At Oracle’s recent cloud computing analyst summit in sunny Palm Springs, the company’s executive team insisted that it sees clear skies for its efforts in cloud computing. The summit was led by senior executive Thomas Kurian, who runs the entire product organization and reports directly to CEO Larry Ellison. He affirmed that Oracle intends to offer the full range of cloud computing – public, private and hybrid models – to its customers and partners. As one of the world’s largest software...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Database,
Microsoft,
SaaS,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Software as a Service,
Supply Chain Performance,
Middleware,
Oracle Cloud,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Oracle,
Workforce Performance,
Database as a Service,
Verizon
Convergence is the Microsoft Dynamics business software user group’s meeting. Dynamics’ core applications are mainly in the accounting and ERP category, descendants of products Microsoft acquired: Great Plains (now GP), Solomon (SL), Navision (NAV) and Damgaard’s Axapta (AX), to which Microsoft has added its own CRM application. It has been more than a decade since the acquisitions of Great Plains (which itself had already purchased Solomon Software), and Navision, Damgaard and the software...
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Topics:
Microsoft,
SaaS,
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Salesforce.com,
ERP,
HCM,
Human Capital,
Office of Finance,
Consulting,
distribution,
Dynamics AX,
Dynamics GP,
Dynamics NAV Dynamics SL,
PSA,
Sage Software,
Unit4,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
CFO,
FinancialForce,
HR,
Infor,
Workday,
Plex,
Professional Services Automation
At its recent Connect 2014 event IBM announced IBM Kenexa Talent Suite, an integrated talent management suite. The release strengthens its Smarter Workforce initiative by combining IBM and Kenexa products and services in one human capital management (HCM) offering. IBM Kenexa Talent Suite also addresses increasing efforts by human resources organizations to optimize their activities through more effective use of technology, a topic covered in our 2014 HCM research agenda. Specifically, the...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Mobile,
SAP,
Social Media,
HCM,
Kenexa,
Recruiting,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Cloud Computing,
Collaboration,
IBM,
Oracle,
Workforce Performance,
Cognitive Computing,
HR,
IBM Watson,
Social
Many businesses are close to being overwhelmed by the unceasing growth of data they must process and analyze to find insights that can improve their operations and results. To manage this big data they find a rapidly expanding portfolio of technology products. A significant vendor in this market is SAS Institute. I recently attended the company’s annual analyst summit, Inside Intelligence 2014 (Twitter Hashtag #SASSB). SAS reported more than $3 billion in software revenue for 2013 and is known...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Predictive Analytics,
SAS,
Event Stream,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Customer & Contact Center,
Data Management,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Discovery
I recently completed two closely related benchmark research reports, on next-generation customer engagement and next-generation customer analytics. The research on customer engagement shows that companies on average engage with customers through seven or eight communication channels and that almost every business unit except IT engages with customers. To provide customers with personalized, in-context and consistent experiences across these channels, companies need an up-to-date, complete view...
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Topics:
Customer Analytics,
Customer Experience,
Speech Analytics,
Voice of the Customer,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Management,
Call Center,
Contact Center,
Contact Center Analytics,
Desktop Analytics,
Text Analytics
Adding geographic and location context to business information enables organizations to develop fuller understanding and optimize the activities of people that use the information. We call this location intelligence, and to achieve it requires location analytics, which focus on that context where the processing and presentation of geography and spatial aspects of data are utilized. Analysis of geographic information can provide business insights that help organizations make better business...
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Topics:
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Customer Analytics,
GIS,
Location Analytics,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance
Salesforce.com began with a simple message: On-premises CRM has come to the end of its useful life, and the way forward is cloud-based CRM. I have written several times that the company has won this argument, and my research into contact center in the cloud confirms this: 63 percent of participating organizations said that adopting systems in the cloud is one of the key ways to improve customer engagement. Furthermore, this vendor’s success pressurized many other companies to move into the...
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Topics:
Social Media,
Customer Analytics,
Customer Experience,
Social CRM,
Mobile Apps,
Self-service,
Business Collaboration,
Cloud Computing,
Collaboration,
Customer & Contact Center,
Customer Service,
Call Center,
Contact Center,
Contact Center Analytics,
CRM
When it comes to making a business case for software investments, many people fail to recognize that the case itself is just one part of what amounts to an internal sales and marketing effort that they must perform well to be successful. Focusing only on the numbers and assumptions in a spreadsheet is not enough. Making a successful business case requires an understanding of the audience’s perspective and motivations. Since the individuals who will review the business case may not be...
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Topics:
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
ERP,
Office of Finance,
Research,
budgeting and planning,
ROI,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
CRM,
business plan,
capital spending,
Financial Performance Management,
FPM,
SCM,
Software
In today’s highly competitive sales environment, where success depends on meeting the specific needs of buyers, an accurate and timely sales forecast is a critical tool for optimizing business outcomes. I discussed this as part of our 2014 research agenda for sales, noting that linking the forecast to commissions, quotas and territories is a requirement for success. We recently completed new benchmark research on sales forecasting to ascertain the state of the processes and technology sales...
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Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Sales Forecasting,
Sales Operations,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
SFA
The market for human capital analytics is in flux, as companies begin to evaluate and adopt more capable tools and processes for this area of human capital management. A look at the tools organizations are using and plan to use for human capital analytics provides an example of this change. Our recently published benchmark research on human capital analytics shows that nearly nine in 10 (87%) organizations are still using spreadsheets for human capital analytics while fewer than two in five...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Mobile,
Predictive Analytics,
Social Media,
HCM,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Collaboration,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance