expect service to be personalized and their issues to be resolved fully at the first contact.
White Paper
Building a Unified Workforce for Customer Engagement
Two years after the pandemic upended contact center operations, many managers are finding that they still face challenges finding enough staff to meet customer demand. What was an unusual situation has now become a continuing structural problem that affects how centers source, locate and engage with their agents.
White Paper
Optimizing the Agent Experience
The quality of the customer experience is a competitive differentiator for most organizations. Our research confirms this, finding that improving the customer experience is a top priority for 82% of organizations looking to improve the way they handle customer interactions.
White Paper
Incident Management for Continuity and Resilience
There is a big, practical difference between managing the experience of one customer with a problem versus one thousand customers having the same problem.
White Paper
Modern Customer Analytics for Customer Experience
Truly transformational value gains from optimizing customer experiences have yet to be realized. Even after decades of focusing on CRM as the main tool for improving customer relationships, organizations still struggle to fully understand their customers. Truly transformational value gains from optimizing customer experiences have yet to be realized. Even after decades of focusing on CRM as the main tool for improving customer relationships, organizations still struggle to fully understand their customers.
White Paper
Empower the Modern and Agile Agent Workforce
Readiness and agility of the workforce is the foundation of business resiliency. Black swan events will test an organization’s ability to respond and operate effectively under challenging conditions, including pandemics and other disruptions that force the workforce to operate outside normal conditions with little notice or preparation.
Open Digital Communication for the Enterprise
Organizations are embracing digital communication to improve their productivity and optimize collaboration across the entire enterprise. With the wide variety of tools now available, organizations can easily create more complexity than they realize and might need to simplify the usage of communication tools across the enterprise.
QandA
How to Boost Customer Experience by Improving the Agent Experience
What is the relationship between the agent experience and the customer experience? How does the change in available tools and infrastructure impact how organizations manage agents and through them, customer relationships? What should contact center professionals know about the role of analytics and data in the new environment? Read the Q&A.
QandA
Choosing a CCaaS for Small and Mid-Sized Organizations
What kind of CCaaS should a contact center consider? What buying criteria should rise to the top when considering a CCaaS? Where will a small organization see the real value from a CCaaS platform? Read the Q&A.
QandA
Managing Experiences Across Roles
How have new modes of work and communication changed the nature of these various experiences? Are the changes going to be a permanent part of the business landscape? Read the Q&A.
QandA
Digitally Optimizing the Customer Experience
A portfolio of industry changes are happening to meet the customer demand and needs from applications to adopting customer engagement hubs — to support any range of customer engagement.
VentanaCast
Building Friction-Free Customer Experiences
Getting everyone who impacts the customer experience within an organization onto the same page can be difficult under normal circumstances—let alone during times of change or upheaval that scramble all our assumptions about customer expectations. Watch and listen to Keith Dawson to learn more!
Infographic
Digital Buyers Expect Engaging Product Experiences Infographic
Organizations enable buyers to engage across multiple channels, but product information housed in silos can lead to inconsistent cross-channel digital buying experiences. Product Information Management (PIM) technology enables engaging merchandising and contributes to revenue growth by providing the foundation for delightful product experiences, which in turn are the cornerstone of a satisfying customer experience.
Infographic
Adopting Contact Center in the Cloud
Early telephony-based call centers were built using proprietary on-premises systems. As companies added additional channels of engagement, call centers evolved into contact centers. Today vendors are providing cloud-based contact centers that manage multiple channels of engagement and a variety of contact center management applications. These services are run outside the organization’s data center.
VentanaCast
The Challenges of Modern Customer Experience
The problem with managing Customer Experience these days is that it covers a lot of ground, and touches a lot of people with different roles within an organization.
Podcast
Customer Experience Management and the Future of Work
How can organizations balance the growing ability to automate interactions with the power of the human element and the need to maintain authentic customer relationships?
Webinar
Webinar: The Challenges of Managing Customer Engagement Data
The number and variety of customer interactions are exploding and extend far beyond the contact center – into your branches, stores, digital and self-service channels and back office. However, this data is unstructured and may be stored in disparate systems and silos.
Webinar
Go Big or Go Home: Why Small Businesses Should Invest in a Modern Contact Center
Small businesses have had to make do with tools that are less advanced than those used by their larger peers primarily due to issues of cost and complexity. But just making do isn’t a recipe for providing great customer experiences and fostering customer loyalty.
Analyst Perspective
Zoho One Reaching Needs of Larger Organizations
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 of tightly linked tools that share a common interface.
Analyst Perspective
Why Outbound Is a Smart Channel for Customer Communication
Outbound communication is used in a number of different contexts. For potential customers, traditional telemarketing still exists, though it is limited these days due to its minimal effectiveness. Instead, many customer-experience planners have substituted digital outbound over voice for lead generation and nurturing campaigns. Customers find text messages in the channel of their choice to be much less intrusive, and they are considerably less expensive than having contact center agents reach out.
Analyst Perspective
Agent Performance Management Changes With the Times
Today’s contact centers need to revisit core assumptions around measuring agent performance. Changes in business conditions influencing agent engagement raise new questions about whether traditional performance models are sufficient to address the more complex customer needs that have taken center stage in recent years.
Market Perspective
3CLogic Offers a Voice-Centric Cloud Contact Center Platform
Contact center technology is moving to the cloud at a slow but consistent pace. That has allowed the Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) segment to grow steadily, opening the door to many different approaches for managing the infrastructure needed to serve customers.
Analyst Perspective
Technology is Only Part of the Customer Experience Transformation
Through 2025, establishing customer experience application suites on a common platform will be the focal point of the drive to optimize customer and organizational engagement.
Market Perspective
Intradiem Automates Agent Management in the Contact Center
Intradiem supports contact center optimization by automating agent management, freeing supervisors to focus on the customer experience.
Market Perspective
Content Guru Continues Its Growth in Contact Center in the Cloud
Content Guru combines AI with established CCaaS technology in its storm CX platform, giving organizations an opportunity to elevate their CX game.
Market Perspective
Dialpad Enhances Customer Satisfaction Through AI
Dialpad is bringing CX into focus with an AI-driven platform that prioritizes building and supporting strong customer relationships.
Market Perspective
[24]7.ai Wraps Contact Center Interactions in an Advanced AI Package
[24]7.ai advances personalization, automation in the contact center to help organizations deliver superior customer service.
Analyst Perspective
Contact Centers Should Revisit KPIs for Strategic Relevance
Contact centers need to look past traditional key performance indicators to metrics that demonstrate the impact on the overall customer relationship.
Analyst Perspective
NICE Elevates Power of Customer Experiences
NICE provides customer experience applications that use AI to guide decisions based upon transactional data as well as the intent of an individual.
VentanaCast
Skills for the Modern Contact Center
The nature of contact center agent work is rapidly shifting. How should leadership respond, and what are the new skills they should prioritize in their hiring?
VentanaCast
Managing the Modern Contact Center
Today’s contact center supervisors can’t manage the way they’re used to—by walking the floor and talking to agents individually or in small groups. How can they get the insights they need to help their agents perform?
Analyst Perspective
Optimizing Customer Communication Channels
Contact centers must balance cost control with advancing technology and evolving customer expectations to optimize communication channels.
Market Perspective
ActionIQ CDP Activates CX Data
CDPs help address CX challenges of fragmented data, data governance issues by centralizing, tracking and linking data to a unique customer profile.
Market Perspective
Clarios Earns 2022 Digital Leadership Award in CX with PhaseZero
Clarios earned the 2022 Digital Leadership Award in Customer Experience for using PhaseZero to advance digital commerce and customer engagement.
Analyst Perspective
The CCaaS Business Case Shifts from Costs to Capabilities
Make contact center agents more efficient during voice calls and digital interactions with intelligent self-service.
Market Perspective
LiveVox Simplifies the Complex in the Contact Center
LiveVox offers a purpose-built cloud platform with advanced call center features like virtual agents, analytics, dynamic workflows and scripts.
Market Perspective
Boost.ai Brings Conversational AI to Reality
Boost.ai provides a cloud-based, easy-to-use, no-code platform of virtual agents, voice and chatbots powered by conversational artificial intelligence.
Analyst Perspective
Verint Bets Big on Engagement Automation and Intelligence
Verint announces customer experience software automation designed to help organizations overcome the challenges posed by changes in customer behavior.
Market Perspective
CSG Simplifies the Customer Journey
CSG’s integrated CX software gives organizations greater control over the customer journey while also managing customer communication and data.
Analyst Perspective
The 2023 Market Agenda for CX: Analytics Takes Center Stage
The 2023 Customer Experience Market Agenda provides insights and best practices you need to maximize CX technology investments.
Analyst Perspective
All-Inclusive CX Suites Reveal the Big Picture to Optimize CX Management
Customer experience software vendors are creating suites out of niche solutions, encouraging integration and highlighting tools such as AI and automation.
Analyst Perspective
The 2023 Value Index for Customer Experience Management: Vendor and Product Ratings
The 2023 Customer Experience Management Value Index gauges offerings from vendors to match buyers’ requirements for analytics and data software products.
Viewpoint
Automation Should Support the Human Agent
Many organizations look to automation to control costs by making people more efficient. However, it is very common for teams to overlook automation’s other significant benefit: better agent engagement.
Market Perspective
Salesforce Is Rated Exemplary and an Overall Leader in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Salesforce.
Market Perspective
Zoho Is Rated Exemplary and an Overall Leader in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Zoho.
Market Perspective
Verint Is Rated Exemplary and an Overall Leader in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Verint.
Market Perspective
NICE Is Rated Exemplary and a Leader in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from NICE.
Analyst Perspective
IoT Will Enhance Customer Experiences with Field Service
The Internet of Things enables automation that can improve the efficiency and speed to resolution of field service, enhancing the customer experience.
Market Perspective
Oracle Rated Exemplary and a Leader in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Oracle.
Market Perspective
Emplifi Is Rated Exemplary in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Emplifi.
Market Perspective
Adobe Is Rated Exemplary and a Leader in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Adobe.
Market Perspective
Content Guru Is Rated Innovative and a Leader in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Content Guru.
Market Perspective
Sprinklr Is Rated Exemplary and a Leader in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Sprinklr.
Market Perspective
SugarCRM Is Rated Exemplary in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from SugarCRM.
Market Perspective
SAP Is Innovative and a Leader in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from SAP.
Market Perspective
Zendesk Is a Vendor of Merit in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Zendesk.
Market Perspective
Genesys Is a Vendor of Assurance in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Genesys.
White Paper
Transitioning to the Hybrid Cloud
Contact center platform vendors are transitioning to cloud offerings, but what if an enterprise is not ready to move all of its operations off-premises?
Market Perspective
Avaya Is a Vendor of Assurance in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Avaya.
Market Perspective
CallMiner Streamlines Use of Customer Interaction Data
CallMiner’s software uses artificial intelligence to extract and analyze voice and text interactions, identifying enhancements for agents and customers.
Market Perspective
ServiceNow Is a Vendor of Merit in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from ServiceNow.
Market Perspective
Amdocs Is a Vendor of Merit in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Amdocs.
Market Perspective
Freshworks Is a Vendor of Merit in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Freshworks.
Market Perspective
Amelia is Revolutionizing Customer Service through AI
Amelia’s artificial intelligence platform features a chatbot to deliver improved self-service customer experiences and enhanced worker productivity.
Market Perspective
Cisco Is a Vendor of Merit in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Cisco.
Market Perspective
Qualtrics Is a Vendor of Merit in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Qualtrics.
Market Perspective
Alvaria Is a Vendor of Merit in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Alvaria.
Market Perspective
HubSpot Is a Vendor of Merit in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from HubSpot.
White Paper
Modernizing the Contact Center with AI
Contact centers generate an enormous amount of data in the course of handling customer interactions.
Market Perspective
Precisely Is a Vendor of Merit in Customer Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses customer experience management software from Precisely.
Analyst Perspective
Making Automation Easier for Contact Centers
Contact centers that want to optimize worker time and cut costs should work with trusted technology vendors to evaluate how best to implement automation.
Analyst Perspective
8x8 Pivots to Emphasize Contact Center Technology for CX
Ventana Research analyst Keith Dawson explains a pivot in 8x8’s voice communications platform emphasizing the CCaaS side of its portfolio.
Analyst Perspective
Qualtrics XM Platform Zeros in on Customer Experiences
With AI, Qualtrics dramatically increases the use of customer data to incorporate its contact center-focused platform into the broader organizational CX.
Analyst Perspective
Why Intelligent Self-Service Is the Tip of the Spear for CX
Intelligent self-service can improve customer engagement, making it a central element of customer experience initiatives.
Market Perspective
Contentsquare Optimizes Digital Customer Experiences Through Analytics
Contentsquare is a digital experience analytics platform provider that helps organizations understand and optimize a customer’s digital journey.
Analyst Perspective
Customer Feedback Management Goes Way Beyond Surveys for the VoC
Voice of the customer feedback programs are able to gather deeper analysis of more data points for broader insights into customer behavior and intentions.
QandA
Workable Solutions to the Capacity Gap
The shift to digital channels is being driven by consumers, and businesses are responding—not the other way around.
Market Perspective
Twilio Enhances Customer Experience in the Contact Center
Twilio's developer-friendly cloud platform enables organizations to communicate across various channels, including voice, text, email and video.
Market Perspective
Microsoft Brings Dynamics and Nuance for a Contact Center Suite
Microsoft brings familiar, reliable applications to contact centers with its Dynamics 365 suite via partnerships and advanced digital tools.
eBook
Winning and Retaining the Modern Customer
Modern analytics tools provide a way to gain insight into the customer’s mind and guide organizations to outcomes that satisfy the needs of both parties.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle’s Formula for CX Builds on Fusion Service
Oracle has developed a roadmap for customer experience technology to address complex issues related to how clients deploy integrated CX platforms.
Analyst Perspective
The Path to Generative AI to Boost Contact Center Agent Performance
AI-enhanced tools offer optimization to drive contact center productivity, engagement, quality, without the need to disrupt operations, existing platforms.
Market Perspective
Uniphore Enables Customer Service with Conversational Automation and Intelligence
Uniphore’s automation engine uses advanced artificial intelligence technologies to make customer interactions more conversational and versatile.
Viewpoint
Modern Customers Call for Modern CX Processes
Customers change, technology changes, but do business processes change in response?
Analyst Perspective
Zendesk Boosts AI for Enhanced Customer Engagement
At its annual industry conference, Zendesk announced enhancements to its customer service and support technology, including new AI capabilities.
Market Perspective
Uniphore Earns Customer Experience Digital Innovation Award for 2023
Uniphore X Platform’s use of AI and automation to optimize customer experiences earned Uniphore the 2023 Customer Experience Digital Innovation Award.
Market Perspective
OnviSource AI and Automation Boost CX Analytics
OnviSource’s intelligent automation software for contact centers drives satisfaction and engagement both within the organization and for customers.
Analyst Perspective
Orchestrating Experiences Is a Big Lift for Contact Centers
Increase the value of customer interactions by deploying AI in the contact center to orchestrate customer experiences.
Market Perspective
Medallia Unlocks Excellence in Customer Experience
Medallia enables organizations to capture, analyze and act upon customer feedback and deliver exceptional experiences to attract and retain customers.
Analyst Perspective
NICE Shines Spotlight on Enlighten AI
NICE’s CXone suite harnesses AI to modernize contact center operations while retaining the familiarity needed to ensure consistent operations.
Analyst Perspective
Verint Wants You to Think Differently About Contact Centers
Verint challenges the industry’s perception of CCaaS, enabling vendors without voice routing to become primary providers of customer support tools.
Market Perspective
UJET Enhances Customer and Employee Experiences
UJET offers cloud contact center software that enables remote agents to deliver personalized customer interactions through multiple communication channels.
Analyst Perspective
Why Every Contact Center Should Have a CDP
Contact centers can increase their value within organizations by using CDPs to better engage customers, resulting in more successful customer relationships.
Market Perspective
Thought Industries Delivers Insights on E-Learner Engagement
Thought Industries’ highly customizable e-learning platform delivers reporting and analytics capabilities that provide insights into learner engagement.
Analyst Perspective
Balancing Agents and Automation Enhances the Customer Experience
Determining the right mix of automation and human labor requires a thoughtful approach to self-service and agent support for more complex interactions.
Analyst Perspective
Market Observations From the Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide 2023 for Customer Experience software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Contact Center Suites Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 22 vendors match buyers’ requirements for Customer Experience software products.
Analyst Perspective
Agent Management Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Agent Management Buyers Guide 2023 for customer experience software products.
Buyers Guide
The Buyers Guide for Agent Management Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Agent Management Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 12 vendors match buyers’ requirements for customer experience software products.
Analyst Perspective
Contact Centers Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Contact Centers Buyers Guide 2023 for Customer Experience software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Contact Centers Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Contact Centers Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 21 vendors match buyers’ requirements for customer experience software products.
Market Perspective
NICE is Exemplary in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates NICE.
Market Perspective
Genesys is Exemplary in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Genesys.
Market Perspective
Verint is Exemplary in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Verint.
Market Perspective
Content Guru is Exemplary in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Content Guru.
Market Perspective
LiveVox is Exemplary in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates LiveVox.
Market Perspective
Talkdesk is Exemplary in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Talkdesk.
Market Perspective
Five9 is Innovative in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Five9.
Market Perspective
Salesforce is Exemplary in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Salesforce.
Market Perspective
Emplifi is a Vendor of Assurance in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Emplifi.
Market Perspective
RingCentral is an Innovative Vendor in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates RingCentral.
Market Perspective
Avaya is Exemplary in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Avaya.
Market Perspective
Cisco is Innovative in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Cisco.
Market Perspective
Dialpad is Vendor of Merit in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Dialpad.
Market Perspective
Vonage is Vendor of Merit in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Vonage.
Market Perspective
Enghouse Interactive is Vendor of Merit in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Enghouse Interactive.
Analyst Perspective
Cultivating Contact Center, Customer Experience Thinking for Success
A shared view of contact center and customer experience approaches encourages outcomes that lead to customer longevity and revenue growth.
Market Perspective
8x8 is Vendor of Merit in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates 8x8.
Market Perspective
Alvaria is Vendor of Assurance in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Alvaria.
Market Perspective
Mitel is Vendor of Assurance in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Mitel.
Market Perspective
Twilio is Vendor of Merit in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Twilio.
Market Perspective
AWS is Vendor of Merit in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates AWS.
Market Perspective
Zoom is Vendor of Merit in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Zoom.
Market Perspective
Microsoft is Vendor of Merit in Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Contact Center Suites evaluates Microsoft.
Analyst Perspective
NICE Puts Knowledge at the Heart of Its AI Strategy
NICE uses artificial intelligence and knowledge management to advance self-service tools like conversational chatbots and intent-driven agent guidance.
Analyst Perspective
Decoupling Interaction Routing with BYOT in Contact Center Software
Decoupling voice technologies from contact center software opens the door to applications that drive contact center and customer experience activity.
Analyst Perspective
Verint’s AI Strategy Takes Shape
Verint combines an Open CCaaS mentality with quantifiable costs and outcomes to demonstrate how AI can generate results within an organization.
Analyst Perspective
ServiceNow’s Vancouver Is a Roadmap to the Future of Service Ops
ServiceNow uses AI to enhance and utilize knowledge management, key to forward-looking customer service ops and a proactive, enterprise-wide CX approach.
Analyst Perspective
Contact Centers Must Adapt to New Agent Tools and Practices
Adopting AI and knowledge management technology directly impacts contact center agent productivity, engagement, skills and performance.
Analyst Perspective
Calabrio Enables Contact Center Agent Productivity
Calabrio combines proven performance and AI-driven, next-generation applications in its latest agent management technology for the contact center.
Market Perspective
MoneyGram International Earns CX Digital Leadership Award with NICE for 2023
MoneyGram earned the 2023 CX Digital Leadership Award for its use of NICE to deliver exceptional interaction experiences throughout the customer journey.
Analyst Perspective
The 2024 Market Agenda for CX: The Steady Rollout of Gen AI
The 2024 Customer Experience Market Agenda provides the insights and best practices needed to maximize CX technology investments.
Analyst Perspective
Content Guru Builds Out Its Brain with AI
Content Guru ups the ante on routing platforms, using AI and its own CDP to better support contact center agents in their goal to optimize customer service.
Analyst Perspective
Sentiment Analysis Unlocks Deeper, Better CX
Sentiment analysis provides insight into how the customer perceives the experience so agents can determine the most effective actions in real time.
White Paper
Excellence on Repeat
AI makes it possible to create consistent, reliably excellent customer experiences.
Analyst Perspective
Uniphore Puts AI to Work Automating Interactions
Uniphore’s X Platform offers contact center automation and analytics while targeting a broad range of use cases by employing multiple AI modes.
Analyst Perspective
Voice of the Customer Measurement Is Well Beyond Surveys
Today’s voice-of-the-customer tools collect feedback from voice, chat, email and social media, using GenAI to analyze voice recordings and texts.
Analyst Perspective
Zendesk Shifts the Conversation from Service to Enterprise CX
Zendesk’s AI-powered platform serves needs across CX departments that improve customer engagement while achieving workforce, quality management objectives.
Analyst Perspective
AI Can Boost CX Outcomes in Field Service
Advanced technologies that provide real-time automated assistance to technicians can make field service a driver of successful customer experience.
Analyst Perspective
Verint Turns Focus to CX Automation and AI
Verint brings the contact center into broader enterprise CX with CX Automation, driven by AI and innovative center tools focused on successful outcomes.
Analyst Perspective
Businesses Need a More Expansive View of Self-Service’s Value
Intelligent self-service now encompasses customer data, knowledge processing, automation and AI to provide superior CX, high-value customer insights.
Analyst Perspective
Bringing AI to Your Customer Experience
Through 2028, the establishment of CX application suites on a common platform will become the focal point of the drive to optimize customer and organization engagement.
Analyst Perspective
CCaaS, CPaaS or UCaaS for CX? It Doesn’t Matter.
Digital communications platforms are moving beyond telecom origins to include AI and offer CX capabilities like engagement, knowledge management.
Market Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Customer Experience Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the CXM Buyers Guide for customer experience software products.
Market Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Customer Journey Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Customer Journey Management Buyers Guide for customer experience software products.
Market Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Knowledge Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Knowledge Management Buyers Guide for customer experience software products.
Market Perspective
Verint Earns Customer Experience Digital Innovation Award for 2024
Verint Earns ISG Research Customer Experience Digital Innovation Award for 2024.
Analyst Perspective
Sprinklr Zeros in on a CXM Platform
Sprinklr offers software for customer experience management, melding contact center and adjacent customer-related operations.
Analyst Perspective
Contact Center AI Gain Traction: Profitable Use Cases
Contact centers expect a quick return on investment and maximum improvement in efficiency and productivity from AI-related tools.
Analyst Perspective
Verint Focuses Bots on Contact Center Outcomes
Verint targets specific, immediately helpful contact center use cases for its expansion of AI-based bots, increasing human agent productivity.
Analyst Perspective
What Open Platforms Mean for Contact Centers
An open platform fosters flexibility and dynamism within an enterprise that serves to connect the contact center to the rest of the business.
Market Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Contact Center Advanced Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Contact Center Advanced Buyers Guides for customer experience software products.
Market Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Contact Center Basic Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Contact Center Basic Buyers Guides for customer experience software products.
Market Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Agent Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Agent Management Buyers Guides for customer experience software products.
White Paper
Using Automation to Influence Customer Behavior
Discover how automation and AI can transform enterprise customer experience, drive growth, and streamline processes for better business outcomes.
Analyst Perspective
AI Use Cases for Field Service
Field service enterprises can benefit from AI use cases to organize technicians and dispatchers and understand the context of product failure modes.
Analyst Perspective
There Are Gaps in the CX Toolkit Waiting to Be Filled
CX providers seeking to differentiate their offerings can build out CX suites to add high-value capabilities such as analytics or AI-based applications.
Analyst Perspective
Zoho Evolves Portfolio for Enterprises Using AI
Zoho leverages AI to enhance its enterprise software suite, improving productivity and customer experience management with a cohesive platform strategy.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Field Service Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Field Service Management Buyers Guides for Field Service software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Field Service Customer Engagement Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Field Service Customer Engagement Buyers Guides for Field Service software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Field Service Proactive Maintenance Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Field Service Proactive Maintenance Buyers Guides for Field Service software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Manufacturing Field Service Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Manufacturing Field Service Buyers Guides for Field Service software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Power and Utilities Field Service Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Power and Utilities Field Service Buyers Guides for Field Service software products.
Analyst Perspective
NICE Orchestrates AI and Automation for Customer Journeys
NICE’s Orchestrator maximizes AI to enable organizations to automate and control the entire process of engaging with customers.
Analyst Perspective
Are Your CX KPIs Built to Measure Outcomes or Activity?
Contact centers must measure customer outcomes alongside activity metrics to understand where a business has influence or impact customer behavior.
Analyst Perspective
The Consequences of AI-Induced Head Count Reduction for Contact Centers
Contact centers need a brand-management strategy to mitigate customer dissatisfaction due to head count reductions enabled by AI applications.
Viewpoint
Can Your Data Keep Up with Your AI and ML Efforts
As data volumes and velocities increase, more and more decisions are being made using AI and ML. However, the process of operationalizing AI and ML models requires a dynamic data architecture that can constantly be training new models while simultaneously scoring new records in real-time for operational decision making.
Analyst Perspective
The Ventana Research Digital Technology Agenda in 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.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: Digital Technology for Optimal Operations in 2020 and Beyond
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: Digital Innovation for Optimal Experiences in 2020 and Beyond
At Ventana Research we’re familiar with the need for digital transformation as we have been researching and providing education on this topic for almost two decades.
White Paper
The Age of Communication Platforms
Modernizing communication technology within the organization will improve the overall employee and customer experiences by reducing friction and enabling richer, more reliable communication experiences across all business functions. Deploying a next-generation communication platform provides operational efficiency and security while building resiliency into the organization’s digital communication, preparing the organization to maintain business continuity and responsiveness during challenging periods and enabling overall digital transformation initiatives to reach their full potential.
White Paper
Unlocking the Promise of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) have quickly become difference makers for organizations looking to develop a competitive advantage. AI/ML enables organizations to make sense of the increasingly large volumes of complex information they must process, especially as it becomes ever more important to analyze data in real time.
Analyst Perspective
ServiceNow: Now Platform earns our Overall Digital Innovation Award
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.
Videocast
The Analytics to AI Spectrum
Analytics and artificial intelligence (or AI) are different. Both are valuable and your organization should have a plan to provide both types of capabilities, but don’t expect that AI-based analyses will be a natural extension of your traditional analytics activities.
Analyst Perspective
8x8: Open Communications Platform earns our 13th Digital Innovation Award for Digital Technology
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.
Analyst Perspective
Business Continuity: Establishing Organizational Readiness for Business Resilience
Through 2021, one-half of organizations will realize that digital transformation (DX) investments have not met the organizational readiness requirements of business continuity, leading to a new focus on innovative digital technologies that more reliably sustain operations.
Analyst Perspective
PTC Brings Innovation to Product Experiences
Augmented reality (AR) is a critical component of digital technology. The role of AR is to virtualize the visualization and engagement of assets and products with information that can enhance the value of it for many purposes including manufacturing, marketing, sales and service.
Viewpoint
The Modernization of Video Communications
The important role that video plays in digital communications has been clear for some time, and our benchmark research finds it to be one of the highest growth channels for communications in 35% of organizations.
eBook
The Era of Video Communications
Digital experiences for the modern workforce must offer simplicity of usage without sacrificing sophistication of the technology itself. And the reality for today’s virtual, dispersed workforces is that video is a must-have for all digital communications with colleagues, customers and other partners both to improve business outcomes and to ensure business continuity.
Analyst Perspective
The Ventana Research 2021 Market Agenda: How Digital Effectiveness Impacts Organizational Agility
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Digital Technology Market Agenda for 2021: Predictability in Unpredictable Times
I’m proud to share Ventana Research’s 2021 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 operation during any type of disruption.
Analyst Perspective
Digital Business Market Agenda for 2021 and Beyond
With the announcement of Ventana Research market agenda, a new expertise in Digital Business has been launched, I will outline the areas of focus that provide insights to organizations that can be used to optimize technology, increase agility and organizational readiness.
