Copyright TechTarget - All rights reserved https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html Techtarget Feed Generator en Tue, 13 Oct 2026 07:14:15 GMT https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software editor@techtarget.com <p>After last year's Omnissa One event, I wrote that Omnissa had <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/opinion/Omnissa-found-its-voice-in-the-post-VMware-era">found its voice in the post-VMware era</a>. This followed announcements that highlighted things like autonomous workspace management, App Volumes for physical devices and the decoupling of Workspace One from built-in mobile device management APIs -- all of which made executing on its endpoint management, digital employee experience (DEX) and even VM management vision difficult.</p> <p>After what I thought was a successful show last year, my focus shifted to how Omnissa would deliver on this vision in 2026, and what it would build on from there. What I found is a unique combination of existing tech and brand new investments that have Omnissa positioned pretty well heading into the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/4-end-user-computing-trends-to-watch-in-2026">agentic end-user era</a>.</p> <p>Amid a lot of announcements that included incremental changes and new products -- not to mention a new CEO -- here's what stuck out to me from the event.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Omnissa MCP Server"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Omnissa MCP Server</h2> <p>Omnissa now offers a hosted <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/ai/tip/How-the-Model-Context-Protocol-simplifies-AI-development">Model Context Protocol</a> (MCP) server that lets administrators use the agentic tool of their choice to work with services across the Omnissa platform, with access limited to whatever that admin's existing role and permissions already allow.</p> <p>I'm seeing this a lot lately. What I like about this is that Omnissa's MCP server is scoped to all of Omnissa's products, so Workspace One, Horizon, DEX, Intelligence and more are all available. This can provide a lot of value as organizations <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/answer/Is-it-time-to-adopt-autonomous-endpoint-management-software">incorporate AI into endpoint management</a> and security, UX, compliance and even endpoint purchasing. It also helps with the general desire to consolidate data sources and align all IT and security teams around the same information.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Elara"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Elara</h2> <p>On the compliance note, Elara is a new product that sits above Workspace One, Horizon and third-party systems such as Microsoft Intune and ServiceNow, correlating signals across people, identities, devices, apps and AI tools so IT can decide whether an AI-driven action or change should happen before it happens. The beta, for which the waitlist is open now, includes shadow AI discovery; an <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/it-infrastructure/news/366594015/AI-gateways-emerge-in-response-to-governance-concerns">AI gateway</a> that controls model access and meters token use across providers; change control that checks actions for conflicts and routes them to approvers; and an audit trail of every decision.</p> <p>This is the Holy Grail these days, and dozens of vendors have something like this in the works. What makes Elara stand out from the pack -- and believe me, they all have their unique advantages -- is that Omnissa is already a leader in endpoint management, workspace automation and intelligence, and desktop virtualization, so it can offer these features as part of an integrated, robust, digital workspace platform. The fact that it works without Workspace One is interesting, but then it's one of many tools that sound similar.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Horizon Delegate"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Horizon Delegate</h2> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/opinion/How-AI-and-the-browser-will-change-end-user-IT-in-2026">End-user agentic AI is a challenge</a> to deal with for many reasons. For example, agents run in the end-user context, so they have access to the same network, apps and files that human users have. Users are incapable of building, maintaining and securing their own agentic environments, and nor should they be. But the technology to natively give them the proper tools, UX and guardrails is in its infancy.</p> <p>But there is a place where all of those problems have been solved and where identity governs access to apps, network, files and more: Windows. This makes VDI and desktop as a service (DaaS) well suited to host agentic users. Microsoft recognized this when it made Windows 365 for Agents, and Horizon Delegate takes that concept to the next level.</p> <p>Horizon Delegate gives each user a persistent agent that runs inside their Horizon session and does work on their behalf with their existing identity and permissions, even after they disconnect. A user on their phone could, for example, ask it to build a presentation from a Confluence page and let it work on the desktop in the background. Omnissa positions it as the supervised middle ground between a human-driven workspace and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/ai/news/366617713/Autonomous-AI-agents-on-the-rise">fully autonomous agents</a>, and the requests travel over the same Horizon channel organizations already trust instead of exposing the desktop to a new cloud service. It's expected in limited availability with Horizon 2609.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="DEX"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>DEX</h2> <p>Digital employee experience has been a focus for Omnissa for many years, and this year saw the addition of a beta of the DEX Agent. This agent provides root cause analysis of issues based on data gathered from Omnissa Intelligence -- formerly Workspace One Intelligence -- using playbooks that are either existing or automatically generated by looking at past Workspace One Assist session summaries. The investigation runs on its own, but nothing runs on a device until an admin approves the recommended playbook, which then executes through Freestyle Orchestrator. Admins decide how much the agent is allowed to handle, and it works across Windows, Mac, virtual desktops and mobile.</p> <p>There are some additional features that help to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/it-infrastructure/feature/How-digital-employee-experience-strategy-drives-productivity">quantify the value of DEX</a>, which has historically been hard to do: You either had to believe in DEX or not. I saw dashboards that show real-time experience-level agreement and ROI depictions. Plus, device refresh decisions can now be based on device performance, using experience scores that are considered alongside device age, warranty status, etc. This intelligent device refresh is increasingly top of mind for organizations as they try to deal with increasing and fluctuating hardware prices.</p> <p>The MCP server also opens DEX to outside agents, so tools such as ServiceNow, Moveworks and Salesforce Agentforce can pull device data and root cause analysis directly.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Cloud PC"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Cloud PC</h2> <p>Finally, there was Cloud PC, which is an Omnissa-operated DaaS platform that delivers Horizon desktops with Workspace One management, security and DEX in one fixed-price service. In fact, all management is done via Workspace One. There are other <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/Compare-7-desktop-as-a-service-providers">Windows DaaS platforms</a> out there like Omnissa Cloud PC -- including Microsoft's own Windows 365, which calls its virtual desktops Cloud PCs -- but having something that includes the lion's share of the Omnissa platform in one fixed price sets it apart.</p> <p>Though nothing like this was announced, it's easy to see how Horizon Delegate and Cloud PC could integrate with one another and how Delegate could be extended beyond Horizon to work with other agentic workflows down the road.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Omnissa's new CEO appointment"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Omnissa's new CEO appointment</h2> <p>I couldn't wrap up Omnissa One without mentioning the departure of former CEO Shankar Iyer and the appointment of Amit Singh. While this certainly stole some of the news, the reality is that one to two days isn't enough time to formulate an evaluation of the change. My initial thought is that, despite being <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/opinion/First-thoughts-on-VMware-EUC-sale-to-private-equity-firm-KKR">owned by private equity firm KKR</a>, Omnissa has been spared the typical private equity playbook of consolidation and operating cost reduction. Will that calm continue, or will we see big changes?</p> <p>As with any CEO switch, some changes are certainly coming, and there might be some opportunities for consolidation once the dust settles. It's hard to tell after just a few days and a brief keynote appearance, but I'll pay close attention as things progress. Whatever happens, Singh is inheriting a lot of opportunity.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Looking ahead"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Looking ahead</h2> <p>The next few months will be interesting to watch as the various betas give way to generally available products, we learn more about how Elara will be priced and packaged, and we see what kind of changes come as a result of the new CEO.</p> <p>The key takeaway for me is that Omnissa is well positioned to take a chance on something like Elara, and I think the timing is right. Customers are increasingly aware of the visibility, governance, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/cybersecurity/tip/Shadow-AI-poses-new-generation-of-threats-to-enterprise-IT">shadow AI</a> and identity challenges that come along with end-user AI, and Omnissa is in a position to help without customers having to layer on more disjointed tools. They face stiff competition and a lot of innovation, though, so there's a lot to get right in a short period of time.</p> <p><i>Gabe Knuth is the senior end-user computing analyst for Omdia.</i></p> <p><i>Omdia is a division of Informa TechTarget. Its analysts have business relationships with technology vendors.</i></p> </section> Highlights from Omnissa's annual event included a hosted MCP server, an AI governance tool, a virtual desktop agent, the Cloud PC DaaS platform -- plus a new CEO appointment. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/ai_a264431831.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/opinion/Omnissa-One-2026-What-stood-out-for-the-agentic-end-user-era Thu, 01 Oct 2026 18:10:00 GMT <p>Some companies are implementing AI in their finance department, with AI agents taking care of tasks such as account reconciliation, invoice processing, forecasting and closing the books.</p> <p>However, CFOs must be mindful of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/ai/tip/The-best-AI-governance-tools-and-platforms-in-2026">the importance of governance</a> with accounting AI agents. Deployment of these new technologies can introduce risks related to accuracy, compliance and accountability. CFOs whose departments are using AI must also ensure financial integrity is maintained.</p> <p>Here’s what CFOs should keep in mind as they implement AI agents in accounting.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. Accounting teams must document how they use AI"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. Accounting teams must document how they use AI</h2> <p>AI governance begins with the compilation of a complete and accurate inventory of tools that are being used, their purpose <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/cybersecurity/tip/What-CISOs-need-to-know-about-AI-governance-frameworks">and the guardrails</a> that ensure their secure and accurate use. CFOs should work with their department to create a comprehensive list of approved AI tools and related processes, with clear policies regarding permitted workflows and approval thresholds.</p> <p>Clear documentation supports a culture of accountability and simplifies audits, so AI governance policies should include a delineation of data inputs and outputs built around a data glossary. Failing to do so could lead to “black box” decisions that lack transparency and potential compliance failures. CFOs should also work with IT to ensure that AI accounting tools adhere to the organization’s security and data privacy policies.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. Not all accounting processes are suitable for full AI autonomy"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. Not all accounting processes are suitable for full AI autonomy</h2> <p>Agentic AI moves companies further toward fully automated systems. However, human oversight remains important, and in some cases, it’s absolutely critical.</p> <p>AI agents could be a good fit for routine tasks such as account reconciliation and A/P automation, with humans taking over for exceptions. However, high-stakes processes such as strategic purchases, tax estimates and cash allocation should require mandatory human review and approval.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. Auditability and explainability are paramount"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. Auditability and explainability are paramount</h2> <p>It must be clear how AI accounting agents arrived at their decisions, and an audit trail must be preserved. CFOs should require timestamped logs of agent decisions, data lineage and reasoning, and those logs should be integrated with existing financial systems if possible.</p> <p>AI traceability supports compliance with SOX and other regulations and is essential for establishing and maintaining stakeholder confidence.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. Ownership, roles and accountability must all be defined"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4. Ownership, roles and accountability must all be defined</h2> <p>CFOs should ensure that AI use in accounting advances the organization’s strategic goals and that any potential financial and reputational risks have been addressed.</p> <p>The CFO should assign an AI governance lead within the finance department, and that person should work with legal and compliance leads to ensure that <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/ai/tip/8-agentic-AI-governance-strategies-A-complete-guide">accounting AI governance</a> is aligned with the organization’s broader risk management framework.</p> <p>Cross-functional AI committees and AI training programs will also help further these goals.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="5. Impact and risk should be measured"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>5. Impact and risk should be measured</h2> <p>Technology initiatives should be justified by ROI and must be monitored to ensure they offer benefits relative to their cost and risk. CFOs should define clear KPIs for accounting AI programs and consider tracking metrics like improved productivity, error or incident rates and compliance concerns. Conduct periodic model audits and bias checks.</p> <p>AI can contribute to transformation in the finance department, but AI governance requires continuous vigilance. CFOs should follow some key strategies to <a href="https://www.ey.com/en_us/insights/ai/how-to-maximize-your-ai-investments">optimize ROI</a>, minimize risk and demonstrate responsible stewardship to stakeholders.</p> <p><i>James Kofalt spent 16 years at SAP working with SME business applications and was a product manager for integration technology at Microsoft's Business Solutions division. He is currently the president of DX4 Research, a technology advisory practice specializing in ERP and digital transformation.</i></p> </section> Accounting AI agent governance begins with the compilation of a complete and accurate inventory of tools that are being used. Learn more about governance and what CFOs can do. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/money_g972609480.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/What-CFOs-need-to-know-about-AI-agent-governance-in-accounting Fri, 25 Sep 2026 13:40:00 GMT <p>Britt East and Ty Jones say they are opposites in so many ways, but they complement each other as the "dynamic duo" that is marshalling an <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/definition/What-is-SAP-S-4HANA-Cloud">SAP S/4HANA Cloud</a> ERP deployment through their workplace, John Boos &amp; Co.</p> <p>Officially, their respective roles at the company were baked in from the start, the division of labor clear, which also meant they weren't in competition. As CIO, East has a traditional IT background and responsibilities. Jones, the vice president of business development, oversees product management, process transformation and related data requirements.</p> <p>Their creative spark and leadership drive seem to spring from how their differences balance and spur each other on. The two are "polar opposites in every facet of life," East said, but they've chosen to take advantage of their differences instead of being annoyed with each other.</p> <p>Jones said he is visually oriented, for example, while East is very much a words guy. "Every gap that he has, I fill," he said. "Every gap that I have, he fills."</p> <p>Their different personalities also help them strike a balance between business and IT requirements.</p> <p>"Most CIOs, like most CFOs, are pessimistic, dour curmudgeons, and I definitely fit that description," East said. "Ty is basically a golden retriever. All of his brain cells are happy."</p> <p>But he's quick to point out that both sides are necessary.</p> <p>"We have a healthy tension," East continued. "Ty is a visionary and a bold leader with a tremendous amount of category experience and a strong vision for all that we could and should be, and I'm a check on that. Part of my role is to make it real and obtainable, to ensure that it's feasible, viable and advisable -- to pour cold water on it when I need to or accelerate it when I need to."</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Rapid change amid a long history"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Rapid change amid a long history</h2> <p>The 139-year-old <a target="_blank" href="https://www.johnboos.com/about" rel="noopener">company</a>, based in Effingham, a small city in south-central Illinois, makes butcher blocks, countertops and other workspaces and equipment for commercial and consumer kitchens. It has around 500 employees in several plants across the U.S.</p> <p>Jones arrived first, in May 2023, having been hired by the company's longtime president, who retired a few months later. The CEO hired shortly after, Damon Childers, had a similar vision and personality to Jones and the same belief in <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/it-strategy/definition/servant-leadership">servant leadership</a>, Jones said<em>. </em>"That's the type of leadership team that we wanted to build. Instead of top down, we wanted to move it to bottom up." Several strategic hires in marketing and sales helped to build the new culture and "quash the culture of the past," he said.</p> <p>Jones hired East a few months later, first as a consultant to help with mapping business processes. Jones had come to realize that no one at John Boos knew the business from end to end because they were so busy with their jobs and hadn't received much help with process governance and control.&nbsp;</p> <p>East and Jones say their close working relationship has given the John Boos board the confidence to make a major, multi-year investment in <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/it-strategy/definition/What-is-digital-transformation-Everything-you-need-to-know">digital transformation</a>. They also see their relationship as a model for others in the company to follow.</p> <div class="imagecaption alignRight"> <img src="https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/east_britt.jpg" alt="Britt East, CIO, John Boos &amp; Co.">Britt East </div> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Stumbling on inspiration"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Stumbling on inspiration</h2> <p>They didn't set out to be role models for a radically different way of working, East said. Instead, they stumbled on it in the early days after noticing how much fun their banter was "ripping each other to shreds" in text messages at meetings. "We were getting so much done and never felt more alive in our corporate work before," he said.</p> <p>Then they started connecting the dots. "We reverse engineered it and built a template that we could apply to the staff," East said. "We're using our relationship to transform the culture of the business, to tightly couple business process with information technology."</p> <p>They believe the transformation will happen one friend at a time, East said. "In the same way that Ty and I have become close as friends and business partners, we are replicating that dynamic at every facet of the organization."</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Building trust"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Building trust</h2> <p>When they arrived, the culture at John Boos was one of East Germany-like authoritarian fear and suspicion.</p> <p>"Our people were told, verbatim, 'Figure it out, or we'll find someone who will. Stay at your desk, do your job, don't ask questions. I don't want to hear about your problems,'" Jones said.</p> <p>In contrast, the servant leadership philosophy replaces the traditional drive for power and control with a commitment to put the needs of others first and foster their autonomy and growth. The new, more egalitarian culture requires people to be willing to be vulnerable, communicative and transparent, and to hold each other accountable.</p> <p>Since so much of their relationship is based on complementary traits and personal chemistry, how can a seemingly unique phenomenon ever be replicated?</p> <p>They said it mostly comes down to modeling the desired behavior, which includes demonstrating vulnerability, showing affection and being willing to dish out and receive good-natured ribbing.</p> <p><em>"</em>We're a banter culture, where the banter and the vibe are so important to the success of the work that we do," Jones said. "We push forward with a lot of vulnerability."