Market Perspectives

Large corporations were the first to benefit from computers, but the cloud and availability of affordable, easy-to-use software has levelled the playing field for small and midsize organizations (SMBs). Software can significantly enhance organizational effectiveness by streamlining interactions with customers and employees, supporting collaboration within departments and across the enterprise,...

The 15th annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. These leaders and...

The customer expectation for simple communication accessible via any device is not a new concept that emerged from the pandemic but a precept that, in addition to a positive customer experience, ensures business continuity and resilience across the workforce. Customer experiences are impacted by the quality of communication between workers, and organizations should reevaluate current systems to...

Whether changing companies or career paths, working professionals are switching jobs more than ever before. Uncertainty, lack of opportunity and volatility play a role in this churn. Today’s workers often feel more like replaceable cogs in a machine than team members with career advancement potential. Job security also suffers in the face of market swings and volatile black swan events. Employee...

Organizations are reevaluating digital communication platforms to meet the demands of a more resilient hybrid and mobile workforce. Outdated and disjointed communication software can cause delays in projects, impacting use of resources, costs, profitability and customer satisfaction. All organizations should adopt software that meets the digital standards of today’s workforce.

Data-driven product information management ensures that supply chain data is consistent, standardized and accessible across the organization. Many businesses, however, lack consistency and unification when managing data, with the greatest barrier being the ability to achieve a single version of the truth, according to our Data Governance Benchmark Research.

While there are a large variety of tools that play a role in helping organizations manage customer experiences (CX), there is a consensus emerging that applications controlling customer data should take center stage. Many organizations face the challenge of consolidating fragmented data that comes from siloed sources into a coherent view of the entire customer life cycle. To address this...

The potential of the workforce relies on the ability of team members to efficiently communicate and share information with one another and external customers, partners and suppliers. Disjointed communication leads to halts in projects and overall growth potential. A digital platform tailored to an organization’s needs will allow workers to effectively complete tasks and provide the resilience...

Historically, a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy has obscured pay gaps and hindered the transparency of workplace wages. In today’s tight labor market, workers have choices in where they work, and are demanding equal pay for equal work. The goal of pay equity is to create workplaces that inspire loyalty, enthusiasm and trust by establishing an environment of transparency and equitable opportunity,...

Technology for managing contact centers is transforming quickly due to innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). It is also splintering into multiple market segments that overlap: Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), conversational AI (which is a modern form of self-service), cross-functional analytics, and integrations with tools for sales and marketing users. For...

Organizations are looking for ways to enhance their tools for both internal and external communications. Several unified communications (UC) companies are now producing platforms that combine UC with contact center functionality, with varying degrees of underlying integration. Building up those contact center components is a way for some firms to differentiate their offerings, with some vendors...

The practical advancement of artificial intelligence is being realized by embedding it into applications across human capital management processes. Using AI to generate personalization enables workflows for managers to make quicker and better decisions, ranging from talent acquisition to engaging candidates to become more effective workers. The challenge for organizations is to find applications...

While total compensation is not an area that can be handled by a one-size-fits-all solution, many companies lack dedicated compensation software. According to Ventana Research, many HR departments are not equipped to manage sophisticated programs that extend beyond the annual review process. Even among HR departments that do acknowledge the importance of total compensation management (TCM), many...

Contact centers are investing in a wealth of new ideas for better assisting their agents. These include engagement tools, better knowledge management and a more robust hiring pipeline and retention strategies. Also, a rising theme from many contact center users and providers is the availability of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies. Ventana Research asserts that by 2026,...

Data is moving to the cloud. And as cloud applications are adopted, it means that many critical sources of data for analytics now, or soon will, live in the cloud. In fact, nearly nine in 10 participants in our research (89%) reported that they plan to use cloud-based analytics deployments, and the overwhelming majority of organizations (86%) expect that most of their data will eventually be in...

The current sales cycle software space is one of complexity. Business-to-business sales across all industries are becoming more complex and require more care in their management. The rise of the subscription economy is one example contributing to this complexity. Buyers are not just buying one product at a time, but rather could be buying multiple products over different periods of time, with...

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 popularity, require workers that are better informed and capable of handling more complex and interdependent interactions and processes....

Ensuring continuous collaboration and digital communication across an organization advances its ability to engage workers and maintain workforce resilience and readiness. Achieving this goal requires a platform that enables business operations to continue under any circumstance.

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. Some vendors try to include everything under the sun in their offerings to appeal to the widest possible market. Others, like...

The hybrid work model is being adopted as the standard for organizations after the pandemic unveiled the weak foundation of conventional business operations. More workers are now performing tasks both in the office and remotely. This, however, can lead to disorganized communication between peers. Workers feel secluded from each other. Additionally, existing methods and tools for collaboration and...