Analyst Perspective
Innovit Named a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Moovila Earns Digital Business Innovation Award for 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.
Analyst Perspective
ConverSight.ai Earns 2021 Digital Innovation Award
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.
Analyst Perspective
Expert.ai Earns 2021 Digital Innovation Award for Digital Technology
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.
White Paper
The Digital Age of Data Intelligence
The age of data is here, and the value of all that data to organizations continues to increase. Data has, in fact, become integral to an organization’s ability to grow and thrive. So, it is essential that organizations tap into every available source of information that might help gain insight into operations.
Market Perspective
Blue Prism’s Robotic Process Automation Creates a Digital Workforce
Robotic process automation has developed into a significant part of the enterprise software and low- to no-code development approach in the past few years.
Analyst Perspective
Why I Joined Ventana Research to Advance Digital Technology
I am very happy to announce that I have joined Ventana Research to help lead the expertise area of Digital Technology, including Analytics and Data, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, the Internet of Things, Robotic Automation, and Collaborative and Conversational Computing.
Market Perspective
Guide Successful Technology Vendor Selections for Best Outcomes
Business improvement stems from technology investments that advance automation and apply intelligence to your work and processes, increasing the potential achievement of desired outcomes.
Market Perspective
International Game Technology Earns Digital Leadership Award in Digital Business with Moovila for 2021
The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.
Market Perspective
City Furniture Earns Digital Leadership Award in Digital Technology with Denodo for 2021
The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.
Analyst Perspective
Digital Business Market Agenda for 2022: Resilience and Readiness
With the announcement of Ventana Research’s 2022 Market Agenda, our expertise in Digital Business continues to advance the market need for effective investments into technology, and I will outline here the key areas of focus to provide insights to organizations that can increase their organizational resilience and workforce readiness. We are proud to provide expertise on ensuring technological effectiveness through our market research and experience in providing guidance on trends and best practices.
Analyst Perspective
The Digital Technology Market Agenda for 2022: Innovation for Business Resilience
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.
Market Perspective
Oracle ME Earns Overall Digital Innovation Award for 2022
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 that optimizes organizational resilience and workforce readiness.
eBook
The Era of Video Communications
Digital experiences for the modern workforce must offer simplicity of usage without sacrificing sophistication of the technology itself.
eBook
The 2020 Vision: The Next Decade for Enterprise Analytics
To gain the full benefit of the insights analytics can deliver, organizations need to embrace a new approach, one that will make the analytics not only useful but meaningful to each individual whose work can benefit from them.
eBook
Five Key Requirements of an External Data Platform
External data can be valuable to many organizations. It can enrich the internal data that an organization collects and analyzes about its customers, prospects and partners.
eBook
https://www.ventanaresearch.com/ebook/analytics/operationalize_ai_at_scale_with_mlops
Organizations are proving that artificial intelligence (AI) is valuable. Our research shows that the most common benefits reported by participants include gaining competitive advantage and improving customer experiences.
Market Perspective
ServiceNow Earns 2022 Digital Innovation Award for Digital Business
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 that optimizes organizational resilience and workforce readiness.
Viewpoint
Cloud Migration Tips, Tricks and Traps
For a variety of reasons, organizations are moving their workloads to the cloud. Our research shows that one-third of organizations have their primary data lake platforms in the cloud and most organizations (86%) expect the majority of their data to be in the cloud at some point in the future.
eBook
Simplify your Data and Analytics Architecture for Faster Insights
Organizations face increasing competition and compressed time frames that require intelligent use of all available data.
eBook
Collecting and Managing IoT Data for Analytics
While the Internet of Things (IoT) may still be unfamiliar to many consumers, businesses are well aware of its potential. More than 90% of participants in our research said that IoT is important to their future operations.
Viewpoint
The Distributed Cloud Requires a Distributed Data Platform
Adoption of cloud and edge computing infrastructure has brought many benefits to organizations of all sizes. It has improved business agility by reducing the need for upfront purchasing, configuration and deployment of infrastructure, and reduced the complexity and cost of data movement by taking data processing closer to where the data is generated.
Viewpoint
The Way Forward with RPA
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a core digital technology for increasing productivity and efficiency, speeding the completion of work, and increasing its quality and controllability.
Research Perspective
Moving from Batch to Event Streaming
Operations are continuous in most organizations today and so too is the data these operations generate.
Research Perspective
The Impact of AI on Finance and Accounting
Futurists and software vendors have been pointing to a day when artificial intelligence (AI) using machine learning (ML) will perform miracles such as providing life-saving diagnoses and recommending treatments for even rare diseases in seconds.
Research Perspective
The Digital Future of Human Capital Management
A new generation of digital technologies is extending human capital management (HCM) systems, making them simpler and more productive than ever before.
White Paper
Intelligent Automation in the Cloud
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has evolved considerably beyond its original purpose of automating routine tasks to become a core technology for the intelligent automation of all parts of an organization.
White Paper
Intelligent Insights for Everyone, Everywhere
In today’s dynamic business environment, organizations cannot fly blindly and expect to succeed. There is a trove of internal and externally sourced data available to organizations that can and should be used to improve decision-making.
Market Perspective
NVIDIA Earns Digital Technology Digital Innovation Award for 2022
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 that optimizes organizational resilience and workforce readiness.
White Paper
New Approaches to Master Data Management
Accurate data is critical for business processes and operations. Billing customers, for example, requires accurate information regarding the product or service, prices, customer names and addresses and personnel authorized to use the product or service.
White Paper
Data and AI Governance for Trusted Insights
Analytics are critical to the efficient and effective operation of most modern organizations; to that end, trusted analytics require trusted data.
White Paper
A Practical AI Strategy for FP&A
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) that harnesses machine learning (ML) will be the single most important trend in business software this decade because it can multiply the investment value of such applications and provide software companies an important source of differentiation to achieve a competitive advantage.
Viewpoint
Can Your Data Keep Up with Your AI and ML Efforts?
As data volumes and data velocities increase, more and more decisions involving that data are being made using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI and ML) technologies. However, operationalizing AI and ML models requires a dynamic, modern data architecture.
Viewpoint
Changing Data Patterns Are Impacting Analytics
Collectively, we are amid a transition from data at rest to data in motion. Large volumes of data are streaming into organizations from all sides and with increasing frequency, forcing organizations to rethink how they process data.
White Paper
Unlocking the Promise of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) have quickly become difference makers for organizations looking to develop a competitive advantage.
Viewpoint
Eliminating Bottlenecks in Analytics
For many organizations, analytics processes are riddled with roadblocks. There are many valid reasons why these roadblocks existed in the past, and they were often based on technical limitations.
White Paper
Cloud-Based Architecture for Data and Analytics
Organizations today increasingly are choosing to store their data and perform their analyses in the cloud. Our research finds that almost one-half (49%) of organizations are already using cloud-based analytics systems, and data is being migrated to the cloud with almost five in six organizations (86%) either relying on the cloud today or expecting to rely on the cloud in the future for storage of the majority of their data.
White Paper
The Age of Communication Platforms
Demand is growing for a new generation of modern communication technology for the enterprise. Individuals within organizations have the need to connect and collaborate with others at any time for any purpose, and while this need is present under normal business conditions, it is further heightened during abnormal conditions when maintaining business continuity becomes critical.
White Paper
Decoupling the AI/ML Pipeline for Scale
Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are extremely valuable to organizations. Our research shows that AI/ML help organizations gain a competitive advantage and improve customer experiences, and have a direct impact on the bottom line, increasing sales and lowering costs.
White Paper
Embracing Modern Data Governance Practices
For too long, data governance has been about preventing people from doing things with data. Yes, restrictions and controls over data are absolutely necessary and should be part of every organization’s information architecture.
White Paper
The Digital Age of Data Intelligence
The age of data is here, and the value of all that data to organizations continues to increase. Data has, in fact, become integral to an organization’s ability to grow and thrive. So, it is essential that organizations tap into every available source of information that might help gain insight into operations.
White Paper
Key Requirements for Building Analytic Applications
The ultimate objective of analytics in organizations is to improve operations with better, fact based decision making. But doing so requires that decisions are made within the proper context so they are relevant and accurate.
White Paper
Why Data and AI Matter in Sales
Revenue growth is a key indicator of competitive success. This is a given, yet for many companies, competing successfully is becoming more difficult.
White Paper
Avoiding Cloud Data Cost Overruns
The anticipated benefits of cloud computing have encouraged organizations to accelerate adoption of cloud-based applications and services. Data and analytics are no exception, especially as more and more of an organization’s data resides in the cloud.
White Paper
Enhance Analytics Performance and Impact in the Cloud
This we already know: Data is moving to the cloud. As cloud applications have been adopted, this has meant that many critical sources of data for analytics now or soon will live in the cloud.
QandA
Moving Analytics to the Cloud
Dave Menninger of Ventana Research answers questions and shares research on the adoption of cloud-based analytics. He addresses the latest trends and best practices for helping organizations adopt cloud analytics including the role that AI and IoT play in the desire for organizations to move to the cloud.
Infographic
Adopting Contact Center in the Cloud
Early telephony-based call centers were built using proprietary on-premises systems. As companies added additional channels of engagement, call centers evolved into contact centers. Today vendors are providing cloud-based contact centers that manage multiple channels of engagement and a variety of contact center management applications. These services are run outside the organization’s data center.
VentanaCast
Delivering Data and Analytics to HR and Finance
In many cases traditional data warehouses and analytics are so disconnected from the business applications that it is difficult to use them to make well-informed decisions.
Webinar
Webinar: Evaluate Analytics and Data Vendors for Successful Outcomes
In this webinar, David Menninger, SVP and Research Director of Analytics and Data Research at Ventana Research, will share his insights on the analytics market and an understanding on how to successfully evaluate existing and potential new vendors.
Analyst Perspective
Cloud Computing Realities – Part 1
The migration to cloud is obvious. Organizations are adopting cloud computing for all variety of applications and use cases. Managed cloud services, commonly referred to as software as a service (SaaS), offer many benefits to organizations including significantly reduced labor costs for system administration and maintenance, as many of these costs are shifted to the software vendor.
eBook
Information Requirements Across the Organization
Organizations need a broad range of analytics to make data-driven business decisions that give them a competitive advantage. But in the face of data complexity challenges, it can be a struggle to make sense of what’s actually going on across the business.
Analyst Perspective
Cloud Computing Realities Part 2: Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Architectures
In my first perspective on cloud computing realities, I covered some of the cost considerations associated with cloud computing and how the cloud costing model may be different enough from on-premises models that some organizations are taken by surprise. In this perspective. I’d like to focus on realities of hybrid and multi-cloud deployments.
Analyst Perspective
Cloud Computing Realities Part 3: Business Continuity
Cloud computing provides strong support for business continuity during regular and virtual operations, additional tools help defend against disruption.
Market Perspective
Roche Earns Digital Leadership Award in Digital Technology with Solace
Suresh Babu Jaganathan at Roche earned the 2022 Digital Leadership Award in Digital Technology by using Solace for event streaming and management.
Analyst Perspective
Cloud Computing Realities Part 4 — Security and Governance
Security and compliance features of today’s cloud providers rival the strongest on-premises approaches, paving the way for a safe, secure move to the cloud.
Analyst Perspective
Personalize Experiences to Improve Engagement and Outcomes
Organizations must end the one-size-fits-all approach to business apps and focus on personalized user experiences for both their workforce and customers.
Analyst Perspective
2023 Market Agenda: Digitalization Evolves for Business Revitalization
Insights from Ventana Research’s 2023 Market Agenda highlight technology investments to improve agility and competitiveness through digital effectiveness.
Analyst Perspective
2023 Digital Technology Market Agenda: Innovation for Digital Agility
The 2023 Digital Technology Market Agenda will help leaders define business continuity plans and identify key investments for effective virtual operation.
Analyst Perspective
Use Observability for Better Digital Processes
Organizations are expanding use cases for observability, including mitigating the risk of business disruptions and enhancing customer experiences.
Analyst Perspective
Generative AI Ushers in a New Age of Content and Model Creation
Generative AI responds to natural language queries and instructions to create content and models with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Market Perspective
OpenAI Earns Overall Digital Innovation Award for 2023
OpenAI’s seismic evolution of generative AI enabled a new generation of conversational computing, earning it Ventana Research’s 2023 Overall Digital Innovation Award.
Market Perspective
Kognitos Earns Digital Technology Digital Innovation Award for 2023
Kognitos’ use of generative AI and natural language within automation platforms earned Ventana Research’s 2023 Digital Technology Innovation Award.
Analyst Perspective
Digital Modernization Helps CIOs Align to Business Growth
Analyst Jeff Orr takes the helm of the CIO and technology leader practice, sharing research and advice to help organizations modernize digital systems.
Analyst Perspective
The Digital Era of Business Transformation to Modernization for CIOs
Digital modernization focuses on maximizing the efficiency of existing software investments and resources to improve productivity, agility and flexibility.
Analyst Perspective
Harnessing Generative AI: Fueling Collaboration and Conversation
Generate creative content that drives innovation and performance, improve collaboration and enhance customer engagement using generative AI.
Analyst Perspective
Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Architecture Enables Digital Modernization
Hybrid and multi-cloud computing helps organizations optimize the IT infrastructure necessary for digital transformation and modernization efforts.
White Paper
Protect Your Data with SAML Authentication
Cybersecurity threats are more prevalent and dangerous than ever, and breaches can have huge financial and mission-oriented implications when they occur.
Analyst Perspective
Intelligent Automation Unlocks the Full Potential of Technology
Organizations can employ intelligent automation to unlock the full potential of technology and achieve business goals.
Analyst Perspective
AI Advances Automation for Enhanced Efficiency
Artificial intelligence plays a key role in advancing new forms of automation to manage increasingly complex and diverse tasks for enhanced efficiency.
Analyst Perspective
ServiceNow Platform Automates Optimal Workforce Experiences
ServiceNow’s workflow automation helps digitize and automate siloed processes within an organization to create optimal experiences for the workforce.
White Paper
Accelerating Analytics Insight from Operational Data
Data-driven organizations stand to gain a competitive advantage when they increase the speed and scale of how data is accessed and processed.
White Paper
Modernizing the Contact Center with AI
Contact centers generate an enormous amount of data in the course of handling customer interactions.
Analyst Perspective
Intelligent Automation Trends to Improve Business Results in 2024
Intelligent automation is paving the way for a future where machines can learn, adapt and act in increasingly intelligent ways that benefit enterprises.
Analyst Perspective
The Intelligent Automation Journey: From Objectives to Implementation
With intelligent automation widely available for use in nearly all enterprise activities, clarity on business goals is key to strategic implementation.
Market Perspective
Bank of America Earns Digital Technology Digital Leadership Award with Alteryx for 2023
Bank of America earned the 2023 Digital Technology Digital Leadership Award for its use of Alteryx to streamline data flows through automation.
Analyst Perspective
AI Hallucinations Are More Than a Headache for Business and IT
Don’t let AI hallucinations distort enterprise reality; take steps to train and maintain AI models to ensure accurate, ethical and reliable results.
Analyst Perspective
2024 Digital Technology Market Agenda: Modernization for IT and CIO
The 2024 Digital Technology Market Agenda will help leaders define digital transformation and modernization plans and identify key investments for effective IT operation.
Analyst Perspective
Five Leading Business Outcomes with Enterprise Cloud Computing
Enterprise cloud computing is not just about being tech-forward: it helps achieve business outcomes, most effective when aligned with business objectives.
Analyst Perspective
CTEM: Proactive Security Defense for Business
Cybersecurity with real-time detection: CTEM continuously monitors for cyber threats and automatically responds to security events to minimize disruption.
Analyst Perspective
Navigating Security Threats with CTEM Integration
Evaluate business and technology needs when considering how to integrate CTEM tools to predict, detect and respond to cyber threats effectively.
Analyst Perspective
Navigating the Enterprise IT Ops Labyrinth
Enterprises are increasingly recognizing the need to streamline operations for efficiency, agility and innovation, leading to new “Ops” initiatives.
Analyst Perspective
The Decomplexification of IT: Simplifying Enterprise Technology
Decomplexification encompasses IT activities to simplify the technology stack while enhancing efficiency, security and collaboration within an enterprise.
Analyst Perspective
ServiceNow Puts AI to Work at Knowledge 2024 Conference
ServiceNow diversifies beyond IT services to offer workflow optimization to enterprise teams with an AI-driven platform offering automation, integration.
Analyst Perspective
Who Poisoned the AI Watering Hole: Adversarial Threats in AI
The convergence of AI’s transformative potential and the growing sophistication of threat actors demands a proactive approach to safeguarding AI systems.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guides for Cloud Computing Platforms Classifies and Rates Software Providers
Ventana Research offers market observations and overall results from the Cloud Platforms Buyers Guides for digital technology software products.
Analyst Perspective
Cloud Platforms and Accessibility Hurdles
Multi-cloud, hybrid and sovereign cloud services must offer better visibility, accessibility to support enterprise innovation, growth of data applications.
Market Perspective
Oracle Earns Digital Technology Digital Innovation Award for 2024
Oracle Earns Ventana Research Digital Technology Digital Innovation Award for 2024.
Analyst Perspective
Unlocking Success with Enterprise GenAI Tools
To achieve best return on investment in GenAI tools calls for comprehensive user support and a focus on optimizing user interactions.
Analyst Perspective
Restructuring Cybersecurity: Lessons from Microsoft's Recent Changes
With cybersecurity a challenge for companies from every industry, enterprise-wide efforts to combat threats are a critical part of overall business strategy.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Intelligent Automation Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Intelligent Automation Buyers Guides for digital technology software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Conversational Automation Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Conversational Automation Buyers Guides for intelligent automation software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Intelligent Document Processing Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Intelligent Document Processing Buyers Guides for intelligent automation software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Process Automation Platforms Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Process Automation Platforms Buyers Guides for intelligent automation software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Process Discovery and Mining Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Process Discovery and Mining Buyers Guide for intelligent automation software products.
Analyst Perspective
Transforming Task Automation: The Future of Intelligent Orchestration
Discover how intelligent orchestration transforms task automation, enhances efficiency and drives innovation for enterprises.
Analyst Perspective
Preparing for Q-Day: Safeguarding Enterprises Against Quantum Threats
Now is the time to prepare for quantum threats to avoid severe and irrevocable damage to data, systems, customer trust and organizational reputation.
Analyst Perspective
The State of Conversational Software Using Automation and AI
Enterprises that adopt conversational automation to power self-service employee tools and customer chatbots deliver enhanced experiences, satisfaction.
Analyst Perspective
AI Cybersecurity Lessons: Insights from the DeepSeek Incident
AI breach reveals DeepSeek AI's security lapses, exposing sensitive data. Urgent call for robust cybersecurity measures.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for IT Operations Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the IT Operations Management Buyers Guides for IT Management software products.
Analyst Perspective
Addressing Overwhelm in Enterprise Security Leadership
CISOs face overwhelming cyber threats. Prioritize, upskill, automate and use MSSPs to enhance enterprise security.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for IT Observability Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the IT Observability Buyers Guides for IT Management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for IT Service Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the IT Service Management Buyers Guides for IT Management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for AIOps Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the AIOps Buyers Guides for IT Management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for FinOps Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the FinOps Buyers Guides for IT Management software products.
Research Perspective
Next-Generation Workforce Planning
Workforce planning is integrated and cross-functional people planning that moves beyond traditional workforce planning. This process is integrated with financial planning, incorporates a wider range of inputs and relies on analytics capabilities enabled by dedicated software tools.
Research Perspective
The Employee Experience Lens in HR Technology Selection
Focusing on the employee experience is the next important strategic objective in HR. Organizations must adopt an experience-centric mindset regarding their employees and that mindset should be reflected in the selection and deployment of HR Technology.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Work Experience and Workforce Engagement Agenda
The workforce is the center of any organization, no matter if the workforce consists of employees, contractors or what we call gig workers. It stands to reason that a black-swan event has an immediate impact on a workforce and thus an organization’s overall business health. In challenging times, a “family-first” mentality tends to take hold — a reality that, far too often, business leaders and HR organizations underestimate.
White Paper
One HCM System for One Workforce
There are many strategic and operational advantages to combining U.S. and Canadian employees into a single database and these benefits apply to all sizes of organizations.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Workforce Experience and Human Capital Management in 2020 and Beyond
The workforce is an essential part of an organization’s overall business potential because it ensures continuous operations, even in black-swan events.
QandA
People Analytics for Competitive Advantage
What is the purpose of people analytics within an organization, and what are the typical challenges to deploying and maximizing the value of people analytics?
eBook
Achieving Success with People Analytics
An organization’s business objectives related to profitability, growth, continuity, risk and core values are all impacted by Human Capital Management (HCM) concerns and must be considered in the context of the people agenda. Improving performance against these objectives will require the use of analytics, and people analytics must provide insights that seamlessly trigger action and guide effective decisions if they are going to have the maximum organizational impact.
White Paper
Accessible Analytics Improve Operational Performance
For decades, organizations have been trying to make information and analysis available to the lines of business to improve their operations. Our research shows that analytics generate value for organizations in multiple ways, including by helping them gain a competitive advantage, increasing sales, lowering costs and improving customer experience.
Viewpoint
The New Age of Employee Engagement Technology
Organizations must operate with agility to survive and thrive during periods of change and uncertainty. The modern business environment features fluid challenges and opportunities, particularly those related to the workforce and the organization’s strategic business goals and priorities.
eBook
Global Payroll as a Strategic Asset
The payroll function has traditionally focused on consistent execution of employee service and compliance assurance, with incremental improvements from process automation and other small efficiency gains made along the way. But the mandate, scope and complexity of managing a payroll operation have increased significantly.
Viewpoint
Job Descriptions: A New Opportunity for HR Technology Innovation
Job descriptions have long served as a foundational element of an HR department’s daily operations. This is largely due to the organization needing a common lens and framework through which to hire, evaluate, develop and compensate employees.
Analyst Perspective
The Ventana Research 2021 Market Agenda: How Digital Effectiveness Impacts Organizational Agility
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.
Viewpoint
Pivoting to New Candidate Sourcing Strategies
Recruiting and hiring are no different than most areas of a business in that objectives and plans can be quite fluid. Similarly, the intensity of candidate sourcing activity will fluctuate as well.
Self-Assessment
Employee Pay Innovation
Methods by which organizations pay their workforce have changed in recent years. Payroll cards (paycards) and the emerging trend known as “on-demand pay” provide employees with convenient access to earned wages as well as with greater ease and security than traditional paychecks. On-demand pay has been shown to improve an organization’s employee experience (EX), and its availability can be a differentiator for an organization’s recruitment efforts.
Market Perspective
Salary.com Advances Compensation Effectiveness
Total Compensation Management (TCM) is a strategic HCM area focused on the processes, data, analytics and technology capabilities needed to achieve an integrated and holistic approach to rewarding employees for their value and contributions.
Self-Assessment
Enhancing Collaboration Between HR and the Office of Finance
This self-assessment examines the degree to which your organization is already prepared to deal with these challenges and will help uncover areas where additional business benefit can be unlocked.
Market Perspective
The Parking Spot Earns Digital Leadership Award in HCM with UKG for 2021
Share The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.
Analyst Perspective
Digital Business Market Agenda for 2022: Resilience and Readiness
With the announcement of Ventana Research’s 2022 Market Agenda, our expertise in Digital Business continues to advance the market need for effective investments into technology, and I will outline here the key areas of focus to provide insights to organizations that can increase their organizational resilience and workforce readiness. We are proud to provide expertise on ensuring technological effectiveness through our market research and experience in providing guidance on trends and best practices.
Analyst Perspective
Inkling Advances Digital Learning for Operational Effectiveness
The necessity of learning is essential for every organization to realize the full potential of the workforce. But many organizations treat learning like training or academic instruction to ensure policy or compliance to a minimum level of work performance, instead of continuing career education and improving skills in the operational workflow.
Analyst Perspective
Human Capital Management Market Agenda: Readiness and Resilience
Ventana Research recently announced its 2022 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.
Analyst Perspective
Workforce Management Software Brings Automation and Intelligence
Workforce management processes and activities, a major focus of investment and optimization efforts for decades, have undergone a huge transformation in recent years.
Analyst Perspective
The Workforce Management Value Index Assesses Technology Vendors
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: Workforce Management 2022 is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research.
Market Perspective
UKG is Exemplary in the Workforce Management Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about UKG, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Quest for Skilled Talent is Achievable with TalentQuest
Talent management is a priority as organizations continue to face multiple disruptions because of the pandemic and business continuity issues related to the workforce.
Market Perspective
Workforce Software is Exemplary: 2022 Workforce Management Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Workforce Software, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
ADP is Innovative in the 2022 Workforce Management Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about ADP, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
SAP SuccessFactors is Exemplary: 2022 Workforce Management Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about SAP SuccessFactors, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Ceridian is Exemplary in the 2022 Workforce Management Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Ceridian, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Oracle is Exemplary in the Workforce Management Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Oracle, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Workday is Exemplary in the Workforce Management Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Workday, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Ascentis is a Workforce Management Value Index Vendor of Assurance
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Ascentis, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Paychex is a Vendor of Merit in the Workforce Management Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Paychex, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Infor is a Vendor of Merit in the Workforce Management Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Infor, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Zebra is a Vendor of Merit in the Workforce Management Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Zebra Reflexis, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Paycom is a Vendor of Merit in Workforce Management Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Paycom, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Docebo Raises the Bar for Digital Learning
Learning management systems have evolved dramatically since they were first developed, but more so since dedicated platforms for digital learning experiences were established. The recent pandemic has heightened the imperative for learning management systems as workers have become distanced from the office and traditional human interactions. The challenge of effective digital learning is even greater for high-growth companies and organizations with higher worker turnover that do not want to compromise the quality employee experience that distinguishes their brand and cultural values.
Research Report
Total Compensation Management: Market Insights from Benchmark Research
Ventana Research performed this research to determine attitudes toward, and utilization of, Total Compensation Management (TCM). This document is based on our research and analysis of information provided by participants at organizations that we deemed qualified to take part in this Benchmark Research.
Market Perspective
Employee Experience is Better with Workflows from ServiceNow
A productive and engaged workforce is fundamental to many successful enterprises/organizations. But the pandemic has created unique challenges to “business as usual” and has transformed the employee experience across nearly all aspects.
Analyst Perspective
Personalization is Key to Employee Experience and Retention
Personalization is everywhere, from clothes that are selected for us and delivered to our homes, to the ads we see, to the movies we stream. It’s no surprise that employees expect that same level of curated experience in the workplace. And yet, evidence abounds to the contrary. The proverbial black hole of recruiting is still the bane of existence of everyone who has applied for a job online and has heard nothing back. Companies still tout “self-directed career advancement” as a positive quality while employees don’t even know what opportunities may be available to them and long for guidance and support. Benefits departments offer subsidized childcare, while offering pet insurance would be more beneficial (and less costly!) for a forgotten portion of the employee population.
eBook
Intelligence in Human Capital Management
People are the center of every organization. And the experiences—positive or negative—of the workforce will affect the level of human engagement that can be achieved.
Analyst Perspective
Total Compensation Imperatives for Every Organization
Compensation management is a key talent management process involving all workers and managers within an organization.
Dynamic Insights
Employee Experience 2022 Dynamic Insights Research Report
Ventana Research has conducted market research in the area of Human Capital Management (HCM) for two decades. The research has been conducted against the backdrop of the idea that Human Resources (HR) must play a more strategic role in the management of the modern organization. This transformation envisions an HR department that is more of a partner to the rest of the organization — one that is less focused on transactional activities better left to automation and more on directing its resources and energy toward fostering meaningful interactions over the entire employee life cycle, from hire to exit, that create the overall Employee Experience.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle ME Aims to Drive Employee Engagement, Productivity, Retention
In my more than two decades in the world of human resources and human capital management technology, I have never seen a topic become so completely ubiquitous so quickly as has employee experience. This is great news from my perspective. As I addressed in this recent analyst perspective, market factors have forced organizations to acknowledge the tremendous bottom-line value of an engaged workforce, and that engagement is wholly dependent upon an employer's commitment to providing a personalized, well-rounded experience.