</p> <p>He said employees find the two men approachable and willing to talk about difficult topics and listen to them offload after a hard day. It's important for them to know they have a loyal and supportive "ride or die" friend in the office that they can depend on, he said.</p> <p>Modeling the desired behavior isn't the only approach. East said it's also important to teach the philosophy and demonstrate it with sincerity. "Nobody's going to come into some Midwestern manufacturer of 140 years and trick anybody, believe me," he said.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Using IT to operationalize strategy"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Using IT to operationalize strategy</h2> <p>East said Jones's important role in senior leadership makes it natural to follow the standard advice about how business and IT should relate to each other: technology decisions should be justified by business reasons and not the other way around.</p> <p>That means East usually follows Jones's lead, which he considers no disrespect to IT's role. "He's involved in virtually every strategic decision well before it sees the light of day, and so he's uniquely positioned to bring me along to ensure that alignment -- that things can be fully operationalized and considered from every angle," East said.</p> <p>"Once we deem something worth investigation, then we bring in subject matter experts from around the organization to flush out an opportunity assessment. Ty has recently hired a business process manager and a data manager, so we're building these enduring business capabilities to help operationalize the really great ideas that Ty and others have around the organization to fully vet them, determine prioritization, surface unintended consequences, etc. But it starts with banter and fighting and fist pounding on the desks."</p> <p>Jones said he typically looks for efficiency opportunities that help employees do their jobs better, which tends to make them happier and treat customers well. "Our customers are going to want to call us more. If they're calling us more, then we will win more jobs," he said.</p> <p>Those opportunities are so plentiful that the company risks becoming paralyzed. Sequencing them becomes the challenge. "How do we lay this all into a plan so that everything arrives at this state of nirvana at some point in the future?" Jones said.</p> <div class="imagecaption alignRight"> <img src="https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/jones_ty.jpg" alt="Ty Jones, Vice President of Business Development, John Boos &amp; Co.">Ty Jones </div> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="S/4HANA spurs standardization"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>S/4HANA spurs standardization</h2> <p>The new ERP will not just be about efficiency. Jones said it will also enable new opportunities, such as acquiring fabricators of custom, stainless-steel products to diversify beyond John Boos's traditional high-volume, inline manufacturing. That means modifying the current standard-to-order products for a configure-to-order model.</p> <p><em>"</em>The problem is it does not flow naturally through our operating procedures," Jones said. "We could decide to go stand up our own custom shop, but we wouldn't have the skill set to operate it and understand how it's supposed to operate. So we've been out looking for custom shops around the country that we can actually buy and make a part of our portfolio."</p> <p>John Boos chose S/4HANA out of around a dozen candidates knowing such corporate acquisitions are in its future, according to Jones.</p> <p>"We had to make sure that it was going to be the right fit for some of those businesses because they're also really small. They're going to be on QuickBooks and probably don't have an ERP that's actually running their operations," he said. They decided S/4HANA offered the most flexibility in adding just the modules needed to integrate an acquired business -- say, for financials.</p> <p>Much of the work for the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/SAP-S-4HANA-migration-A-definitive-guide">S/4HANA implementation</a> has been in organizing business processes and fostering specialization -- new concepts in a company where everyone is used to doing everything. East said the process requires repeated, one-on-one communication with employees to understand what they do and the touch points with the SAP system.&nbsp;</p> <p>The company is using <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/news/366625253/Grow-with-SAP-fuels-Phoenix-Globals-digital-transition">Grow with SAP</a>, the ERP vendor's service to help SMBs implement the multitenant SaaS version of S/4HANA Cloud. It is close to completing the Explore phase, which matches the company's business processes with the standard processes and best practices in S/4HANA. But data issues, along with the difficulty of mapping employees' knowledge to the system, not to mention uncovering new opportunities, have put the project a few months behind schedule and the planned April 5, 2027 go-live in doubt.</p> <p>"Our data is garbage," Jones said. "Data hygiene was never part of the culture of this business." In addition, 120-plus custom programs that were developed to make the company's Aptean on-premises ERP workable will be "blown up," according to Jones.</p> <p>"It's far more laborious for us to dissect them, analyze them, understand what they're actually doing, and then try and migrate those into an SAP environment, which is frankly impossible because of the public-cloud platform that we decided to purchase. We did that on purpose to limit the customizability of the system. We want to be standard wherever possible, and that is a paradigmatic 180-degree shift from the way we operate today."</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Making idealism practical"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Making idealism practical</h2> <p>As the transformation at John Boos continues, multi-year relationships have been secured with several partners and future phases are planned. Further data management steps are under consideration, such as using the SAP system as a data warehouse, adopting the vendor's <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/SAP-BDC-strives-to-be-an-AI-catalyst-but-clarity-is-needed">Business Data Cloud</a> and establishing partnerships with cloud data service providers. Adopting SAP's Business AI platform, Joule AI copilot and WalkMe <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/news/366587409/SAP-snaps-up-WalkMe-for-15B">digital adoption platform</a> are also on the roadmap.</p> <p>East said he and Jones feel lucky to be part of the company's strong growth and the willingness of its board to invest in its transformation. "It's absolutely a vote of confidence in all of our staff to be able to get this done and streamline the business and position us for radical growth."</p> <p>How much of that is due to the unusual chemistry of the "Kirk and Spock" duo, to name a famous team they often use to describe it? East summarized why their philosophy seems to work.</p> <p>"It is hopelessly romantic and will come off as kind of utopian and strange, but it's actually also incredibly practical and pragmatic because we believe that as employees' professional lives improve one day at a time, our customer experience will also improve one day at a time," he said.</p> <p>"There's still a fair amount of skepticism about what we're building. But with each win, one win at a time, as we gain momentum, as we promote people internally to new roles so they can work in greater alignment with their aspirations, their affinities, their aptitudes, we are slowly winning that trust."</p> <p><i>David Essex is an industry editor who creates in-depth content on enterprise applications, emerging technology and market trends for several Informa TechTarget websites.</i></p> </section> A midmarket manufacturer's CIO and VP explain how their unusually close working relationship models a culture of trust and transparency and ensures IT decisions add business value. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/collab_a275903017.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/ERP-case-study-How-business-IT-dynamic-duo-sparked-a-transformation Fri, 25 Sep 2026 12:15:00 GMT <p>Metrics such as sales and customer retention are common measures that report how a company has performed historically, but they might not provide an indication or insight into how an organization will perform going forward. Customer sentiment data can fill the gap.</p> <p>Customer feedback helps organizations determine customer sentiment -- positive, negative or neutral -- when customers purchase a product, post a review online, chat about a brand with others on social media, click on ads, call a contact center or take any other action that brings them in contact with a brand. During these "moments of truth," there is usually an emotion involved and an opportunity to capture customer sentiment.</p> <p>Customer feedback can also help organizations understand and improve the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/customer-experience-CX">customer experience</a>, which in turn will be a major driver of future sales and customer retention. But this feedback is only useful if the organization has the correct listening posts in place and if the information is interpreted effectively.</p> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/How-to-create-customer-profiles-with-examples">Knowing how customers feel about a brand</a>, for better or worse, is valuable information for businesses.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> Knowing how customers feel about a brand, for better or worse, is invaluable information for businesses. </figure> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What is customer sentiment?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What is customer sentiment?</h2> <p>Customer sentiment is a measure of how customers feel and think about a brand based on their thoughts, emotions, opinions and attitudes. Positive customer sentiment contributes significantly to higher customer loyalty and continuous positive purchase behavior, while negative customer sentiment can have the opposite effect.</p> <p>Sentiment can be both quantitative -- from customer satisfaction (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/customer-satisfaction-CSAT">CSAT</a>) surveys, for example -- and qualitative, such as comments on social media. Customer sentiment goes beyond keywords or purchasing behavior. It's a complex set of attitudes, feelings and thoughts that organizations can find on social media, derive from user behavior and solicit from direct interactions with the customer.</p> <p>Customer sentiment can be positive (e.g., exceeding expectations regarding a delivery timeframe) or negative (e.g., not being able to speak with an agent in the contact center). Customers might or might not express their sentiment with specific words when interacting with an organization. Sentiment is more commonly displayed by emotions such as anger, frustration and happiness.</p> <p>Sentiment can be a major driver of customer intent -- that is, whether they will make a purchase -- and urgency. However, the biggest opportunity it presents is for organizations to capture negative sentiment and act upon it.</p> <p>The first step for gathering sentiment is knowing where and how to find it. There are both proactive and reactive ways to do so.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Gathering customer sentiment: Proactive methods"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Gathering customer sentiment: Proactive methods</h2> <p>To gather customer sentiment proactively, an organization must reach out to the customer to collect feedback. It can do this in person or virtually, such as through surveys.</p> <p>Survey tools enable organizations to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/7-key-customer-experience-metrics-to-measure">ask customers directly how they feel</a> about a particular transaction or about their products or services. A customer's emotional expression of satisfaction with a purchase provides valuable sentiment data.</p> <p>Proactive ways to capture sentiment include the following.</p> <h3>Point of sale survey</h3> <p>Asking a question at a point of sale -- for example, a comment card at a restaurant -- captures the immediate outcome of a customer interaction.</p> <h3>Customer satisfaction survey</h3> <p>A CSAT survey, often performed immediately after a customer interaction, is a Likert scale measure -- for example, a 0-10 rating -- of customer experience. It gauges reception to product changes, a service's effectiveness, a campaign's success or another event where customer response matters. The score is simple to calculate, and businesses can add it to any <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/CRM-customer-relationship-management">CRM</a> analytical process.</p> <p>CSAT is most valuable for gathering general trends of key items. It also enables organizations to dive deeper into free-form comments and, possibly, follow-up conversations.</p> <h3>Customer effort score survey</h3> <p>The CES measures how much work a customer must perform on a specific task, such as buying a service, using a product, interacting with customer service, etc. The effort involved from the customer's perspective is another measure of satisfaction and a critical indicator in determining the future purchase potential for that customer.</p> <h3>Net promoter score</h3> <p>The <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/Net-Promoter-Score-NPS">NPS</a> is another type of survey that identifies the likelihood that a respondent will recommend a company's products or services. This score is a strong measure of sentiment, as it reduces emotion into data for <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/customer-analytics">customer analytics</a>.</p> <p>NPS is frequently a back-end measure of customer loyalty taken from surveys, recommendation requests, customer interviews and service follow-ups. Like CSAT, it's a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.npscalculator.com/en" rel="noopener">simple calculation</a> that's easy to incorporate into any customer data collection process.</p> <p>NPS is generally based on a Likert scale broken into three categories: <i>promoters</i>, who are very satisfied and loyal customers; <i>passives</i>, who might be loyal but are open to the competition; and <i>detractors</i>, who are unhappy customers who prefer other brands. NPS takes the percentage of promoters and subtracts the percentage of detractors.</p> <h3>Mystery shopping</h3> <p>Organizations can create an in-house program or hire an outside agency as mystery shoppers who act as customers and go through all the steps a normal customer performs, up to and including buying and using the product. The mystery shoppers then complete documentation, such as surveys.</p> <p>Mystery shopping surveys can also include NPS ratings. However unconventional this technique might seem, it leads the pack in the resulting data quality. Information from mystery shoppers has high authenticity, broad utility and can help generate unanticipated insights.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/cust_ex-net_promoter_score-f.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/cust_ex-net_promoter_score-f_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/cust_ex-net_promoter_score-f_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/cust_ex-net_promoter_score-f.png 1280w" alt="A chart laying out how to calculate net promoter score." height="250" width="559"> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <h3>In-person customer feedback</h3> <p>Asking customers directly is another effective method of gathering customer sentiment. The biggest risk with this method is the challenge of getting valid sample sizes.</p> <p>Methods to gather in-person customer feedback include the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Customer focus groups.</b> Bringing together several customers in a structured focus group session helps gather feedback and dig deeper into specific comments made during the session. A downside is that customers might raise issues that are not widespread and only affect a specific individual or customer experience.</li> <li><b>User interviews. </b>While more labor-intensive and time-consuming, individual user interviews enable an organization to focus on specific issues and dig deeply to fully understand the details. Often, a user interview provides an opportunity to follow up on a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/4-CX-challenges-facing-organizations-and-how-to-address-them">negative survey result</a>.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Gathering customer sentiment: Reactive methods"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Gathering customer sentiment: Reactive methods</h2> <p>Customers express their feelings about an organization in various ways, both solicited and unsolicited. In the past, customer service was the main way to capture this type of information. Now, with social media, there is a never-ending opportunity to reactively gather customer sentiment.</p> <p>Reactive methods include the following.</p> <h3>Social media</h3> <p>Capturing feedback on social media can be rewarding but complex. Posts and conversations between customers on major social media channels -- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. -- offer a fly-on-the-wall perspective on which products and services customers want and what they do or don't like. However, this methodology can snowball, as many customers can hop on a trend and add their input. <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/data-technologies/definition/What-is-social-media-analytics">Social media feedback</a> might not provide the level of depth needed, but it can help organizations better understand an issue.</p> <h3>Likes</h3> <p>Less revealing than social media mentions and discussions, <i>likes</i> within apps such as Twitter and Instagram offer binary feedback on products, such as whether customers like or love a product. Despite being a thin measure, it's easily managed and provides a simple scale of measurement.</p> <h3>Online reviews</h3> <p>Product reviews are <i>likes</i> on steroids. They both reflect a thumbs-up for the brand and provide the why of the thumbs-up -- or, conversely, the thumbs-down. This method offers valuable detail and is increasingly easy to harvest. Consumers routinely turn to online review sites such as Yelp to see what others think. Even if a business can't work with such sites' unstructured data, star ratings are more useful than <i>like</i> counts. An average 4.2-star rating is worth more than knowing 62% of the people who visited the page <i>liked</i> the product.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/customerexperience-sentiment_analysis-f.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/customerexperience-sentiment_analysis-f_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/customerexperience-sentiment_analysis-f_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/customerexperience-sentiment_analysis-f.png 1280w" alt="An image showing examples of sentiment analysis for positive and negative feedback." height="370" width="560"> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <h3>Employee feedback</h3> <p>As a result of interacting daily with customers and working to resolve their issues, agents who respond to customer service inquiries have a wealth of knowledge of where pain points and opportunities for improvement exist.</p> <h3>Customer service interactions</h3> <p>Most negative feedback comes from service interactions across various channels, such as phone, email and chat. Customer issues and dissatisfaction flood these points of contact daily. Historically, data collection from direct customer interactions has been very poor, with the only actionable analytics traditionally being the "How satisfied were you?" question at the end of an interaction.</p> <p>But there's more valuable data in these exchanges that was never analyzed. How intense was the customer's dissatisfaction? What was the customer's tone of voice? What is their history of contacts and complaints? All this information has great value, especially when aggregated with data from other customers.</p> <p>To gather this data, major contact center and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/Compare-the-top-20-CRM-software-options">CRM platforms</a> bundle contact center and social media listening software into their systems or use standalone products. Software can monitor communication channels for keywords and phrases, and the most important analytics are built in. Parsing through this data can be as simple or as complex as the tools allow, answering questions like "Is the product launch going well?" or "What don't they like about the interface?"</p> <p>Organizations that are serious about <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/opinion-mining-sentiment-mining">sentiment analysis</a> should obtain a tool suite that brings natural language processing and sophisticated data science together, going beyond keywords and brand mentions to extract mood, intentions and other subtleties.</p> <p>Sentiment analysis tools listen to a verbal conversation or scan a body of text for emotional expression, then score the polarity of that expression. Did it lean positive? Negative? Neutral? These tools can go beyond scoring negative versus positive sentiment by detecting patterns and sometimes pinpointing specific emotions.</p> <p>At its most advanced, customer sentiment analysis can analyze a verbal conversation or break text down to the level of identifying aspects of the product or service referenced and score each one. For example, "I love the product," followed by "The instructions that came with it are really complicated," combine positive and negative sentiments in a single review, but both pieces of information are valuable.</p> <h3>Customer behavior</h3> <p>Actual customer behavior provides another channel for collecting customer sentiment, and it often occurs at specific points in the customer journey. Three common ways to collect this information include the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Web analytics. </b>Analysis of customers' site visits should include the journeys they take and specific decisions they make on their journeys while visiting a website. Items to note include changes in volume of site visits, browsing times and abandoned carts.</li> <li><b>Purchase behavior. </b>Analysis of customers' purchase behavior can show how customer sentiment drives what they buy and how often.</li> <li><b>Customer churn. </b>Analysis of customers who have left an organization -- for example, lost cable subscribers -- can also represent customer sentiment, although it is often negative.