Adobe Move To Microsoft Azure Signals Closer Partnerships Ahead On September 26th, 2016 at the Microsoft Ignite conference in Atlanta, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, and Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, announced a strategic partnership between the two companies.  Constellation sees the announcement from three points of view: Adobe makes Microsoft Azure the preferred cloud platform.  Adobe […]

Successful AI Projects Seek A Spectrum Of Outcomes As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to move from the summer of hype to the fall tech conference news cycle, mass confusion has begun on what AI can be used for.  From fears of SKYNET, to hopes for the computer in StarTrek and Jarvis in Iron Man, the value […]

The Rush To Artificial Intelligence Will Enable Augmented Humanity While market leaders and fast followers have not yet achieved mass personalization, the next rush is focused on investments in artificial intelligence (see Figure 1).  Searching for a competitive advantage and fearful of disruption, board rooms and CXO’s have rushed to artificial intelligence as the next […]

Why Customers Will Benefit From Samsung’s Investment in Enterprise-Grade Mobile Solutions In Constellation’s surveys, mobile enablement continues to be the top priority for CXOs.  Unfortunately, concerns about enterprise-grade capabilities continue to hamper mobile adoption. Enterprise-class security, field-ready ruggedness, battery life, alternative user interfaces, payments and mobile wallets, dedicated enterprise sales and support, and industry-vertical focus […]

Understand The Seven Barriers To Successful Enterprise Mobility Constellation’s annual survey of disruptive technologies among leading CXOs consistently places mobile enablement as a top three priority. In the 2016 survey, more than 58 percent of respondents revalidated that mobile enablement was their number one priority. Unfortunately, most CXOs and their organizations often find mobile solutions […]

Use The PESTEL Futurist Framework To Drive Strategic Board Level Planning Assumptions Constellation updates its futurist framework on a biennial basis.  Using a PESTEL model, political, economic, societal, technological, environmental, and legislative factors drive the overall planning assumptions.  These planning assumptions power strategic planning sessions for board rooms and executive teams.  The final PESTEL model […]

Key Supply Chain Planning Functionality Bolsters Manufacturing Cloud Offering On August 9, 2016, Manufacturing Cloud pioneer Plex, announced the acquisition of DemandCaster, a cloud based sales forecasting and inventory planning software provider based outside of Chicago, Illinois.  Founder Ara Surenian built DemandCaster from his operational consulting experiences in demand planning, supply planning, and sales and […]

Software Vendors and Services Providers Shift Value from Products and Services to Outcomes The convergence of software vendors and services providers foreshadows the challenges organizations face in the selection of digital transformation solutions.  The lack of pre-packaged, out-of-the-box solutions forces executives to focus not only on how the solutions are  designed but also on the […]

Oracle Brings Netsuite Back Into The Fold Oracle’s 9.3B acquisition of Netsuite came as no surprise to valley insiders.  The rumors have surfaced for weeks.  The surprise came as how badly Oracle sought cloud revenue and wanted to bring a friendly partner back into the family.  Constellation sees the following for the buy side: Battle […]

Digital Transformation Requires Five Critical Success Factors Over the past 24 months, Constellation’s clients have experienced closer collaboration between clients and their software vendors and service providers to craft solutions that may not have existed in the past.  This level of collaboration reflects the need for not only strategic differentiation, but also the desire to […]

UK Referendum Highlights Displeasure With Political Elites With almost 52% voting to leave, the surprise results of the June 23rd, 2016 referendum highlighted the 40 year shift from euro-centric to euro-skeptic among the average UK citizen (see Figure 1).  While many will attempt to blame the outcome on an ignorant non-urban voter, the results showed […]

Constellation’s Series on Innovation in Cloud Financial Management Applications  This report reviews the latest offering in financial management applications in the cloud and related Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) trends. Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and finance leaders seeking advice about the cloud can take advantage of Constellation’s ERP user survey and cloud adoption trends to understand […]

Salesforce Announces Intent To Acquire Demandware For $2.8B On June 1st, 2016, Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Burlington, Massachusetts based Demandware for $75.00 per share or around $2.8 billion in cash.  Constellation predicts a $10.01B market for matrix commerce solutions by 2020 as new digital platforms and network economies emerge.  Constellation’s  merger analysis […]

From Big Data to small data, the digital world measures and values every interaction. Digital technology enables every touch point, click, conversation, picture, and byte of digital exhaust to be used to improve decision-making. In fact, data provides the foundation for success in a real-time digital business. This is why organizations must carefully design a […]

Using the Internet of Things to Boost Revenue and Deliver a Brand’s Personalized Promise The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to revolutionize the way business is run and to create differentiated customer experiences. IoT allows for the processing of massive numbers of device events and for commingling those events with business and customer events. This […]