Analyst Perspective
The Impact of Payroll Technology on the Employee Experience
I spent years in the talent acquisition space, and I think that at least several months of that time – cumulatively – was spent just trying to get people to calm down. Talent acquisition is a critically important business process, but if I had a dollar for every time I had to remind someone that there really are no recruiting emergencies, I’d be a wealthy woman.
Viewpoint
Gain Full Value in Workforce Management Software
The world of work has changed dramatically in recent years, from the types of workers to where, how and when they complete their work, to the ways they are engaged.
eBook
Intelligence in Human Capital Management
People are the center of every organization. And the experiences—positive or negative—of the workforce will affect the level of human engagement that can be achieved. It will determine whether everyone, from seasoned company leadership to the newest hire, will reach their shared expectations. Organizations must empower HR and managers to guide their workforces effectively, fostering every opportunity to maximize every individual employee experience.
eBook
Global Payroll as a Strategic Asset
The payroll function has traditionally focused on consistent execution of employee service and compliance assurance, with incremental improvements from process automation and other small efficiency gains made along the way. But the mandate, scope and complexity of managing a payroll operation have increased significantly.
eBook
Achieving Success with People Analytics
An organization’s business objectives related to profitability, growth, continuity, risk and core values are all impacted by Human Capital Management (HCM) concerns and must be considered in the context of the people agenda.
eBook
From Employer Branding to Business Sustainability
This eBook covers the relationship between learning management and talent management systems and the value they can deliver by enhancing business agility to maximize sustainability.
Research Perspective
Activating Intelligence for HCM
The Rise of Human Capital Management over the last five years has introduced new opportunities to have a more centralized and process-driven approach.
Viewpoint
Three Essential Elements for a Future-Ready Workforce
As operating environments become more fluid and less predictable, it becomes more important to build organizational adaptability and resilience, especially for the leadership team.
Research Perspective
The Employee Experience Train Keeps Rolling
Employee engagement and the improvement of its associated metrics has been a focus for HR executives for years, but a broader approach is now emerging. This new, more impactful vision builds around the central goal of delivering a superior employee experience, which goes beyond traditional engagement efforts like incentive programs, office perks and team-building exercises.
Research Perspective
Next-Generation Workforce Planning
Traditional workforce planning is a set of processes performed by the Human Resources (HR) function, working with business units and departments to address short- and long- term staffing needs. In this model, HR provides guidelines on pay rates per level of skill, expertise and responsibility as outlined in job descriptions or hiring specifications. HR also supports business-area hiring plans with a range of sourcing and screening activities and enabling technologies.
Research Perspective
The New Imperative for Employment Verification
Trite though it sometimes sounds, people truly are an organization’s most important asset. But in today’s complex and rapidly changing marketplace, efficiently hiring the best possible employees is far from simple.
Research Perspective
Learning Management: The Key to Talent Management Effectiveness
Ventana Research defines Human Capital Management (HCM) as the strategies, processes, practices and programs that organizations use to maximize the value delivered by their workforce. A key component of HCM is learning management, a continuous process designed to ensure that an organization’s employees have the skills, competencies and resources they need to be productive and engaged.
Research Perspective
Using People Analytics in Total Compensation Management
In recent years, organizations have made significant changes to the way they compensate workers. The focus on cash compensation has, in many sectors, given way to a more comprehensive as well as a more creative and personalized approach, one that’s needed to attract and retain top talent.
Research Perspective
The Digital Future of Human Capital Management
A new generation of digital technologies is extending human capital management (HCM) systems, making them simpler and more productive than ever before.
White Paper
Building a Unified Workforce for Customer Engagement
Two years after the pandemic upended contact center operations, many managers are finding that they still face challenges finding enough staff to meet customer demand. What was an unusual situation has now become a continuing structural problem that affects how centers source, locate and engage with their agents.
White Paper
Pay Equity Management
“Pay equity” is the moral compass of an organization. It should guide its management, its workforce, and the methods by which the company compensates its employees.
White Paper
Accessible Analytics Improve Operational Performance
For decades, organizations have been trying to make information and analysis available to the lines of business to improve their operations. Our research shows that analytics generate value for organizations in multiple ways.
White Paper
Empower the Modern and Agile Agent Workforce
Readiness and agility of the workforce is the foundation of business resiliency. Black swan events will test an organization’s ability to respond and operate effectively under challenging conditions, including pandemics and other disruptions that force the workforce to operate outside normal conditions with little notice or preparation.
Market Perspective
Salary.com Earns Human Capital Management Digital Innovation Award
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 that optimizes organizational resilience and workforce readiness.
White Paper
Incentive Compensation in Modern Revenue Management
Incentive compensation management (ICM) systems have traditionally focused on the needs of sales divisions, but these groups are typically distinct from other departments within the organization and are usually compensated based primarily on new sales transactions.
Self-Assessment
Enhancing Collaboration Between HR and the Office of Finance
In today’s fluid operating environment, organizations must be agile and resilient to deal with shifts in how and where people work, ever-changing regulations and mounting competition to attract and retain top talent. However, while addressing these challenges, organizations must simultaneously meet financial objectives and maintain fiscal controls.
Self-Assessment
Does Your Workforce Management Need Work?
Accurately forecasting and effectively meeting labor and staffing demands is critical for every organization and industry, and HCM technology platforms are rising to this challenge, evolving at an unprecedented pace to optimize workforce operations.
Self-Assessment
Learning Management as the Foundation of Talent Management
A key component of HCM is learning management, a continuous process designed to ensure that an organization’s employees have the skills, competencies and resources they need to be productive and engaged. Effective learning management typically improves employee performance and therefore an organization’s competitive positioning.
QandA
Leadership in Planning for Sales Performance
We hear all the time that we’re existing in an age of information. If that’s the case and we have more data at our fingertips than ever before, why isn’t every sales organization operating at historic levels of efficiency?
QandA
An Executive Discussion on Work Management
Organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to address the changing demands of work in a way that optimally utilizes resources to deliver improved results while controlling levels of financial investment. C-level and executive teams must ensure that the strategic projects and programs they launch to increase market and business potential are both well-designed and well-managed.
QandA
Empower the Workforce to Reach its Full Potential
Businesses are moving to more service-based models, and finding and retaining top talent has become more mission critical than ever before. But as businesses compete to keep employee costs down and retain talent, many have turned to technology to find inefficiencies and improve the employee experience.
Analyst Perspective
A Talent Acquisition Platform Leads to Competitive Advantage
The Great Resignation has made it abundantly clear that candidates expect the same type of consumerized experience in the hiring process as they do when buying anything at all. To win or keep the best talent, organizations must make the hiring process personalized and enjoyable, and a traditional ATS simply cannot support that mandate.
Analyst Perspective
iCIMS Helps Organizations Recruit and Engage Talent
It has been nearly two and a half years since the world was thrust into one of the most dramatic eras of workforce transformation in the modern era. Organizations have been forced to reevaluate everything about the workforce, from the physical spaces in which work is done, to compensation, to non-traditional benefits and work/life enhancement offerings.
Analyst Perspective
The Power of People Analytics: Moving Beyond the Dashboard
People analytics enable organizations to gain data-driven insights that optimize the impact and value of the workforce.
Analyst Perspective
Select the Right Technology to Master Global Payroll Complexities
Payroll Management is one of the six major focus areas in the Human Capital Management research and advisory practice at Ventana Research. “Continuous payroll” is a hot topic in this area, with much discussion about the always-on nature of this enhanced payroll function and its related demands for supporting technologies.
Analyst Perspective
Investment in LMS is an Investment in Organizational Success
The learning management system technology market has evolved dramatically over the past two decades.
Market Perspective
beqom Enables Compensation to Performance Management
Transparency around compensation is key, as is continuous recognition of employee achievements, and both can be accomplished with TCM by beqom.
Market Perspective
Phenom Optimizes Talent Management for Improved People Experiences
Phenom is an AI-powered talent management application focused on the scope of experiences from candidates and recruiters to the manager and the HR team.
Market Perspective
Payscale Enables Compensation Management with Pay Equity
Payscale offers technology that enables organizations to stay on top of compensation trends to identify and mandate appropriate pay.
Analyst Perspective
High-Volume Recruiting Requires Specialized Technology Approaches
Discover how to customize recruitment for high-volume hires through the use of key technology and simplified hiring processes.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle CloudWorld: HCM Leads Employee Experience Potential
Oracle’s CloudWorld 2022 featured advances to its Cloud HCM platform that deliver an improved employee experience.
Analyst Perspective
Three Trends in Digital Learning for 2023
Organizations have high expectations that digital learning systems will deliver improved business outcomes, hyper-personalization and new learning mediums.
Market Perspective
Eightfold.ai Supercharges through Talent Intelligence
Eightfold.ai’s Talent Intelligence Suite is an artificial intelligence-powered platform that delivers actionable insights for informed talent decisions.
Market Perspective
Cornerstone Empowers Skills for Talent Experiences
Organizations using modern LMS systems that entice users to engage through strategic, creative content maximize learning outcomes, worker growth and ROI.
Market Perspective
Wanzl Earns Digital Leadership Award in HCM with Ceridian for 2022
Susan Smith and Wanzl earned the 2022 Digital Leadership Award in Human Capital Management for transforming payroll functions with Ceridian.
Viewpoint
Modern Workforce Scheduling Requires a New Mindset
Over the last decade, various aspects of scheduling deskless or hourly workers, and managing their efforts in general, have become increasingly more sophisticated. While this has largely been a result of organizations wanting and needing more precision around deploying workers, scheduling processes are being pulled to even greater levels of sophistication for other reasons of late. The new catalysts are arguably more related to employee-centric considerations such as what employees want and need from these processes, and how their lives at work are impacted by them.
Market Perspective
TalentQuest Offers Integrated Talent Management Platform
TalentQuest’s unique approach to immersive learning using virtual reality offers individuals real-life experience at reduced cost and risk to organizations.
Market Perspective
Immedis Simplifies Global Payroll
Immedis is a consolidated global payroll platform that enables a unified view of payroll operations, real-time data analytics and advanced reporting.
Analyst Perspective
UKG Excels in User Experience
For organizations seeking to deliver a superior employee experience, investing in UKG’s people-first HCM software can build trust and engagement.
Analyst Perspective
Skills-First Hiring is the Future of Talent Acquisition
Using a skills-first approach to talent evaluation by prioritizing skill set and potential expands the pool of applicants considered for open positions.
Market Perspective
SAP SuccessFactors Reinforces Employee Value and Potential
SAP SuccessFactors uses individualized experiences to reinforce the value and potential of each worker, creating more effective and motivated employees.
Analyst Perspective
HCM Market Agenda: A Focus on Experience and Engagement
The 2023 Human Capital Market Agenda provides insights to derive maximum potential from workforce- and people-related technology investments & initiatives.
Analyst Perspective
The Case for Continuous Performance Management
Moving to a continuous performance management cycle improves employee engagement because workers receive regular feedback and feel valued and appreciated.
White Paper
Unlocking the Future of Compensation Management
Compensation management software has become a necessary part of the human capital management (HCM) technology stack.
Analyst Perspective
Continuous Compensation Management Requires the Right Technology
Continuous compensation management can improve employee engagement and reduce regrettable attrition through frequent assessment of compensation structures.
Buyers Guide
Learning Management 2023 Value Index
Ventana Research's 2023 Learning Management Value Index.
Analyst Perspective
5 Strategies to Improve Candidate Experience and Conversion Rates
Simplicity and transparency in candidate recruitment and hiring processes are key to a positive, engaging experience and attracting top talent.
Market Perspective
Appcast Transforms Recruitment with Programmatic Advertising
Appcast offers programmatic recruitment advertising services that maximize algorithms and artificial intelligence to optimize marketing budgets.
Market Perspective
Skillsoft Provides Workers with Opportunities for Career Advancement
Skillsoft offers e-learning courses to help companies foster a growth and learning environment that strengthens skills and improves worker engagement.
Viewpoint
Using Payroll Software to Bolster the Employee Experience
Employee engagement is a critical factor in the success of any organization. And a positive employee experience plays a crucial role in driving this engagement.
Analyst Perspective
Power the Talent Journey with Integrated Systems
An integrated HCM system – whether a single platform or point solutions linked by APIs – creates unified experiences over the entire worker life cycle.
Analyst Perspective
Learning Management Systems: An Integral Resource for Any Organization
Observations from the Learning Management Value Index 2023 and how well 15 vendors match buyers’ requirements for learning management system software.
Analyst Perspective
Learning Management Systems Value Index Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Learning Management Value Index 2023 gauges how well offerings from 15 vendors match buyers’ requirements for learning management system software.
Market Perspective
Cornerstone OnDemand is Exemplary and Overall Leader in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates Cornerstone OnDemand.
Market Perspective
PeopleFluent is Innovative and Overall Leader in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates PeopleFluent.
Market Perspective
Docebo is Exemplary and Overall Leader in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates Docebo.
Buyers Guide
Total Compensation Management 2023 Value Index
Ventana Research's 2023 Total Compensation Management Value Index.
Market Perspective
Adobe is Innovative and Value Index Leader in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates Adobe.
Market Perspective
SAP is Exemplary Vendor and Value Index Leader in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates SAP.
Market Perspective
CrossKnowledge is Rated a Vendor of Assurance in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates CrossKnowledge.
Market Perspective
Oracle is Rated as a Vendor of Assurance in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates Oracle.
Market Perspective
Absorb LMS is Rated as Innovative Vendor in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates Absorb LMS.
Analyst Perspective
Market Observations from the Total Compensation Management Value Index
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Total Compensation Management Value Index 2023 for TCM software products.
Analyst Perspective
Total Compensation Management Value Index Classifies and Rates Vendors
In an assessment of 14 suppliers of total compensation management technology, Oracle’s products were most often in alignment with buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Degreed is Innovative Vendor in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates Degreed.
Market Perspective
Workday is Vendor of Merit in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates Workday.
Market Perspective
360Learning is Vendor of Assurance in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates 360Learning.
Market Perspective
Axonify is Vendor of Merit in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates Axonify.
Market Perspective
Oracle is Exemplary and a Leader in TCM Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from Oracle.
Market Perspective
D2L is Rated as a Vendor of Assurance in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates D2L.
Market Perspective
ADP is Exemplary and a Leader in TCM Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from ADP.
Market Perspective
Cegid Group is Vendor of Merit in Learning Management
Ventana Research’s 2023 Value Index on Learning Management evaluates Cegid.
Market Perspective
SAP is Innovative in Total Compensation Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from SAP.
Market Perspective
beqom is Exemplary in Total Compensation Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from beqom.
Analyst Perspective
Workday Excels at People Analytics
Workday People Analytics provides valuable insight into the performance of workers and teams, including employee engagement, productivity and turnover.
Market Perspective
Payscale is Innovative in Total Compensation Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from Payscale.
Market Perspective
Unit4 is Exemplary in Total Compensation Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from Unit4.
Market Perspective
Salary.com is Vendor of Assurance in Total Compensation Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from Salary.com.
Market Perspective
Workday is Innovative in Total Compensation Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from Workday.
Market Perspective
Ceridian is Vendor of Merit in Total Compensation Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from Ceridian.
Analyst Perspective
Opportunity Marketplaces Help Address Talent Shortage
In the war for talent, opportunity marketplaces give employers a tactical advantage.
Market Perspective
UKG is Vendor of Assurance in Total Compensation Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from UKG.
Market Perspective
PeopleFluent is Vendor of Merit in TCM Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from PeopleFluent.
Market Perspective
HiBob is Vendor of Assurance in TCM Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from HiBob.
Analyst Perspective
Pay Transparency Mandates Require Preparation for Managing Compensation
Increasing focus on pay transparency and equity creates opportunity for organizations to explore, adopt technology to ensure fair compensation practices.
Market Perspective
Infor is Vendor of Merit in Total Compensation Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from Infor.
Market Perspective
Paylocity is Vendor of Assurance in TCM Value Index
Ventana Research assesses total compensation management software from Paylocity.
Analyst Perspective
Skills-Based Workforce Possible with Commitment to Digital Passport
Investing in a skills-based workforce demands transformative approaches to hiring practices and better positions businesses for the future of work.
Analyst Perspective
HiBob Setting a New Standard for HCM Platforms
Employee engagement, community building at the core of HiBob’s HCM platform, delivering a satisfying UX for HR teams, employees and managers alike.
Analyst Perspective
WorkForce Software Focuses on the Essentials of Workforce Management
WorkForce Software focuses on delivering essential core capabilities with organizational agility and employee experience at the forefront.
Market Perspective
Fuel50 Earns Human Capital Management Digital Innovation Award for 2023
Fuel50’s use of AI to help organizations adopt a skills-first mentality to HCM earned it the 2023 Ventana Research HCM Digital Innovation Award.
Analyst Perspective
Plum Provides Insights for Better Talent Management
Talent management platforms like Plum use objective data to help organizations identify behaviors required for success in a role or team.
Analyst Perspective
Strategic Onboarding Increases Business Success
Strategic onboarding, including all processes required to successfully integrate a new employee into an organization, bolsters overall productivity.
Analyst Perspective
Mitigate Risk During Employment Separation with Onwards HR
Onwards HR streamlines employee separation actions, minimizing financial and legal risks to ensure accuracy, compliance and a positive brand experience.
Analyst Perspective
Re-Humanizing the Candidate Experience
Technology can support HR recruitment efforts to enhance the candidate experience and set a positive tone at the start of the employee journey.
Analyst Perspective
Pragmatism for HR Leaders: GenAI and HCM Technology
Organizations must balance the promise of generative AI for HR (or HCM) tech landscape with its risks; taking a slow-and-steady approach may be wisest path forward.
Analyst Perspective
ServiceNow Brings Process Optimization to Human Capital Management
ServiceNow enters the HCM market with its Employee Growth and Development offering, providing personalization of learning, development and career pathing.
Analyst Perspective
Align Early-Career HCM Technology with Digital-First Generation
The future of work depends on engaging a new tech-savvy generation by using technology to discover, develop and connect with early career professionals.
Analyst Perspective
Visier Extends People Analytics Beyond the Data Analyst and Scientist
Visier’s people analytics platform is designed for inclusivity, with a user interface and experience tailored for ease of use by non-technical users.
Analyst Perspective
Payroll Management Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Payroll Management Buyers Guide 2023 for human capital management software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Payroll Management Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Payroll Management Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from eight vendors match buyers’ requirements for payroll management software products.
Analyst Perspective
Domestic Payroll Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Domestic Payroll Buyers Guide 2023 for domestic payroll software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Domestic Payroll Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Domestic Payroll Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 11 vendors match buyers’ requirements for domestic payroll software products.
Analyst Perspective
Global Payroll Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Global Payroll Buyers Guide 2023 for global payroll software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Global Payroll Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Global Payroll Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from 13 vendors match buyers’ requirements for global payroll software products.
Market Perspective
ADP is Exemplary in Payroll Management Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Payroll Management evaluates ADP.
Market Perspective
Oracle is Exemplary in Payroll Management Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Payroll Management evaluates Oracle.
Market Perspective
UKG is Exemplary in Payroll Management Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Payroll Management evaluates UKG.
Market Perspective
SAP is Exemplary in Payroll Management Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Payroll Management evaluates SAP.
Market Perspective
Ceridian Vendor of Merit in Payroll Management Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Payroll Management evaluates SAP.
Market Perspective
Workday is Vendor of Merit in Payroll Management Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Payroll Management evaluates Workday.
Market Perspective
Infor is Vendor of Merit in Payroll Management Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Payroll Management evaluates Infor.
Market Perspective
Paylocity is Vendor of Merit in Payroll Management Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Payroll Management evaluates Paylocity.
Market Perspective
Paychex is Vendor of Merit in Domestic Payroll Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Domestic Payroll evaluates Paychex.
Market Perspective
Paycor is Vendor of Assurance in Domestic Payroll Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Domestic Payroll evaluates Paycor.
Market Perspective
Paycom is Vendor of Merit in Domestic Payroll Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Domestic Payroll evaluates Paycom.
Market Perspective
CloudPay is Vendor of Assurance in Global Payroll Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Global Payroll evaluates CloudPay.
Market Perspective
Rippling is Vendor of Merit in Global Payroll Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Global Payroll evaluates Rippling.
Market Perspective
Papaya Global is Vendor of Merit in Global Payroll Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Global Payroll evaluates Papaya Global.
Market Perspective
Gusto is Vendor of Merit in Global Payroll Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Global Payroll evaluates Gusto.
Market Perspective
Neeyamo is Vendor of Merit in Global Payroll Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Global Payroll evaluates Neeyamo.
Market Perspective
Expedia Group Earns HCM Digital Leadership Award with ServiceNow
Expedia Group earned the 2023 Human Capital Management Digital Leadership Award for its use of ServiceNow to create a unified, seamless employee experience.
Analyst Perspective
Why I joined ISG and Ventana Research’s HCM Technology Practice
Matthew Brown joins Ventana Research, now part of ISG, as research director of its HCM Technology practice.
Analyst Perspective
The 2024 HCM Market Agenda: Using AI to Transform Experiences
The 2024 Human Capital Market Agenda provides insights to derive maximum potential from workforce- and people-related technology investments and initiatives.
Analyst Perspective
Maximizing Technology to Engage Generations in the Workplace
A human-centered technology strategy is the logical starting point for enterprises to design worker experiences that engage and empower all generations.
Analyst Perspective
Technology Maximizes Investment in Learning Experiences
Learning technology enables dynamic experiences that support career development, resulting in significant benefits for the enterprise.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guides for Workforce Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
Ventana Research offers market observations and overall results from the Workforce Management Suites Buyers Guides for human capital management software products.
Market Perspective
ADP is Exemplary in Workforce Management Buyers Guides
Ventana Research evaluates ADP in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Analyst Perspective
Designing a Smart and Sustainable HR Tech Stack
The HR tech stack can deliver consistent levels of service and support while also enabling a more personalized experience and greater sustainability.
Market Perspective
Oracle is Exemplary in Workforce Management Basics Buyers Guide
Ventana Research evaluates Oracle in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Market Perspective
Dayforce is Exemplary in Workforce Management Basics Buyers Guide
Ventana Research evaluates Dayforce in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Market Perspective
UKG is Exemplary in Workforce Management Buyers Guides
Ventana Research evaluates UKG in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Market Perspective
SAP is Innovative in Workforce Management Buyers Guides
Ventana Research evaluates SAP in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Analyst Perspective
AI and Learning: A Tech Evolution
AI-driven learning content fosters open dialogue, deeper knowledge and greater impact through customized, self-service learning opportunities.
Market Perspective
WorkForce Software is Exemplary in Workforce Management Basics Buyers Guides
Ventana Research evaluates Workforce Software in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Market Perspective
Infor is Exemplary in Workforce Management Basics Buyers Guides
Ventana Research evaluates Infor in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Market Perspective
Workday is Innovative in Workforce Management Basics Buyers Guides
Ventana Research evaluates Workday in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Market Perspective
Blue Yonder is Provider of Merit in Workforce Management Basics Buyers Guide
Ventana Research evaluates Blue Yonder in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Market Perspective
Replicon is Provider of Assurance in Workforce Management Buyers Guides
Ventana Research evaluates Replicon in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Market Perspective
Zebra is Provider of Merit in Workforce Management Basics Buyers Guide
Ventana Research evaluates Zebra in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Market Perspective
Quinyx is Provider of Merit in Workforce Management Buyers Guides
Ventana Research evaluates Quinyx in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Market Perspective
Paychex is Provider of Merit in Workforce Management Basics Buyers Guide
Ventana Research evaluates Paychex in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Market Perspective
Paycor is Provider of Assurance in Workforce Management Basics Buyers Guide
Ventana Research evaluates Paycor in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Market Perspective
Paycom is Provider of Merit in Workforce Management Basics Buyers Guide
Ventana Research evaluates Paycom in the Workforce Management Suites and Basics Buyers Guides.
Analyst Perspective
The Path to Equitable Compensation
Technology helps to modernize compensation processes, keeping the focus on the quality of the work and prioritizing employee engagement, retention.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guides for Learning Management Systems Classifies and Rates Software Providers
Ventana Research offers market observations and overall results from the Learning Management Systems Buyers Guides for HCM software products.
Analyst Perspective
Compensation Renaissance: The Role of Technology in Revamping Rewards
Technological advances enable compensation practices to meet the dynamic needs of today's workforce and optimize every aspect of rewards systems.
Analyst Perspective
Embracing the Skills Economy: A Talent Management Revolution
A skills-based environment focuses on hiring for skills versus prior jobs, revolutionizing talent management to support redeploying talent where needed.
Market Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Total Compensation Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Total Compensation Management Buyers Guides for human capital management software products.
Market Perspective
Salary.com Earns Overall Digital Innovation Award for 2024
Salary.com’s product SalaryIQ earned the 2024 Overall Digital Innovation Award for its real-time insights into hiring and workforce compensation.
Market Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Compensation Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Compensation Management Buyers Guides for human capital management software products.
Market Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Compensation Planning Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Compensation Planning Buyers Guides for human capital management software products.
Market Perspective
Udemy Earns Human Capital Management Digital Innovation Award for 2024
Udemy earned the 2024 HCM Digital Innovation Award for its advances and innovation in the Udemy Business solution.
Analyst Perspective
Beyond Buzzwords: How HR Tech Can Drive DEIB Success
HR technology decisions should be drive by the importance of programs like diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging rather than the latest buzzwords.
Viewpoint
Understanding Workforce Agility and Its Value
Discover how workforce agility empowers organizations and employees to adapt, thrive, and innovate in a rapidly changing environment, ensuring long-term success and engagement.
Viewpoint
The Journey to Workforce Agility Begins with One Step
Discover how to build workforce agility through skills inventory, self-directed growth, and technology integration for continuous improvement and organizational success.
Analyst Perspective
Building Inclusive Workplaces: HR Tech's Role in DEIB Transformation
HR teams must take a proactive and disciplined approach to technology investments to ensure choices enable and enhance DEIB success.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Payroll Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Payroll Management Buyers Guide for Human Capital Management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Global Payroll Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Global Payroll Buyers Guide for Human Capital Management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for International Payroll Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the International Payroll Buyers Guide for Human Capital Management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Multicountry Payroll Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Multicountry Payroll Buyers Guide for Human Capital Management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for U.S. Payroll Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the U.S. Payroll Buyers Guide for Human Capital Management software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Power of Payroll: It’s More than Just a Paycheck
Discover the comprehensive range of expertise and research insights offered by ISG Software Research to enhance your business's revenue and operational efficiency.
Analyst Perspective
HiBob: A Modern HCM That Puts Culture and Simplicity at the Core
Discover how HiBob revolutionizes HCM by focusing on culture, employee experience, and flexibility, offering a modern alternative to legacy HR systems.
Analyst Perspective
Demystifying APIs: What Every HR Buyer Needs to Know
Empower your HR team with seamless API integrations for efficient, real-time data exchange and reduced IT dependency.
Analyst Perspective
Skills vs. Jobs: Using Tech to Power Talent and Workforce Development
Discover the benefits of a skills-based approach to workforce management and why transitioning from job-based models is essential for business agility.
Analyst Perspective
Human Meets Machine with AI: How to Manage Technology with Workforce
In the rush to embrace AI and automation, organizations must ensure technology amplifies HR’s human touch, fostering innovation and strategic impact.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for HCM Suites Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the HCM Suites Buyers Guides for Human Capital Management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for HCM Platforms Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the HCM Platforms Buyers Guides for Human Capital Management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for HRMS Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the HRMS Buyers Guides for Human Capital Management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Talent Suites Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Talent Suites Buyers Guides for Human Capital Management software products.
Analyst Perspective
isolved’s Bold Vision for HR Tech and Services: After the Summit
isolved levels the HR tech playing field for SMBs, providing enterprise-grade HR tools and services designed to be cost-effective, flexible, feature-rich.
Analyst Perspective
Workforce Planning Reimagined: AI Makes Forecasting Smarter
AI-driven workforce planning is key to better integration across all stakeholders, offers more comprehensive view of future talent needs, potential gaps.
Analyst Perspective
HCM Suites and Workforces: Engagement and AI Strategies
HR leaders who are unafraid to seek out and apply AI-driven HCM suites can help reshape workplace culture, build a more agile, engaged, skilled workforce.
Analyst Perspective
Employee Experience: Is Software Helping or Hurting HCM?
Thoughtful integration and continuous evaluation are key to HR software that reduces friction while preserving human connection, prioritizing employee journey.