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Tools for customer sentiment analysis"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Tools for customer sentiment analysis</h2> <p>Each method of capturing customer sentiment has pros and cons, so organizations should use several of them and look for common points in the feedback.</p> <p>There are many customer sentiment analysis tools available to organizations. Here are three common categories:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Social listening tools. </b>These tools monitor various social media platforms for relevant conversations regarding brand, service interactions, competitor mentions, etc.</li> <li><b>Customer support platforms. </b>Support systems used by contact centers now have the ability to monitor interactions and perform sentiment analysis in real time and on a post-transaction basis.</li> <li><b>Feedback platforms. </b>These platforms can be used as a repository of structured and unstructured data captured both proactively and reactively across various channels.</li> </ul> <p>Regardless of the tool used to capture sentiment, organizations should step back and think about what customers say before acting too quickly. Examples include the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>When reviewing a group of media posts, was there a unique outside influence that may have driven customer sentiment to be positive or negative?</li> </ul> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>When holding a focus group, did a customer service agent have a challenging experience with a customer earlier in the day that may have biased their comments?</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How to act on customer sentiment"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How to act on customer sentiment</h2> <p>All this data plays a role in supporting business decisions, such as product development and service policy, but it's not enough to have the numbers and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/7-customer-experience-trends-to-have-on-your-radar-in-2023">see how they trend</a>. The data itself raises important questions, so businesses should analyze it and take appropriate action.</p> <p>When a customer's rating or answer changes, businesses must understand why: What is the timing? Is there an upgrade or new release of a popular product or service? Did a competitor launch new features that are drawing customers away?</p> <p>A customer's positive rating that turns negative affects the overall number indicating a product's popularity, but it's also a cue to reach out to the customer for more data to address problems and determine what the business can do differently.</p> <p>Here are specific actions an organization should take regarding customer sentiment:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Analyze and address the root cause of negative feedback.</li> <li>Share results of customer sentiment analysis across the organization.</li> <li>Celebrate positive feedback.</li> </ul> <p>Additionally, organizations that use sentiment as the basis for action must view it in a broad context. While they should constantly monitor for important cues, they should also keep an analytical eye on the general trend of sentiment about the brand.</p> <p>Monitoring whether the same customer praises a brand repeatedly in recommendations or on social media is also important, as the person could become a <i>brand ambassador</i> -- that is, a customer who can be incentivized to promote the brand to others.</p> <p>Businesses can gather customer sentiment across numerous listening posts. When properly studied and interpreted, it can show the "why" of underlying customer behavior. This behavioral cue can signal to an organization what to do next to improve the customer experience and, in turn, drive customer loyalty and future purchase behavior.</p> <p><i>Scott Robinson is an enterprise data architect at New Era Technology, a global digital transformation firm. He is an IT veteran with more than 25 years of experience, a social scientist and the author of </i>Modern Data-Centric Architecture<i>.</i></p> <p><i>Scott Sachs is president and founder of SJS Solutions, a consultancy that specializes in contact center strategy assessments and technology selection.</i></p> <p><b>Editor's note:</b> <i>This article was originally written by Scott Robinson and expanded by Scott Sachs in 2023 and 2026.</i></p> </section> Businesses can glean customer sentiment from sources like surveys, social media, comment cards, contact centers and word of mouth, which can help predict and drive future sales. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/customer_service14.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/How-to-gather-and-evaluate-customer-sentiment Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:15:00 GMT <p>In their quest for competitive advantage, efficiency and scale, many organizations are looking to adopt agentic AI. However, organizations must perform rigorous vetting to avoid security breaches, compliance failures and inaccurate or inconsistent outputs.</p> <p>In ERP software, agents are beginning to perform complex workflows like <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/7-benefits-and-use-cases-of-AI-in-procurement">procurement</a>, inventory adjustments and order fulfillment. COOs, CFOs, and CTOs should ask certain questions during ERP vendor evaluations to ensure that embedded AI agents will not only produce value but also align with their organizations’ governance and risk standards.</p> <p>Here are five essential ERP AI agent questions for vendors.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. What does the AI agent actually do?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. What does the AI agent actually do?</h2> <p>In other words, what tasks does the agent perform and how much value does it provide as a result?</p> <p>C-suite executives should be concerned with the limits of agentic performance. For example, can the agent <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/5-challenges-of-using-AI-in-procurement">approve purchase orders</a> up to a certain threshold, or does it only make recommendations? What decisions can it make autonomously and when is human oversight required? Ask vendors about specific business tasks, data access levels and authorizations and request detailed workflow diagrams and real-world examples from similar organizations.</p> <p>ERP vendors may make vague claims about embedded AI agents, and they often overpromise about expected business value. C-suite leaders should be skeptical towards claims that ERP AI agents can exercise high levels of autonomy and know that such capabilities can potentially pose risks.</p> <p>C-suite leaders must make sure they are communicating accurately to employees about the ERP system’s capabilities, because a lack of alignment between what employees are told and what the ERP system can actually do could lead to a lack of confidence in the ERP system and project leaders. AI agents causing operational failures would lead to even more issues.</p> <p>Meanwhile, CFOs must make sure that <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/data-technologies/tip/How-to-control-agentic-AI-access-to-enterprise-data">strong boundaries are in place</a> to limit AI agents. High-stakes decisions must remain under human control so their company meets compliance standards.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. What does the audit trail look like for AI agents?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. What does the audit trail look like for AI agents?</h2> <p>AI must be accountable to the same standards as human actors. Ask the ERP vendor to demonstrate the system’s logging and auditing capabilities for inputs, AI agent reasoning and tasks performed. Also ask how the system integrates with existing ERP audit modules and whether it supports immutable records for compliance.</p> <p>These considerations also apply to scenarios where AI agents are limited to making recommendations to human actors. Employees may decide to “trust the AI” and take unwise action.</p> <p>The outputs of AI/ML systems must also be explainable and free from bias. AI has been known to make unfair decisions when, for example, weighing <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/it-strategy/feature/Agentic-AI-in-CX-management-A-strategic-guide-for-business-leaders">a customer’s credit score</a>. Audit trails and explainability tools enable organizations to identify and remediate bias.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. How do you ensure data security and privacy?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. How do you ensure data security and privacy?</h2> <p>C-suite executives should ask ERP vendors what specific actions they take to ensure their product is compliant with key regulations like GDPR, HIPAA and SOX. Determine whether external models will be trained using corporate data, which could potentially compromise protected information, and gather details about encryption protocols, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/it-strategy/news/366650992/ERP-access-control-debt-can-turn-old-roles-into-current-risk">access controls</a>, data residency and third-party certifications.</p> <p>Data breaches or other compliance failures can lead to massive fines and reputational damage. C-suite executives must understand the potential security pitfalls that come with agentic AI and confirm that their ERP system will adequately protect enterprise assets and conform to corporate governance frameworks.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. How does the product scale in production?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4. How does the product scale in production?</h2> <p>Scalability determines whether successful pilots will translate to long-term business value. Executives and operational leads should confirm that agents won’t reduce performance or create new bottlenecks when transaction volumes increase.</p> <p>CFOs, COOs and other leaders should request evidence of successful enterprise-scale deployments, preferably in a similar industry. Look for customers who have used the ERP vendor’s AI agents for at least three to six months in a production environment and ask about latency, error handling and the frequency of human escalation. Determine whether costs will increase when usage increases.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="5. How do you handle integration?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>5. How do you handle integration?</h2> <p>Embedded AI agents may consume data from external applications and trigger actions that affect systems besides ERP. CTOs should explore the end-to-end workflows of high-value agentic AI use cases and look at API compatibility, middleware requirements, testing needs and ongoing maintenance needs. The answers to these questions may significantly affect total cost of ownership, so CFO participation is important as well.</p> <p>Asking these ERP AI agent vendor questions will help ensure that C-suite executives can position their organizations <a href="https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/what-we-do/capabilities/finance-transformation/articles/erp-value.html">to get</a> maximum value from their core business applications.</p> <p><i>James Kofalt spent 16 years at SAP working with SME business applications and was a product manager for integration technology at Microsoft's Business Solutions division. He is currently the president of DX4 Research, a technology advisory practice specializing in ERP and digital transformation.</i></p> </section> C-suite leaders must ask what tasks an AI agent performs and how much value it provides as a result. Learn other questions to ask ERP vendors about AI agents. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/ai_g1182183209.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/Questions-to-ask-ERP-vendors-before-using-AI-agents Wed, 23 Sep 2026 15:51:00 GMT <p>Personalization software no longer comes in one shape, especially since personalization can be done at so many different levels. B2B marketing teams should understand the three categories now shaping the market and the leading vendors in each. Delivering a customized experience for prospects and customers is high on B2B organizations' roadmaps. The right personalization software is key to accomplishing that goal.</p> <p>Companies are constantly searching for ways to stand out from the competition. AI and machine learning (ML) -- once category differentiators -- <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/ai/tip/How-AI-personalization-creates-customized-user-experiences">are now baseline</a>. Buyers should evaluate platforms on data quality, integration depth and use-case fit instead of the technology itself. When a company tailors experiences to the needs and purchase behaviors of its customers, those buyers feel as though the brand values and hears them.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What is personalization software?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What is personalization software?</h2> <p>Personalization software customizes content or experiences based on certain characteristics or behaviors. Characteristics are data points that a company collects within a database, which marketers can use to personalize content. Characteristics can include the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Job title.</li> <li>Company.</li> <li>Location.</li> <li>First or last name.</li> </ul> <p>Behavior-based personalization can include the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>The pages a user visits on a website.</li> <li>An ad the user interacted with.</li> <li>A referral source that brought the customer to the website.</li> </ul> <p>Including personalization software in a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/B2B-martech-stack-core-components-and-how-to-build-one">marketing technology stack</a><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/martech-marketing-technology"> </a>enables marketing teams to service the unique interactions that each buyer requires. Customers rarely look elsewhere when they feel the company understands their needs.</p> <p>For B2B teams, personalization often extends beyond individual contacts. Account-based marketing platforms can personalize experiences for entire buying committees using account-level attributes like industry, company size and buying stage.&nbsp;</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Personalization software has 3 flavors"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Personalization software has 3 flavors</h2> <p>Personalization software is no longer a single category. The market splits cleanly into three groups, and most B2B teams end up running a tool from more than one vendor.</p> <p>The first group is enterprise suites. Platforms like Adobe, HubSpot, Optimizely, Salesforce and SAP treat personalization as a module inside a broader marketing or experience stack. These suites win on integration with other systems as personalization shares data with the same platform's content management system (CMS), CRM, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/How-to-choose-a-customer-data-platform-in-5-steps">CDP</a> and analytics.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> Buyers should evaluate platforms on data quality, integration depth and use-case fit instead of the technology itself. </figure> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>The second group is B2B-purpose-built specialists: 6sense, Demandbase and Mutiny. These platforms were designed for account-based motions, where the unit of personalization is a target account rather than an individual contact. They are typically deployed alongside a suite, not in place of one.</p> <p>The third group is personalization-engine specialists: Bloomreach, Dynamic Yield and Insider One. These tools started in retail and e-commerce but have expanded into B2B distribution and complex catalog use cases. They tend to outperform suites on real-time recommendation quality but require integration work to fit a broader stack.</p> <p>The other story shaping vendor selection is consolidation. Martech M&amp;A is running 13% above 2024 levels, and personalization specialists keep getting absorbed. Salesforce bought Evergage to expand its functionality. Medallia bought Thunderhead to provide more personalization capabilities. Mastercard bought Dynamic Yield in 2022. Braze acquired OfferFit in 2025, and more recently Insider One acquired Bluecore. Buyers should weigh which standalone vendors are likely to be acquired during a contract term.</p> <p>Let's take a closer look some of the top personalization software tools. Each grouped list below appears in alphabetical order.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Enterprise suites"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Enterprise suites</h2> <h3>1. Adobe Target</h3> <p>Adobe Target is the personalization and experimentation <a target="_blank" href="https://helpx.adobe.com/legal/product-descriptions/adobe-target.html" rel="noopener">engine</a> inside the Adobe Experience Cloud. It delivers real-time, AI-driven content variations across websites, mobile apps and inbound customer interactions, drawing on a unified profile that spans Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Analytics and Adobe Experience Manager.</p> <p>Adobe was recognized as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines. At Adobe Summit 2025, the company introduced the Adobe Experience Platform Agent Orchestrator, which extends Target's capabilities into agentic personalization, namely AI agents that plan, test and adjust experiences with less manual configuration. Adobe Target fits B2B enterprises that already standardize on Adobe's broader stack.</p> <h3>2. HubSpot</h3> <p>HubSpot remains one of the most accessible personalization platforms for mid-market B2B teams in part because personalization sits next to the CRM, email and CMS tools that many marketing teams already use. The platform supports <a target="_blank" href="https://knowledge.hubspot.com/marketing-email/use-personalization-tokens" rel="noopener">personalization tokens</a>, smart rules that swap content based on lifecycle stage or device type, and behavioral pop-ups tied to scroll depth or exit intent.&nbsp;</p> <p>HubSpot's Breeze AI pushes those capabilities further by generating personalized content variations directly from CRM data. Marketers can produce tailored copy, build test variants and review performance insights without leaving the platform. HubSpot fits B2B teams that want personalization without a heavy implementation cycle.&nbsp;</p> <h3>3. Optimizely</h3> <p>At one point, Optimizely, formerly Episerver, was mainly known as a content management platform with personalization features. However, over time, it has earned a sharper position. Optimizely has been named a Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines and for Digital Experience Platforms.</p> <p>Optimizely combines CMS, A/B testing and AI-driven personalization in a <a target="_blank" href="https://support.optimizely.com/hc/en-us/articles/27294865902733-Optimizely-Personalization-overview" rel="noopener">single platform</a>. The vendor introduced Opal AI last year to add agent orchestration on top of those capabilities. Optimizely is a strong choice for B2B companies where the website is the primary revenue surface and experimentation matters as much as personalization.</p> <h3>4. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Personalization</h3> <p>Salesforce Marketing Cloud Personalization was previously named Interaction Studio and, before that, Evergage, which Salesforce acquired in 2020. The current name was the product of the Marketing Cloud reorganization Salesforce did combining those offerings under <a target="_blank" href="https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mc_pers.htm&amp;type=5" rel="noopener">one product</a>.</p> <p>The platform delivers real-time, ML-driven personalization across websites, mobile apps and email, drawing on the same audience profiles that power Data 360, Salesforce's engine that unifies customer data. For B2B teams already running Agentforce Sales and Agentforce Marketing, Marketing Cloud Personalization extends those data assets into website and email experiences without standing up a separate identity layer. The rebrand history is a useful signal of how aggressively Salesforce has consolidated its CX product lines.</p> <h3>5. SAP Engagement Cloud</h3> <p>SAP was named a Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines. The platform focuses on omnichannel customer engagement, with strengths in lifecycle marketing and retention, both of which matter heavily in subscription and account-based B2B models.</p> <p>SAP's personalization <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sap.com/products/crm/engagement-cloud/technical-information.html" rel="noopener">product</a>, SAP Engagement Cloud -- formerly named SAP Emarsys -- connects most powerfully when paired with SAP's CDP and the broader SAP Customer Experience portfolio. For B2B organizations already on SAP, the integration story is the main selling point; for companies outside that ecosystem, it warrants careful evaluation against the other suite vendors on this list.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="B2B-purpose-built specialists"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>B2B-purpose-built specialists</h2> <h3>6. 6sense</h3> <p>6sense pairs predictive intent data with personalization across web, <a target="_blank" href="https://support.6sense.com/docs/use-ce-ai-personalization-beta" rel="noopener">email</a>, display and sales outreach. Its Signalverse engine processes more than 1 trillion daily intent signals and uses AI models trained on a decade of B2B buying behavior to identify accounts actively researching a category, then orchestrates outreach that adapts to the account's buying stage.</p> <p>Forrester named 6sense a Leader in intent data in Q1 2025. The platform fits enterprise B2B teams that want intent identification and personalization in one place, rather than stitching together a separate intent provider and a separate personalization layer.</p> <h3>7. Demandbase</h3> <p>Demandbase is the closest competitor to 6sense, and the platform B2B teams most often evaluate alongside it. Demandbase One brings together account intelligence, B2B advertising and personalization in a single go-to-market (GTM) <a target="_blank" href="https://support.demandbase.com/hc/en-us" rel="noopener">suite</a>. The company operates the only demand-side platform built specifically for B2B advertising, which is its primary point of differentiation.