Service businesses must keep finding new ways to add value to existing clients while removing barriers that slow growth. Overcoming the challenges of outdated HR planning and human resource management (HRM), contract management, and CRM systems are table stakes for staying competitive. FinancialForce’s Summer 22 release aims to turn those weaknesses into strengths with one of the most comprehensive releases they’ve had lately. “Organizations continue to be buffeted by market disruptions, from spiraling inflation to new COVID variants and unanticipated supply chain issues,” said Scott Brown, P ..read more

Economic uncertainty sends shock waves throughout businesses, with service organizations seeing its brunt. The recent drastic drop-off in Netflix subscribers is a case in point. Services CFOs say there is an urgent need to track how well their overarching planning strategies linking finance and operations perform. However, getting the data to analyze has been challenging for even the largest services businesses. FinancialForce’s Spring 2022 release takes on these challenges. As a result, CFOs need Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) integrated with operational planning applications t ..read more

Bottom Line: Every business needs to resolve in 2022 to treat cybersecurity as a business decision first because the risk to operations and revenue are too great if they don’t. Any cybersecurity prediction for 2022 will likely be on the low side, given how ingenious ransomware attackers are at mining long-standing common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) and how intricate breach attempts are becoming. Predictions don’t protect businesses, professional guidance does. Intending to provide every business, especially startups, with insights they can use to protect themselves in 2022, I’ve inte ..read more

Bottom Line: Professional services (PS) organizations need to close the gaps in their CPQ selling strategies to win more deals, capture more revenue and protect margins from ongoing price pressure.  Why Services CPQ Is Too Slow Today When PS organizations compete in sales cycles, the first competitor to have a complete quote with accurate pricing, schedules, and an engagement plan will often win. However, getting a complete quote out fast is a major challenge for most PS organizations today. Many PS organizations manually create their quotes by taking into account a broad base of factors ..read more

59% of all large enterprises are deploying data science (DS) and machine learning (ML) today. Nearly 50% of all organizations have up to 25 or more ML models in use today. 29% of enterprises are refreshing their data science and machine learning models every day. The higher the data literacy an enterprise can achieve before launching Data Science & Machine Learning initiatives, the higher the probability of success. These and many other insights defining the state of the data science and machine learning market in 2021 are from Dresner Advisory Services’ 2021 Data Science and ..read more

Forrester forecasts that the size of the AI software market will approach $37 billion by 2025. IDC predicts the worldwide artificial intelligence (AI) market, including software, hardware, and services, will grow from $327.5 B in 2021 to $554.3B in 2024 with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.5%. By 2024, 70% of enterprises will use cloud and cloud-based AI infrastructure to operationalize AI, thereby significantly alleviating concerns about integration and upscaling, according to Gartner’s data and analytics predictions for 2021. By 2025, 50% of enterprises will have ..read more

Salesforce Q1, FY22 revenue was $5.96B, the best quarter in the company’s history.  $1M+ deals hit an all-time high and were up 120% year-over-year.  New $1M+ sales are averaging four or more Clouds, with senior management calling out Service Cloud during the earnings call as gaining strong traction in enterprises. Eight of the top 10 deals included Tableau, and five included MuleSoft. FY22 Revenue guidance raised from $25.9B to $26B, approximately 22% year-over-year growth. Service Cloud Q1, FY22 revenue is $1.5B, growing 20% year-over-year. Tableau sales grew 38% year-over-year ..read more

Apple Headquarters, Apple Park in Cupertino, CA. Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Tesla are considered the five most innovative companies, according to BCG’s analysis of the 50 most innovative companies of 2021.  Abbott Labs, AstraZeneca, Comcast, Mitsubishi, and Moderna join the top 50 most innovative companies for the first time this year. The fastest movers include Toyota, who jumped from 41st to 21st; Salesforce, who jumped from 35th to 22nd; and Coca-Cola, who jumped from 48th to 28th. 90% of companies that outperform on innovation outcomes demonstrate clear C-suite own ..read more

451 Research’s recent survey, Voice of the Enterprise: Cloud, Hosting & Managed Services, Budgets & Outlook 2021, provides new insights into how the pandemic acts as a catalyst driving organizations to pivot toward new digital business models faster than they had anticipated. The survey is based on interviews with over 300 cloud and IT professionals. Key insights from the survey include the following: Public cloud platforms met and exceeded expectations during the pandemic. The study found 85% of the enterprises are getting positive results from their quick shift to public cloud plat ..read more

Worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 23.1% in 2021 to total $332.3 billion, up from $270 billion in 2020. Garter predicts worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services will jump from $242.6B in 2019 to $692.1B in 2025, attaining a 16.1% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR). Spending on SaaS cloud services is predicted to reach $122.6B this year, growing to $145.3B next year, attaining 19.3% growth between 2021 and 2022.  These and many other insights are from Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud End-User Spending to Grow 23% in 2021.  T ..read more