Analyst Perspective
HR Metrics That Matter: Why Your Turnover Rate Isn’t the Whole Story
Adopt an HR software stack and strategy that surface metrics focused on workforce growth, adaptability and success in a dynamic environment to reveal insights.
Analyst Perspective
Silos in HR, Sales and Finance for Total Rewards Strategy
Isolating sales incentive compensation from global total rewards strategy undermines power of incentive compensation to boost overall workforce engagement.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Digital Experience in Marketing for 2020 and Beyond
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.
Viewpoint
Optimizing the B2B Marketing Recipe for Success
The focus on B2B marketing success has become a significant opportunity to refine the planning, operations and market strategy, enabling performance and agility at a speed and intelligence previously thought impossible. The methods and processes used must be reexamined and should meet the requirements of business continuity as marketing operates in a more virtual and resilient manner.
Analyst Perspective
Reltio Connected Customer 360 earns our 13th Digital Innovation Award for Marketing
Ventana Research has awarded Reltio and Connected Customer 360 its 2020 Digital Innovation Award for Marketing.
Analyst Perspective
The Potential of Marketing in 2021: The Market Agenda
Ventana Research recently announced its 2021 market agenda in the expertise area of Marketing, continuing the guidance we have offered for nearly two decades to help organizations derive optimal value from business technology and improve outcomes.
Analyst Perspective
Winshuttle is a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Perfion Named a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Contentserv is a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Viamedici Named a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Innovit Named a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Transformation of Account-Based Marketing for Revenue Optimization
Account-based marketing (ABM) serves as a model for how a complex manual activity can be improved and automated. That does not mean it always goes well. ABM is a practice that many B2B marketers swear by, but it can be very difficult to get a technology-enhanced ABM program up and running.
Market Perspective
Shiseido Group Earns Digital Leadership Award in Marketing with Reltio for 2021
The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.
Analyst Perspective
Digital Business Market Agenda for 2022: Resilience and Readiness
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 refine our market agenda throughout the year to ensure we offer the expertise and insights organizations rely on to better assess and navigate the direction of the technology industry.
Analyst Perspective
The 2022 Market Agenda for Marketing: A Digital Experience Revolution
Ventana Research recently announced its 2022 Market Agenda in the expertise area of Marketing, continuing the guidance we have offered for nearly two decades to help organizations derive optimal value from business technology and improve outcomes.
eBook
Building a Business Case for PIM
Providing the level of success your organization deserves across business requires accurate product information that is used consistently across all channels. Organizations must work to overcome common challenges to realize the benefits of investments in product information.
eBook
The Keystone for Digital Commerce
A modern digital commerce environment adapts to business continuity requirements and the demand of constantly changing consumer expectations.
eBook
How to Achieve an ROI from PIM
Modern product information management (PIM) has the potential to deliver value far beyond the efficiency gains of the current operational approach.
eBook
Building a Business Case for PIM
Providing the level of success your organization deserves across business requires accurate product information that is used consistently across all channels.
eBook
Six Steps to Build a Business Case for Effective Marketing Planning
Achieving excellence in marketing requires accurate and effective planning that is used consistently across the marketing department. Marketing must work to ensure that investments deliver value for the organization.
Market Perspective
CSG Earns Marketing Digital Innovation Award for 2022
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 that optimizes organizational resilience and workforce readiness.
Research Perspective
Putting Customer Conversations to Work
Customers have conversations across the organization. They interact with people in Sales, Service, Support and in some cases even with an organization’s products or services via smart speakers. While our research confirms that the telephone is still the most widely supported customer-engagement channel, other forms of verbal and digital interactions are growing at a rapid pace.
Research Perspective
Innovation Sharpens the Customer Focus
Customer behavior has changed. Customers today use significantly more channels of communication to engage with companies. When they shop, the convenience of online access has led them to be more demanding because they can go elsewhere with a few clicks. They expect service to be personalized and their issues to be resolved fully at the first contact.
Research Perspective
Making PIM Configurable and Reliable for Manufacturing
To run smoothly and successfully, a manufacturing organization that’s already digitally connected internally and with customers and the supply chain needs consistent, accurate, configurable and actionable product information. To accomplish this, the organization must ensure that the processes it uses to develop and disseminate product information are both efficient and effective.
White Paper
The Digital Age of Data Intelligence
The age of data is here, and the value of all that data to organizations continues to increase. Data has, in fact, become integral to an organization’s ability to grow and thrive. So, it is essential that organizations tap into every available source of information that might help gain insight into operations.
QandA
The Strategic Factors for PIM
Why is it important to support cloud computing for Product Information Management? Mark Smith sheds light on what can be done to ensure operations across distributed cloud computing environments. Read the Q&A.
QandA
Digitally Optimizing the Customer Experience
A portfolio of industry changes are happening to meet the customer demand and needs from applications to adopting customer engagement hubs — to support any range of customer engagement.
Videocast
Implementing Price Management for Success
Approaches to “pricing,” or the discipline of setting prices, vary across industries and across different organizations within the same industry. Many factors determine how companies go about pricing, but with the rise of the digital economy and the exponential growth of relevant data being generated and stored, pricing as a discipline is now possible across a broad range of industries and companies.
Videocast
Building Friction-Free Customer Experiences
Getting everyone who impacts the customer experience within an organization onto the same page can be difficult under normal circumstances—let alone during times of change or upheaval that scramble all our assumptions about customer expectations. Watch and listen to Keith Dawson to learn more!
Infographic
Digital Buyers Expect Engaging Product Experiences Infographic
Organizations enable buyers to engage across multiple channels, but product information housed in silos can lead to inconsistent cross-channel digital buying experiences. Product Information Management (PIM) technology enables engaging merchandising and contributes to revenue growth by providing the foundation for delightful product experiences, which in turn are the cornerstone of a satisfying customer experience.
Webinar
Webinar : Revenue and Margin Improvement
Pricing determines not just revenue, but also margin. And margin is vital to ensuring profitability. So pricing both serves to generate volume, and hence revenue. Given the importance of pricing, it is surprising how few companies use data and purpose-built technology to optimize pricing for volume, margin or the right mixture of both.
Webinar
Go Big or Go Home: Why Small Businesses Should Invest in a Modern Contact Center
Small businesses have had to make do with tools that are less advanced than those used by their larger peers primarily due to issues of cost and complexity. But just making do isn’t a recipe for providing great customer experiences and fostering customer loyalty.
Market Perspective
Adobe Unifies Marketing and CX
Marketing and Customer Experience (CX) are typically treated as separate business functions or, in some cases, poorly connected. But there is a growing effort to (effectively) conjoin these areas as organizations are discovering that these departments and processes are more successful if they work together to facilitate/promote a unified approach to the customer life cycle.
Viewpoint
Why Better Analytics Improves Marketing Performance
Marketing teams succeed or fail based on their ability to assess the needs of their customers. Doing that in an increasingly data-driven environment requires better tools for marketing analysis.
eBook
Activating Omnichannel Product Experiences
Significant growth in sales and marketing channels over the last decade has led to drastic changes in the software that supports commerce and product information processes.
Market Perspective
Avaya Earns Digital Leadership Award with Upland and Salesforce
Avaya earned the 2022 Digital Leadership Award in Marketing using Upland and Salesforce to validate customer experiences for use as a sales tool.
Analyst Perspective
The 2023 Market Agenda for Marketing: Data Takes Center Stage
The 2023 Marketing Market Agenda provides the insights and best practices you need to maximize your CX technology investments.
Buyers Guide
Product Experience Management 2023 Value Index
Ventana Research's 2023 Product Experience Management Value Index.
Analyst Perspective
Product Experience Management Market Requires Digital and Processes Excellence
Ventana Research shares observations from the 2023 Product Experience Management Value Index Market Report.
Analyst Perspective
Product Experience Management Requires Next-Gen Digital Technology
Ventana Research shares part two of its observations from the 2023 Product Experience Management Value Index Market Report.
Analyst Perspective
Product Experience Management Value Index Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Product Experience Management Value Index 2023 gauges how well offerings from 16 vendors match buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Informatica Is Rated Exemplary and an Overall Leader in Product Experience Management
Informatica is rated Exemplary and an Overall Leader in the 2023 Product Experience Management Value Index Market Report.
Market Perspective
Akeneo Is Exemplary and Leader in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Akeneo.
Market Perspective
Salsify Is Rated Exemplary in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Salsify.
Market Perspective
Syndigo Is Rated Innovative in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Syndigo.
Market Perspective
Inriver Is Rated Exemplary and Leader in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from inriver.
Market Perspective
Stibo Systems Is Rated Exemplary in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Stibo Systems.
Market Perspective
Viamedici Is Rated Innovative in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Viamedici.
Market Perspective
Pimcore Is Rated Innovative in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Pimcore.
Market Perspective
Bluestone PIM Is a Vendor of Assurance in PXM
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Bluestone PIM.
Market Perspective
Contentserv Is Vendor of Assurance in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Contentserv.
Market Perspective
IBM Is a Vendor of Merit in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from IBM.
Market Perspective
Perfion Is a Vendor of Assurance in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Perfion.
Market Perspective
Sales Layer Is a Vendor of Merit in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Sales Layer.
Market Perspective
Oracle Is a Vendor of Merit in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Oracle.
Market Perspective
Precisely Is a Vendor of Merit in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Precisely.
Market Perspective
insightsoftware Is a Vendor of Merit in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from insightsoftware.
Market Perspective
AppsFlyer Earns Marketing Digital Innovation Award for 2023
AppsFlyer's Data Clean Room platform enables data to be managed in a safe and governed manner, earning it the 2023 Marketing Digital Innovation Award.
Analyst Perspective
The 2024 Market Agenda for Marketing: Digital Experiences with AI
The 2024 Marketing Market Agenda provides the insights and best practices enterprises need to maximize software investments and improve business agility.
Market Perspective
Salesforce Earns Marketing Digital Innovation Award for 2024
Salesforce earned the 2024 Marketing Digital Innovation Award for its use of Marketing AI to unify account-based marketing and personalization using AI.
Research Perspective
Best Practices for a More Effective Close
The number of days it takes it to close the company�s books � that is; the number of days into the following month required to completed all the activities associated with the financial close � is a reliable way to gauge the effectiveness of a finan
Research Perspective
Making the Case for Automating the Close
There is longstanding agreement on the importance of a company closing its books as quickly as possible. A short close becomes all the more important during periods of business disruption and uncertainty because it allows an organization to accelerate financial and management reporting and frees up resources to prepare more extensive and impactful analyses.
White Paper
Efficiently Achieving Sustainable Compliance
Still using spreadsheets for SOX404 and 302 compliance? Organizations need software, not spreadsheets, to achieve sustainable and efficient compliance
Research Perspective
Five Ingredients for Finance Transformation
Over the next ten years, technology will do more to change the nature of the work done in the finance and accounting organization than it has over the past 50. A range of technology advances affecting databases, data processing, analytics, user experience as well as the application of artificial intelligence, will free up the considerable amount of time now spent on unproductive manual processes.
Research Perspective
The Continuous Accounting Platform
A central aspect of continuous accounting is controlling accounting and other data that affects financial statements continuously, from start to finish. This form of control, known as “straight-through processing,” addresses the significant issue of data quality and consistency in financial reporting processes by substantially reducing the need for checks or reconciliations that are performed to ensure accuracy.
Research Perspective
When Spreadsheets Aren’t the Right Choice
The electronic spreadsheet is among the top five most important advances in business management to come along in the last 100 years. It has revolutionized almost all aspects of finance and accounting.
White Paper
Taking Control of Profitability
The basic concepts used for measuring, analyzing and managing profitability are well established. The challenge has been to translate the concepts into practical methods and processes. Technology now enables organizations to address those challenges. Over the past two decades, business analytics and the technologies that power them have advanced steadily. These advances have made it possible for an organization to manage profitability to enable it to exert greater control over its bottom line.
Research Perspective
The Advance of Business-Owned Technology
CIOs face the constant challenge of having resources available for strategic projects while still performing essential “keep-the-lights-on” activities. IT organizations can shed non-essential workloads, especially as they forge a relationship with the Office of Finance built on greater self-reliance. It’s now possible because of the growing prevalence of Finance IT groups and the increased availability and adoption of cloud-based software for that department.
QandA
Accounting in a Time of Crisis
There are times when organizations can be overwhelmed by financial stress while simultaneously embracing distributed working environments and other operational constraints they weren’t prepared for. Finance and accounting departments that can utilize IT systems to operate in a virtual mode will be better able to adapt to difficult circumstances and overcome obstacles. CFOs and controllers should recognize that the department must be resilient as well as efficient and that technology plays a central role in this regard.
Viewpoint
Building Agility Through Continuous Planning
Finance executives need to rethink their planning and budgeting processes to make them faster, more agile and more predictive to achieve their objectives under any circumstances.
Analyst Perspective
Fortune Favors the Prepared
I like Louis Pasteur’s observation that “fortune favors the prepared mind.” So-called black swan events happen regularly and can have a very negative effect on a business.
Analyst Perspective
The Central Ledger: Restructuring Accounting with Technology
Sometimes it takes a while for technology to fundamentally change how work is done. That’s because several innovations usually have to come together before a transformation can occur.
Analyst Perspective
Virtualizing the Close
The global pandemic crisis was, in effect, an unrehearsed stress test measuring the resiliency of the department. The crisis highlighted the importance of sustaining confidence in the accuracy and control of accounting processes, not just efficiency.
Viewpoint
Plan for Business Continuity, Sustainability and Success
Dedicated software is the most effective tool for organizations seeking to plan for business continuity, sustainability and success
Analyst Perspective
The Bottom Line is the Bottom Line
The Chief Financial Officer can enable her or his finance department play a more strategic role in company operations by adopting what I call profitability management.
Analyst Perspective
Rating CFO Performance in Audit Costs
For decades I’ve heard people talk about cutting audit costs to reduce administrative overhead but based on my observations, I was skeptical — mostly because, until recently, the documented success stories haven’t been about going from good to great so much as going from awful to average.
Analyst Perspective
Fortune Favors the Prepared (Video)
I like Louis Pasteur’s observation that “fortune favors the prepared mind.” So-called black swan events happen regularly and can have a very negative effect on a business.
Analyst Perspective
Fortune Favors the Prepared
I like Louis Pasteur’s observation that “fortune favors the prepared mind.” So-called black swan events happen regularly and can have a very negative effect on a business.
Analyst Perspective
Make Automating Finance and Accounting a Priority
We find in our recent Change in the Office of Finance benchmark research an indication of the value of using automation to execute finance department functions.
Analyst Perspective
Workday Does Source-to-Pay
In late February I attended Spark, the Scout annual user group meeting. This was the third and likely the last such meeting, as Scout was recently acquired by Workday.
Analyst Perspective
Three Essentials for a Digital Office of Finance
One of the objectives of our recent Change in the Office of Finance benchmark research was to assess the technological capabilities of finance and accounting departments.
Analyst Perspective
The Next-Generation CFO
I was invited to sit on a panel at CFO 3.0 events held in San Francisco and New York hosted by Sage Intacct.
Analyst Perspective
The Office of Finance is a Numbers Factory
Yes, it’s an easy metaphor, but a worthwhile one to consider. For the Office of Finance, figures are its raw material.
Analyst Perspective
Host Analytics Becomes Planful
Host Analytics recently announced it will now go by the name Planful.
Analyst Perspective
Blockchains Pose Problems of Persistence and Trust
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.
Analyst Perspective
Price Optimization: Cover Your Bases
Pricing is an eternally vexing issue in business. Over the years, organizations have used different strategies to establish prices for their products, depending on custom, the nature of the business and the degree of competitiveness in the market.
Analyst Perspective
Move Finance to the Cloud
In a recent note on virtualizing the close, I observed that finance and accounting organizations that can operate in a virtual mode are better able to adapt to changing circumstances and overcome obstacles.
Research Perspective
Virtualize the Close
“Virtualizing” the accounting close involves applying software automation, substantially reducing manual and paper-based processes and incorporating electronic collaboration. Virtualization enables finance and accounting departments to achieve speed and resilience.
White Paper
Virtualizing the Close
Virtual accounting enables the department to achieve speed and resilience without sacrificing accuracy and control. Start by virtualizing the close.
Analyst Perspective
The Corporate Tax Management Software Imperative
Recent events are forcing corporations to adopt dedicated software for tax provision, transfer pricing and tax analysis.
QandA
Planning for Continuity in the Public Sector
Dedicated planning and budgeting software improves public sector finance department efficiency and enables responsive, high-quality service.
Analyst Perspective
2020 Reporting: Improving Visibility, Transparency and Perspective
FP&A and business analysts can make reporting more effective by reimagining how, what and when their company does its reporting.
Analyst Perspective
Workiva Chains Liberates FP&A
Workiva recently introduced Chains, a visual workflow tool for the Workiva platform.
Research Perspective
Business Continuity in the Public Sector
Dedicated planning and budgeting software will help government organizations build the ability to maintain business continuity.
White Paper
The Value of Close Automation for Midsize Organizations
Midsize organizations face a unique set of challenges. Software can help enable growth without adding administrative overhead, and close automation is a great place to start.
Analyst Perspective
OneStream Wins Our Innovation Award in Office of Finance with Analytic Blend
One of the challenges of being a practically minded technology analyst is squaring the importance of “the next big thing” with the reality of what most organizations are doing.
Analyst Perspective
Scenario Planning is a Strategic Imperative
A great deal has changed in how finance and accounting departments operate since the start of 2020.
Analyst Perspective
Updating FP&A’s Mission - A New Approach for the 2020s
In this Analyst Perspective from Robert Kugel, learn how FP&A can redefine its mission to achieve the long-stated goal of making it more of a strategic partner with the rest of the organization.
Analyst Perspective
DADs Address the Mother of All Data Problems
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.
Analyst Perspective
Sustainable Sourcing and Supply Chains
A couple of years ago, I started talking about a “New Era of Trade.” Its starting point was the world financial crisis in 2007, but the evidence that we were experiencing a shift only became obvious years later.
Podcast
Business Continuity in the Public Sector Podcast
What business continuity lessons have public sector organizations learned during recent challenging times? How can planning and budgeting software contribute to agility that helps promote business continuity? How can the accounting and finance departments ensure both access and security for a distributed workforce?
Analyst Perspective
Fundamental Change is Coming to ERP Systems
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are central to nearly every organization’s management of operational and financial business processes.
Analyst Perspective
Value-Based Planning Improves Corporate Performance
In preparing this research note I took the precaution of searching “value-based planning” to see what came up. Over the years, the term has been used in several contexts each with different shadings.
Research Perspective
Achieving Sustainable Continuity for the Office of Finance
The critical lesson learned from any crisis is the importance of resiliency to cope with sometimes rapidly changing circumstances. Technology has demonstrated that it provides the essential ingredient to achieving this resiliency.
Analyst Perspective
Profitability Management is a CFO Imperative
One of the oddities of corporate management is that, as a rule, nobody oversees managing profitability.
Videocast
Moving Beyond Traditional FP&A
Charles Darwin never said evolution was a matter of the survival of the fittest. On the contrary, he said: It is not the strongest of the species, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.
Analyst Perspective
Make Accounts Receivable Pay
Can you imagine a more arcane and boring topic than accounts receivable? Unless you are the CFO, controller, chief accounting officer or treasurer of an organization, maybe not.
Viewpoint
The CFO Answer Machine: Past, Present and Future Visibility for Small and Midsize Companies
Effective financial management requires the ability to understand an organization’s current condition while having visibility into its potential future state.
Viewpoint
Agile Planning for Small and Midsize Organizations
The purpose of planning is to enable executives and managers to make better-informed decisions more consistently. Planning within an organization requires setting objectives and weighing the alternative methods of achieving those objectives, because there are usually multiple potential paths to success.
Viewpoint
The Way Forward with RPA
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a core digital technology for increasing productivity and efficiency, speeding the completion of work, and increasing its quality and controllability.
White Paper
The Digital Transformation Partnership
Information technology will have a greater impact on how the finance department operates over the next 10 years than it has over the past 50. The cumulative impact of a decade of steady technology evolution along with the demographic shift to digitally-native executives and managers is enabling a fundamental change in how the department operates.
Analyst Perspective
Continuous Planning is Optimized with AI and External Data
In the context of planning, budgeting and benchmarking, external data includes information about the world outside an organization such as economic and market statistics, competitors and customers.
Analyst Perspective
BlackLine Matches Receivables for Continuous Accounting
BlackLine recently held its first virtual user conference, Beyond the Black, where it detailed numerous additions and enhancements to its applications.
Research Perspective
Achieve Agility in Planning and Execution
Finance executives have come to value contingency planning and adaptability in the face of uncertainty, whether it is caused by a worldwide crisis or simply the variance of day-today business.
Analyst Perspective
Use Software for More Effective Tax Management
The post-pandemic world will see much returned to normal, but there will also be change. For businesses that faced shutdowns, these changes will include higher taxes to pay for the costs of mitigating the economic impact, and the loss of tax revenue.
Analyst Perspective
The Ventana Research 2021 Market Agenda: How Digital Effectiveness Impacts Organizational Agility
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.
Analyst Perspective
Profitability Management: A CFO Priority to Gain Competitive Advantage
Profitability management produces a sustainable competitive advantage but by 2025 only one-third of companies will have implemented a profitability management initiative, explains Ventana Research SVP and Research Director Robert Kugel.
Analyst Perspective
The Office of Finance Market Agenda for 2021: Accelerating Adoption of Digital Technology
Ventana Research recently announced its 2021 market agenda for the Office of Finance, continuing the guidance we’ve offered since 2003 on the practical use of technology for the finance and accounting department.
Analyst Perspective
Robotic Process Automation is a Core Finance Competency
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has emerged as a core digital technology for finance and accounting organizations. It can drive significant gains in productivity and efficiency by automating mechanical, repetitive accounting processes in a continuous, end-to-end fashion.
Analyst Perspective
Streamlining Spending for Savings and Control
Irked by the need to account for every penny of his college expenses, poet Robert Frost penned the lines:
Analyst Perspective
A Virtual Audit Enables Savings Through Efficiency
The challenges of the pandemic prevented auditors from visiting client offices, which led to widespread adoption of remote audit processes.
Analyst Perspective
Trintech Speeds up Financial Close with Automation
Organizations have long sought ways to achieve a fast but “clean” (accurate) financial close. The most widely accepted benchmark is to be able to close within one business week.
Analyst Perspective
IBM Planning Analytics Makes Planning Easier for Business Unit Leaders
IBM Planning Analytics, formerly known as TM1, is a comprehensive planning and analytics application designed to integrate and streamline an organization’s planning processes. It can support multiple planning use cases on a single platform, including financial, headcount, sales and demand planning.
Viewpoint
Multinational Corporations Need Intercompany Financial Management
Ventana Research defines intercompany financial management (IFM) as a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within a corporation and between its legal entities that is designed to maximize staff efficiency and accounting accuracy while also optimizing tax exposure, minimizing tax leakage, and ensuring consistent tax and regulatory compliance.
Viewpoint
Five Reasons for Upgrading Your Entry-Level Accounting System
Small business owners are fortunate to have a choice of feature-rich, flexible, and affordable entry-level accounting packages. Eventually, though, successful businesses grow and will often find that the very accounting software that once made things more efficient is now bogging down operations. Here are five unmistakable signs that it is time to replace your entry-level application with financial management software designed for midsize companies.
Analyst Perspective
Modern ERP Improves Organizational Performance
The ERP system is at the core of nearly every organization’s record keeping and business process management. Its smooth and uninterrupted functioning is essential to an organization’s accounting and finance functions.
Analyst Perspective
FourQ Builds Confidence and Trust in Intercompany Financial Management
FourQ is an intercompany financial management (IFM) Solution-as-a-Service provider. IFM is a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within a corporation and between its legal entities, and is designed to maximize staff efficiency and accounting accuracy while optimizing tax exposure, minimizing tax leakage and ensuring consistent tax and regulatory compliance.
Analyst Perspective
Consolidation Software Builds Staff Effectiveness in Midsize Companies
Financial consolidation software assists companies in executing their accounting close process - especially those that use multiple ERP systems or have multiple legal entities - and with other characteristics that can complicate the process such as keeping books in multiple currencies.
Analyst Perspective
Unit4 Democratizes Agile, Data-Driven Decision-Making
Unit4’s Financial Planning and Analysis (formerly Prevero) is a planning and budgeting application designed for the requirements of midsize corporations and the public sector.
Analyst Perspective
Integrated Business Planning Uses Zero-Based Budgeting to Improve Performance
The objectives of zero-based budgeting are well aligned with what I call integrated business planning, a technology-enabled approach to managing the forward-looking activities of a corporation including forecasting, planning and budgeting.
Analyst Perspective
Reduce Risk and Improve Departmental Effectiveness with Intercompany Financial Management
Ventana Research defines intercompany financial management as a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within a corporation and between its legal entities.
Research Perspective
Build an Actionable Profitability Management Initiative
Corporations continually confront profitability issues and opportunities caused by competitors’ actions, shifts in demand, as well as changes in commodity prices and other factor costs.
Analyst Perspective
Digital Process Reengineering Improves Business Performance
Business process reengineering (BPR) was a consulting fashion in the early 1990s that spurred many companies to purchase their first ERP systems. BPR proposes a fundamental redesign of core business processes to achieve substantial improvements in market and customer responsiveness, productivity, cycle times and quality.
Research Perspective
Business Continuity in the Public Sector
Business continuity is the ability of an organization to maintain normal operations without compromise, regardless of external conditions. Because they provide emergency and other critical services, government organizations must be able to maintain business function under all circumstances. They must be able to shift priorities to address changing conditions, and to be truly effective, this capability must be present across the entire organization.
White Paper
Introducing the Virtual Audit
A business crisis alerts finance leaders to their organization’s vulnerabilities. When lockdowns prevented people from being in their offices in 2020, organizations with the right technology and processes demonstrated their ability to adapt, overcome and sustain operations under extraordinary circumstances.
Viewpoint
Gain Competitive Advantage Using External Data and Predictive Intelligence
Darwin never claimed that evolutionary success came down to survival of the fittest. To the contrary, he stated, “it is not the strongest that survives; but…the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.
Analyst Perspective
Controllers: Always Be Closing
These days it strikes me that the motto of successful salespeople – "ABC: Always Be Closing!" – should apply equally to corporate controllers, albeit in the accounting sense.
Research Perspective
The Imperative for Integrated Planning
The purpose of planning is not planning; it is decision making. And the purpose of reimagining operational planning as a continuous, connected process is to deliver business value, making these processes faster, more agile and more intelligent so that contributors from across the organization can make better data-driven decisions faster and more consistently. The right technology makes it possible to design more efficient and effective methods for business planning that maximize productivity using a new generation of powerful, capable tools that are user-friendly for line-of-business personnel.
Analyst Perspective
Finance IT Improves Departmental Performance
A year of business uncertainty, lockdowns and operational disruptions forced finance and accounting organizations to adapt and change in many ways that are proving to be permanent.
Analyst Perspective
Zuora Earns Office of Finance Digital Innovation Award for 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.
QandA
Why Invest in Profitability Management
Standard planning software helps executives achieve profitability objectives by establishing top-level revenue targets and setting aggregated expense limitations. On the other hand, profitability management is designed to achieve consistently higher financial returns compared to this standard approach by performing profitability analysis at a more granular level to produce a clearer picture of economic costs and cost drivers.
Analyst Perspective
Meet the Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting Challenge
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.
Analyst Perspective
Essential Technology for Continuous Planning
As a result of the rapidly changing business landscape in 2020 and the need to quickly – and intelligently – change business plans and budgets, many more companies have been deciding to adopt a continuous planning approach to be able to add speed and flexibility.
Viewpoint
Future-Proofing Forecasting
An important and durable lesson of recent massive disruptions is that organizations need to forecast and plan with agility so they can quickly adapt to evolving economic, market, legal, regulatory and behavioral conditions. Organizations that have invested in dedicated software to improve their forecasting and planning processes should enhance the accuracy, predictive potency and business value of these systems by explicitly incorporating a blend of internal and externally sourced predictions of the factors that drive outcomes.