</p> <p>Demandbase fits B2B teams where paid media is a meaningful channel, and personalization needs to follow the buyer from ad to landing page to nurture. Pricing for both Demandbase and 6sense runs in the enterprise range, so the platforms are most relevant to mid-market and enterprise organizations.</p> <h3>8. Mutiny</h3> <p>Mutiny is the most B2B-native platform on this list. It was built for website and <a target="_blank" href="https://help.mutinyhq.com/" rel="noopener">account-based marketing</a> personalization in a B2B context, tailoring page elements -- such as logos, case studies, headlines, calls to action -- to the visiting account's industry, size, role and intent signals. The platform integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Adobe Marketo Engage, 6sense, Demandbase and Twilio.</p> <p>In 2025, Mutiny evolved from a pure personalization tool into an agentic AI go-to-market platform, expanding into deal rooms, pricing proposals, business cases and pitch decks. For B2B revenue teams running account-based strategies, Mutiny addresses a use case that the broader suites do not own natively.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Personalization-engine specialists"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Personalization-engine specialists</h2> <h3>9. Bloomreach</h3> <p>Bloomreach has been recognized in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines. While the platform's roots are in retail commerce, Bloomreach has built specific B2B distributor capabilities. It features support for product catalogs of more than 10 million SKUs, account-based custom pricing tied to contracts or purchase volumes, contract-aware search and semantic search tuned by industry.</p> <p>For B2B distributors, manufacturers and complex-catalog businesses, Bloomreach addresses personalization problems that vendors typically do not handle as deeply. For B2B SaaS, it is less obviously a fit. The platform's <a target="_blank" href="https://documentation.bloomreach.com/" rel="noopener">strength</a> is in product discovery, not account-based marketing.</p> <h3>10. Dynamic Yield</h3> <p>Dynamic Yield has been named a Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines. Mastercard acquired the platform in 2022, and it continues to operate as a <a target="_blank" href="https://dy.dev/docs/implementation-journey" rel="noopener">standalone product</a> delivering real-time personalization across web, mobile apps, email and connected experiences like in-store kiosks.</p> <p>Dynamic Yield is the rare specialist that has survived the consolidation wave and kept its independent product roadmap. For B2B organizations that need real-time recommendation quality and have the integration capacity to make a specialist work alongside a suite, it remains a leading option.</p> <h3>11. Insider One</h3> <p>Insider One, formerly known as Insider, rebranded in late 2025 and was named a leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines. The platform combines a CDP, journey orchestration and AI-driven personalization across more than a dozen channels. Primarily used for web, mobile app, email, SMS, WhatsApp and several others, its Sirius AI engine spans predictive, generative, conversational and <a target="_blank" href="https://academy.insiderone.com/docs/sirius-ai-features" rel="noopener">agentic capabilities</a>. The tool comes out of the box with 150 pre-built triggers for real-time behavioral and predictive signals. <br><br>As one of the category's most aggressive consolidators, its May 2026 acquisition of Bluecore deepened its enterprise retail and agentic commerce capabilities. Like other specialists in this group, the platform's roots are in retail and e-commerce. Its strengths in real-time recommendations and broad channel activation translate best to B2B organizations with complex catalogs or high-volume digital commerce motions rather than classic account-based marketing programs.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Choose a stack, not just a tool"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Choose a stack, not just a tool</h2> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> No single platform covers every B2B personalization use case well. </figure> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>No single platform covers every B2B personalization use case well. Most enterprise B2B teams end up running an enterprise suite for orchestration and CRM-tied personalization, a B2B specialist for account-based motions and sometimes a personalization-engine specialist for recommendation and catalog needs.</p> <p>Acquisition risk is the other factor worth weighing. Buyers should ask which standalone platforms are likely to be acquired during a contract term and what that would mean for the product roadmap and pricing. Clean, portable first-party data is the best insurance -- it makes a vendor change less disruptive when the next round of acquisitions happens.</p> <p><i>Griffin LaFleur is a RevOps and GTM Engineering leader at Granite GTM, where he works with B2B technology companies on go-to-market strategy, systems architecture, and revenue operations.</i></p> </section> Personalization software enables businesses to customize customer experiences. But the market is muddled with varying products, rebranding and consolidation. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/searchFinancialApplications/reporting_analysis/financialapplications_article_016.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/6-personalization-software-options-to-know-in-2021 Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:15:00 GMT <p>ERP systems are designed to offer a broad spectrum of functionality within a single coherent application set. In fact, ERP integration with external systems is typically necessary to achieve a truly unified view of operations. Unfortunately, most organizations encounter hurdles when ERP integration challenges delay projects or cause technology initiatives to fall short of their full potential. To deliver the best possible outcomes, COOs should anticipate potential roadblocks and take proactive measures to mitigate these challenges.</p> <p>This article addresses five ERP integration challenges that every COO should keep in mind when planning new initiatives.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Challenge #1: Data compatibility and quality issues"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Challenge #1: Data compatibility and quality issues</h2> <p>Data models vary significantly across business applications, making it difficult to map information from one system to another. A dedicated order-processing system that stores each customer's ship-to address as a standalone entity might be difficult to integrate with an ERP system that allows customers to have parent-child relationships. Address fields, likewise, often vary slightly from one application to another.</p> <p>This problem is often compounded by data quality issues, including inconsistent formats, duplicate entries, missing values or data entry errors. The accuracy of CRM data, for example, typically erodes fairly quickly. Some systems enforce clear rules to maintain consistency, whereas others allow significantly greater latitude.</p> <p>Legacy systems can make ERP integration even more challenging, storing data in obscure formats or in obsolete systems not designed to interact with modern APIs and database technology.</p> <p>COOs can mitigate these problems by conducting rigorous data audits upfront, cleansing their data and implementing <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/data-technologies/definition/What-is-master-data-management-MDM">master data management</a>. Establish cross-functional teams to work together on these initiatives, including data governance standards to ensure consistently high data quality going forward.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Challenge #2: High implementation and customization costs"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Challenge #2: High implementation and customization costs</h2> <p>When it comes to software implementation projects, budget overruns and late deliveries are not uncommon. Fortunately, it is possible to avoid these pitfalls by following a disciplined project management approach.</p> <p>Start with a clear plan, including objectives and well-defined measures for success. Specify the project's scope, including, to the extent possible, which items are out of scope. Cascading change orders are a frequent cause of delays and overruns. Keep the project as simple as possible and limit scope creep by implementing a disciplined approach to change.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> When it comes to software implementation projects, budget overruns and late deliveries are not uncommon. Fortunately, it is possible to avoid these pitfalls by following a disciplined project management approach. </figure> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>Customization can also extend timelines and drive costs higher. This affects not only initial project costs but also the total cost of ownership (TCO). To mitigate this problem, prioritize out-of-the-box functionality and perform rigorous cost-benefit analysis. Collaboration with your CFO or finance team is essential in determining TCO.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Challenge #3: Organizational resistance to change"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Challenge #3: Organizational resistance to change</h2> <p>Technology projects usually imply changes to how work gets done, often modifying roles and responsibilities. Employees' fears, preferences and longstanding habits often stand in the way of success. Organizational change management is designed to address these human challenges. It succeeds, however, only when it receives the sustained investment of time and resources it requires.</p> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/Top-change-management-tips-for-ERP-implementation-success">Effective change management</a> starts with a cross-functional team of project champions. COOs should develop a thorough communication plan to inform stakeholders of the upcoming changes, timelines and impact on their jobs, then follow up with routine updates. Consider phased projects or pilots to demonstrate quick wins and build confidence throughout the organization.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Challenge #4: Security and compliance risks"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Challenge #4: Security and compliance risks</h2> <p>Today's organizations must grapple with a long list of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/ai/tip/Why-AI-governance-and-data-privacy-must-be-integrated">data privacy and security requirements</a>. Increased data flows create greater risk exposure, increasing an organization's vulnerability to breaches and regulatory failures.</p> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/General-Data-Protection-Regulation-GDPR">GDPR</a> affects nearly everyone, for example, whereas industry-specific regulations like HIPAA are critically important for affected businesses. An increasingly complex patchwork of data sovereignty regulations adds even more compliance risk to the mix.</p> <p>Once again, strong data governance creates a framework for compliance, establishing guardrails that prevent ERP integration projects from inadvertently exposing an organization to security or regulatory failures. COOs should also work with their CTO to implement least-privilege access, encryption, routine audits and vendor security assessments.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Challenge #5: Process misalignment across departments"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Challenge #5: Process misalignment across departments</h2> <p>ERP integration challenges often stem from misaligned processes and expectations across functional silos. It is therefore critical to involve key stakeholders from affected departments. COOs should lead an initiative to map their organizations' business processes and existing data flows, ensuring validation from the people directly engaged in that work. Adjust processes where necessary to standardize and align them across departments.</p> <p>ERP integration challenges are inevitable, but they often follow common patterns. With proactive planning and disciplined project management, COOs can turn these challenges into opportunities to improve operational performance.</p> <p><i>James Kofalt spent 16 years at SAP working with SME business applications and was a product manager for integration technology at Microsoft's Business Solutions division. He is currently the president of DX4 Research, a technology advisory practice specializing in ERP and digital transformation.</i></p> </section> COOs face five key ERP integration challenges: data compatibility issues, high costs, organizational resistance, security risks, and process misalignment. Proactive planning helps turn obstacles into opportunities. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/ai_g1183318665.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/5-ERP-integration-challenges-that-COOs-need-to-be-aware-of Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:23:00 GMT <p>COOs are always looking for ways to reduce inventory costs, yet managing inventory levels too aggressively brings risks as well. COOs must follow the proper inventory cost reduction strategies to ensure success.</p> <p>Stock levels that are too low can lead <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/6-ways-to-reduce-last-mile-delivery-costs">to late deliveries</a>, lost sales and increased costs because of the need to expedite orders. Too-high stock levels can also result in increased costs. However, companies can reduce inventory costs while still maintaining a high level of customer service.</p> <p>These five strategies can help COOs save money, as long as the strategies include clear alignment across the functions and roles within their organization.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. Improve forecast accuracy"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. Improve forecast accuracy</h2> <p>Inaccurate forecasts increase inventory costs because of the accumulation of excess inventory or stockouts, and traditional statistical methods can fail to account for promotions, product cannibalization and external demand signals, among other factors.</p> <p>COOs should suggest that their company start using AI/ML-powered <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/5-benefits-of-using-demand-planning-software">demand planning tools</a> that analyze historical data, structured input from sales and marketing and external factors such as weather, macroeconomic indicators and social media sentiment. Build out a formal integrated planning process (S&amp;OP or IBP) that includes ownership, target KPIs and escalation paths.</p> <p>Cross-functional collaboration is key. CSCOs and sales leaders should both be held accountable for forecast accuracy, especially for forecasts related to high-impact SKUs.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. Right-size safety stock and buffers"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. Right-size safety stock and buffers</h2> <p>Segmentation is critical for reducing inventory costs. Carrying out blanket reductions or using arbitrary safety-stock numbers almost always leads to excess inventory in some areas and frequent stockouts in others.</p> <p>COOs must spend the necessary amount of time and attention on segmentation and use a data-driven approach that incorporates probabilistic modeling. Classify SKUs by demand variability, lead-time reliability, margin and strategic importance and apply different service-level targets and safety-stock calculations to each segment instead of using a single rule of thumb across all categories.</p> <p>COOs should use advanced planning systems to optimize safety stock by SKU and location and require that any proposed inventory reductions be backed up by service-level KPIs and financial objectives.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. Shorten and stabilize lead times"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. Shorten and stabilize lead times</h2> <p>Excessively long or unpredictable lead times often cause companies to maintain higher safety stock levels to ensure they achieve service goals. Improved collaboration with suppliers can mitigate this problem and thus reduce inventory costs.</p> <p>CSCOs and COOs should work together to reduce both the length and variability of lead times. Utilizing nearshoring or supplier diversification for critical items can reduce transit time and mitigate <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/Learn-the-types-of-inventory-risk">the risk of supply chain disruption</a>.</p> <p>In addition, supplier development programs should include continuous performance monitoring and ongoing risk assessment. Performance-based contracts that reward suppliers for on-time, in-full delivery and include the sharing of forecast data will likely reduce the “just-in-case” buffers both parties create. COOs can further improve the relationship by ensuring demand signals sent to suppliers are credible.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. Increase end-to-end visibility and reduce shrinkage"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4. Increase end-to-end visibility and reduce shrinkage</h2> <p>Every percentage point of inventory shrinkage effectively increases inventory costs. Factors including spoilage and administrative errors cause discrepancies between the recorded quantities on hand and actual stock, which forces planners to hold “just in case” buffer stock.</p> <p>COOs should require a disciplined approach to warehouse <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/podcast/Beyond-visibility-Decision-intelligence-in-the-supply-chain">and supply chain visibility</a>. Routine cycle counting, exception-based auditing and automated data collection will all help improve the accuracy of inventory data. Serialization and traceability technologies reduce both shrinkage risk and the cost of any necessary recalls for high-value or regulated goods.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="5. Properly manage obsolete and slow-moving inventory"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>5. Properly manage obsolete and slow-moving inventory</h2> <p>Obsolete stock ties up working capital and reduces warehouse productivity. Prevention is significantly less expensive than remediation. In addition to converting aging goods into cash, COOs and CSCOs should work together to improve upstream planning so inventory doesn’t become obsolete in the first place.</p> <p>COOs should implement monthly or quarterly reviews of aging and slow-moving inventory, establish plans for disposal of excess stock and work with product management and engineering to align new product launches with exit strategies for predecessor products. CSCOs can negotiate return or obsolescence protection clauses with suppliers for new items.</p> <p>Reducing inventory costs requires continuous measurement and improvement, including the tracking of inventory value, fill rates, expediting costs and customer satisfaction levels. COOs should pilot changes in low-risk categories first, then scale improvements to a broader range of SKUs. By <a href="https://www.townebank.com/business/resources/cash-flow/managing-inventory/">taking the right approach</a> to inventory optimization, COOs can deliver sustainable cash and margin improvements that strengthen overall corporate performance.</p> <p><i>James Kofalt spent 16 years at SAP working with SME business applications and was a product manager for integration technology at Microsoft's Business Solutions division. He is currently the president of DX4 Research, a technology advisory practice specializing in ERP and digital transformation.</i></p> </section> COOs should suggest that their company start using AI/ML-powered demand planning tools that analyze historical data. Learn other strategies for reducing inventory costs. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/container_g94985758.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/ways-COOs-can-reduce-inventory-costs Tue, 22 Sep 2026 15:16:00 GMT <p>As organizations grow and increase their customer base, they may struggle to offer quality customer support. A knowledge base can help lighten the workload for customer support teams and enable customer success via self-support channels.</p> <p>A customer support or customer-oriented&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/knowledge-base">knowledge base</a>&nbsp;-- a library of information that lets customers find answers to their questions -- increases support team productivity by reducing the number of support tickets. At its core, a good customer support strategy integrates case avoidance, so customers can help themselves, and case management to create and manage tickets if customer self-service channels fail. Organizations can use knowledge base software to improve customer self-service and case avoidance efforts.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What customer support knowledge base software does"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What customer support knowledge base software does</h2> <p>Customer support knowledge base software can incorporate planned technical documentation as well as content from responses to customer support tickets. The knowledge base centralizes and organizes support articles and policies, helping customers and customer support agents find answers. It reduces the need for support personnel to answer the same questions repeatedly by providing support information on a customer-accessible self-service website.</p> <p>In its 2025 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.einpresswire.com/article/835746167/usu-listed-as-representative-vendor-in-the-2025-gartner-market-guide-for-customer-service-knowledge-management-systems" rel="noopener">report</a>, "Market Guide for Customer Service Knowledge Management Systems," Gartner noted: "By 2028, 40% of large enterprises will adopt AI-powered customer service knowledge automation solutions." AI can process an enterprise's existing knowledge content as well as customer interactions with the knowledge base and the support team to surface additional content drafts for human review.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Benefits of a knowledge base"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Benefits of a knowledge base</h2> <p>Knowledge base products let organizations create and manage educational content, such as FAQ pages and articles, for customers. These systems organize content with hierarchical and ad hoc metadata. Knowledge bases can benefit organizations in the following ways:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Increased customer satisfaction.