Viewpoint
Three Key Planning Deficiencies Impeding Successful Decision Making
Any crisis, whether worldwide or impacting a single organization, tests an executive team’s ability to seize a fleeting opportunity, address an existential problem or mitigate future risks. Global turmoil highlights the need for the financial planning and analysis (FP&A) group to quickly deliver action-oriented advice and analysis that enables executives and managers to confidently make data-driven decisions. To do so, many FP&A groups will find that using the right technology will enable them to streamline time-consuming tasks so they can concentrate on analysis and planning that supports actionable decision making.
Analyst Perspective
Managing Price Inflation Effectively with Technology
A looming challenge for companies in the developed world is price inflation, an issue periodically fretted over – but not experienced at a macroeconomic level in most developed economies – over the past four decades.
Videocast
Build An Actionable Profitability Management Initiative
Everyone running a business knows that the bottom line is the bottom line. But how does your company manage profitability? There’s an important distinction between managing to profit objectives and what Ventana Research calls “profitability management.” Setting profit objectives is what most companies do, but profitability management is a means of achieving higher profitability in a more sustainable way.
Viewpoint
Digital Transformation with Application Platforms
Digital transformation is achieved by using digital technologies to create new (or modify existing) processes and methods to meet evolving business and market requirements. For finance departments the term is associated with, among other changes, using digital technologies to accelerate schedules, provide organizations with actionable insights, devise more meaningful performance assessments, and have the capacity to report and communicate from a broader palette of information.
Analyst Perspective
Digitize Tax Departments for Increased Strategic Value
Managing corporate income taxes is a challenge for chief financial officers. Tax codes are often complex, so tax accounting as well as the data required for tax provisions and tax compliance are different enough from statutory accounting to create significant workloads for the tax department.
Research Perspective
Digital Transformation in Payments and Spend Management
Organizations have traditionally handled the multiple components of payments and spend management in a scattershot manner due to the legacy of paper-based systems used by individual business units.
Analyst Perspective
Digitally Transform Purchasing to Improve Performance
Digital transformation of the Office of Finance has been a recurring theme for several years, but adoption accelerated when offices were locked down and organizations had to collaborate remotely
Infographic
CONTINUOUS PLANNING to Improve Business Performance
Continuous Planning is a high participation, collaborative approach that connects and aligns operational and financial forecasts to support action-oriented planning. This method promotes agility that is valuable both in times of crises and in a steady environment. Technology makes continuous planning a reality by making rapid planning cycles feasible.
Analyst Perspective
Evolving ERP Systems Redefining Office of Finance Operations
Over the past decade, how organizations manage processes and record data related to transactional events captured by an enterprise resource planning system has undergone a significant evolution. Some of the more recent changes have been the result of a steady migration to the cloud, since these systems are typically updated frequently, require less maintenance, have better performance and are more readily available than those operating on-premises.
Analyst Perspective
Fix Sales and Operations Planning to Improve Financial Efficiency
For decades, sourcing and supply chain management was focused almost exclusively on achieving the lowest cost, and the world’s trade environment supported this approach. However, I observed that the new era of trade, supply chain planning and execution, would be more complex, and organizations needed to shift focus to emphasize business continuity and sustainability, accommodating change with the least disruption at the lowest cost. Sourcing decisions, logistics and product design would be crafted with an eye to a far-from-perfect and changeable world. Higher costs would be balanced against necessary resilience and sustainability, supported by the ability to make changes rapidly with assurance and limited risk.
Viewpoint
Building the Best Team and Reducing Turnover for Organizational Resilience
In today’s fluid operating environment, organizations must be agile and resilient to deal successfully with unpredictable events and rapid changes in their operating environment.
QandA
Five Ways FP&A is Evolving
How will digital transformation affect the role of Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A)?
Infographic
MANAGE PROFITABILITY to Boost Your BOTTOM LINE
Profitability management is especially valuable as corporations confront cost-price pressures, shifting demand and supply conditions, and structural changes in markets and economies. Having the right tool along with the right data is the first step to improving performance. Spreadsheets lack rigor, and business planning software usually doesn’t offer the granularity or focus for accurate measurement.
VentanaCast
From Data-Driven to Data Leader
Finance organizations must provide data-driven advice on the best response to adverse events that still achieves business objectives.
Analyst Perspective
Tackling ESG Reporting Challenges
Robert Kugel discusses the reality, predictions, considerations and benefits about Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) reporting for organizations.
Market Perspective
Xero Energizes Small Business with Cloud-Based Accounting and Finance
A digital finance and accounting organization is one that uses software to enhance efficiency by eliminating manual operations and automating workflows, improving financial data quality. This is especially relevant to small to midsize organizations that need to minimize administrative overhead yet still have financial controls and operational visibility to achieve and sustain profitable growth. A continuous accounting approach can streamline tasks and processes, reducing time spent on repetitive tasks, ensuring data quality and providing a focus on financial outcomes and business performance.
Market Perspective
Power ON Modernizes Business Planning
Power ON is software designed for organizations to streamline their business planning, budgeting, forecasting, reviewing and reporting, in order to make these processes more effective and accurate.
Market Perspective
FloQast Automates Accounting for Faster Close
Over the past decade, close-management software has evolved to enable even midsize organizations to streamline department processes, operate in a virtual mode, accelerate the accounting close and reduce staff stress. It’s one step toward continuous accounting, which is defined by Office of Finance Research Director Robert Kugel as an approach to managing transactions recording and accounting that takes advantage of current technology to streamline and restructure the accounting function.
Market Perspective
Migros Aare Earns Overall Digital Leadership Award with Unit4 for 2021
The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.
Analyst Perspective
Configure, Price and Quote Software Supports Profitability Management
Pricing is an issue that almost every for-profit company confronts – and usually agonizes over. Chief financial officers must play a part in setting the strategic direction of pricing in their organization. They should not be involved in tactical pricing decisions because they are not close enough to markets and customers, but they should be part of the strategic design of pricing, especially as part of a profitability management effort.
Market Perspective
Emburse Audit Employs AI to Improve Spend-Related Processes
Historically, it’s been difficult to convince chief financial officers to invest in technology that makes it easier to spend money. That’s probably because before digital technologies, the natural impediments to spending stood as crude but effective strategies for fiscal control. Today, however, not using technology to streamline corporate spend actually increases costs and decreases control. The right software can increase efficiency and visibility into how money is spent, provide always-vigilant automated supervision, and enforce process conformity. Increasingly, artificial intelligence is providing finance and accounting with the means to improve spend-related processes.
Market Perspective
Teledyne Technologies Earns Digital Leadership Award in Office of Finance with OneStream Software for 2021
The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.
Analyst Perspective
Augmented Reality Will Evolutionize Business Computing
As with many IT innovations, augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR) and the related topic of spatial computing had been discussed to death long before they became a practical reality. As a user interface, AR is already well understood in terms of its ability to open vast new vistas in entertainment as well as making physical tasks, such as machinery maintenance and warehouse pick-and-pack, far more efficient.
Analyst Perspective
2022 Market Agenda: Digital Business Enables Organizational Resilience
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 refine our market agenda throughout the year to ensure we offer the expertise and insights organizations rely on to better assess and navigate the direction of the technology industry.
Analyst Perspective
The Office of Finance Market Agenda for 2022: Effectiveness and Profits
Ventana Research recently announced its 2022 Market Agenda for the Office of Finance, continuing the guidance we have offered since 2003 on the practical use of technology for the finance and accounting department.
Analyst Perspective
The Value Index for Business Planning Classifies and Rates Vendors
I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Value Index research, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Business Planning Software Unifies Siloed Planning
Having just completed the 2022 Ventana Research Value Index for Business Planning, I want to share some of my observations about the business planning software market and how it has advanced as an important part of our market coverage for almost two decades.
Analyst Perspective
Progress for AI in Office of Finance Applications
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) using machine learning (ML) will be the single most important trend in business software this decade because it can multiply the investment value of such applications and provide vendors an important source of differentiation to achieve a competitive advantage in what are today very mature software categories.
Market Perspective
IBM is Exemplary in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about IBM, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
SAP is Exemplary in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about SAP, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Oracle is Innovative in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Oracle, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Board International is Exemplary in the Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Board, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Why Automating Reconciliations Must be a Priority
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).
Market Perspective
Anaplan is Exemplary in 2022 Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Anaplan, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Wolters Kluwer is Vendor of Assurance in Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Wolters Kluwer, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
OneStream Software is Exemplary in 2022 Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about OneStream Software, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Workday is a Vendor of Assurance in the Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Workday, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Automate the Close Cycle for Consistently Better Performance
Software that automates the full scope of the accounting close, including reconciliations, consolidation and reporting, has grown more capable and affordable over the past five years. By enabling consistent process management that captures best practices, and by automating rote, repetitive activities to boost staff productivity, these applications enable organizations to shorten the close, make the process more efficient and reduce the risk of material errors by strengthening accounting controls. As accounting departments have learned over the past two years, close automation software helps ensure business continuity under any circumstance, especially as remote workforces that are able to perform the close virtually become more commonplace.
Market Perspective
insightsoftware is Vendor of Merit in Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about insightsoftware, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Vena Solutions is Vendor of Merit in 2022 Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Vena Solutions, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Webinar
Continuous Accounting for Recurring Revenue and Subscription Businesses
Join analyst Robert Kugel and Zuora’s Yash Mahajani to learn about key opportunities and challenges associated with recurring revenue for accounting and finance teams.
Market Perspective
Prophix is a Vendor of Merit in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Prophix, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Planful is a Vendor of Merit in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Planful, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Unit4 is a Vendor of Merit in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Unit4, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Unit4 Expansion Targets Enhancements for People-Centric Organization
I recently attended an analyst conference held by Unit4, an enterprise resource planning vendor focused on midsize organizations in people-centric industries. The conference was intended to communicate the company’s strategy, product updates and roadmap. The meeting took place shortly after announcement of the availability of Unit4 Industry Mesh and the acquisition of Compright, which does compensation planning as well as in the context of the broad technology shifts affecting ERP applications.
Market Perspective
Infor is Innovative Vendor in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index
Ventana Research is sharing insights about Infor, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Fluence Offers Finance Streamlined Financial Close
Financial consolidation is the process of combining financial data (notably assets, liabilities, income and expenses) from multiple subsidiaries’ general ledgers across an organization for the purpose of creating a parent company report. The current reality for financial consolidation and close processes is that many organizations still rely on manual spreadsheets, which can lead to longer closing periods, errors and confusion.
Analyst Perspective
Value-Added Tax Transformation Streamlines Compliance
Value-added tax is a type of levy that is applied at each step of a transaction chain, from basic inputs to the final good or service. The amount assessed is based on the value added by an organization (hence the name) when a transaction occurs. VAT is used throughout the world because, historically, it has been harder to evade compared to income taxes.
Market Perspective
Vertex Enhances Tax Compliance Technology
Indirect taxes — known variously as sales-and-use, value-added or goods-and-services tax — can get complicated, particularly in countries that have overly complex tax regimes such as Brazil, India and the United States. For example, in the U.S., state and local governments have their own statutes defining which goods are taxed and at what rates, and taxable items and rates change all the time.
Analyst Perspective
Simplifying Budgeting and Planning is FP&A’s Mission
Ventana Research recently published the results of our Business Planning Value Index Research and I commented on its connection to our emphasis on using software to unify planning processes across an enterprise to improve performance. Since 2007, we have advocated what we call Integrated Business Planning (IBP): a high-participation, collaborative, action-oriented approach to planning and budgeting built on frequent, short planning sprints. Short planning cycles enable companies to achieve greater agility in responding to market or competitive changes.
Analyst Perspective
Spend Management is More Effective with Software and Cards
The term "corporate spend" usually refers to the incidental but still significant outlays organizations make to support operations. Especially in nonmanufacturing industries, purchases of indirect goods and business services – such as computers, office supplies, furniture and services – as well as travel and entertainment can represent a significant percentage of total costs. Technology has evolved to the point where executives – especially the chief financial officer – need to take an overarching approach to corporate spend that utilizes technology to tighten controls, deepen visibility into expenditures, increase productivity and reduce process frictions.
Analyst Perspective
Blockchain Payment Systems Have Significant Potential
How payments are effected is an afterthought to many involved in a transaction, but flaws in this process can be a source of pain and frustration for those in the back office, especially in accounting and treasury. To improve the way payments are handled in business-to-business transactions, the once ubiquitous paper checks are giving way to electronic payments. This category includes credit, debit and virtual cards, wire transfers, as well as ACH (Automated Clearing House) transmissions that may be in the form of direct deposits, direct debits and electronic checks.
Analyst Perspective
Reordered Global Trade Requires Agile Sales and Operations Planning
I first wrote about a new era of trade a few years ago to make the point that the period of optimizing supply chains for the lowest cost was over, and that companies needed to redesign them to achieve greater resiliency. That observation proved correct. Now we are hearing about “the end of globalization,” a hyperbolic phrase describing the effects of ongoing changes to the international political order that have been underway for more than a decade.
Analyst Perspective
Sage Intacct Moves into Manufacturing to Spur Growth
Sage recently announced that it is expanding its Sage Intacct software offering to support discrete manufacturing, with its initial foray into this competitive market centered in France. The move supports the company’s strategy of building out the scope of industries served by its cloud applications to include product-oriented business models and expanding Sage Intacct’s geographic footprint.
Analyst Perspective
Using External Data in Planning
Organizations need to use external data in planning and budgeting, both data and third-party forecasts. This need also extends to external data in training artificial intelligence systems to assist in planning and for predictive analytics.
Analyst Perspective
AI Will Create Strategic Advantage for the Office of Finance
Artificial intelligence using machine learning has passed through the bright, shiny object stage and software vendors are well into the process of making the concept a reality in their offerings.
Analyst Perspective
A Data Pantry Speeds Development of Machine Learning Models
A few years ago – somewhat tongue in cheek – I began using the term “data pantry” to describe a type of data store that’s part of a business application platform, created for a specific set of users and use cases. It’s a data pantry because, unlike a general-purpose data store such as a data warehouse, everything the user needs is readily available and easily accessible, with labels that are immediately recognized and understood.
Analyst Perspective
OneStream’s Sensible ML Tasks AI for Business Planning
OneStream offers a platform designed to serve the needs of accounting and financial planning and analysis organizations. The software handles financial close and consolidation, planning and budgeting, analysis and reporting. For me, the most significant announcement at the company’s recent user conference was the unveiling of its Sensible ML (Machine Learning) offering, which is in limited general release. I’ve commented on the importance of artificial intelligence in business applications, and Sensible ML is a promising and important step in that direction.
Analyst Perspective
Finance Research Reveals No Progress to a Shorter Close
We conducted our recent Smart Close Dynamic Insights Research in part to assess to what extent the substantial disruptions of the pandemic have impacted the accounting close. When office lockdowns began in the first quarter of 2020, many finance departments were challenged by having to do their quarterly close remotely without their normal face-to-face interactions.
Analyst Perspective
A Faster Close Fixes Other Accounting Issues
Since its inception 20 years ago, Ventana Research has advocated for a shorter accounting close because it can improve the performance of the entire organization, not just finance and accounting. An important benefit of a shorter close is increased staff time for analysis and the preparation of reports and narratives that improve communications with the board and outside investors. Similarly, the department can provide those in operating roles the financial and managerial accounting results to highlight opportunities and issues they must address.
Analyst Perspective
Adopt the Fast Follower Paradigm for Finance
To gain full advantage of technology, finance and accounting organizations must become “fast followers,” avoiding the bleeding edge but breaking the habit of waiting until the last possible moment before adopting proven advances.
eBook
A Guide to Buying Close Management Software
Close automation software designed for midsize companies is relatively new. Successful midsize companies may find they need to automate their close when it takes longer to close, when mistakes, dropped balls and preventable delays increase, or if errors show up in financial statements or in an audit.
eBook
Taking Stock of Legacy Software
It can be hard to spot deterioration in software. Performance degradation happens subtly over time in all software, including finance department software such as performance management and ERP systems. However, our research finds a correlation between the age of an ERP system and satisfaction with it.
Analyst Perspective
FP&A Needs a Data Strategy for Meeting Internal ESG Goals
Environmental, social and governance issues have grown increasingly pressing over the past few years as investors and government entities urge organizations to measure and disclose ESG metrics. I’ve already covered the broader topic as it relates to external reporting and how financial planning and analysis groups are likely to own this mandate going forward. (It’s mainly been a marketing and public relations effort up to now.)
Videocast
Planning to Succeed
Technology is important to planning and sales performance management. The right technology will give executives and managers a clear picture of the current sales situation and provide the tools needed to make reliable forecasts for the future. This allows sales organizations to manage performance effectively and play their key role in achieving the goals and strategic objectives of the corporation.
eBook
Ventana Research Five Things Every CEO and CFO Must Know About Pricing
More effective management of pricing usually is the biggest profitability lever available to corporations.
eBook
Reimagine Tax Provision
The tax provision and tax reporting processes are getting greater attention from CFOs and audit committees for three reasons.
eBook
Taking Control of Corporate Spend
As organizational spend continues to evolve, key expenses such as business travel and employee spend are becoming increasingly difficult to control. Organizations that have deployed separate manual processes to manage aspects of spending often continue to use them even as they expand their business operations. Applications dedicated to these functions can make managing them easier and more efficient, but executives should also look for easy-to-use software that provides immediate and deep visibility into spending, has controls to enforce organization policies and can lower the costs of managing operational functions.
eBook
The New Corporate Productivity Tool
Companies routinely collaborate in creating, editing, updating, proofreading, and approving composite documents.
Research Perspective
The Continuous Accounting Platform
Ventana Research uses the term “continuous accounting” to describe an approach to managing the finance and accounting function to boost its performance. Using technology, departments can spread workloads continuously over a fiscal period to shorten the accounting close while reducing stress.
Research Perspective
Best Practices for a More Effective Close
The number of days it takes it to close the company’s books—that is, the number of days into the following month required to complete all the activities associated with the financial close—is a reliable way to gauge the effectiveness of a finance department’s management.
Research Perspective
Making the Case for Automating the Close
There is longstanding agreement on the importance of a company closing its books as quickly as possible. A short close becomes all the more important during periods of business disruption and uncertainty because it allows an organization to accelerate financial and management reporting and frees up resources to prepare more extensive and impactful analyses.
Research Perspective
Strategic Considerations for Financial Consolidation Systems
Consolidating and closing the accounting books is an essential core process for the Office of Finance. Efficient and reliable consolidation—the process of combining financial results from multiple legal entities and subsidiary companies—is essential for creating timely, consistently accurate corporate financial reports.
Research Perspective
Achieving Sustainable Continuity for the Office of Finance
The critical lesson learned from any crisis is the importance of resiliency to cope with sometimes rapidly changing circumstances. Technology has demonstrated that it provides the essential ingredient to achieving this resiliency.
Research Perspective
Virtualize the Close
As finance and accounting departments seek to improve performance, virtualization of processes will play an important role. Virtual accounting uses software to eliminate manual processes as much as possible, and it is marked by a substantial reduction of paper-based processes and the use of electronic collaboration.
Research Perspective
Next-Generation Workforce Planning
Traditional workforce planning is a set of processes performed by the Human Resources (HR) function, working with business units and departments to address short- and long- term staffing needs. In this model, HR provides guidelines on pay rates per level of skill, expertise and responsibility as outlined in job descriptions or hiring specifications. HR also supports business-area hiring plans with a range of sourcing and screening activities and enabling technologies. The Office of Finance is often excluded from this process.
Research Perspective
Bottom-Line Impact - How the Modern CFO Leverages Sourcing and Procurement
Digital finance transformation is a way to improve the performance of the finance department by using digital technologies to integrate and automate business processes. Improving performance isn’t just about efficiency and cost savings, though.
Research Perspective
The Impact of AI on Finance and Accounting
Futurists and software vendors have been pointing to a day when artificial intelligence (AI) using machine learning (ML) will perform miracles such as providing life-saving diagnoses and recommending treatments for even rare diseases in seconds.
Research Perspective
Digital Transformation in Payments and Spend Management
Organizations have traditionally handled the multiple components of payments and spend management in a scattershot manner due to the legacy of paper-based systems used by individual business units. As a result, even when they switch from paper to software, organizations often make siloed technology and process improvements one by one.
Research Perspective
The Imperative for Integrated Planning
The purpose of planning is not planning; it is decision making. And the purpose of reimagining operational planning as a continuous, connected process is to deliver business value, making these processes faster, more agile and more intelligent so that contributors from across the organization can make better data-driven decisions faster and more consistently.
Research Perspective
Five Ingredients for Finance Transformation
Over the next 10 years, technology will do more to change the finance and accounting organization than it has over the past 50. A spate of advances in databases, data processing, analytics and tools addressing the user experience as well as the application of artificial intelligence will free up much of the time now required by unproductive manual processes.
Research Perspective
Enabling Advanced Monetization
Digitally native organizations are those that have existed from their inception primarily in the digital world, and that typically engage with customers and deliver their products or services via a digital interaction. Well-known examples include Netflix in the consumer market or Salesforce in the business arena, but no matter the end customer, a key attribute of these businesses is that they predominately generate revenue via subscriptions.
Research Perspective
Making Tax Provision the Solution, Not the Problem
The tax provision and tax reporting processes being used by organizations are receiving greater attention from CFOs and audit committees for two important reasons. One is an intensified determination to shorten the accounting close. The other is to address the need for greater transparency in tax planning, provision, disclosure and compliance.
Research Perspective
Business Continuity in the Public Sector
Business continuity is the ability of an organization to maintain normal operations without compromise, regardless of external conditions. Because they provide emergency and other critical services, government organizations must be able to maintain business function under all circumstances.
Research Perspective
Build an Actionable Profitability Management Initiative
Corporations continually confront profitability issues and opportunities caused by competitors’ actions, shifts in demand, as well as changes in commodity prices and other factor costs.
Research Perspective
The Advance of Business-Owned Technology
CIOs face a constant challenge as they deploy resources: they must find the balance between focusing on strategic projects while still performing essential “keep the lights on” activities like user support and applications maintenance. To increase resource time available for more strategic initiatives—the organization’s digital transformation efforts, for example—IT leaders must seek opportunities to reduce or eliminate non-essential workloads.
Research Perspective
Achieve Agility in Planning and Execution
Finance executives have come to value contingency planning and adaptability in the face of uncertainty, whether it is caused by a worldwide crisis or simply the variance of day-today business.
Research Perspective
Let’s Talk about the Business, Not Just the Budget
People have been complaining about budgeting forever. Technology helps the CFO and finance organization produce a detailed budget and analyze “the numbers” with less effort than was required in the past. Dissatisfaction remains, however, because technology hasn’t addressed the challenge of increasing the business value of budgeting, especially to the budget owners.
Research Perspective
Gaining an Edge in Banking with Business Analytics
Business analytics today involves far more than reports and spreadsheets. But despite significant investments in business intelligence (BI) software, many midsize banks continue to operate with a limited set of analytic capabilities, focused largely on querying and reporting.
Research Perspective
Continuous Accounting Drives Strategic Transformation
Ventana Research uses the term “continuous accounting” to describe how recent advances in information technology can help finance organizations to fundamentally restructure their departmental operations to transform their function. Whereas most past enhancements were incremental, the financial management software and data management methods available today can enable more profound advances.
White Paper
Taking Control of Profitability
Profitability management is an analytics-driven business discipline designed to enable organizations to achieve their market share and profitability objectives.
White Paper
A Practical AI Strategy for FP&A
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) that harnesses machine learning (ML) will be the single most important trend in business software this decade because it can multiply the investment value of such applications and provide software companies an important source of differentiation to achieve a competitive advantage.
White Paper
The Value of Close Automation for Midsize Organizations
Midsize organizations and their finance and accounting departments face a different set of challenges than those faced by small businesses or large enterprises. They’ve outgrown the often-informal systems and processes that worked when they were smaller, but they lack the scale of resources of larger enterprises.
White Paper
The Value of Continuous Accounting for Business
Many senior finance executives want their department to play a more strategic role in the management and operations of their company.
Market Perspective
OneStream Earns Office of Finance Digital Innovation Award for 2022
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 that optimizes organizational resilience and workforce readiness.
White Paper
The Digital Transformation Partnership
Information technology will have a greater impact on how the finance department operates over the next 10 years than it has over the past 50. The cumulative impact of a decade of steady technology evolution along with the demographic shift to digitally-native executives and managers is enabling a fundamental change in how the department operates.
White Paper
Introducing the Virtual Audit
A business crisis alerts finance leaders to their organization’s vulnerabilities. When lockdowns prevented people from being in their offices in 2020, organizations with the right technology and processes demonstrated their ability to adapt, overcome and sustain operations under extraordinary circumstances.
QandA
Planning for Continuity in the Public Sector
Dedicated planning and budgeting software improves public sector finance department efficiency and enables responsive, high-quality service. Read the Q&A.
QandA
Ventana Research When Spreadsheets Aren’t Enough: Managing Accounting Standards Changes
New standards for lease accounting and revenue recognition are challenging finance departments. Robert Kugel sheds light on how the complexity of the new standards, the cross-functional processes for managing them, require software systems – not spreadsheets- for efficient compliance.
QandA
Accounting in a Time of Crisis
How do you close the books when faced with a distributed working environment and other operational constraints? Robert Kugel sheds light on the value of virtualizing the accounting close to make the process more efficient and resilient.
QandA
The Imperative for Sales Planning
To reach the best possible outcomes, sales leaders must be able to govern and optimize the processes they rely on; meeting this challenge is the essence of sales performance. However, those leading and working in sales must cope with myriad often disconnected processes.
Analyst Perspective
Anaplan at a Crossroads
Anaplan offers a cloud-based business planning platform that incorporates a modeling and calculation engine. The tool makes it relatively easy to add or expand the scope of plans that can be connected and monitored on a single platform. This Integrated Business Planning (IBP) approach enables organizations to use the software for financial planning or budgeting, sales, supply chain, workforce, marketing and IT planning. These are the types of plans in which companies often need to create models that incorporate their specific requirements, business systems and strategy. I expect that by 2025, one-fourth of financial planning and analysis (FP&A) groups will have implemented IBP.
QandA
Why Invest in Profitability Management
Profitability management is designed to achieve consistently higher financial returns compared to this standard approach by performing profitability analysis at a more granular level to produce a clearer picture of economic costs and cost drivers. Read the Q&A to learn more!
QandA
Know When the Time is Right to Migrate
Software can become functionally obsolete even if it still operates. This makes it difficult to know when it’s time to replace a legacy system. Finance organizations should assess replacing existing software when it limits departmental efficiency, flexibility and agility.
QandA
Accounting for Selling Costs Gets Complicated
In this exclusive Q&A, Robert Kugel, SVP & Research Director at Ventana Research, answers questions about why new standards are getting so much attention, what the associated costs to companies will be due to the new standards, why standard ERP systems may not be enough, and more.
Videocast
The Need for Profitability Management
Being able to determine a company's true economic costs is one of the values of profitability management and analytics-driven business discipline designed to help organizations maximize market share and profitability. Watch and listen to Robert Kugel to learn more!
Videocast
Build An Actionable Profitability Management Initiative
Everyone running a business knows that the bottom line is the bottom line. But how does your company manage profitability? There’s an important distinction between managing to profit objectives and what Ventana Research calls “profitability management.”
Videocast
Moving Beyond Traditional FP&A
The ability of the finance department to execute rapid planning, forecasting and budgeting cycles is a major factor that determines a company’s adaptability to change because the planning process enables executives to guide the organization on the path to success. Watch and listen to Robert Kugel!
Infographic
MANAGE PROFITABILITY to Boost Your BOTTOM LINE
Profitability management is especially valuable as corporations confront cost-price pressures, shifting demand and supply conditions, and structural changes in markets and economies. Having the right tool along with the right data is the first step to improving performance. Spreadsheets lack rigor, and business planning software usually doesn’t offer the granularity or focus for accurate measurement.
Infographic
CONTINUOUS PLANNING to Improve Business Performance
Continuous Planning is a high participation, collaborative approach that connects and aligns operational and financial forecasts to support action-oriented planning. This method promotes agility that is valuable both in times of crises and in a steady environment. Technology makes continuous planning a reality by making rapid planning cycles feasible.