</b>&nbsp;With a knowledge base, customers don't need to open a case and wait for support personnel to respond. Instead, customers can find answers to questions on their own. This self-service empowers customers and, in turn, increases brand loyalty. Organizations can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/feature/13-customer-retention-strategies-that-work">improve customer retention</a>&nbsp;rates if they offer customers FAQ pages and other types of educational content to help them quickly answer their own questions.</li> <li><b>Improved satisfaction and productivity for customer service reps.</b>&nbsp;Knowledge bases can answer simple questions for customers, such as "How do I change my subscription options?" or "How do I change my password?" which enables support teams to focus on more complex cases. This arrangement can also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/Guide-to-building-an-effective-employee-experience-strategy">improve agent job satisfaction</a>&nbsp;and productivity.</li> <li><b>Improved team member onboarding.&nbsp;</b>Knowledge bases can store material to help&nbsp;train support teams. These systems may contain simple materials, such as instructions on how to use a phone system, or more complex materials, such as prerecorded role-playing exercises for support teams. Employees can also find answers to frequently asked customer questions within a knowledge base.</li> <li><b>Customer analytics.</b>&nbsp;As customers interact with a knowledge base, the system collects data, such as behavioral data and explicit feedback in the form of comments. Organizations can then analyze this data to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/Why-businesses-need-voice-of-the-customer-analytics">gain a deeper understanding of customers' issues</a>.</li> <li><b>AI can help tune the system. </b>AI can organize unwieldy legacy content sets with hierarchical metadata. It can also process the existing customer support knowledge base articles and support case interactions. AI can generate draft knowledge base articles for support and technical documentation teams to validate, edit and add to the knowledge base. Finally, AI can help manage the knowledge base content lifecycle, aiding in retiring outdated content.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Top customer support knowledge base platforms"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Top customer support knowledge base platforms</h2> <p>An organization's size and goals determine which knowledge base products best suit its needs. Before organizations evaluate knowledge base products, they must consider the following questions about their content lifecycle:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>How will employees write, edit and publish the content?</li> <li>How will customers consume it?</li> <li>How will the organization evaluate content for relevance and utility, and revise or retire it?</li> </ul> <p>This article examines eight of the top customer support knowledge base platforms. The following knowledge base products were chosen based on either direct experience or product demonstrations of the tools. The list of vendor products appears in alphabetical order.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Document360"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Document360</h2> <p>Document360 is a platform designed to help companies manage documentation, including standard manuals, but also customer support knowledge bases. The company was only 18 months old when, in June 2022, it started to release AI-powered features. It now includes AI-powered search, an AI chatbot, intelligent categorization and interactive decision trees. It can also generate audio versions of articles and article summaries. It gathers customer use and feedback information to help authors focus on content improvements.</p> <p>Authoring in Document360 can either be <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/WYSIWYG-what-you-see-is-what-you-get">WYSIWYG</a> or in Markdown. A drag-and-drop category manager allows content librarians or authors to easily maintain content organization. Duplicate content detection helps the content team avoid duplicate, or worse, conflicting content.</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="https://document360.com/pricing/" rel="noopener">Pricing for Document360</a> is quoted based on the number of workspaces, languages, accounts and projected AI usage.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/new_document_kb_demo_screenshot-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/new_document_kb_demo_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/new_document_kb_demo_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/new_document_kb_demo_screenshot-f.jpg 1280w" alt="A screenshot of a Document360 knowledge base demo site." data-credit="Document360" height="379" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>In this Document360 demo site, users can get acclimated with the vendor's knowledge base features. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Freshworks Freshdesk and Freshdesk Omni"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Freshworks Freshdesk and Freshdesk Omni</h2> <p>Freshworks has a suite of tools to manage IT services and assets. Its support platform Freshdesk is a ticket helpdesk that includes a customer-support knowledge base along with its helpdesk capabilities.</p> <div class="imagecaption alignRight"> <img src="https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/freshworks_kb_screenshot-h.jpg" alt="A screenshot of a Freshworks customer support interface sample" width="452" height="257">This Freshworks demo shows a sample customer support interface. </div> <p>A higher-end product, Freshdesk Omni, adds multichannel support -- such as email, live chat, AI-based chat, phone and social media -- and the ability to create a library of AI help agents to the capabilities of Freshdesk.</p> <p>Freshdesk and Freshdesk Omni appeal to teams in need of helpdesk capabilities as well as a customer support knowledge base.</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/" rel="noopener">Prices for Freshdesk</a> start at $19 per agent per month when purchased annually. Freshdesk Omni starts at $29 per agent per month, billed annually.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Helpjuice"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Helpjuice</h2> <p>Helpjuice is a customer support knowledge base that includes FAQs, help articles and documentation. It can be used for internal or external support.&nbsp;</p> <p>The platform's AI capabilities include AI-powered search and AI-assisted authoring, including assistance in creating tutorials. The system also has an AI chatbot as well as AI-generated tagging and knowledge base analytics. Helpjuice includes multilingual support, either through AI translation or through translations you provide.</p> <p>Since Helpjuice is a dedicated knowledge base company, it does not include help desk or CRM capabilities. However, it supports 100 integrations, including with help desk and CRM platforms -- such as Salesforce, Zendesk and Freshdesk -- as well as with communication tools, like Slack and Microsoft Teams. Helpjuice might be an interesting option for those who have an existing help desk or CRM platform that has a knowledge base that does not meet their requirements.</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="https://helpjuice.com/pricing" rel="noopener">Pricing</a> ranges from $249 to $799 a month, with the lowest tier limited to 30 users. AI capabilities start at a middle tier of $449 a month.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/helpjuice_screenshot-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/helpjuice_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/helpjuice_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/helpjuice_screenshot-f.jpg 1280w" alt="A screenshot of a Helpjuice customer support knowledge base sample" data-credit="Helpjuice" height="442" width="559"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>In this Helpjuice knowledge base sample, customers can find several support resources. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="HubSpot Knowledge Base"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>HubSpot Knowledge Base</h2> <p>HubSpot, best known for its CRM offering, has built a suite of customer relationship products around sales and support, including a knowledge base, as part of its Service Hub platform Professional and Enterprise plans.&nbsp;</p> <p>The tool offers an analytics reporting dashboard that can show users how many times customers clicked on an individual article, how much time they spend reading the article and how satisfied they were with it based on explicit feedback scores. The knowledge base also offers SEO suggestions to help users create content that users can find easily.</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/service/enterprise?products=service-hub-professional_1&amp;term=annual" rel="noopener">Pricing</a>&nbsp;for HubSpot's Service Hub Professional starts at $90 per agent per month paid annually. The Enterprise tier starts at $150 per agent per month. The Service Hub comes with support for both human and AI agents, and considerable integration with the rest of HubSpot's features. Organizations that can benefit from HubSpot's industry-leading sales and marketing functions can get the most from this product.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/hubspot_helpcenter-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/hubspot_helpcenter-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/hubspot_helpcenter-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/hubspot_helpcenter-f.jpg 1280w" alt="A screenshot of the HubSpot Help Center" data-credit="HubSpot" height="429" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>The HubSpot Help Center features several resources including community discussions, knowledge base and customer blog. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Salesforce Knowledge"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Salesforce Knowledge</h2> <p>Salesforce includes its customer support knowledge base Salesforce Knowledge with higher tiers of its Service Cloud. Salesforce Knowledge is designed to aid the support team, with subsets of content made available for customer self-service applications. As with most AI-enabled knowledge bases, search on Salesforce Knowledge is based on the user's intent, not on keyword search. The platform has robust authoring capabilities, including templates and version history, as well as organizational tools, such as nested folders, tagging and dynamic collections. It also provides analytics, including on zero-result searches, article views and ratings.&nbsp;</p> <p>Salesforce Knowledge is designed to integrate smoothly with Salesforce's other key offerings of CRM, support ticketing, chat and AI agents, with the goal of keeping Salesforce CRM Content up to date.</p> <p>Salesforce Service Cloud offers <a target="_blank" href="https://www.salesforce.com/service/pricing/" rel="noopener">several pricing tiers</a>. Salesforce Knowledge is included in some pricing plans, but it's an additional cost in other editions. It is clearly an enterprise product, and unlikely to attract small and medium size businesses.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/salesforce_screenshot-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/salesforce_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/salesforce_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/salesforce_screenshot-f.jpg 1280w" alt="A screenshot of a Salesforce Knowledge dashboard sample" data-credit="Salesforce" height="333" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>In this Salesforce Knowledge dashboard sample, agents can collaborate with colleagues. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="ServiceNow Knowledge Center"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>ServiceNow Knowledge Center</h2> <p>ServiceNow has a powerful and configurable cloud-based option to manage IT service portfolios, into which its Knowledge Center is usually deployed. It fits best with enterprises with a large number of service offerings and may be overly complex for smaller enterprises, or those with a short list of products or services. The ServiceNow Knowledge Center software organizes content with hierarchical metadata tagging and runs in the cloud as a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/definition/Software-as-a-Service">SaaS</a>&nbsp;product.</p> <div class="imagecaption alignRight"> <img src="https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/servicenow_screenshot-h.jpg" alt="A screenshot and sample of a ServiceNow user interface" width="438" height="247">This sample ServiceNow UI shows knowledge base content ratings. </div> <p>Because it is feature rich, ServiceNow has a steep learning curve, which can add some risk to an organization's investment in it. The product does not have discussion board capabilities, and its lack of full-text search means users may struggle to find information.</p> <p>ServiceNow is designed and priced for larger enterprises, which must also configure and customize ServiceNow to their own workflows and use cases. The tool offers a high degree of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/servicenow-platform/configuration-management-database-cmdb/manage-cmdb.html" rel="noopener">configurability</a>. AI provides scores of the quality of content and assists in authoring to improve content and help authors focus on knowledge demand and feedback management based on cases and incidents.</p> <p>Pricing information is not readily available on the vendor's website.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Zendesk Knowledge"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Zendesk Knowledge</h2> <p>Zendesk's multi-channel customer support offering, Zendesk Suite, includes a knowledge base tool called Zendesk Knowledge. The knowledge base offers an easy-to-use and visually appealing interface for both authoring and reading content, as well as integration with the Zendesk support ticketing system. The tool incorporates discussion boards, which let customers ask each other questions to find answers that aren't in the knowledge base. It also lets users search text documents for specific words and phrases to help them find what they need.</p> <p>Zendesk Suite uses AI to harvest content from a company's website into support article drafts that an agent can edit and publish. Additionally, Zendesk Knowledge includes a chatbot that responds to customer questions based on information in the knowledge base.</p> <p>Zendesk Suite includes email,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/Compare-pros-and-cons-of-live-chat-vs-phone-support">live chat and phone support</a>. The product's knowledge base and support system integration can help lighten service agents' workloads, as it enables customers to find answers on their own. Zendesk says its agentic AI can solve up to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.zendesk.com/newsroom/press-releases/zendesk-introduces-specialized-ai-agents-purpose-built-for-your-business/" rel="noopener">80% of customer cases</a>.</p> <p>Zendesk can benefit organizations of all sizes. However, for organizations that aren't in the market for sales or support desk software, the Zendesk Suite might include too many unnecessary features.</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.zendesk.com/pricing/#everyone" rel="noopener">Pricing</a>&nbsp;for Zendesk's suite team offering starts at $55 per agent monthly when paid annually and $69 per agent when paid monthly. With additional features, pricing goes up to $115 per agent monthly when paid annually and $149 per agent when paid monthly.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/zendesk_screenshot-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/zendesk_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/zendesk_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/zendesk_screenshot-f.jpg 1280w" alt="A screenshot and sample of a Zendesk customer service suite interface" data-credit="Zendesk" height="332" width="558"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>In this Zendesk sample, customers can take advantage self-service features. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Zoho Desk"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Zoho Desk</h2> <p>Zoho Desk is a comprehensive customer platform that includes several self-support tools including a multi-lingual knowledge base supporting 50 languages with automated translation, a community forum, low-code chatbots and guided conversations. Authoring in the knowledge base includes AI-generated proposed text, based on the text of support chats, as well as authoring templates and version control. Dashboards display article view and customer like metrics to help the content team focus on what customers use and what they see as problematic.</p> <p>Pricing for Zoho Desk Standard, including the knowledge base, is $14 per user per month if purchased annually, and rises to $40 per user per month billed annually with the Zoho Desk Enterprise plan. Zoho Desk has one of the lowest entry costs and comes with integration with its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.zoho.com/desk/integrations.html?source_from=ft" rel="noopener">CRM and office</a> (mail, calendar, documents) suites.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/zoho_desk_screenshot-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/zoho_desk_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/zoho_desk_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/zoho_desk_screenshot-f.jpg 1280w" alt="A screenshot and sample of a Zoho Desk article metrics dashboard" data-credit="Zoho Desk" height="365" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>In this Zoho Desk sample, agents can get insights into article metrics. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How to choose the right platform"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How to choose the right platform</h2> <p>Organizations should evaluate their customer support knowledge base needs and how those needs might evolve over time. While one product may satisfy an organization in the short term, another option may offer smoother integrations with ticketing, support tracking systems and CRM. Buyers must assess how customizable each product is, so they can choose one that meets current needs and can scale up to meet future requirements.</p> <p>However, businesses planning complex integrations with CRM systems or planning to build a service portal around the knowledge base should start small. These organizations could start with the simpler and cheaper products and graduate to more powerful suites when they demonstrate the value of the knowledge base and confirm their need for expanded capabilities.</p> <p>As with any IT project, it is important to gather a prioritized list of requirements. For example, do you need ticketing and case management tools to be integrated with the customer support knowledge management system for customer self-service and case deflection? Do you need to automate support communication across social media platforms using information from the knowledge base?</p> <p>Once you have documented your requirements, use them to whittle down to a short list of three to five vendors whose platforms might be a fit for the organization. With these vendors, a series of discussions should lead to demos and an RFP process, and then a pilot. While this may seem like too many steps, and too slow, a customer support knowledge base is likely to be an expensive IT project, and getting it wrong could harm customer relationships as well as the long-term cost of ownership.</p> <p><em>Jordan Jones is a writer versed in enterprise content management, component content management, web content management and video-on-demand technologies.</em></p> </section> Customer-facing knowledge base software is a key cog to improve customer self-service. Explore the leading platforms and how to choose the right product for your organization. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/books_g1207033847.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/Top-8-knowledge-base-products-in-2023 Tue, 22 Sep 2026 09:55:00 GMT <p>Inventory risk can lead to problems for an entire organization, with supply chain disruptions, loss of inventory value and price fluctuation all potentially affecting the C-suite.</p> <p>COOs, CSCOs, CFOs and CIOs can work together on inventory risk management. Two of the most important aspects of inventory risk management are <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/data-technologies/definition/What-is-data-quality-and-why-is-it-important">high-quality</a>, integrated data and collaborative relationships with suppliers.</p> <p>Here are four strategies that COOs can implement to improve their organization’s inventory risk management.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. Develop a single source of truth"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. Develop a single source of truth</h2> <p>Using different software systems can make it difficult to obtain an accurate, real-time view of inventory and analyze historical trends <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/4-steps-for-using-predictive-analytics-in-demand-planning">for forecasting</a>.</p> <p>Many companies use standalone WMS platforms, spreadsheets, supplier portals and other tools for inventory, sales and customer relationships in addition to an ERP system. This fragmented approach can lead to data silos.</p> <p>In addition, poor data quality is very common and leads to the “garbage in, garbage out” problem. Poor data quality can lead to inaccurate forecasts, which will lead to chronic overstock, stockouts and aging inventory.</p> <p>COOs can help prevent data problems by adopting a rigorous approach to systems integration, data quality and data governance. Begin by mapping the end-to-end flow of data, from demand signals through procurement, manufacturing, warehousing and customer fulfillment. The COO should work with the CIO and CSCO to improve transactional discipline throughout those business processes, either by replacing outdated systems or modifying existing ones. Prioritize critical elements like ERP, WMS and planning, and consider incorporating <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/iotagenda/definition/Internet-of-Things-IoT">IoT</a> sensors for real-time visibility.</p> <p>During the integration or consolidation of data, assess the quality of the data and begin developing a data governance program, which will help improve data accuracy, completeness, compliance and accessibility. Develop a system of automated exception reporting, which will help improve and maintain quality, and implement regular data-quality audits, which will prevent small errors from becoming systemic problems.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. Deepen supplier collaboration and multi-tier visibility"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. Deepen supplier collaboration and multi-tier visibility</h2> <p>Supplier challenges can include late deliveries, poor quality, capacity problems and financial issues. Organizations that share forecasts, capacity plans and risk signals with their suppliers will have <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/8-supplier-relationship-management-strategies">better overall supplier relationships</a>.</p> <p>CSCOs should own the supplier collaboration strategy, but COOs must be involved as well. Implement Vendor-Managed Inventory where appropriate and build out shared data platforms that give the company’s suppliers visibility into consumption wherever possible.</p> <p>In addition, companies should <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/How-to-create-a-simple-supply-chain-map">map the multi-tier supply chain</a> and implement risk monitoring systems so second-tier and third-tier issues are revealed early as well as including risk-sharing and performance incentive clauses in key contracts. COOs should also ensure that the internal demand signals sent to suppliers are credible.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. Make inventory risk management a cross-functional responsibility"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. Make inventory risk management a cross-functional responsibility</h2> <p>The old go-tos for managing inventory risk are static safety-stock policies and annual planning cycles. Those strategies are a good starting point, but they’re simply not sufficient today. COOs need to continuously scan for emerging risks and model scenarios as well as possible outcomes.</p> <p>COOs should establish a routine inventory risk review with COOs, CSCOs, CFOs and any other relevant business unit leaders and use advanced analytics and AI tools to monitor indicators such as supplier financials, commodity prices, demand forecast accuracy and geopolitical trends. Scenario planning can help predict any potential high-impact disruptions and recommend possible mitigation measures.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. Implement segmentation and dynamic optimization"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4. Implement segmentation and dynamic optimization</h2> <p>One-size-fits-all inventory policies usually lead to negative results. Stable, high-volume SKUs should be treated differently than slow-moving or high-variability items, and service-level targets should not be arbitrary numbers but should reflect actual impact on customers and margins.</p> <p>COOs should mandate ABC frameworks or similar approaches that classify items by value, demand variability and strategic importance, then establish policies for safety stock, reorder points and review frequency based on those classifications. Consider using optimization engines that can recalculate policies as conditions change.</p> <p>Reviewing and revising categories as needed is also important, as routine reviews prevent the “set it and forget it” mindset that can increase risk exposure over time.</p> <p>COOs can use these four strategies to help their organizations <a href="https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2024/08/02/how-organizations-can-become-more-resilient/">be more</a> resilient, proactively manage inventory risk and deliver more consistent service.</p> <p><i>James Kofalt spent 16 years at SAP working with SME business applications and was a product manager for integration technology at Microsoft's Business Solutions division. He is currently the president of DX4 Research, a technology advisory practice specializing in ERP and digital transformation.</i></p> </section> COOs can help prevent data problems by adopting a rigorous approach to systems integration, data quality and data governance. Learn other actions to take. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/container_g1275954204.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/How-COOs-can-manage-inventory-risk-across-systems-and-operations Mon, 21 Sep 2026 15:38:00 GMT <p>Your contact center likely already uses <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/5-key-contact-center-AI-features-and-their-benefits">AI features</a> and tools in some capacity. What you are less likely to have is an AI governance framework that clearly outlines accountability for each AI function, what customer data AI is allowed to access, at what points humans should take over, and how all AI-centric decisions are disclosed and audited.</p> <p>Traditional CX controls assume human agents and after-the-fact quality checks on a small sample of contacts. AI does not work that way. It can act on every interaction, often without a person in the loop. That means one leaked number, missed disclosure, or unauthorized promise can reach thousands of customers before anyone notices. That is why CX leaders need an added layer of control now, not after the first disastrous incident. Done properly, that governance framework lets you scale contact center AI without giving up customer trust or operational control.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What AI governance covers in contact centers"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What AI governance covers in contact centers</h2> <p>It's important to note that AI governance for contact centers is not a single policy document that's independent of all other policies. Instead, think of it as an extension of the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/Building-a-successful-CX-governance-operating-model">existing CX governance framework</a>. It's here that you describe the various AI systems that are permitted for use, what their roles are, and who is responsible when things go wrong. This includes customer-facing tools such as chatbots, voice agents, and internal tools such as intelligent routing, sentiment analysis, call summaries, and quality scoring. To start, an AI governance framework must cover the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Data usage:</b> A governance framework should define what customer information an AI system can access and analyze. This includes defining the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/cybersecurity/tip/Guide-to-AI-data-pipeline-security-and-resilience">AI data pipeline</a>, including what AI can see, where it is stored, how long it is kept, and how to redact sensitive details before a model begins interacting with the data.</li> <li><b>Model behavior:</b> All types of automated routing, actions, and generated responses initiated by AI require regularly scheduled checks to ensure there is no bias, hallucination, or overall policy drift. The framework should clearly specify what gets audited, the frequency of the audit, and what happens when outputs begin failing against a baseline standard.</li> <li><b>Customer disclosure:</b> Include transparency in the form of disclosures when AI is customer-facing. Clearly state anything that could be mistaken for a human representative. The framework should indicate where the notices appear, what the disclosure must include, and the handoff process when a customer or contact requests a human to interact with.</li> <li><b>Oversight:</b> AI should have a clear boundary,<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/it-infrastructure/tip/Balancing-automation-with-human-oversight-in-AI-data-centers"> balancing where AI automation stops and where human intervention begins</a>. This includes low-confidence, high-risk situations, payment processing, legal commitments, sensitive customers, or anything the model can not deliver on with high degrees of accuracy. Measurable thresholds must be defined along with detailed handoff procedures.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Core governance pillars for contact center AI"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Core governance pillars for contact center AI</h2> <p>Once you define what to govern, the next and more challenging step is to put operational processes behind the framework. The following pillars tell you who owns each AI system or tool, how strict the rules should be based on risk factors, and what proof or triggers are needed when something goes wrong.</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Decision rights:</b> Assign AI systems to a team to declare ownership over operations. For example, compliance teams should be allowed to disallow AI use for high-risk use cases, while IT and security teams should <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/it-strategy/news/366650717/AI-agent-autonomy-puts-CIO-controls-to-the-test">control all access and logging</a>. Ownership also includes regular reviews, escalations, and the handling of model drift.</li> <li><b>Risk-based policies:</b> Remember that every AI system does not need the same level of control. For example, a customer service FAQ chatbot does not need the same level of control as an AI agent that can make changes to customer accounts, issue credits/refunds, or handle other sensitive tasks. Categorize AI systems and tools by risk and set rules within each category based on customer/contact impact, data access, and how much the model can do without a human-in-the-loop.</li> <li><b>Audit-ready evidence:</b> Every AI step, interaction, and control process needs a well-defined <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cxtoday.com/security-privacy-compliance/ai-audit-trail-regulatory-scrutiny/" rel="noopener">audit trail</a>. That trail should show what the customer was told, what data the model used, which version made the decision, and whether a human took over. If you cannot export those records from your own systems, you are depending on a vendor screenshot. That will not hold up when QA, legal, or a regulator asks for proof after an incident.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How to implement a governance framework"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How to implement a governance framework</h2> <p>Successful implementation of an AI governance framework depends on establishing a repeatable set of steps from AI system or tool proposal to ongoing production operations. Here are some best practices to implement a governance framework:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Log every proposed AI tool or system before design starts and assign it to a risk tier.</li> <li>If any AI is already in production, tier it and potentially restrict it if it cannot meet the framework standard.</li> <li>Approve all data access, disclosure, prohibited actions and escalation rules.</li> <li>Create disclosure notices, alerting thresholds, and logging into a common workflow.</li> <li>Launch AI with applied guardrails and monitor for results.</li> <li>Continuously reassess models and tools throughout their lifecycle.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Delivering contact center AI on a controlled path"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Delivering contact center AI on a controlled path</h2> <p>A practical governance program turns contact center AI from an unmanaged risk into a controlled capability. CX leaders get a repeatable path from proposal to production, including systems already in use, so they can scale AI without giving up customer trust or regulatory standing.</p> <p><em>Andrew Froehlich is founder of InfraMomentum, an enterprise IT research and analyst firm, and president of West Gate Networks, an IT consulting company. He has been involved in enterprise IT for more than 20 years.</em></p> </section> Enterprise CX leaders managing contact center AI need a governance framework to oversee access to customer data and set limitations and controls on AI capabilities. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/chatbot_g1144033172.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/A-practical-guide-to-AI-governance-in-contact-centers Mon, 21 Sep 2026 13:34:00 GMT <p>Inventory is a substantial investment for manufacturers, distributors and retailers, as it ties up working capital. Corporate leadership teams must take action to mitigate inventory risk.</p> <p>Many members of the C-suite could be affected by inventory risk. COOs and CSCOs could be impacted by the negative <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/7-best-practices-for-inventory-management">consequences of poor inventory management</a>, as it can affect service levels and customer loyalty. CFOs could be affected by the financial consequences of bad inventory management, with the results potentially including carrying costs, write-downs and volatile cash flow.</p> <p>Here are the six primary categories of inventory risk.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. Inaccurate demand forecasting"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. Inaccurate demand forecasting</h2> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/4-steps-for-using-predictive-analytics-in-demand-planning">Planners’ demand forecasting</a> will be inaccurate if their forecasting uses incomplete historical data, fragmented input from multiple departments or information that fails to account for anomalies such as promotions.</p> <p>Over-forecasting leads to excess inventory, tying up of cash, an increase in carrying costs and an increase in the likelihood of write-downs because of product obsolescence. Meanwhile, under-forecasting leads to stockouts, lost sales, expediting costs and potential customer dissatisfaction. COOs and CSCOs will find it harder to deliver on-time-in-full, while CFOs will face unpredictable fluctuations in working capital.</p> <p>To mitigate this risk, COOs should consider implementing AI-enabled demand-sensing platforms, which ingest structured and unstructured data such as internal inputs, consumer sentiment indicators and macro-economic trends. The technology will give leaders more insight into demand. Meanwhile, CSCOs must enforce disciplined planning and carry out regular reviews of forecasts to ensure they’re accurate.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. Supply chain disruption"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. Supply chain disruption</h2> <p>Even perfect internal forecasting isn’t enough if suppliers miss delivery windows or the flow of goods is disrupted by geopolitical events or natural disasters. Relying on a single source for goods dramatically increases risk.</p> <p>Supplier failures and general supply chain disruptions usually have a cascading impact, halting production lines and potentially leading to unfulfilled customer orders. Those effects can lead to unexpected expediting costs and damage customer loyalty. CSCOs bear primary responsibility, but COOs and CFOs must deal with fallout from the problem as well.</p> <p>Prevention begins with awareness and supplier diversification. CSCOs should implement supplier evaluation processes that examine on-time delivery, quality and financial health and consider multi-sourcing critical components and materials. Long-term partnership agreements with shared risk and reward clauses as well as collaborative forecasting should considerably reduce volatility.</p> <p>COOs can help <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/6-top-supply-chain-risks-for-companies-to-mitigate">prevent supply chain disruption</a> by ensuring that internal systems provide suppliers with accurate demand signals.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. Excess inventory and obsolescence"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. Excess inventory and obsolescence</h2> <p>Excess inventory takes up warehouse space and can negatively affect picking efficiency. It may be caused by over-forecasting, product line changes or unexpected buyer preference shifts. Some categories of goods, such as perishables or technology products, lose value especially quickly.</p> <p>Mitigation of this risk requires aggressive <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/8-top-inventory-management-software-products">inventory management</a>. COOs should implement regular ABC segmentation reviews and aging inventory reports and establish clear protocols for disposal of excess or obsolete goods. Meanwhile, CSCOs should align introduction of new products with phase-out plans for predecessor SKUs.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. Shrinkage"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4. Shrinkage</h2> <p>Inventory can disappear or lose value because of theft, damage, spoilage or supplier fraud. Shrinkage not only leads to direct financial loss but reduces the accuracy of inventory records, making planning even more difficult. Repeated shrinkage also indicates insufficient control over inventory, which could undermine confidence in the company from investors and regulators.</p> <p>COOs should implement cycle-counting programs, access controls, video surveillance and any other needed countermeasures, such as sensor-driven alerts for high-value items. Meanwhile, CSCOs should stay alert for supplier fraud.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="5. Price volatility"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>5. Price volatility</h2> <p>Rapid shifts in commodity values, currencies or competitive pricing can affect existing inventory value and the economics involved with holding inventory. This risk is especially acute for organizations that have long lead times or often possess significant quantities of raw materials.</p> <p>COOs and CSCOs must decide whether to hedge, build strategic buffers or pass costs on to customers. CSCOs can negotiate price-adjustment clauses and index-based contracts with key suppliers, while COOs can implement postponement strategies. CFOs can invest in hedging instruments that can potentially reduce the effects of fluctuations.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="6. Quality defects and compliance risk"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>6. Quality defects and compliance risk</h2> <p>Defective, counterfeit and non-compliant inventory can lead to costly recalls, reputational damage and regulatory penalties. Stakes are especially high for companies in industries like pharmaceuticals, medical devices and food and beverage. Depending on their area of operations, some companies must adhere to extended producer responsibility laws and similar regulations or face compliance risk.</p> <p>C-suite mitigation should focus on prevention and product traceability. CSCOs oversee supplier quality management, while COOs must ensure controls are in place for incoming products and work-in-process.</p> <p>Many types of inventory risk are interrelated. Carrying out the proper demand forecasting will help reduce excess and obsolescence, while ensuring reliability of suppliers <a href="https://www.6sigma.us/six-sigma-in-focus/quality-control-plan/">and quality programs</a> will help reduce shrinkage and disruption. COOs and CSCOs should treat inventory risk as a cross-functional problem.</p> <p><i>James Kofalt spent 16 years at SAP working with SME business applications and was a product manager for integration technology at Microsoft's Business Solutions division. He is currently the president of DX4 Research, a technology advisory practice specializing in ERP and digital transformation.</i></p> </section> Excess inventory takes up warehouse space and complicates picking efficiency. Learn about other types of inventory risk and how C-suite executives can help prevent them. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/container_g94985758.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/Learn-the-types-of-inventory-risk Thu, 17 Sep 2026 14:39:00 GMT <p>In recent years, discussions and debates around AI have gained significant momentum. Most chatter centers on <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/generative-AI">generative AI</a> or <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/agentic-AI">agentic AI</a>. GenAI systems like chatbots and copilots can create original content and automate routine tasks. However, they perform these tasks only in response to human users' prompts and, thus, cannot act autonomously. In contrast, agentic systems are autonomous, capable of setting goals, planning multi-step workflows, making independent decisions and executing complex tasks -- all with minimal, and in some cases, no human intervention.</p> <p>An agentic system can use a single <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/AI-agents">AI agent</a> -- an autonomous software component that handles all planning, reasoning, decision-making and execution for a task. Or it can include multiple specialized agents that collaborate within enterprise workflows, with varying degrees of orchestration and human oversight. This approach allows for the intelligent achievement of defined goals and effectively addresses complex, large-scale tasks. Gartner refers to these types of agent-based AI deployments as multi-agent systems (MAS).</p> <p>MAS offer many benefits for a wide range of real-world enterprise use cases, including faster execution, seamless scalability and higher operational efficiency. However, many organizations struggle to capture tangible business value from them. One key reason is a failure to establish appropriate accountability and governance frameworks within which the agents will operate.</p> <p>To achieve these objectives, enterprise leaders need to understand and mitigate the governance and accountability challenges posed by MAS. Such an understanding can help them to align the MAS with business goals, operational context and workflows. Once such alignment is achieved, it can become easier to scale MAS adoption and ensure that it effectively strengthens and supports the business.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Why AI vendors and organizations are pivoting toward MAS"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Why AI vendors and organizations are pivoting toward MAS</h2> <p>With advanced capabilities in reasoning, planning, execution and tool integration, multi-agentic AI systems can be deployed for numerous real-world enterprise use cases across applications such as financial operations, risk management, IT, sales, marketing, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/tip/Use-cases-for-machine-learning-in-the-supply-chain">supply chain management</a>, human resources and customer service. The growing potential for real-world applicability shows why industry interest and momentum in MAS are rising steeply.