Webinar
Continuous Accounting for Recurring Revenue and Subscription Businesses
Subscription and recurring revenue models are proving to be the way forward for many of today’s organizations. But what challenges arise for the Office of Finance as companies shift toward this way of doing business? How can organizations harness the benefits of recurring revenue while addressing the challenges it brings compared with traditional models? What role does technology have to play in making this transition?
Podcast
Business Continuity in the Public Sector
What business continuity lessons have public sector organizations learned during recent challenging times?
Webinar
Webinar : Revenue and Margin Improvement
Pricing determines not just revenue, but also margin. And margin is vital to ensuring profitability. So pricing both serves to generate volume, and hence revenue. Given the importance of pricing, it is surprising how few companies use data and purpose-built technology to optimize pricing for volume, margin or the right mixture of both.
Webinar
Intercompany Financial Management
Well-executed Intercompany Financial Management (IFM) can have a significant impact on the bottom line for large multinational organizations. IFM is a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within a corporation and between its legal entities in a way that maximizes staff efficiency and accounting accuracy while optimizing tax exposure, minimizing tax leakage and ensuring consistent tax and regulatory compliance.
Viewpoint
Continuous Planning Provides Action, Agility and Accuracy
The term “continuous planning” may conjure up images of never-ending meetings in which nothing gets accomplished, but Ventana Research uses it to describe a highly collaborative, action-oriented approach to corporate planning built on frequent, short planning cycles
Viewpoint
Software Drives the 21st Century Tax Department
The challenges facing tax departments are mounting. Governments worldwide are scrutinizing companies’ reporting more closely in an attempt to raise revenue.
Viewpoint
Thriving in Uncertain Times by Planning with Agility
For the past few years, organizations the world over have been forced to deal with volatile markets and rapidly changing environments caused by an ongoing series of unexpected events. The only certainty facing executives in these times is persistent uncertainty, which puts a premium on being able to react and pivot with agility when any black swan event occurs. Coping successfully with rapid change requires the ability to plan contingently to anticipate a range of scenarios and, when necessary, rapidly revise plans to operate most effectively in the new environment. To achieve this level of agility, executives need to harness technology to enable rapid, high-participation planning cycles that makes it possible to provide quick answers to the question, “What if?” Our Business Planning Benchmark Research demonstrates that 73% of organizations that are able to explore every relevant scenario have plans that are accurate or very accurate compared to just 36% that can only explore a limited set of scenarios or do not do this at all.
Analyst Perspective
Sourcing and Purchasing Need Digital Transformation
“Digital finance transformation” became an even more important topic over the past two years as finance and accounting departments have had to cope with an unrelenting set of new challenges that have had a profound impact on business operations, financial markets and regulatory environments.
Analyst Perspective
To Attract the Best Talent, Make Accounting Cool
Especially in the United States, baby boomer retirements and fewer graduates with accounting degrees is posing a growing challenge to finance department executives in attracting and retaining the best accounting talent. The solution, which may not seem obvious, is to make accounting cool, again.
Analyst Perspective
Fluence Technologies Automates for Fast Close-to-Report
The lockdowns of 2020 forced accounting departments to adapt to managing their close-to-report cycle without face-to-face contact, prompting many to adopt digital technologies to facilitate the process. It gave further impetus to the digital transformation of the department, which aims to eliminate unnecessary manual tasks such as consolidations and reconciliations using software automation. And, rather than looking at the close as a set of discrete tasks, Controllers and CFOs increasingly are managing the process as a connected stream of responsibilities from pre-close activities to creating and publishing financial, management and external reports. This approach is consistent with what Ventana Research calls continuous accounting.
Analyst Perspective
Straight-Through Processing Reduces Friction and Builds Trust
General Omar Bradley is credited with saying, “Amateurs study strategy, professionals study logistics.” This is a battlefield commander’s perspective on the often-overlooked importance of mastering the nitty-gritty in achieving military objectives. I think the same is true when it comes to data in business computing because, in my experience, it is often an overlooked or secondary consideration.
Analyst Perspective
External Data Supports a More Predictive Finance Department
Organizations do not live in a vacuum and things happening outside their walls have a direct impact on how they perform. So, it is essential for them to incorporate external data in their forecasting, planning and budgeting, especially for predictive analytics and machine learning (ML) to support artificial intelligence (AI).
Analyst Perspective
Workday Rising Shows Advances for the Office of Finance
Workday held its first in-person Rising user group meeting since 2019 in Orlando. Three topics are worth commenting on: Workday’s Extend offering, its industry accelerators and its progress with the Workday Adaptive Planning offering.
Analyst Perspective
Building a More Predictive Finance Department
A predictive finance department is one that can command technology to be more forward-looking and action-oriented while still fulfilling its core role of handling the financial elements of its organization including accounting, treasury and corporate finance.
Analyst Perspective
Profitability Management Conquers Inflationary Pressures
Profitability management is a software-enabled discipline that integrates finance and sales to achieve an optimal balance of revenue and margin objectives.
Research Perspective
Know Sooner, Act Faster to Gain Competitive Advantage
An important measure of the effectiveness of a finance and accounting department is the time it takes to close the books.
Analyst Perspective
Planful Acquires for Marketing Performance in Planning Suite
Planful is bringing its FP&A tools to the marketing department, giving organizations a more comprehensive view of their planning, performance.
Analyst Perspective
The Rising Expectations for Finance Analytics
Organizations must use the right software and have the right data available to improve the scope, quality, business impact and timeliness of analytics.
Analyst Perspective
A Finance Department Data Strategy for ESG Compliance
Sensitivity to environmental, social and governance issues – or ESG – has grown over the years and with it, increasing attention by some investors and government entities urging organizations to measure and disclose ESG metrics.
Analyst Perspective
A New Approach to ERP for a More Effective Finance Department
Cloud-based ERP will transform the value of the technology and the benefits it delivers, which include superior security, performance and efficiency.
Analyst Perspective
Vertex Manages End-to-End Indirect Tax Compliance Worldwide
Vertex automates and centralizes indirect tax management, eliminating error-prone manual processes and increasing control, visibility.
Analyst Perspective
Prophix’s Finance Platform Boosts Midsize Departments’ Effectiveness
Prophix’s cloud financial software accelerates reporting and analysis by automating manual tasks, freeing up valuable time to dedicate to broader goals.
Analyst Perspective
Planning for a More Uncertain World with Board International
Board’s platform enables financial planning and analysis groups to improve forecast and planning accuracy and accelerate analysis and reporting.
Analyst Perspective
IBM Planning Analytics Enables Agility Based on Insight
IBM’s Planning Analytics supports integrated business planning, enabling scenario testing to quickly understand potential outcomes and risks.
Analyst Perspective
Technology Puts the ‘A’ Back in FP&A
Financial planning and analysis groups need to take advantage of technology that reduces manual tasks, freeing up time to concentrate on analytical work.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle NetSuite Goes Full Suite Ahead to Deliver Customer Value
NetSuite’s customer-centric product strategy seeks to engage customers in more of what the software offers to demonstrate value.
Analyst Perspective
Vena Provides Practical Support for Integrated Business Planning
Vena Solutions offers midsize organizations a platform to comprehensively address strategy, operations and finance through integrated business planning.
Analyst Perspective
Accelerate Closing with a Faster Tax Provision Process
Using software instead of spreadsheets reduces the time and complexity of the tax provision process for a faster accounting close.
Market Perspective
Zoho Sweetens its Suite of Applications
Zoho offers a unified suite of business management tools that support reduced administrative overhead so an organization can grow and scale with agility.
Analyst Perspective
Manage Your Spending Purse with Emburse
Emburse software promotes smarter money management, employing automation, digital tools to see how and where money is being spent and streamline accounting.
Analyst Perspective
Virtual Audits Improve Financial Statement Quality, Work-Life Balance
A virtual audit takes advantage of software to achieve higher audit quality with less effort while improving working conditions for the audit firm’s team.
Analyst Perspective
The Planning Center of Excellence
Companies need a Planning Center of Excellence as a practical way of achieving scenario planning rapidly at a sufficiently granular level.
Market Perspective
Serco Wins Digital Leadership Award in Office of Finance with Trintech
Serco earned the 2022 Digital Leadership Award in Office of Finance for using Trintech’s Cadency platform to advance the financial close process.
Analyst Perspective
Workiva Simplifies ESG Reporting
Workiva offers an environmental, social and governance application that enables organizations to manage tasks necessary for reporting on ESG matters.
Analyst Perspective
Epicor Enriches Vertical-Plus Approach for Growth
Epicor has focused its ERP platform development on the unique needs of specific vertical industries through focused acquisitions and internal development.
Market Perspective
Rootstock Builds on Roots of ERP for Cloud Computing
Rootstock Cloud ERP was created for the Salesforce platform to enable effective sales and operations planning for manufacturing and service organizations.
Analyst Perspective
Professional Services Automation Increases Efficiency
Professional services automation software reduces administrative overhead and enhances organizational effectiveness, allowing workers to focus on clients.
Analyst Perspective
Office of Finance 2023 Market Agenda: A Brave New World
The Ventana Research 2023 Market Agenda for the Office of Finance will highlight the transformational role of today’s maturing technologies.
Analyst Perspective
Optimizing Subscription Management for Finance and Accounting
Companies that want to launch subscription or recurring business models should employ software to modernize and streamline processes, ensure data integrity.
Analyst Perspective
FinancialForce Sharpens Customer Focus in Services Businesses
FinancialForce’s ERP and professional services automation software streamlines processes across administrative, customer-facing and accounting operations.
Analyst Perspective
Intercompany Financial Management for Accountability and Accounting
Corporations with a high volume of intercompany financial transactions should adopt technology that helps manage, reconcile bookkeeping between entities.
Market Perspective
Auditoria Empowers Finance Through AI and ML
Auditoria.AI eliminates pain points in the finance department using automation, AI/ML to reduce manual and repetitive tasks while improving accuracy and control.
Analyst Perspective
Trintech Streamlines a Transformed Record-to-Report
Trintech’s accounting software modernizes the finance department, using automation to speed and streamline processes, improve efficiency, deliver insights.
Analyst Perspective
Insightsoftware Enables a Predictive and Effective Finance Department
Insightsoftware’s applications streamline office of finance functions, enabling more time for analysts to analyze and deliver actionable insights.
Analyst Perspective
More Effective Contingency Planning Improves Agility
Today’s dedicated planning and budgeting software supports scenario planning to enable leaders to manage more effectively and achieve greater agility.
White Paper
A Global Tax Management Platform Is a Must-Have
The Base Erosion and Profit Shifting initiative was designed to rein in what has been viewed as excessive tax avoidance by multinational corporations.
Analyst Perspective
Our Focus on Purchasing, Sourcing and Payments in 2023
Digitally transforming sourcing and procurement enables delivery of expertise, insights across the enterprise while maximizing efficiency, minimizing costs.
Analyst Perspective
Accounts Payable Automation is More Valuable Than You Think
Having digital access to all accounts payable-related data delivers organizational benefits such as reduced process friction and improved finances.
Analyst Perspective
Our Focus on Close, Consolidate and Report in Finance
Finance departments should consider new technology to advance their close, consolidate and report processes to achieve superior control, faster results.
Analyst Perspective
The Continuous Audit Improves Quality and Efficiency
Following the virtual audit model, the continuous audit spreads the work of a full annual audit across the year for more efficient use of resources.
Analyst Perspective
Close Automation is Essential for Digital Finance Transformation
Software that automates the accounting close makes the process more efficient, reduces the risk of errors and enhances the organization’s effectiveness.
Analyst Perspective
Coupa’s Procure-to-Pay Platform Optimizes Spend Processes
Coupa’s procure-to-pay platform streamlines spend processes, shortens cycles, reduces costs and provides greater visibility into cash flow.
Analyst Perspective
Now with the Miracle Ingredient AI!
Don’t dismiss the buzz; AI offers finance teams a myriad of practical benefits including improved accuracy, reduced risk and enhanced decision-making.
Market Perspective
Basware Automates Procure-to-Pay for Greater Profitability and Control
Basware’s procure-to-pay software automates the entire procurement process, from purchasing to invoice processing and payment reconciliation.
Analyst Perspective
Reasons Your Midsize Organization Needs a Finance Technology Update
Midsize organizations can use practical and affordable technology to improve performance of planning and budgeting and consolidation and closing.
Market Perspective
Zycus Manages Source-to-Pay for Greater Profitability and Control
Zycus offers source-to-pay software that automates the entire procurement process, reducing manual effort and improving control over organizational spend.
Analyst Perspective
Using Continuous Accounting to Improve Performance
The expanded scope of continuous accounting, supported by technological advances, enables improved performance and recruiting benefits for finance teams.
Analyst Perspective
OneStream Advances Generative AI to Improve Productivity
OneStream is enhancing productivity for accounting and financial planning and analysis organizations with its Sensible ML and Sensible GPT AI applications.
Analyst Perspective
Technology Enables Working Capital Optimization
Technology can help organizations optimize the cost of working capital by managing inventories, accounts receivable and accounts payable.
Analyst Perspective
Accounts Receivable Automation is More Valuable Than You Think
Expand the potential of Office of Finance organizations with technology options to enhance purchasing, sourcing, and payments automation.
Market Perspective
Workiva Earns Office of Finance Digital Innovation Award for 2023
Workiva makes ESG compliance and reporting easier, more assured and more productive, earning it the 2023 Office of Finance Digital Innovation Award.
Analyst Perspective
Data is the Strategic Raw Material of Finance Departments
Adopt a total quality management approach to managing financial data to improve performance and ensure continuity, resiliency under any circumstances.
Analyst Perspective
Planful Invests in Finance and Accounting Effectiveness
At its Perform23 industry conference, Planful highlighted ongoing investments to enable finance and accounting departments to improve effectiveness.
eBook
Data: The Keystone of Digital Transformation
Data quality is the key to finance and accounting excellence.
Analyst Perspective
Sage Positioned to Gain from Seismic Shift in ERP Market
At its Partner Summit, Sage unveiled key innovations that will enable small and medium size organizations to be more competitive and scalable than ever.
Analyst Perspective
The Question of Generative AI Costs
Generative AI is expanding rapidly. Analyst Robert Kugel focuses on how investment and operating costs could be distributed along the value chain.
Market Perspective
FloQast Streamlines Compliance for a Faster Close
FloQast’s software helps midsize to small enterprise organizations streamline financial control elements and reduce risk while accelerating the accounting close.
Analyst Perspective
Not Your Grandpa’s Consolidate and Close Software
Digitally transform your financial consolidation process by adopting new, improved, integrated software to boost productivity and effectiveness.
Market Perspective
JAGGAER for Digitally Transforming Sourcing and Purchasing
JAGGAER is the source for purchasing power: JAGGAER One spend management software increases visibility, utilizes analytics, automation to optimize workflow.
Analyst Perspective
Advanced Technology Enables Analytic Autonomy
As AI advances, technology will enable analysts to build models that empower workers to investigate issues, revise plans and explore potential scenarios.
Analyst Perspective
Adopt the Virtual Audit to Improve Audit Quality
A virtual audit allows remote access to systems for more efficient, accurate and higher-quality audits and financial statements at potentially lower costs.
Analyst Perspective
With Generative AI, Any Dog Can Write a Contract
Despite recent concerns, generative AI presents significant opportunity to streamline routine business functions, freeing staff for more complex tasks.
Viewpoint
Financial Technology Innovation Enables Midsize CFO Effectiveness
IT innovation enables midsize finance departments with the potential to be more productive.
Analyst Perspective
AI for Working Capital Management
AI-assisted working capital management systems increase staff productivity by automating processes and ensuring timely handoffs, reviews and approvals.
Analyst Perspective
Business Planning Buyers Guide: Market Observations
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Business Planning Guide 2023 for Office of Finance software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for Business Planning Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Business Planning Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from twelve vendors match buyers’ requirements for business planning software products.
Market Perspective
Oracle is Exemplary in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates Oracle.
Market Perspective
SAP is Exemplary in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates SAP.
Market Perspective
Anaplan is Exemplary in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates Anaplan.
Market Perspective
IBM is Exemplary in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates IBM.
Market Perspective
Board International is Exemplary in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates Board International.
Market Perspective
OneStream Software is Exemplary in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates OneStream.
Market Perspective
Workday is Exemplary in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates Workday.
Market Perspective
Planful is Vendor of Merit in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates Planful.
Analyst Perspective
Workday Rising Highlights Responsible AI
Responsible artificial intelligence is Workday’s data governance approach to AI designed to build trust by evaluating risks and providing transparency.
Market Perspective
Vena Solutions is Vendor of Merit in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates Vena Solutions.
Market Perspective
Prophix Software is Vendor of Merit in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates Prophix.
Market Perspective
Wolters Kluwer is Vendor of Merit in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates Wotlers Kluwer.
Market Perspective
Infor is Vendor of Merit in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates Infor.
Market Perspective
insightsoftware is Vendor of Merit in Business Planning Buyers Guide
Ventana Research’s 2023 Buyers Guide on Business Planning evaluates insightsoftware.
Analyst Perspective
NetSuite Emphasizes AI and Expanded Capabilities at SuiteWorld
Enhancements announced by Oracle NetSuite at the SuiteWorld user conference offer a rich set of capabilities that improve business performance.
Analyst Perspective
A Practical Approach to Managing ESG
Centralize responsibility for ESG reporting and compliance with the FP&A group to achieve accuracy control and efficiency objectives.
Analyst Perspective
Board Enables High-Performing FP&A Organizations
Organizations that want to improve resiliency, adaptability and performance should look at integrated business planning software from Board for their FP&A.
Analyst Perspective
insightsoftware’s Portfolio Boosts Office of Finance Productivity
insightsoftware’s portfolio of products increases organizational productivity by streamlining various Office of Finance processes.
Analyst Perspective
Research Reveals the Importance of Technology in Shortening the Close
Achieving a faster accounting close is within reach, but organizations must adopt the right digital strategy to accomplish it.
Analyst Perspective
Tap Into AI To Do More by Doing Less
Maximizing the power of artificial intelligence for planning, budgeting and analysis tasks enables greater accuracy and productivity with less effort.
Analyst Perspective
Billtrust Automates Receivables to Speed the Cash Cycle
Gain productivity and accelerate your organization’s cash cycle by managing accounts receivable processes end-to-end using Billtrust.
Analyst Perspective
Risk Management is Essential for AI and Generative Development
Coalition of AI leaders to prioritize, develop and support risk management practices for AI and generative AI to spur adoption and benefits from new tech.
eBook
The Strategic Benefits of Intercompany Financial Management
IFM can generate significant savings for multinational companies, yet the topic is obscure because usually, nobody oversees IFM.
Analyst Perspective
Office of Finance 2024 Market Agenda: AI Begins Boosting Productivity
The Ventana Research 2024 Office of Finance Market Agenda explores increased productivity through the application of AI technologies and digitization.
Market Perspective
Polaris Earns Office of Finance Digital Leadership Award with OneStream for 2023
Polaris earned the 2023 Office of Finance Digital Leadership Award for using OneStream to unify forecasts with financial planning to predict performance.
Analyst Perspective
Technology Makes Purchasing More Effective
Technology can streamline processes, automate controls and reduce manual tasks, freeing up time to serve the needs of the enterprise more effectively.
Analyst Perspective
Planning to Get Ahead of What’s Next in the 21st Century
Employing AI in operational, financial and contingency planning provides a full view of potential opportunities and risks to better manage for the future.
Analyst Perspective
Why AI Should Be a Focus for the Office of Finance
Adoption of new technologies like AI must be a priority if Finance organizations are to reduce workloads and improve performance.
Analyst Perspective
Productivity by 1,000 Cuts: Building AI Feasibility From the Bottom Up
Initial productivity gains from simple applications that are invisible to the user will prove AI’s feasibility and value and build trust in the technology.
Analyst Perspective
Zoho’s Roadmap Addresses Evolving Enterprise Needs
Zoho’s product roadmap focuses on creating easy-to-use, cost-effective applications that increase productivity across all parts of an enterprise.
Research Perspective
Accounts Receivable Automation Accelerates the Close
A/R automation is part of a digital finance methodology that we call continuous accounting, which is designed to address today’s need for greater productivity.
Analyst Perspective
AI Makes Accounts Receivable a Customer-Facing Organization
Accounts receivable automation can serve a customer-facing purpose by reducing frictions in transactions, improving the customer experience.
Viewpoint
Sustaining Success: How Continuous Accounting Optimizes the Financial Close
Understand the three pillars to “continuous accounting,” an approach to managing the finance and accounting department that improves performance and increases productivity.
Analyst Perspective
Sage Intacct Enhances Its Roadmap for AI and Generative AI
Sage Intacct has enhanced its roadmap for bringing AI and generative AI to its product lines, offering features for improved ERP efficiency.
Analyst Perspective
Making Purchasing Departments AI-Ready
AI is powerful, but not a cure-all: implementing AI in purchasing departments while improving data management, workflows, and identifying priorities is key.
Analyst Perspective
AI Increases the Value of Order-to-Cash Automation
Using AI to transform order-to-cash systems reduces human workloads, delivering efficiencies and improving the customer experience.
Analyst Perspective
Digitizing Tax Provision to Streamline the Close, Reduce Risk
Using tax-provision software allows tax and accounting departments to streamline processes, reduce risk and free up time to increase strategic value.
Analyst Perspective
The CFO AI Trilemma: Cut Costs, Accomplish More or Both
Anticipation of greater revenue, reduced costs drive AI investment decisions which in turn substantially impact performance, competitive advantage.
Analyst Perspective
Automation Addresses VAT Tax Challenges
Value-Added Tax automation uses software to streamline and manage the calculation, reporting and filing of VAT returns to ensure compliance.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle Demonstrates Embedded AI for Productivity Gains
Oracle innovates business applications with embedded AI, enabling productivity gains, streamlined processing for HR, finance, supply chain, and more.
Analyst Perspective
AI is Changing the Market for Consolidation Software
AI innovation is making dedicated consolidation software more compelling for those seeking increased productivity and a shorter accounting close process.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guides for Financial Consolidation and Close Classifies and Rates Software Providers
Ventana Research offers market observations and overall results from the Financial Consolidation and Close Buyers Guides for office of finance software products.
Analyst Perspective
Competitive Innovation is Improving the Economics of GenAI
Competitive innovation is driving GenAI development and pricing, increasing the value proposition for tools that improve efficiency.
Analyst Perspective
Gain Finance Department Productivity with Straight-Through Processing
Straight-through processing streamlines business processes, increasing organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
Analyst Perspective
OneStream Splash Highlights Practical AI Advances
OneStream’s financial platform delivers many small-scale improvements with big results: embedded AI and enhanced capabilities improve performance, accuracy.
Analyst Perspective
Technology Transforms ERP for a More Effective Finance Department
Capitalize on advances in cloud-based ERP by upgrading to a more configurable, customizable system with superior security and performance.
Analyst Perspective
Sage Analyst Summit Details its Differentiated Strategic Path
Sage puts AI-enabled automation, continuous accounting front and center in its ERP, along with the ability to connect businesses across software platforms.
Analyst Perspective
The Prophix One Platform Supports a More Effective Finance Department
Prophix One dedicated financial software enables effective operations, analysis and a positive work environment for improved organizational performance.
Analyst Perspective
Should I Stay or Go? Migrating to AI-Enabled Applications
Enterprises with on-premises applications should evaluate if, when and how they will tap into the benefits that AI and GenAI can provide.
Analyst Perspective
Generative Automation: An Alternative for Process Optimization
Generative automation uses machine learning to recognize when and how a particular step in a task can be performed without human intervention.
Market Perspective
Prophix Earns Office of Finance Digital Innovation Award for 2024
Prophix earned the 2024 Office of Finance Digital Innovation Award for Prophix One’s approach to finance and accounting operations in growing companies.
Analyst Perspective
A Planning Center of Excellence Delivers Performance Improvement
A planning center of excellence leans on technology to free time for an integrated planning process, improving organizational performance.
Analyst Perspective
Infor’s Velocity Summit Highlights Multiple Advances and Enhancements
Infor recently unveiled advances in AI and process mining as well as benefits for ESG and supply chain optimization for its ERP software.
Analyst Perspective
Gaining Financial Management Effectiveness in Midsize Enterprises
Midsize enterprises have benefitted greatly from advances in technology, advancing productivity, performance and financial management effectiveness.
Analyst Perspective
Streamline Subscription Accounting to Increase Productivity
Enterprises offering subscription services can best support this model with continuous accounting and dedicated subscription management software.
Analyst Perspective
Let’s Put the “A” Back in FP&A
Finance groups should maximize technology to reduce low-value work and increase time for analysis and fulfilling its advisory role for the enterprise.
Analyst Perspective
External Data Supports More Accurate Planning
External data is essential for forecasting, planning and budgeting and for the effective application of AI using ML for predictive analytics.
Analyst Perspective
Intercompany Financial Management is Essential for Multinationals
Intercompany financial management centralizes and automates transactions between multinational legal entities, reducing global tax and compliance risks.
Analyst Perspective
ESG Management Software is Essential for Efficient Compliance
The complexity of environmental and reporting laws necessitates dedicated ESG software to support enterprises in their analysis and compliance efforts.
Analyst Perspective
Adapting to Higher Inflation Longer with Profitability Management
Profitability management is a cross-functional software-enabled discipline to help enterprises achieve superior market share and profitability objectives.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Business Planning Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Business Planning Buyers Guide for Office of Finance software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Financial Planning Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Financial Planning Buyers Guide for Office of Finance software products.
Analyst Perspective
Prophix’s FP&A Plus Brings Higher Performance to Midsize Enterprises
Discover how Prophix’s FP&A Plus enhances performance for midsize enterprises with advanced financial planning and analysis capabilities.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Revenue Planning Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Revenue Planning Buyers Guide for Office of Finance software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Workforce Planning Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Workforce Planning Buyers Guide for Office of Finance software products.
Analyst Perspective
Trintech Provides Reliable Record-to-Report Productivity
Discover how Trintech's advanced software solutions streamline financial close processes, ensuring accuracy, compliance and efficiency for enterprises of all sizes.
Analyst Perspective
A Strategic Approach to Replacing ERP Systems for Modernization and AI
Strategically replace outdated ERP systems to leverage AI advancements, enhance productivity, and modernize business processes for improved efficiency and effectiveness.
Analyst Perspective
What Analysts Should Do When Anyone Can Analyze with AI
How AI and Generative AI will transform financial and business analysis, enabling everyone to become analysts and changing the role of FP&A teams.
Analyst Perspective
Buyer Beware: The Evolution of Agentic AI in Business Software
Agentic AI, now booming, promises to automate business tasks with ease, boosting performance and cutting costs, but practical use is still emerging.
Analyst Perspective
Board Goes All-In for External Data and AI to Improve Performance
Board's new offerings enhance planning software using AI-driven forecasting and economic data to improve accuracy and identify risks and opportunities.
Analyst Perspective
Achieve a Faster Tax Provision Process for a Faster Close
Utilize dedicated tax provision software to streamline tax processes, reduce time to close and enhance the strategic value of tax professionals.
Analyst Perspective
Infor Shows off AI, Process Mining and MES Advances
Infor specializes in industry-specific enterprise software, boosting performance and efficiency in various sectors.
eBook
Building a Business Case for PIM
Providing the level of success your organization deserves across business requires accurate product information that is used consistently across all channels. Organizations must work to overcome common challenges to realize the benefits of investments in product information.
Viewpoint
Kinaxis Enhances Supply Chain Planning in a New Era of Trade
Organizations with complex multinational supply chains are facing and will continue to face significant challenges in managing them. Dealing with competitive changes, new technologies, a market-driven proliferation of SKUs, the growing use of contract manufacturers and a proliferation of commerce channels are making supply chain management more difficult.
Analyst Perspective
The Ventana Research Operations and the Supply Chain Agenda in 2020
Ventana Research recently announced its 2020 research agenda for operations and the supply chain, continuing the guidance we’ve offered for nearly two decades to help organizations across industries derive optimal value from business technology and improve outcomes.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Supplier Relationship and Experience
Suppliers play a critical role in supporting the operations and processes of every organization.
Analyst Perspective
Modernizing PIM for Product Experience Management
Today’s businesses must manage a continually expanding array of data, content and digital assets as well as satisfy the demands of consumers for comprehensive product information.