</p> <p>For example, Gartner <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/multiagent-systems" rel="noopener">reports</a> that, during the 15-month period from Q1 2024 to Q2 2025, MAS inquiries from organizations surged by 1,445%. Gartner cites MAS as one of the top 10 strategic technology <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/top-technology-trends-2026">trends</a> for 2026 -- a strategic imperative that will empower leaders to build resilient foundations, protect enterprise value and shape the business landscape over the next five years. Gartner's Tom Coshow and Kiumarse Zamanian, both VP analysts and agentic AI experts, reiterate that MAS adoption will continue to accelerate across sectors worldwide, having already demonstrated measurable value in many business-critical applications.</p> <p>Monolithic, single-agent AI systems continue to deliver value for targeted, repeatable tasks like repetitive workflow automation, narrow analytics, knowledge retrieval and context summarization. However, they also have a significant drawback: They struggle to reason, plan and operate within complex business workflows. Additionally, no single AI agent can effectively manage every process, especially since different processes operate under various rules and constraints and require distinct data sources, permissions and expertise to produce high-quality results.</p> <p>To help enterprise customers mitigate these limitations, leading enterprise software vendors are increasingly pivoting toward MAS. Unlike standalone AI assistants, chatbots and retrieval engines, MAS are coordinated systems of dozens, hundreds or thousands of specialized AI agents that work together to intelligently plan and execute large-scale, complex tasks. These programs can operate not only within specific applications but also across multiple enterprise workflows, systems, platforms, business processes and departments.</p> <p>MAS are beginning to emerge across ERP, HR, CRM, procurement, finance, IT service management, customer experience (CX) and collaboration platforms. These tools increasingly include dedicated AI agents that participate in broader business processes, not by operating in silos but by coordinating activities, sharing responsibilities and seamlessly completing interconnected tasks.</p> <p>For example, Sprinklr offers an AI-native CX management platform that unifies all customer-facing functions. Within this platform, multiple agents work together to help organizations resolve customer issues faster, personalize customer interactions and boost conversions.</p> <p>Similarly, Aisera AI from Automation Anywhere is an intelligent, agentic AI service management platform. Its domain-specific AI agents help to automate change and incident management and to facilitate proactive incident detection and root cause analysis.</p> <p>Other vendors that offer agentic AI-enabled enterprise software include the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Amazon.</li> <li>Braze.</li> <li>Kore.ai.</li> <li>Microsoft.</li> <li>Salesforce.</li> <li>ServiceNow.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="The limitations of orchestrator agents"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>The limitations of orchestrator agents</h2> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> MAS can automate and streamline complex business workflows by breaking them down into manageable steps. This is something that single-agent AI systems are simply not equipped to do. </figure> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>MAS can automate and streamline complex business workflows by breaking them down into manageable steps. This is something that single-agent AI systems are simply not equipped to do. Each agent within the MAS performs a relatively narrow role, but the "team" of agents works together to improve reliability, efficiency and scalability <i>across</i> workflows.</p> <p>MAS present a critical challenge that organizations often overlook: ensuring agents share consistent assumptions, policies, data and definitions. While communication and coordination are solved problems -- most MAS use an orchestrator to manage specialized agents working toward common goals -- orchestration alone is not enough. Without a shared understanding across agents, organizations cannot achieve true agent-business alignment or realize strong ROI from their MAS investment.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How MAS expose existing enterprise architecture problems"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How MAS expose existing enterprise architecture problems</h2> <p>Many organizations looking to adopt MAS see it as a software engineering problem: Define agent roles and personas, choose an orchestration framework, set up the control flow and memory and equip agents with tools -- and deployment is good to go. These technical details do matter for successful MAS setup. However, the chief concern facing many organizations is not technical but <i>architectural</i>. These challenges include the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Fragmented data</b>. When data is spread across different systems and stored in different formats, AI agents lack a unified source of truth. This makes it harder for them to communicate with other agents. They also might make contradictory decisions, hallucinate context or produce unpredictable or unreliable outputs.</li> <li><b>Conflicting business rules, policies</b> <b>and decision criteria. </b>Overlapping or contradictory instructions can cause agents to override one another, resulting in operational gridlock. Also, a single agent's flawed decision based on a single rule can lead to cascading errors and even major system errors, as downstream agents use that decision as an operational baseline for their own decisions.</li> <li><b>Inconsistent definitions.<i> </i></b>The lack of a standardized, shared language when setting up a MAS might cause agents to misinterpret inputs or fail to execute coordinated tasks properly. They might also reinforce each other's mistakes, leading to compounding errors, or return irrelevant output when using external tools like APIs or databases.</li> <li><b>Disconnected workflows.<i> </i></b>Without connected, synchronized workflows, agents must contend with fragmented data and context loss during handoffs, resulting in higher latency, fragmented memory or compounding errors across the execution pipeline. Also, multiple agents might attempt to access or modify a shared resource simultaneously, creating a race condition that can lead to incorrect downstream decision-making or <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/feature/6-ways-to-reduce-different-types-of-bias-in-machine-learning">unpredictable or biased output</a>. And even with an orchestration framework, disconnected workflows can cause goal misalignment among agents, leading them to lose sight of the broader business objective.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="The growing challenge of accountability"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>The growing challenge of accountability</h2> <p>Accountability can also be very challenging when multiple agents participate in the same business process.</p> <p>For example, consider an AI-enabled algorithmic trading platform. This platform uses multiple AI agents: one to estimate market sentiment (Analyst), one to evaluate investment portfolio exposure (Risk Assessor), one to execute stock trades (Executor), and an Orchestrator to monitor MAS performance and resolve bottlenecks.</p> <p>But what if one of the agents makes a mistake that leads to financial loss for the organization? Maybe the Analyst misread a news event. Or perhaps the Risk Assessor failed to set a proper safety cap prior to the trade. Without strong governance structures, traceability protocols and restrictions on the levels of autonomy available to agents, it can be difficult to determine which agent is actually at fault. Consequently, the system's outcomes are likely to be flawed, potentially causing significant real-world damage and eroding trust in the MAS.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What enterprise buyers should ask before adopting MAS"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What enterprise buyers should ask before adopting MAS</h2> <p>To avoid the issues highlighted above, organizations need to proactively evaluate the system's governance controls and accountability mechanisms <i>before</i> deploying it. These controls and mechanisms might include the following actions:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Logging and tracking how a task cascades through the MAS.</li> <li>Maintaining an up-to-date agent registry.</li> <li>Deploying specialized agents to enforce rule boundaries and detect misbehaviors of other agents.</li> <li>Ensuring clear handshakes and context preservation between agents.</li> <li>Enforcing contracts and resolving disputes among competing agent goals.</li> <li>Establishing escalation protocols so agents know when to pause, abort or escalate a task to a human mediator.</li> <li>Implementing <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/Human-in-the-loop-shouldnt-rubber-stamp-decisions">human-in-the-loop</a> guardrails to correct or override MAS decisions.</li> </ul> <p>Organizations also need to ensure that agents are not operating within a black box. This means gaining and maintaining clarity on which processes should involve multiple agents, how agents should share data and how agents will share context across applications. It is equally important to determine early which agents will be authorized to make business decisions, who owns each agent and its outcomes, and which agents will communicate with external systems.</p> <div class="extra-info"> <div class="extra-info-inner"> <h3 class="splash-heading">Key questions to ask MAS vendors</h3> <p>Before deploying a multi-agent system, enterprise buyers should evaluate vendors on governance, accountability and architectural readiness.</p> <p><b>Governance and traceability</b></p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>How does your system log and trace task execution across multiple agents?</li> <li>What mechanisms are in place to maintain an agent registry and track agent roles?</li> <li>How do you detect and prevent agent misbehavior or conflicting actions?</li> </ul> <p><b>Accountability and oversight</b></p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>Which agents can make autonomous business decisions, and what are their authorization limits?</li> <li>How does the system handle conflicts between agent recommendations?</li> <li>What human-in-the-loop controls are available to override or correct agent decisions?</li> </ul> <p><b>Data and context management</b></p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>How do agents share data and maintain context during handoffs?</li> <li>What safeguards prevent agents from operating on inconsistent assumptions or definitions?</li> <li>How does the system ensure agents access a unified source of truth?</li> </ul> <p><b>Escalation and exception handling</b></p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>What protocols exist for agents to pause, abort or escalate tasks to humans?</li> <li>How are exceptions and edge cases managed across the agent network?</li> <li>Who owns each agent's outcomes, and how is responsibility assigned?</li> </ul> <p><b>Integration and workflow alignment</b></p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>How does the MAS integrate with existing enterprise systems and workflows?</li> <li>What controls prevent race conditions when multiple agents access shared resources?</li> <li>How do you ensure agents remain aligned with broader business objectives?</li> </ul> <p>Vendors should provide clear, documented answers to these questions -- not vague assurances. Strong governance frameworks are essential to capturing ROI and minimizing risk.</p> </div> </div> <p>Enterprise leaders also need to plan how conflicts between agent recommendations will be resolved and how exceptions will be handled. Furthermore, it is critical to clarify when human intervention or approval is required for different activities and how responsibilities will be divided between humans and AI agents.</p> <p>When all these crucial building blocks are in place, organizations can minimize the risk of creating fragmented collections of AI agents. And in doing so, they can maximize the likelihood that the MAS will produce consistent, high-quality outcomes and operate safely within ethical and legal boundaries. Ultimately, a well-governed, accountable MAS can reduce operational complexity and help the business achieve its stated goals.</p> <p><em>Rahul Awati is a PMP-certified project manager with IT infrastructure experience spanning storage, compute and enterprise networking.</em></p> </section> Multi-agent systems require strong governance frameworks to ensure agents share consistent assumptions, policies and data, which are critical for achieving alignment and ROI. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/ai_a205627811.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/Why-multi-agent-systems-are-an-enterprise-architecture-challenge Thu, 17 Sep 2026 12:05:00 GMT <p>AI can potentially help CSCOs and COOs who manage complex logistics networks reduce costs, make operations more reliable and improve sustainability.</p> <p>AI can deliver predictive insights and automation when integrated with telematics, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/definition/transportation-management-system-TMS">transportation management systems</a> and existing fleet management systems. Members of the C-suite who work on the supply chain can potentially collaborate with their company’s CIO to create a plan for AI use.</p> <p>Here are some AI fleet management use cases.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. Predictive maintenance"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. Predictive maintenance</h2> <p>AI-powered <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/Predictive-maintenance-Definition-benefits-example-strategy">predictive maintenance</a> involves analysis of real-time sensor data such as engine performance, vibration and temperature, then identification of any likely equipment failures. The predictive maintenance technology can recommend preventative action, which enables fleet managers to schedule maintenance at the best possible time.</p> <p>CSCOs should partner with their company’s CFO to build a business case for this investment. Look for platforms with proven accuracy and prioritize integration with existing maintenance systems and workflows.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. Dynamic route optimization"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. Dynamic route optimization</h2> <p>Many consumers use the live traffic updates that are part of mobile phone-based GPS apps. AI can continuously optimize routes across a fleet based on factors such as traffic, weather, scheduled delivery windows and vehicle capacity.</p> <p>CSCOs should evaluate products that integrate with their existing TMS and consider key constraints like hours-of-service rules and EV charging requirements. &nbsp;</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. Demand forecasting and fleet right-sizing"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. Demand forecasting and fleet right-sizing</h2> <p>AI models can help CSCOs and CFOs more accurately <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/4-steps-for-using-predictive-analytics-in-demand-planning">predict future demand</a> by analyzing historical data, economic indicators, seasonal trends, sales forecasts and weather patterns. These predictions can help organizations plan their capital investments and properly size their fleets so they can meet customer demand but not spend extra money on transportation.</p> <p>Demand forecasting and fleet right-sizing could be particularly helpful for organizations that are balancing company growth with strict cost controls as well as sustainability standards.</p> <p>CSCOs should look for tools that integrate with ERP and sales systems so that real-world data can make the predictions as accurate as possible.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. Sustainability and emissions optimization"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4. Sustainability and emissions optimization</h2> <p>If companies operate in an area where they are required to follow sustainability regulations, AI can help fleet managers track their fuel consumption and carbon emissions.</p> <p>Scenario modeling for alternative fuels can help support fleet conversion decisions, and advanced platforms <a href="https://sustainability.yale.edu/explainers/yale-experts-explain-scope-3-emissions">can generate</a> Scope 3 emissions reports. Look for tools that balance environmental goals with operational scenarios, such as a tool that identifies the best routes for EV deployment.</p> <p><i>James Kofalt spent 16 years at SAP working with SME business applications and was a product manager for integration technology at Microsoft's Business Solutions division. He is currently the president of DX4 Research, a technology advisory practice specializing in ERP and digital transformation.</i></p> </section> AI can continuously optimize routes across a fleet based on factors such as traffic, weather and vehicle capacity. Learn about other AI use cases for fleet management. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/map_globe_g1278866306.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/AI-use-cases-that-could-help-optimize-fleet-management Wed, 16 Sep 2026 13:11:00 GMT <p>Transportation management systems (TMSes) can help companies with various aspects of their logistics. However, organizations must choose the right product to reap as many benefits as possible from the technology.</p> <p>TMSes help operations personnel plan, execute and monitor the movement of goods. TMS software picks up where many <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/tip/Benefits-of-using-an-OMS">order management systems</a> leave off and handles route optimization, carrier selection and freight settlement, among other aspects of transportation management. CSCOs and COOs who are responsible for supply chain performance should consider working with their company’s CIO to integrate a TMS with other software platforms, including fleet management systems, warehouse management systems, ERP and telematics.</p> <p>Here are some of the top transportation management systems on the market, including pros and cons for each. Vendors were chosen based on sources such as Gartner, G2, Capterra, vendor websites and industry analyst reports. The selections prioritize enterprise-grade products that are suitable for complex supply chain operations.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Blue Yonder Transportation Management"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Blue Yonder Transportation Management</h2> <p>Blue Yonder specializes <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/Guide-to-supply-chain-management">in supply chain management</a> and does not offer a standalone ERP system. Its AI capabilities include predictive and prescriptive analytics, and Blue Yonder is capable of handling multi-modal transportation scenarios. The product also offers capabilities for communicating with suppliers and carriers as well as last-mile delivery tools.</p> <p><b>Pros</b>: Users report that the increased visibility into data is helpful.</p> <p><b>Cons</b>: Reviews are mixed on ease of implementation.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="E2open Transportation Management"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>E2open Transportation Management</h2> <p>E2open was acquired by WiseTech Global in 2025. The company describes its overall product as a “connected supply chain platform,” emphasizing collaboration and shared data flows. E2open Transportation Management includes capabilities such as workflow automation, analytics <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/6-ways-to-reduce-last-mile-delivery-costs">and shipment tracking</a>, among others.</p> <p><b>Pros</b>: Users say the centralization of information is helpful for operations.</p> <p><b>Cons</b>: E2open’s integration capabilities got mixed reviews from users, and some users disliked the interface.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Manhattan ActiveTransportation"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Manhattan ActiveTransportation</h2> <p>Manhattan focuses on order management, warehouse management, transportation management and other logistics functions. ActiveTransportation is available in three different versions, with different editions offering capabilities such as routing tools and network modeling.</p> <p><b>Pros</b>: Users praise the interface and its load management capabilities.</p> <p><b>Cons</b>: More customization capabilities could be helpful, according to users.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Oracle Transportation Management (OTM)"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Oracle Transportation Management (OTM)</h2> <p>Oracle Transportation Management manages freight logistics across various modes of transportation, integrating with Oracle’s ERP and supply chain tools. AI-driven features include predictive ETAs and automated carrier selection.</p> <p><b>Pros</b>: Users say the product has a good user interface and that it enabled better visibility into operations.</p> <p><b>Cons</b>: The implementation can be difficult and expensive, according to users.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="SAP Transportation Management (TM)"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>SAP Transportation Management (TM)</h2> <p>SAP’s Transportation Management system <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/7-advantages-disadvantages-of-using-a-TMS">offers route optimization</a> as well as sustainability features like emissions tracking. It also integrates with SAP’s S/4HANA ERP software’s order-to-cash and procure-to-pay workflows.</p> <p><b>Pros</b>: Users say its integration capabilities with other SAP products are helpful, as is the increased visibility into operations.</p> <p><b>Cons</b>: The product can be difficult to implement and use, according to some users.</p> <p>Selecting a transportation management system requires a clear assessment of a company’s existing technology stack <a href="https://afdc.energy.gov/conserve/rightsizing">as well as</a> its fleet size, strategic goals and supply chain volatility. The right TMS can help improve overall efficiency, but C-suite leaders must ensure that the TMS they choose is the right one for their company.