QandA
Open Communications, Business Continuity and the Digital Work Experience
Maintaining business continuity when the workforce is functioning virtually requires the organization to be as responsive as possible. During times when work-from-home (WFH) is a necessity, it’s even more important that the communication tools in use are efficient, can be easily managed by the organization and address cyber security policies.
Analyst Perspective
ShipChain Earns our 13th Digital Innovation Award for Operations and Supply Chain
Ventana Research has awarded ShipChain its 2020 Digital Innovation Award for Operations and Supply Chain. This award acknowledges the technology vendor that best exemplifies innovation in the technologies that support the operations or service and supply chain.
Analyst Perspective
The Ventana Research 2021 Market Agenda: How Digital Effectiveness Impacts Organizational Agility
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Operations and Supply Chain Market Agenda for 2021: Increasing Agility and Resilience of the Supply Chain
Ventana Research recently announced its 2021 research agenda for Operations and Supply Chain, continuing the guidance we’ve offered for nearly two decades to help organizations across industries derive optimal value from business technology and improve outcomes.
Analyst Perspective
The 2021 Product Information Management Value Index: 16 Vendors to Assess and Select
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: Product Information Management 2021 is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research.
Analyst Perspective
Informatica is Exemplary and Leader in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Akeneo Rated Exemplary Leader in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Pimcore Named Exemplary and Overall Leader in 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Salsify is Exemplary and a Leader in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Magnitude is Exemplary in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Riversand is Exemplary and a Leader in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Stibo Systems is Innovative in the 2021 PIM Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Stibo Systems Enterprise Platform drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Bluestone PIM Named a Vendor of Assurance in the 2021 Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Bluestone PIM drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
IBM Named an Innovative Vendor in the 2021 PIM Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about IBM Product Master drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
inRiver is a Vendor of Assurance in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle is a Vendor of Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
We are happy to share some insights about Oracle’s Product Lifecycle Management Cloud drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Winshuttle is a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Perfion Named a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Contentserv is a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Viamedici Named a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Analyst Perspective
Innovit Named a Vendor with Merit in the 2021 PIM Value Index
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.
Market Perspective
Burberry Earns Digital Leadership Award in Operations and Supply Chain with Board International for 2021
The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.
Analyst Perspective
Digital Business Market Agenda for 2022: Resilience and Readiness
With the announcement of Ventana Research’s 2022 Market Agenda, our expertise in Digital Business continues to advance the market need for effective investments into technology, and I will outline here the key areas of focus to provide insights to organizations that can increase their organizational resilience and workforce readiness. We are proud to provide expertise on ensuring technological effectiveness through our market research and experience in providing guidance on trends and best practices.
Analyst Perspective
2022 Market Agenda: Increasing Supply Chain Agility and Resilience
Ventana Research recently announced its 2022 research agenda for Operations and Supply Chain, continuing the guidance we’ve offered for nearly two decades to help organizations across industries derive optimal value from business technology and improve outcomes.
Analyst Perspective
Kinaxis Optimizes Agile Supply Chain Planning
Kinaxis is a sales and operation planning software company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. Its RapidResponse is an S&OP platform for concurrent planning, designed to integrate an organization’s supply chain planning silos, accelerate planning cycles and optimize supply chain execution to match customer demand.
eBook
The Keystone for Digital Commerce
A modern digital commerce environment adapts to business continuity requirements and the demand of constantly changing consumer expectations.
eBook
How to Achieve an ROI from PIM
Modern product information management (PIM) has the potential to deliver value far beyond the efficiency gains of the current operational approach.
eBook
Building a Business Case for PIM
Providing the level of success your organization deserves across business requires accurate product information that is used consistently across all channels.
eBook
Continuous Planning
Continuous planning is a highly collaborative, action-oriented approach to corporate planning and budgeting built on frequent, short planning cycles.
Market Perspective
Kinaxis Earns Operations and Supply Chain Digital Innovation Award
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 that optimize organizational resilience and workforce readiness.
Research Perspective
Next-Generation Workforce Planning
Traditional workforce planning is a set of processes performed by the Human Resources (HR) function, working with business units and departments to address short- and long- term staffing needs. In this model, HR provides guidelines on pay rates per level of skill, expertise and responsibility as outlined in job descriptions or hiring specifications. HR also supports business-area hiring plans with a range of sourcing and screening activities and enabling technologies.
Research Perspective
Supply Chain Planning with Prescriptive Analytics
Technology has steadily advanced the analytic techniques that enable businesses to undertake the challenge of supply chain optimization. These have evolved from basic inventory optimization routines to more complex algorithms that address multiple objectives and constraints simultaneously.
Research Perspective
Making PIM Configurable and Reliable for Manufacturing
To run smoothly and successfully, a manufacturing organization that’s already digitally connected internally and with customers and the supply chain needs consistent, accurate, configurable and actionable product information. To accomplish this, the organization must ensure that the processes it uses to develop and disseminate product information are both efficient and effective.
White Paper
Winning in the New Era of Trade
CEOs, CFOs and other senior executives of organizations with even moderately complex multinational supply chains must face the challenge of ensuring they are able to manage their supply chains both tactically and strategically.
White Paper
Collaborative Enterprise Planning
Collaborative enterprise planning is a methodology that connects all planning activities of a company’s departments and business units, enabling them to share their plans and to plan collaboratively.
QandA
The Strategic Factors for PIM
Why is it important to support cloud computing for Product Information Management? Mark Smith sheds light on what can be done to ensure operations across distributed cloud computing environments. Read the Q&A.
QandA
Open Communications, Business Continuity and the Digital Work Experience
How can open communications deliver on the vision for seamless digital work experiences now and in the next 12 months? Can a digital communications platform deliver short-term cost savings that translate into long-term operational efficiencies for work across processes? Read the Q&A.
QandA
An Executive Discussion on Work Management
Organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to address the changing demands of work in a way that optimally utilizes resources to deliver improved results while controlling levels of financial investment. C-level and executive teams must ensure that the strategic projects and programs they launch to increase market and business potential are both well-designed and well-managed.
Videocast
Moving Beyond Traditional FP&A
The ability of the finance department to execute rapid planning, forecasting and budgeting cycles is a major factor that determines a company’s adaptability to change because the planning process enables executives to guide the organization on the path to success. Watch and listen to Robert Kugel!
Videocast
Build An Actionable Profitability Management Initiative
Everyone running a business knows that the bottom line is the bottom line. But how does your company manage profitability? There’s an important distinction between managing to profit objectives and what Ventana Research calls “profitability management.”
Infographic
MANAGE PROFITABILITY to Boost Your BOTTOM LINE
Profitability management is especially valuable as corporations confront cost-price pressures, shifting demand and supply conditions, and structural changes in markets and economies. Having the right tool along with the right data is the first step to improving performance. Spreadsheets lack rigor, and business planning software usually doesn’t offer the granularity or focus for accurate measurement.
Infographic
CONTINUOUS PLANNING to Improve Business Performance
Continuous Planning is a high participation, collaborative approach that connects and aligns operational and financial forecasts to support action-oriented planning. This method promotes agility that is valuable both in times of crises and in a steady environment. Technology makes continuous planning a reality by making rapid planning cycles feasible.
Webinar
Webinar: Sales Stories from the Frontline
Today’s sales organizations are faced with many challenges when it comes to realizing the full potential of assigned territories and account locations. Simultaneously, organizations need to be agile in order to support their sales leadership and operations, to maximize engaging assigned accounts across geographic locations to deliver sales and revenue performance.
Webinar
Webinar: Best Practices in Mergers and the Supply Chain
Failure to plan how to achieve sustainable operational efficiencies, including supply chains, will result in missed opportunities to attain the expected synergies and an inability to discover additional, less obvious sources of value in the combination. Developing a blueprint for integrating supply chain management processes and systems is an essential element in preparing for post-merger integration.
Webinar
Webinar: Business Continuity and Growth - Location Planning for Sales and Service
It is always the right time for maximizing the potential of your organization’s sales and service locations and territories. But now more than ever, there is a heightened sense of pressure to perform in the face of market volatility and black swan events that create internal challenges and uncertainty regarding travel to and from locations related to employees and customers.
Viewpoint
Creating Better Accountability and Experiences in Work Management
All organizations can improve. Every business entity, regardless of the state of its current performance, can up its productivity and utilize its resources better.
Viewpoint
Continuous Planning Provides Action, Agility and Accuracy
The term “continuous planning” may conjure up images of never-ending meetings in which nothing gets accomplished, but Ventana Research uses it to describe a highly collaborative, action-oriented approach to corporate planning built on frequent, short planning cycles.
Analyst Perspective
Kinaxis Extends Platform into Supply Chain Execution with MPO Acquisition
Kinaxis recently announced it has acquired a Netherlands-based company, MPO, a cloud-based software offering that orchestrates multiparty supply chain execution. The combination is designed to enable Kinaxis to extend its concurrent planning platform to handle core elements of supply chain execution. Kinaxis acquired all the shares of MPO for approximately US$45 million, with some of the final consideration dependent on performance. MPO will continue to operate as a standalone business, but will be increasingly integrated into Kinaxis’ operations worldwide.
Market Perspective
Steward Health Care Earns 2022 Digital Leadership with Alteryx
Steward Health Care earned the 2022 Digital Leadership Award in Operations and Supply Chain for using Alteryx to enhance supply chain operations.
Analyst Perspective
2023 Market Agenda: Greater Agility for a Less Certain World
The 2023 Operations and Supply Chain Market Agenda will help organizations derive optimal value and improved outcomes from business technology.
Analyst Perspective
Cloud ERP is the Path Forward for Manufacturing and Product Companies
Cloud enterprise resource planning vendors are making systems more adaptable to the unique needs of manufacturing and product companies.
Analyst Perspective
Foundational Blockchain Founders as TradeLens Shuts Down
TradeLens, the defunct joint venture between Maersk and IBM, was formed to make supply chain management easier through access to accurate shipping data.
Analyst Perspective
Product Experience Management Market Requires Digital and Processes Excellence
Ventana Research shares observations from the 2023 Product Experience Management Value Index Market Report.
Analyst Perspective
Product Experience Management Requires Next-Gen Digital Technology
Ventana Research shares part two of its observations from the 2023 Product Experience Management Value Index Market Report.
Analyst Perspective
Product Experience Management Value Index Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Product Experience Management Value Index 2023 gauges how well offerings from 16 vendors match buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Informatica Is Rated Exemplary and an Overall Leader in Product Experience Management
Informatica is rated Exemplary and an Overall Leader in the 2023 Product Experience Management Value Index Market Report.
Market Perspective
Akeneo Is Exemplary and Leader in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Akeneo.
Market Perspective
Salsify Is Rated Exemplary in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Salsify.
Market Perspective
Syndigo Is Rated Innovative in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Syndigo.
Market Perspective
Inriver Is Rated Exemplary and Leader in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from inriver.
Market Perspective
Stibo Systems Is Rated Exemplary in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Stibo Systems.
Market Perspective
Viamedici Is Rated Innovative in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Viamedici.
Market Perspective
Pimcore Is Rated Innovative in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Pimcore.
Market Perspective
Bluestone PIM Is a Vendor of Assurance in PXM
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Bluestone PIM.
Market Perspective
Contentserv Is Vendor of Assurance in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Contentserv.
Market Perspective
IBM Is a Vendor of Merit in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from IBM.
Market Perspective
Perfion Is a Vendor of Assurance in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Perfion.
Market Perspective
Sales Layer Is a Vendor of Merit in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Sales Layer.
Market Perspective
Oracle Is a Vendor of Merit in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Oracle.
Market Perspective
Precisely Is a Vendor of Merit in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from Precisely.
Market Perspective
insightsoftware Is a Vendor of Merit in Product Experience Management
Ventana Research assesses product experience management software from insightsoftware.
Analyst Perspective
Improving Supply Chain Management in the Post-Pandemic World
Organizations that follow a continuous supply chain approach use AI/ML to gain fast, actionable information that informs supply chain decision-making.
Market Perspective
Samsara Earns Ops & Supply Chain Digital Innovation Award for 2023
Samsara’s Connected Operation Cloud aims to end organizations’ reliance on siloed manual processes and legacy systems.
Analyst Perspective
Collaborative Supply Chain Forecasting Improves Performance
Organizations should create a controlled hub to share information about supply chain disruptions or inaccurate forecasts to lower costs and mitigate risks.
Analyst Perspective
Reverse Factoring Lubricating the Wheels of Supply Chains
Everything old is new again: reverse factoring benefits supply chain finance by simplifying the payment process, reducing costs and transaction frictions.
Analyst Perspective
AI Will Increase the Strategic Value of S&OP
Dedicated planning software utilizes AI to shorten planning and forecasting cycles and promote agility and resilience.
Market Perspective
Granarolo S.p.A. Earns O&SC Digital Leadership Award with Board International for 2023
Granarolo S.p.A. earned the 2023 O&SC Digital Leadership Award using Board International to unify its approach to planning and control processes.
Analyst Perspective
Mining, Intelligence and Monitoring Achieve the Best Process Outcomes
Process mining, intelligence and monitoring provide better visibility to understand how work is performed to improve performance.
Analyst Perspective
2024 Market Agenda for Operations and Supply Chain: Seize the Opportunity
The 2024 Operations and Supply Chain Market Agenda helps guide leaders as they digitize operations and supply chain processes to enable business resiliency.
Analyst Perspective
Smart Manufacturing Increases Productivity and Resilience
Smart manufacturing is a strategic operating approach that aligns manufacturing technology with system and process design to increase productivity.
Analyst Perspective
Resilient Supply Chains and AI to Manage Costs
AI is poised to optimize supply chains with improved planning, modeling and forecasts, quickly generating useful intelligence for decision-making, agility.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle Advances its AI-Enabled Supply Chain Management Suite
Oracle’s enhanced SCM software puts AI/GenAI at the forefront of supply chain processes and is supported by a comprehensive data management strategy.
Market Perspective
IFS Earns Operations and Supply Chain Digital Innovation Award for 2024
IFS earned the 2024 Operations and Supply Chain Digital Innovation Award for IFS.ai and its practical application of AI to optimize business operations.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for ERP Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the ERP Buyers Guide for Operations and Supply Chain software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for ERP Financial Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the ERP Financial Management Buyers Guide for Operations and Supply Chain software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for ERP Manufacturing Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the ERP Manufacturing Buyers Guide for Operations and Supply Chain software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Midsize ERP Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Midsize ERP Buyers Guide for Operations and Supply Chain software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Midsize ERP Financial Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Midsize ERP Financial Management Buyers Guide for Operations and Supply Chain software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Midsize ERP Manufacturing Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Midsize ERP Manufacturing Buyers Guide for Operations and Supply Chain software products.
Analyst Perspective
The EU Scaling Back Sustainability Reporting Mandates
EU’s proposal to streamline and reduce sustainability reporting requirements for enterprises aims to boost global competitiveness, higher economic growth.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Product Experience Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the PXM Buyers Guides for Operations and Supply Chain software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Product Lifecycle Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Product Lifecycle Management Buyers Guides for PIM software products.
Analyst Perspective
Kinaxis Demonstrates Accessible AI-enabled Supply Chains
Learn how Kinaxis leverages AI, GenAI, and agentic AI to revolutionize supply chain planning and execution for enhanced agility.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Product Intelligence Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Product Intelligence Buyers Guides for PIM software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Product Information Management Platform Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Product Information Management Platform Buyers Guides for PIM software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Product Information Management for Manufacturing Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the PIM for Manufacturing Buyers Guides for PIM software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Product Experience Management for Retail Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Product Experience Management for Retail Buyers Guides for PIM software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Revolution in Sales in 2020: Ventana Research Agenda
Ventana Research recently announced its 2020 research agenda for sales, continuing the guidance we’ve offered for nearly two decades to help organizations derive optimal value from business technology and improve outcomes.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Selling Experience and Sales Performance Agenda
Sales plays a lead role in the revenue and growth of every organization.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Agent and Customer with Contact Centers in 2020 and Beyond
Contact centers play a substantial role in an organization’s success. The customer journey is engaged here, at each moment of interaction.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Subscriber Experience and Subscription Management in 2020 and Beyond
Subscriptions are the future of business. Subscribers are essential to an organization’s overall business potential because they generate recurring revenue.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Digital Experience in Marketing for 2020 and Beyond
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Business Continuity Imperative: The Workforce Experience and Human Capital Management in 2020 and Beyond
The workforce is an essential part of an organization’s overall business potential because it ensures continuous operations, even in black-swan events.
Analyst Perspective
Why I Joined Ventana Research to Lead Office of Sales
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.
Analyst Perspective
Subscription and Usage Management Technology Needs for the Modern Economy
Subscription-based business models have seen exponential growth over the last decade. The growth of this recurring revenue business model, where a subscriber commits to repeatedly pay for a good or device for a fixed or indefinite timeline, has been caused by the shift from the one-time selling of physical products to selling digital services on a subscription basis.
White Paper
Personalizing Digital Commerce
Digital commerce is changing how B2B companies buy and sell. They must have the ability to delight customers by enabling purchasing however customers want to interact.
Analyst Perspective
Subscription and Usage Management Technology Needs for the Modern Economy
Subscription-based business models have seen exponential growth over the last decade. The growth of this recurring revenue business model, where a subscriber commits to repeatedly pay for a good or device for a fixed or indefinite timeline, has been caused by the shift from the one-time selling of physical products to selling digital services on a subscription basis.
Analyst Perspective
Varicent: Symon.AI earns our 13th Digital Innovation Award for Office of Sales
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.
Analyst Perspective
The Art and Science of Sales from the “Inside Out"
Although historically there has been a hard divide between what are colloquially called “Inside and Field Sales,” changes over the last 10 years have narrowed the distinction.
Analyst Perspective
The Necessity of Sales Performance Management
True leadership is the ability to motivate sales organizations to perform at their best.
Webinar
The Modern Age of Revenue Operations
The need to optimize revenue from all buying and selling channels is essential for every organization that wishes to maximize their potential. To achieve it requires a dedication to have the insights that come from analytics applied to the sales channels that can help guide the sales organization from leaders, to managers and frontline staff, to align to the best opportunity to close deals.
Analyst Perspective
The Ventana Research 2021 Market Agenda: How Digital Effectiveness Impacts Organizational Agility
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.
White Paper
Digitize Pricing to Optimize Revenue and Margin
Pricing is an ongoing source of anxiety for organizations because pricing decisions have a direct impact on sales volumes, revenue and profitability. Over the years, a variety of strategies have been in place to establish prices for products, depending on custom, the nature of a particular business and the degree of competitiveness in the market. Recently, the process has become more complex for companies that offer subscription- and usage-based services.
Analyst Perspective
The 2021 Market Agenda for Office of Sales: The Revolution for Revenue
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.
Analyst Perspective
Oracle and Sales Cloud has Priority on Engagement and AI
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.
Viewpoint
The Journey to Revenue Management
Revenue Management and its operational support by way of Revenue Operations is a relatively new concept that reflects the reality of changing business models.
Analyst Perspective
Revenue Management: The Opportunity for Innovation and Optimization
With modern enterprises adopting and expanding their digital business with subscription and usage business, organizations need to think beyond the primacy of sales as their source of business success.
Analyst Perspective
Salesforce Sales Cloud: Evolving to Meet the 360 Needs of Sales
There is no doubt that the pandemic has accelerated the existing need for new technology that can help sales professionals do their jobs well in this quickly evolving market.
Analyst Perspective
The Experience of Digital Commerce
Digital commerce affects almost everyone’s lives. It is hard to remember a time when one could not sign on to a website like Amazon, order a product, pay for it and have it delivered to your front door within days, not weeks.
Analyst Perspective
SugarCRM Brings the Sweetness in AI Driven Sales
As I have discussed in my Analyst Perspective, The Art of Sales, from the Inside Out, the challenges facing direct sales leaders are not going away. Declining quota attainment, lack of visibility into deal health and difficulty in forecasting quarterly sales remain a challenge for sales leaders, resulting in a continuing reduction in duration of tenure.
Analyst Perspective
The Science of Sales Professional Effectiveness
Observed both here and elsewhere, average sales quota attainments appear to be in an exorable decline. As I discussed in my recent Analyst Perspective, "The Art and Science of Sales from the 'Inside Out'," vendors of sales technology have reacted to this by adding a slew of new functionality including the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to be a game changer for sales.
Analyst Perspective
Subscription Pricing Changing for Sustained Customer Growth
Subscription pricing models are no longer new. Many companies have experience with this pricing model even if there has not been complete adoption across their entire product and service offerings.
Webinar
Selling Your Sales Organization on Some Hard Truths
The rise of internet-based information has created additional challenges for traditional field sales organizations as buyers are well along their buyers’ journey prior to engaging with vendors. This downward pressure on average quota attainment has also negatively affected Sales leadership tenure.
Videocast
Implementing Price Management for Success
Approaches to “pricing,” or the discipline of setting prices, vary across industries and across different organizations within the same industry. Many factors determine how companies go about pricing, but with the rise of the digital economy and the exponential growth of relevant data being generated and stored, pricing as a discipline is now possible across a broad range of industries and companies. Nonetheless, it is still not mainstream and doesn’t often receive ongoing focus within organizations.
VentanaCast
Revenue Management: Opportunity for Innovation and Organization
Revenue Management. The concept represents significant change in how organizations manage the operations and performance of revenue—across EVERY channel, direct and indirect, physical and digital, commerce and subscriptions. Revenue Management can—and should—unify sales efforts under common leadership.
Analyst Perspective
Revenue Performance Management: Leadership and Operations for Optimal Outcomes
As laid out in my recent Analyst Perspective, Revenue Management: The Opportunity for Innovation and Optimization, revenue management is a new way look at generating and managing the top line.
Analyst Perspective
Reinventing Product Experiences Through Product Information Management
Having just completed the 2021 Ventana Research Value Index for Product Information Management, I want to share some of my observations about how the market and category have advanced since our first examination over 15 years ago.
Analyst Perspective
Sales Forecasting: Have the Process and Technology for a True Revenue Forecast?
There has been a lot of market activity around vendors offering sales-forecasting products (or functionality to address sales forecasting) as part of a wider technology offering for sales and revenue management.
Research Perspective
Enabling Advanced Monetization
Digitally native organizations are those that have existed from their inception primarily in the digital world, and that typically engage with customers and deliver their products or services via a digital interaction. Well-known examples include Netflix in the consumer market or Salesforce in the business arena, but no matter the end customer, a key attribute of these businesses is that they predominately generate revenue via subscriptions. And notably, the difference between traditional subscription models like magazines or the old Colombia House music service and modern subscription models is that the product or service offering can be expanded, cancelled, extended or modified on demand and is priced as part of a digital engagement.
White Paper
Incentive Compensation in Modern Revenue Management
Incentive compensation management systems have traditionally focused on the needs of sales divisions, but these groups are typically distinct from other departments within the organization.
Analyst Perspective
Varicent Advances SPM and New Revenue Intelligence
As mentioned in my Analyst Perspective, Revenue Performance Management: Leadership and Operations for Optimal Outcomes, there is continuing pressure on sales leaders to deliver against sales targets in increasingly competitive markets.
Viewpoint
Sales Performance Management is Key to Sales Team Success
Sales leaders continue to face challenges in hitting revenue targets. That's no secret. Pressure is coming from increased competition, better-informed buyers who are doing internet research—and more buyers overall. Leaders have various levers available that can improve a team’s chances of hitting targets. They include ensuring that the territories, quotas and incentive schemes all align with company plans, while also maintaining focus on metrics and analytics. Aligning these factors contributes to a shared understanding of overall pipeline health and of the accurate status of in-progress sales opportunities, resulting in forecasts that are more reliable. This approach is referred to as Sales Performance Management (SPM).
Analyst Perspective
CommerceIQ Earns Office of Sales Digital Innovation Award for 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.
Analyst Perspective
Subscription Automation Enables a Better Subscriber Experience
A subscription business model and an exceptional customer experience are equal priorities for many organizations. Much has been written about both: Subscription and usage services are considered the business model for the digital age, and a great customer experience is how organizations acquire and retain customers.
White Paper
Why Data and AI Matter in Sales
Revenue growth is a key indicator of competitive success. This is a given, yet for many companies, competing successfully is becoming more difficult. No matter the size of the organization, it seems there are new competitors in the market, both domestic and international. Additionally, the buyers themselves are more informed now, and able to use the internet to research vendors before engaging.
Analyst Perspective
Revenue Management Maximizes Partner and Reseller Subscriptions
Among the many digital economy trends written about in recent years, one of the most significant has been the adoption of a subscription business model.
Analyst Perspective
BillingPlatform Bolsters the Rise of Subscription Services
Subscription management and billing services help organizations offer unique benefits and enhance delivery to customers. By making services more personalized, organizations can acquire – and retain – more customers.
Self-Assessment
Pricing
Profitable pricing has always been a critical factor for business success. Over the years, organizations have developed different strategies to establish prices for their products and services depending on previous practices, the structure of the business model and the degree of competitiveness in the market.
Analyst Perspective
Pricing Optimization Software Helps Maximize Revenue
Price management and optimization is not a new discipline, but until now, it has been restricted to particular industries — such as discrete manufacturing and chemicals — where there are potentially hundreds if not thousands of stock-keeping units covering many interdependent products.
Analyst Perspective
Vindicia Showcases Bundling and Subscription Intelligence
The subscription business model has seen much growth in all aspects of the market in recent years. Now considered the standard for the digital age, the model’s implementation travels parallel to rising technology, leading to the demand for newer functionality and tools.
Market Perspective
Clari Enables Improved Performance in Revenue Operations
For disruptive technology companies, maturity is often accompanied by the realization that customer retention and expansion are as important as a new logo acquisition.
Analyst Perspective
Revenue and Commercial Operations: The Difference Matters
The emergence of the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) has mirrored the adoption of the subscription model and the development of multiple selling and buying channels over and above the traditional direct sales model, referred to as Revenue Management.
Analyst Perspective
Pricefx Optimizes Pricing for Profits
Traditionally, price management and optimization have been contained to certain industries, such as large-scale manufacturing and chemicals. Those industries involve potentially tens of thousands of stock-keeping units (SKUs) covering a wide variety of products and price points. For many organizations, pricing systems are “cost plus” or “follow the leader,” not typically designed to invoke optimization but rather just move pricing along. Price management is often seen as a complex, arduous task that yields small returns for the effort it dictates, and not a strategic lever.
Analyst Perspective
Why Revenue Planning Should be Continuous and Year Round
With the emergence of multiple selling channels and the rise of the subscription model, the need for a unified approach to revenue planning and execution should be a priority for every organization.
QandA
Revenue Management for Innovation and Growth
Leaders should be thinking of subscription billing not as something new and different, but as the way that their customers want to do business. There are now multiple selling and buying channels and multiple ways of conducting business, so it is important that organizations recognize that managing these channels needs a unified approach to ensure a positive customer experience. Ensuring a consistent experience will require new processes and technology that reflects this multi-channel and multi-business-model reality.
Analyst Perspective
AI for Sales: Technology is Ready but Are You?
The internet is a rich source of information and is used by buyers to research new applications and offerings well before ever engaging a vendor and salesperson. Along with massive growth in offerings, this is a major reason why sales teams are facing increasing challenges to successfully sell and attain targets.
Market Perspective
Thomson Reuters Earns Digital Leadership Award in Office of Sales with Mindtickle for 2021
The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.
Analyst Perspective
Digital Business Market Agenda for 2022: Resilience and Readiness
With the announcement of Ventana Research’s 2022 Market Agenda, our expertise in Digital Business continues to advance the market need for effective investments into technology, and I will outline here the key areas of focus to provide insights to organizations that can increase their organizational resilience and workforce readiness. We are proud to provide expertise on ensuring technological effectiveness through our market research and experience in providing guidance on trends and best practices.
Analyst Perspective
The Necessity of Revenue Performance Management
Ventana Research was the first market research firm to focus on the emerging area of sales performance management (SPM), which we define as a coordinated set of sales-related activities, processes and systems that enable organization.
Videocast
How to Plan for Revenue Success
It’s no secret that sales leaders continue to face challenges in hitting their revenue targets. This is due to many complex factors, but three trends are key. First, organizations of all types are seeing sales pressure from increased competition.
Analyst Perspective
The 2022 Market Agenda for Office of Revenue: New Performance Priority
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.
Analyst Perspective
Xactly Advances Support for Revenue Performance Management
Revenue performance management and the role of revenue operations is moving to the forefront of sales organizations, aligning departments around a single view of the business with shared revenue targets and goals.
Analyst Perspective
Why Finance and Legal are Important to Revenue and Sales Operations
Why Finance and Legal are Important to Revenue and Sales Operations
Analyst Perspective
Why Your ERP and CRM Won’t Transform Your Business
Digital Transformation. The Subscription Economy. Omni-Channel Selling. Customer Centric. These are all terms used to label trends and events that are changing the way business is being conducted, a change that has accelerated due to recent events. Regardless of the terminology, there is no doubt that the way vendors and buyers are interacting, whether B2C or B2B, is different today for many organizations than it was even five years ago. But to be fair, no technology on its own can transform your business without changes to the other two key elements: people and processes. In addition, change is unlikely to happen if you are also relying on your existing ERP or CRM systems.
Analyst Perspective
Subscription Management Elevates Experience Through Automation
Ventana Research defines subscription management as the processes and technology needed to manage the subscriber experience from the first digital touch to the continuous modifications of orders for services and billing.
Analyst Perspective
Maximize Alignment through Revenue Performance
As organizations shift focus to a broader definition of sales that includes all sources of revenue, vendors are also pivoting to include “revenue” as part of promotional messaging. But it’s my view that just changing your message or description does not necessarily deliver the capabilities and product experiences customers need to successfully plan, execute and achieve revenue targets and objectives. The just-completed 2022 Ventana Research Value Index for Revenue Performance Management addressed this shift, focusing on available product capabilities that support customer needs as well as their overall experience.
Market Perspective
Oracle is Exemplary in the Revenue Performance Management Value Index
We are happy to share insights about Oracle drawn from our latest research, the Revenue Management Performance Value Index, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Salesforce is Exemplary in Revenue Performance Management
We are happy to share insights about Salesforce drawn from our latest research, the Revenue Performance Management Value Index, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Value Index for Revenue Performance Management Rates Vendors
Ventana Research is happy to share insights gleaned from the latest Value Index research, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Revenue Performance Management (RPM) Value Index is the distillation of a year of market and product research.
Market Perspective
Xactly is Exemplary in the Revenue Performance Management Value Index
We are happy to share insights about Xactly, drawn from our latest research, the Revenue Performance Management Value Index, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Anaplan is Exemplary in the Revenue Performance Management Value Index
We are happy to share insights about Anaplan drawn from our latest research, the Revenue Performance Management Value Index, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Board International is Exemplary in Revenue Performance Management
We are happy to share insights about Board International, drawn from our latest research, the Revenue Performance Management Value Index, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Varicent is a Vendor of Assurance in Revenue Performance Management
We are happy to share insights about Varicent, drawn from our latest research, the Revenue Performance Management Value Index, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
SAP is Innovative in the Revenue Performance Management Value Index
We are happy to share insights about SAP, drawn from our latest research, the Revenue Performance Management Value Index, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Gong.io is a Vendor of Merit in Revenue Performance Management
We are happy to share insights about Gong.io, drawn from our latest research, the Revenue Performance Management Value Index, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
beqom Rated Vendor of Merit in Revenue Performance Management
We are happy to share insights about beqom, drawn from our latest research, the Revenue Performance Management Value Index, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
InsightSquared Rated Vendor of Merit in Revenue Performance Management
We are happy to share insights about InsightSquared, drawn from our latest research, the Revenue Performance Management Value Index, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Market Perspective
Clari Rated Vendor of Merit in Revenue Performance Management
We are happy to share insights about Clari, drawn from our latest research, the Revenue Performance Management Value Index, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
Analyst Perspective
Technology Improves Presales Efficiency and Effectiveness
Many – myself included – have written about the growth in technologies designed to aid in business-to-business sales and sales management by serving sales reps, line managers, executives and operations. But one area that has been ill-served is technical presales, or sales engineering. You may ask why this should matter. Aren’t presales engineers all about demonstrations? How could technology – beyond video conferencing – help?
eBook
The Data-Driven Revenue Operations Team
A shift in focus is underway in organizations from a single source of revenue —sales—to a broader view. Whether through the expansion of e-commerce and self-service purchasing or through adoption of recurring revenue models, organizations need to understand and manage more sources of revenue.
Analyst Perspective
Lead to Cash – What does it really mean to you?
“Lead to cash” is an often-used term and is a companion to “quote to cash” and “order to cash”. What they all represent is an approach which recognizes that there is a process designed to convert a lead from a qualified interest to an active sale, through quote and contract negotiation, to order or contract, invoice and payment. “Quote to cash” and “order to cash” are subsets of this process, with different starting places, but ultimately end in the same place: with a payment for a delivered product or service.
Analyst Perspective
Salesforce Commerce Cloud Targets the Segment of One
There are more digital channels in the commerce space than ever before: the web, mobile apps, text, voice-activated “agents,” video and social channels. Conversational computing and hyper-personalization are transforming customer engagement, and organizations may need to undergo a digital platform renovation to optimize customer and product experiences or risk lagging behind competitors. B2B selling and buying are increasingly using methods similar to B2C digital approaches to mirror the digital commerce experience that has grown substantially within the last few years. Salesforce Commerce Cloud is one of the platforms utilizing this approach.
eBook
The Keystone for Digital Commerce
A modern digital commerce environment adapts to business continuity requirements and the demand of constantly changing consumer expectations.
eBook
The Data-Driven Revenue Operations Team
A shift in focus is underway in organizations from a single source of revenue —sales—to a broader view. Whether through the expansion of e-commerce and self-service purchasing or through adoption of recurring revenue models, organizations need to understand and manage more sources of revenue.
eBook
The Urgency of Self-Service in Today's Business Environment
Organizations, led by the office of the CFO, must review their go-to-market (GTM) strategies and examine whether their existing process and technologies are ready to ensure sustainable and profitable growth.
eBook
The Renaissance of Revenue Forecasting
In order for organizations to know where they are headed, they must first understand where they stand in relation to period-end sales targets and course-correct as necessary.
eBook
The Opportunity for Revenue Intelligence
It’s more important than ever to properly equip customer-facing team members with the right tools to grow top-line revenue. To do this, successful leaders and teams are embracing data-driven revenue intelligence tools.
Research Perspective
Realize Effective Revenue Operations
Over the past 10 years, there has been an increasing shift to a more expansive view of revenue. Organizations are adopting mixed business models that include subscriptions, self-service e-commerce, usage- and milestone-based pricing as well as one-time purchases.
Research Perspective
Making Subscriptions Part of Modern Business Models
Subscription was once the Next Big Thing in business. But now, e-commerce and subscription/usage business models are simply the way that customers—and organizations—want to conduct business.
Research Perspective
The Intelligent Revenue Operation
Organizations are increasingly realizing a singular focus on traditional sales execution is not enough to ensure growth. Shifts to subscription models and the advent of omni-channel selling mean that the old way of managing sales is transforming into managing revenue, whether the channel is direct, indirect, or e-commerce, and whether it comes from new or existing customers.
Research Perspective
Enabling Advanced Monetization
Digitally native organizations are those that have existed from their inception primarily in the digital world, and that typically engage with customers and deliver their products or services via a digital interaction. Well-known examples include Netflix in the consumer market or Salesforce in the business arena, but no matter the end customer, a key attribute of these businesses is that they predominately generate revenue via subscriptions.
White Paper
Digitize Pricing to Optimize Revenue and Margin
Pricing is an ongoing source of anxiety for organizations because pricing decisions have a direct impact on sales volumes, revenue and profitability. Over the years, a variety of strategies have been in place to establish prices for products, depending on custom, the nature of a particular business and the degree of competitiveness in the market.
Viewpoint
Business Resilience in Digital Commerce
The opportunity exists for organizations to improve the digital commerce experience they offer their customers by moving beyond existing, monolithic commerce systems that aren’t designed for today’s needs.
White Paper
Personalizing Digital Commerce
Digital commerce, the buying and selling of goods and services using digital technology, is a core business strategy for the modern organization. And e-commerce—using the internet as a sales channel—is an essential tactic that supports this strategy.
White Paper
Why Data and AI Matter in Sales
Revenue growth is a key indicator of competitive success. This is a given, yet for many companies, competing successfully is becoming more difficult.
White Paper
Incentive Compensation in Modern Revenue Management
Incentive compensation management (ICM) systems have traditionally focused on the needs of sales divisions, but these groups are typically distinct from other departments within the organization and are usually compensated based primarily on new sales transactions.
Self-Assessment
Pricing
Profitable pricing has always been a critical factor for business success. Over the years, organizations have developed different strategies to establish prices for their products and services depending on previous practices, the structure of the business model and the degree of competitiveness in the market.
Self-Assessment
Revenue Management Capabilities
Driven by changing business models, organizations are recognizing the value of taking a more comprehensive approach to managing all sources of revenue, instead of just direct sales. Revenue operations is emerging as an important component that provides the processes, metrics and reporting to ensure alignment across all the teams involved in an organization’s focus on customer retention, expansion and new sales.
QandA
Creating Meaningful Sales and Revenue Forecasts
Why is it important that organizations create meaningful sales and revenue forecasts? Stephen Hurrell sheds light on the importance of giving accurate guidance regarding future revenues, and why spreadsheets will no longer continue to work. Read the Q&A.
QandA
The Need for Sales Performance Management
What is Sales Performance Management (SPM) and why is it important? What are important planning capabilities for SPM applications? Stephen Hurrell sheds light on the need and importance of Sales Performance Management. Read the Q&A.
QandA
Revenue Management for Innovation and Growth
Conversations about Subscription Management are often restricted to the details of billing mechanics. Instead, how should business leaders be thinking about what is needed to conduct business in today’s environment? What are the imperatives that organizations need to focus on to support a unified revenue approach? Read the Q&A.
QandA
The Imperative for Sales Planning
To reach the best possible outcomes, sales leaders must be able to govern and optimize the processes they rely on; meeting this challenge is the essence of sales performance. However, those leading and working in sales must cope with myriad often disconnected processes.
Market Perspective
Uniphore Earns Office of Revenue Digital Innovation Award for 2022
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.
QandA
Why Data-Driven Sales Leadership Matters
Now is the time for any organization that places a priority on improving sales performance to introduce or refresh data-driven optimizations within their sales processes.
QandA
Leadership in Planning for Sales Performance
We hear all the time that we’re existing in an age of information. If that’s the case and we have more data at our fingertips than ever before, why isn’t every sales organization operating at historic levels of efficiency?
QandA
Accounting for Selling Costs Gets Complicated
In this exclusive Q&A, Robert Kugel, SVP & Research Director at Ventana Research, answers questions about why new standards are getting so much attention, what the associated costs to companies will be due to the new standards, why standard ERP systems may not be enough, and more.
Videocast
Implementing Price Management for Success
Approaches to “pricing,” or the discipline of setting prices, vary across industries and across different organizations within the same industry. Many factors determine how companies go about pricing, but with the rise of the digital economy and the exponential growth of relevant data being generated and stored, pricing as a discipline is now possible across a broad range of industries and companies.
VentanaCast
How to Plan for Revenue Success
It’s no secret that sales leaders continue to face challenges in hitting their revenue targets. This is due to many complex factors, but three trends are key.
VentanaCast
Streamline Subscriber Experiences
The subscription and supporting business model has been around for a long time, think newspapers and magazines, but in the current digital age.
VentanaCast
Revenue Management: Opportunity for Innovation and Organization
The concept of Revenue Management represents significant change in how organizations manage the operations and performance of revenue—across EVERY channel.
Webinar
WEBINAR: Selling Your Sales Organization on Some Hard Truths
The webinar is designed to introduce sales organizations to the innovation and best practices in addressing the perennial issue of declining quota attainment among sales organizations.
Webinar
Webinar : Revenue and Margin Improvement
Pricing determines not just revenue, but also margin. And margin is vital to ensuring profitability. So pricing both serves to generate volume, and hence revenue. Given the importance of pricing, it is surprising how few companies use data and purpose-built technology to optimize pricing for volume, margin or the right mixture of both.
Webinar
The Modern Age of Revenue Operations
The need to optimize revenue from all buying and selling channels is essential for every organization that wishes to maximize their potential. To achieve it requires a dedication to have the insights that come from analytics applied to the sales channels that can help guide the sales organization from leaders, to managers and frontline staff, to align to the best opportunity to close deals.
Webinar
Webinar: Sales Stories from the Frontline
Today’s sales organizations are faced with many challenges when it comes to realizing the full potential of assigned territories and account locations. Simultaneously, organizations need to be agile in order to support their sales leadership and operations, to maximize engaging assigned accounts across geographic locations to deliver sales and revenue performance.
Analyst Perspective
B2B Digital Commerce: The Good, Bad and Needed
You would be forgiven for thinking that no one buys anything in person any more given the pages of digital ink spilled over the rise of digital commerce led by the rise and rise of Amazon. However, one quick errand run on a Saturday morning would easily give lie to this, as parking lots are full, not just at grocery stores but for everyday retail as well as big box stores. Likewise, in business-to-business (B2B) commerce, despite the advertised demise, person-to-person sales are still a major part of B2B purchases.
Analyst Perspective
Initiatives using AI Improve Marketing and Sales Effectiveness
I have written about vendor efforts to use artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics in their applications targeted at sales and revenue teams to improve focus and prioritize activities, both for pipeline management as well as individual opportunities. Since then, vendors have continued to innovate, and there have been more releases showcasing efforts to aid sales and revenue. And with this continuing innovation, we believe that by 2026, two-thirds of revenue leaders will begin considering a new generation of revenue analytics and data-driven applications designed to improve performance and productivity.
Viewpoint
Effective Revenue Operations Need Data and Analytics
One of the more significant changes underway in organizations is the shift from a new customer sales focus as the main driver of growth to an equal emphasis on the overall customer experience as a driver of renewal and expansion.
Market Perspective
Conga Automates the Revenue Life Cycle from Quotes to Contracts
Conga’s Revenue Lifecycle Suite standardizes and automates the completion of the sales cycle, allowing organizations to more effectively generate deals.
Analyst Perspective
Revenue Model Mix Optimization for Every Organization
Organizations considering a mixed-revenue model need to address the overall organizational impact, especially to the customer experience.
Research Perspective
Defining Efficient, Equitable Sales Territories in a Dynamic World
Change has been a constant fixture in territory planning. Be it a new competitor in the marketplace or an unexpected event, managers must be able to balance dynamic conditions on the fly as they develop territories for their teams.
Analyst Perspective
Revenue Operations Guides the Modern Revenue Organization
By adopting a revenue operations approach, organizations gain a greater understanding of the entirety of the customer life cycle and team engagement.
Analyst Perspective
Partner Ecosystem Success Relies on Targeted Technology
As more organizations integrate complementary offers from third parties, technology to manage diverse partner ecosystems is evolving.
Market Perspective
BillingPlatform Enables Quote-to-Cash Monetization
BillingPlatform integrates with existing front- and back-office systems to support quote-to-cash processes for organizations with mixed business models.
Market Perspective
Varicent Maximizes Sales Performance for Revenue Potential
Varicent’s sales performance management software assists sales organizations with effectively managing sales teams and revenue outcomes.
Market Perspective
KPMG AG Earns Digital Leadership Award in Office of Revenue with Board
KPMG earned the 2022 Digital Leadership Award in Office of Revenue for using Board to develop a sales and revenue forecasting system.
Analyst Perspective
Enable Sales to Engage and Sell with Technology
Technological enhancements enabled by the internet and cloud vendors have improved the options for sales enablement.
Analyst Perspective
The Revolution in Revenue in 2023: Ventana Research Market Agenda
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.
Analyst Perspective
Why Configure, Price & Quote Should Be Important to Sales
More industries are seeing the value of a structured CPQ process as a key component of overall sales and revenue engagement and execution.
Market Perspective
SugarCRM Provides Integrated CRM for Selling and Marketing
SugarCRM Provides Integrated CRM for Selling and Marketing
Market Perspective
Mediafly Helps Organizations Optimize Revenue Streams
Mediafly’s Revenue360 is designed to help organizations better manage pricing, sales and revenue-generation efforts to optimize revenue streams.
Market Perspective
The Monetization of Subscriptions with Zuora
Zuora expands its reach in subscription management with enhancements to consumption pricing support, integrated CPQ, alongside its Zephr acquisition.
Analyst Perspective
Reclaim the Value in Your CRM System
Organizations that have allowed customer relationship management systems to suffer from neglect must revitalize these platforms to remain competitive.
Market Perspective
Ayara’s Frictionless Guardrails Prevent Revenue Leakage
Ayara’s revenue operations application analyzes transactions for optimal profitability, preventing cash leakage and revenue loss.
eBook
Agile Incentive Compensation Management
Larger organizations with complex sales hierarchies require a dedicated system that can accommodate and support their crediting and compensation needs.
White Paper
Modernizing Lead to Cash for Sustained Profitability
Customers understand that the benefits of products and services sold via the subscription model include predictability and the sharing of risk on a purchase with the vendor.
Market Perspective
PROS Maximizes Pricing for Revenue Impact
The PROS artificial intelligence-powered platform helps organizations make data-driven decisions to optimize pricing and revenue management capabilities.
Analyst Perspective
Conga Propels a Revenue-Focused Revolution
Conga’s revenue life cycle management platform organizes all revenue aspects across an organization to improve processes and uncover new opportunities.
Analyst Perspective
Subscription Management Market Observations for Buyers
Ventana Research offers part one of its market observations from the Subscription Management Value Index 2023 for subscription management software products.
Analyst Perspective
Subscription Management Market Dynamics for Buyers on Contracting and Analytics
Ventana Research offers part two of its market observations from the Subscription Management Value Index 2023 for subscription management software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Subscription Management Value Index Classifies and Rates Vendors
The Subscription Management Value Index 2023 gauges how well offerings from 21 vendors match buyers’ requirements for subscription management software.
Market Perspective
BillingPlatform is Exemplary and Leader in Subscription Management
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from BillingPlatform.
Market Perspective
Oracle is Exemplary in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from Oracle.
Market Perspective
FinancialForce is Exemplary in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from FinancialForce.
Market Perspective
Salesforce is Exemplary in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from Salesforce.
Market Perspective
Gotransverse is Exemplary in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from Gotransverse.
Market Perspective
SAP is Exemplary in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from SAP.
Market Perspective
Conga is Exemplary in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from Conga.
Market Perspective
Zoho is Exemplary in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from Zoho.
Market Perspective
Zuora is Exemplary in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from Zuora.
Market Perspective
Aria Systems is Innovative in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from Aria Systems.
Market Perspective
Chargebee is Innovative Vendor in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from Chargebee.
Market Perspective
Vindicia is Vendor of Merit in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from Vindicia.
Market Perspective
NetSuite is Vendor of Merit in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from NetSuite.
Market Perspective
LogiSense is Vendor of Merit in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from LogiSense.
Market Perspective
CloudSense is Vendor of Merit in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from CloudSense.
Market Perspective
RecVue is Vendor of Merit in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from RecVue.
Market Perspective
Recurly is Vendor of Merit in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from Recurly.
Market Perspective
FastSpring is Vendor of Merit in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from FastSpring.
Market Perspective
OneBill is Vendor of Merit in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from OneBill.
Market Perspective
Ordway is Vendor of Merit in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from Ordway.
Market Perspective
Maxio is Vendor of Merit in Subscription Management Value Index
Ventana Research assesses subscription management software from Maxio.
Analyst Perspective
Why Pricing Should Matter for Everyone
Price management software helps contend with increasingly complex sales forces, such as omnichannel buying, mixed pricing and revenue models, profitability.
Analyst Perspective
Planning Matters to Sales and Revenue Performance Management
Sales and revenue planning develop and build integrated territory, incentive compensation and resource plans that are driven by overall company objectives.
Market Perspective
Conga Earns Office of Revenue Digital Innovation Award for 2023
Conga supports a more integrated and unified quote-to-cash process, earning it the 2023 Ventana Research Office of Revenue Digital Innovation award.
VentanaCast
Agile Workforce Planning
Deals do not sell themselves, people do. And today, many sales leaders are challenged with retaining the people that get these deals closed.
VentanaCast
The Modern, Agile Sales Team
Nothing is more constant than change when it comes to selling. When we talk with sales leaders, they observe that selling today is harder than ever.
Analyst Perspective
PROS Brings Intelligent Pricing Applications to Market
PROS announces cloud-based, AI-driven price determination and CPQ applications at the PROS Outperform 2023 event.
Analyst Perspective
Why Incentive Compensation Is Right for More Than Sales
As more employees qualify for incentive compensation, organizations should evaluate and upgrade comp management systems to ensure fair, accurate payouts.
QandA
Sales Success Does Not Happen by Chance
There is no argument that you must successfully execute to achieve sales and revenue targets. With omnichannel selling and more complex revenue and pricing models, sales and revenue planning leaves this less to chance.
Analyst Perspective
Salesforce Adds Generative AI to Enhance Digital Commerce
With the addition of generative AI, Salesforce’s Data and Commerce Cloud applications deliver tools to enhance buyer engagement and increase sales.
Analyst Perspective
Market Observations from the Revenue Performance Management Buyers Guide
Ventana Research offers market observations from the Revenue Performance Management Buyers Guide 2023 for Office of Revenue software products.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guide for RPM Classifies and Rates Vendors
The RPM Buyers Guide 2023 gauges how well offerings from seven vendors match buyers’ requirements for Office of Revenue software products.
Market Perspective
Oracle is Exemplary in Revenue Performance Management Buyers Guide
Ventana Research assesses revenue performance management software from Oracle.
Analyst Perspective
Varicent is Innovative in Revenue Performance Management Buyers Guide
Ventana Research assesses revenue performance management software from Varicent.
Market Perspective
Anaplan is Exemplary in Revenue Performance Management Buyers Guide
Ventana Research assesses revenue performance management software from Anaplan.
Analyst Perspective
Generative AI Helps Sales in Practical Ways
Generative AI will boost sales productivity by helping to personalize outreach at scale and generate tailored sales enablement to improve win rates.
Market Perspective
Board International is Exemplary in RPM Buyers Guide
Ventana Research assesses revenue performance management software from Board International.
Market Perspective
Xactly is Vendor of Assurance in RPM Buyers Guide
Ventana Research assesses revenue performance management software from Xactly.
Market Perspective
Salesforce is Vendor of Merit in RPM Buyers Guide
Ventana Research assesses revenue performance management software from Salesforce.
Market Perspective
SAP is Vendor of Merit in RPM Buyers Guide
Ventana Research assesses revenue performance management software from SAP.
QandA
Modernize Lead to Cash Without Pausing the Business
Major trends continue to reflect the changing ways that customers want to buy and engage with vendors.
QandA
Enable the Modern Revenue Team by Modernizing Lead to Cash
Major trends continue to reflect the changing ways that customers want to buy and engage with vendors.
Analyst Perspective
Future of CRM has Sales Engagement Potential
CRM systems will continue to add sales engagement functionality and, if innovative, will develop a next-generation sales engagement platform.
Market Perspective
Evisort Incorporates AI for Efficient Contract Life Cycle Management
Evisort uses artificial intelligence with digitized contracts to automate the labor-intensive and time-consuming tasks of analyzing and managing contracts.
White Paper
Fixing Failed Payments
Failed customer payments for recurring subscriptions are often seen as a cost of doing business when using subscription revenue models.
Analyst Perspective
Today’s Go-to-Market Strategies Must Align Sales and Marketing
The changing behavior of buying organizations requires a more unified, continuous go-to-market process that aligns sales and marketing.
Market Perspective
Vendavo Enables Real-Time Price Optimization to Enhance Profitability
Vendavo’s flexible price management and optimization software enables organizations to determine the most effective pricing strategy in real time.
Analyst Perspective
Margin Highlights the Need for Sales and Revenue Planning
Organizations selling subscription and usage-based products need to plan revenue targets across different channels, recognizing the impact on margin.
Analyst Perspective
Align Incentive Compensation and Multi-Channel Sales to Protect Growth
Organizations with omnichannel sales must align incentive compensation and revenue management to ensure successful target achievement.
Analyst Perspective
2024 Market Agenda for Office of Revenue: Bring AI to the Table
The 2024 Office of Revenue Market Agenda offers insights to help enterprises identify and embrace emerging technology for strategy, planning and operations.
Market Perspective
Lumen Earns Office of Revenue Digital Leadership Award with Anaplan
Lumen earned the 2023 Office of Revenue Digital Leadership Award for managing sales performance and streamlining planning with Anaplan.
Analyst Perspective
Sales Engagement or CRM – Which Way to the Sales Freeway?
CRM system providers are maximizing AI to compete with sales engagement systems to deliver comprehensive sales and analytic support.
Analyst Perspective
Akeron Vulki: A Sales Performance Application with a Difference
Akeron’s Vulki sales performance application adopts aggregation, allocation, forecasting and version control to support revenue organizations.
Market Perspective
Salesloft Redefines Sales Engagement with AI
Salesloft’s cohesive, AI-based platform brings automation to the CRM landscape, leading to more efficient, effective and repeatable customer interactions.
Analyst Perspective
From Lead to Cash to Revenue Life Cycle Management
Investing in revenue lifecycle management by automating and digitizing processes helps support a sustained, successful buyer-seller relationship essential to achieving profitability.
Analyst Perspective
What Is So Different About B2B Digital Commerce?
Digital commerce is a growing part of the B2B customer experience and requires a broad view of, and incorporation into, the customer life cycle.
QandA
Revenue Lifecycle Management as a Strategic Initiative
Why are companies investing in Revenue Life Cycle Management (RLM) initiatives now? Learn more from Director of Research, Stephen Hurrell.
VentanaCast
Revenue Life Cycle Management
Much has changed in how business operates over the past decade. Existing trends have accelerated, affecting much of how we conduct business.
Analyst Perspective
The Buyers Guides for Subscription Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
Ventana Research offers market observations and overall results from the Subscription Management Buyers Guides for Office of Revenue software products.
Analyst Perspective
What’s New in Technology for Office of Revenue?
Artificial intelligence fuels revenue generation activities to include new and existing customers, with focus on growth, customer experience, retention.
Analyst Perspective
You Don’t Have to Put Up with a Manual Quote to Contract Process
Digitization and standardization can overcome delays and inefficiencies in CPQ and CLM efforts, strengthening this crucial element of the sales and renewal process.
Market Perspective
Ayara Earns Office of Revenue Digital Innovation Award for 2024
Udemy earned the 2024 Office of Revenue Digital Innovation Award for its innovative use of data to aid in deal validation by introducing guardrails closer to the point of sale.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Customer Relationship Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Customer Relationship Management Buyers Guide for office of revenue software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for CRM Marketing Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the CRM Marketing Buyers Guide for customer relationship management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for CRM Partners Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the CRM Partners Buyers Guide for customer relationship management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for CRM Platform Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the CRM Platform Buyers Guide for customer relationship management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for CRM Sales Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the CRM Sales Buyers Guide for customer relationship management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for CRM Service Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the CRM Service Buyers Guide for customer relationship management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Digital Commerce Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Digital Commerce Buyers Guide for customer relationship management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Sales Engagement Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Sales Engagement Buyers Guide for customer relationship management software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Revenue Performance Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Revenue Performance Management Buyers Guides for Office of Revenue software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Incentive Compensation Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Incentive Compensation Management Buyers Guide for Office of Revenue software products.
Market Perspective
ISG Buyers Guide for Sales Performance Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers
ISG Research offers market observations and overall results from the Sales Performance Management Buyers Guide for Office of Revenue software products.
Analyst Perspective
How Software Can Help Usage Pricing Adoption
Discover how usage pricing models are transforming AI services and the role of software in managing costs and predictability for businesses.
Analyst Perspective
SugarCRM as a Revenue Platform with AI for Sellers
Discover how SugarCRM's new strategy and AI integration aim to enhance sales and customer engagement in the manufacturing and wholesale distribution sectors.
White Paper
Accelerating Digital Transformation and Billing Modernization
Accelerate your digital transformation and billing modernization to enhance flexibility, customer experience, and competitive advantage in an evolving business landscape.