</p> <p><i>James Kofalt spent 16 years at SAP working with SME business applications and was a product manager for integration technology at Microsoft's Business Solutions division. He is currently the president of DX4 Research, a technology advisory practice specializing in ERP and digital transformation.</i></p> </section> Learn more about some of the top transportation management systems on the market, including the products’ features as well as the pros and cons for each. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/map_globe_g97236443.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/5-of-the-top-transportation-management-systems Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:50:00 GMT <p>Enterprise software vendors are rapidly embedding AI agents and intelligent automation into ERP, HR, CRM, IT service management, collaboration and other enterprise platforms. While these capabilities promise greater efficiency by automating routine decisions and orchestrating workflows, they also raise an important governance question: How can organizations design AI-enabled enterprise workflows so that automation improves efficiency without weakening the human expertise needed to evaluate exceptions, correct errors and maintain operations?</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Talent preservation: A new face of governance"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Talent preservation: A new face of governance</h2> <p>From both corporate and legal perspectives, governance means that the business is <a href="https://online.law.pitt.edu/blog/corporate-governance-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters">accountable</a> to its key stakeholders: employees, customers, shareholders and the broader community. The historical role of governance has been to reduce corporate risk. This risk was managed by maintaining the privacy of customer data, ensuring that data and other IT assets were secure, and working with users to set guardrails defining which systems and assets employees across functions are authorized to use.</p> <p>However, with the introduction of AI, AI agents and greater business process automation, the enterprise risk management plane has broadened. How, for example, can enterprises maintain business resilience by ensuring there is no erosion of human skill sets and know-how as more AI and automation are introduced?</p> <p>"We view this as an important topic that must be actively managed," said Christophe Theys, global head of AI, Data &amp; Analytics for DHL Supply Chain. "There is a risk that people will become overly reliant on technology if AI is introduced without proper governance."</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How organizations are adopting AI and preserving talent"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How organizations are adopting AI and preserving talent</h2> <p>AI delivers efficiencies to companies. It is helping employees work more effectively and improving company operations. As more AI is embedded in business processes, the largest gains from AI are still ahead.</p> <p>Despite AI's success, the risk of workforce talent erosion due to increased use of AI and automation is not lost on enterprises, either. Here are three examples of companies that are advancing AI and ensuring their workforces remain skilled.</p> <h3>DHL</h3> <p>"We use AI across a broad range of operational and functional processes," said Theys. "Examples include warehouse operations, transportation management, customer service, staff functions and general employee productivity. We are increasingly deploying AI agents and embedded AI capabilities to automate repetitive tasks, support decision-making, improve service quality and help employees work more efficiently. Today, we have dozens of AI use cases globally, ranging from operational digital assistants and AI-powered customer interactions to AI agents supporting transportation and warehouse processes."</p> <p>Theys said that most of the AI and AI agents employees are using are those embedded in enterprise systems. The company also develops some of its own.</p> <p>"In all cases, our goal is a 'human plus AI' workforce where people focus more on exception handling, customer interaction, problem solving and continuous improvement," Theys said. "We invest in helping employees understand where AI can assist them, how to work effectively with AI tools and where human judgment remains essential."</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> The objective [of AI] is not to remove human knowledge, but to make it more accessible and more scalable. </figure> <figcaption> <strong>Christophe Theys</strong>Global head of AI, Data &amp; Analytics, DHL Supply Chain </figcaption> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>DHL already sees measurable productivity improvements, faster response times, higher quality and better employee experiences. AI agents are automating many aspects of operational communication, including scheduling, status updates and some exception management, while keeping DHL employees in the loop.</p> <p>"We see AI as an augmentation technology, not as a replacement for human expertise," Theys continued. "We deliberately keep humans involved in critical decisions, customer interactions, compliance-related activities and exception handling. We also focus on upskilling and knowledge sharing. In many cases, AI actually helps preserve organizational knowledge by making expertise easier to capture, document, search and reuse across the organization. The objective is not to remove human knowledge, but to make it more accessible and more scalable."</p> <h3>Kuehne+Nagel</h3> <p>"We are using AI across multiple areas of our business to improve productivity, decision-making and customer experiences," said Alireza Nemati, chief AI and innovation officer at logistics provider Kuehne+Nagel. "Our approach focuses on embedding AI into the way we work, rather than treating it as a standalone technology initiative. Today, AI supports activities such as pricing, booking, customer service, customs processing, workforce planning, workflow automation and employee productivity tools. We are also increasingly using AI-powered assistants and agents that help colleagues access information, automate tasks, make better decisions and spend more time on higher-value work."</p> <p>Kuehne+Nagel integrates AI directly into the systems and workflows its employees use every day and develops its own AI capabilities while also using offerings from enterprise vendors.</p> <p>"We view AI adoption as a business transformation, not simply as a technology rollout," said Nemati. "Capturing value from AI requires us to rethink how work is performed, redesign workflows with AI at their core and redefine roles, particularly in software development ... We are already seeing tangible benefits in several areas, including faster processing of operational tasks, higher employee productivity, quicker access to information, enhanced customer service and better decision support. AI is helping remove friction from workflows and allowing employees to spend more time on customer-facing and higher-value activities."</p> <p>Nemati said that the goal of Kuehne+Nagel was to use AI to augment human expertise, not replace it. "While automation can take over repetitive and administrative tasks, logistics remains a complex business that depends on experience, judgment, customer understanding and the ability to manage exceptions. Human accountability, therefore, remains essential," said Nemati. Our approach is based on<ins datetime="2026-09-10T17:37" cite="mailto:Madden,%20Melanie"> </ins>a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/it-strategy/feature/Human-in-the-loop-shouldnt-rubber-stamp-decisions">'human-in-the-loop' model</a>, where AI supports decision-making while employees retain responsibility for outcomes."</p> <h3>Addison Group</h3> <p>Addison Group is an employment recruiting agency that uses AI to augment employee work, not replace it.</p> <p>"We've implemented AI to automate manual processes and extend the capabilities of internal teams, particularly within shared services such as finance, HR, etc.," said Thomas Moran, CEO. "Our teams have integrated AI as a supplemental resource that operates alongside employees, with appropriate oversight to manage its use, review outputs and evaluate performance, ensuring work is complete, accurate and aligned with business requirements. In short, AI serves as an enhanced assistant to our business processes."</p> <p>Addison has seen benefits as AI has streamlined business processes and improved efficiency, with the proviso that experienced professionals on staff have final oversight. "Done right, a company today may be able to double or triple the output of specific roles, with AI acting as a productivity and efficiency agent," said Moran.</p> <p>Is there a risk that employee skills could erode over time as AI automates more work steps?</p> <p>"It depends on how much automation is being asked for from AI," Moran said. "If the process for using AI is simply to enter a prompt and receive an answer without any further skill development, then yes, over time, erosion can happen. On the other hand, if AI is used as an enhancement that still allows room for human problem-solving and critical thinking, a company's workforce knowledge, in theory, can actually improve ... AI serves as an enhanced assistant to our business processes. When it comes to retraining, we focus on ensuring our team members understand AI's contributions to the process while highlighting where human expertise, critical thinking and connection remain essential for verification."</p> <div class="extra-info"> <div class="extra-info-inner"> <h3 class="splash-heading">6 questions to ask about human engagement with AI and automation</h3> <p><b></b></p> <p><b>What expertise does this task help employees develop?</b></p> <p>If AI and automation handle mundane tasks, what strategic roles will employees take on? Are guidance and training in place to help them maximize AI and automation in new business processes?</p> <p><b>What happens if AI is unavailable or incorrect?</b></p> <p>Enterprises are implementing human-in-the-loop strategies to ensure qualified employees have oversight. AI system models are never fully complete; <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/How-leaders-can-spot-AI-drift-before-it-hurts-the-business">their accuracy can drift without alignment</a> to real-world events. Continuous monitoring by users and IT is essential for maintaining accuracy and making necessary model adjustments.</p> <p><b><i>&nbsp;</i></b><b>Which decisions require human approval?</b></p> <p>Enterprises are recognizing the value of letting human experts make final decisions on contracts, invoices, inventory stock levels, logistics, new hires, financial portfolios and medical diagnoses, using their knowledge and AI insights.</p> <p><b>How will new employees learn this process?</b></p> <p>New employees do not need to unlearn old processes, reducing retraining needs. However, organizations worry about candidates' knowledge and their potential reliance on AI to complete applications. To address this, many companies use competency testing to ensure independent answers.</p> <p><b><i>&nbsp;</i></b><b>Who owns oversight of AI?</b></p> <p>AI oversight is an open question in most organizations -- with IT likely to be its ultimate resting place. The entire enterprise, beginning with the board and the CEO, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/it-strategy/feature/How-CIOs-are-responding-to-AI-oversight-uncertainty">owns AI oversight</a>, and key user departments should also have accountability.</p> <p><b>Can employees still perform business processes if the automation becomes unavailable?</b></p> <p>Disaster recovery and business continuation are vital for enterprises. Organizations must prepare for potential system failures and natural disasters by <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/data-technologies/tip/Disaster-recovery-plan-checklist-Key-steps-for-a-smooth-restore">revising DR plans</a> to include regular retraining of employees in manual operations.</p> </div> </div> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="The bottom line"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>The bottom line</h2> <p>Most enterprises are learning as they go while adopting AI. A majority use AI embedded in the enterprise software they already run, while some augment these sources with their own AI. In all cases, the emphasis is on a human-in-the-loop strategy, with AI augmenting work processes to enhance human expertise rather than lose it.</p> <p>Chris Miller, CEO of Point Quest Group, which provides special education staffing and services, also uses AI in the company's operations. Miller had this to say:</p> <p>"[Employee] knowledge erosion becomes a risk only when leadership delegates judgment to AI instead of drudgery. If an organization leans on AI for strategic, diagnostic or relationship-driven decisions, workforce knowledge will erode. But if AI is confined to the structured and repetitive, such as pre-populating routine logs, flagging missing compliance fields and organizing raw data, it protects human capability … In our field, where highly trained specialists manage complex compliance and client care, administrative load and burnout are primary drivers of attrition. When senior practitioners spend their time on paperwork rather than the skills they were trained for, you lose institutional knowledge the moment they burn out and leave. Letting AI carry the administrative load gives those hours back to high-value human work. The rule of thumb is simple: AI handles the process load and the human owns every decision that requires nuance and judgment."</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Summing it up"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Summing it up</h2> <p>Enterprises understand that managing their human capital is an integral part of governance. Accordingly, as they adopt AI, they are also taking steps to preserve their workforce's skills and expertise. They are doing this in the following ways:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Using AI to automate repetitive and mundane business processes that enable employees to do higher-level work.</li> <li>Adopting guidance that ensures that AI is not used without proper human oversight.</li> <li>Reskilling employees for new and transformative business processes that use AI.</li> <li>Making <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/How-organizations-can-reskill-and-upskill-employees-in-AI">employee reskilling and education</a> a continuous and not a one-off activity.</li> </ul> </section> Organizations are embedding AI in enterprise systems and adopting human-in-the-loop strategies to automate routine tasks while preserving workforce expertise. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/telecommunications_g1247980427.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/The-hidden-cost-of-AI-automation-Preserving-organizational-expertise Mon, 14 Sep 2026 10:34:00 GMT <p>Fleet management challenges are on the rise, with supply chains becoming increasingly volatile in recent years. CSCOs and COOs overseeing logistics and transportation must carefully balance factors such as efficiency, profitability and sustainability.</p> <p>Fleet management challenges can erode margins, disrupt production <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/7-last-mile-delivery-metrics-to-measure-success">and delivery schedules</a>, and undermine customer confidence if they are not properly addressed. Here are some actionable steps that C-suite leaders can take to mitigate them.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. Overall costs"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. Overall costs</h2> <p>The volatility of global energy markets remains an obvious concern for fleet managers. However, numerous other factors are leading to high overall costs, including increased insurance expenses, higher maintenance expenses and rising labor costs.</p> <p>CSCOs and COOs should carefully monitor the total cost of ownership of their fleet assets and consider using telematics and AI-powered platforms for predictive maintenance and driver monitoring. <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/Predictive-maintenance-Definition-benefits-example-strategy">Predictive maintenance can help</a> prevent unplanned downtime, while dynamic routing tools can help reduce fuel usage.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. Increased regulatory scrutiny"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. Increased regulatory scrutiny</h2> <p>Regulations for emissions are in flux, but regulation is likely changing for safety standards, hours of service and, in some cases, low-emission zones, making compliance a key fleet management challenge. In addition, companies in some areas will have <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/it-strategy/feature/10-top-ESG-reporting-frameworks-explained-and-compared">sustainability reporting requirements</a> to navigate. Compliance violations can lead to fines, increased liability and reputational damage, while adhering to compliance regulations can help companies win over eco-conscious customers.</p> <p>CSCOs should consider having their company adopt automated compliance software that integrates with telematics, which will enable real-time reporting and recordkeeping that adheres to all required standards. CSCOs should also collaborate with legal and sustainability leaders at their company to ensure that fleet operations remain compliant.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. Supply chain disruptions"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. Supply chain disruptions</h2> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/Guide-to-supply-chain-management">Supply chain risk</a> reached its peak during the COVID-19 pandemic, but various global and regional factors continue to disrupt global trade. Supply chain disruptions complicate forecasting and budgeting, which can negatively affect CSCOs’ ability to meet service-level agreements.</p> <p>Supply chain uncertainty can also affect vehicle acquisition, upfitting and spare parts availability, which puts pressure on asset utilization and may lead to fleet managers continuing to use aging assets that require higher maintenance costs and more downtime.</p> <p>CSCOs and COOs should diversify their supplier relationships, create buffer inventory for critical components and use predictive analytics to anticipate needs. They should also look for opportunities to improve data visibility across procurement and maintenance teams so the groups have better insight into operations.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. Electrification and alternative fuels"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4. Electrification and alternative fuels</h2> <p>The majority of fleets continue to use diesel. However, some companies have implemented other strategies or are looking into doing so.</p> <p>CSCOs should analyze ROI on a case-by-case basis and consider conducting EV pilots in urban environments or on medium-duty routes. Hybrid vehicles <a href="https://www.truckclub.com/trucking-news/electric-vs-hydrogen-vs-hybrid-trucks">may be</a> a good starting point for some companies.</p> <p>Today’s fleet management challenges require CSCOs and COOs to proactively plan for future problems and consider how technology could help solve those issues. Making fleet management a priority for the C-suite can help increase a company’s agility and efficiency.</p> <p><i>James Kofalt spent 16 years at SAP working with SME business applications and was a product manager for integration technology at Microsoft's Business Solutions division. He is currently the president of DX4 Research, a technology advisory practice specializing in ERP and digital transformation.</i></p> </section> Global energy market volatility remains a concern for fleet managers. Learn about some other challenges that CSCOs and COOs should be aware of and take action against. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/map_globe_g1254837834.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/Fleet-management-challenges-that-CSCOs-should-be-aware-of Fri, 11 Sep 2026 13:32:00 GMT <p>AI is impacting enterprises in many different ways, and workplace collaboration is a fundamental use case. <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/definition/What-is-UCaaS-Unified-communications-as-a-service-guide">Unified communications as a service</a> has become the hub for how work gets done, and IT leaders need to understand how integrating AI is driving change not only in worker productivity but also in automating workflows across the organization.</p> <p>Let's explore how <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/ai/definition/What-are-AI-agents-Types-and-examples">AI agents</a> make workflows better and best practices for using AI agents with UCaaS.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How AI copilots and agents bring benefits to UC workflows"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How AI copilots and agents bring benefits to UC workflows</h2> <p>By now, enterprises have learned how AI copilots <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/it-infrastructure/tip/7-task-automation-tools-to-increase-productivity-in-2026">help workers automate tasks</a>, but the emergence of agentic AI takes collaboration to another level. Both types are AI-driven and offer distinct benefits, and IT leaders need to support them both. Whereas copilots automate specific tasks as directed by workers, AI agents operate autonomously, with little or no human supervision.</p> <p>This broadens the scope for how AI enhances workplace collaboration, going beyond task automation to executing workflows end-to-end. Workflows may incorporate discrete tasks handled by copilots, but they also orchestrate tasks across lines of business apps and workflows across the organization.</p> <p>With the focus here being on AI agents, there are several benefits for IT leaders to consider when automating workflows. The following are some leading examples.</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Omnichannel communications support.</b> By integrating with UCaaS, AI agents get a complete picture of the communications activity related to a workflow, such as voice, email, messaging, video and documents. With today's <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/AI-drives-new-speech-technology-trends-and-use-cases">speech-to-text capabilities</a>, AI agents can get accurate transcripts of related voice or video conversations.</li> <li><b>Cross-platform integrations.</b> AI agents can integrate with other business-level platforms such as CRM, ERP and HR. This enables AI agents to automate workflows tied to specific departments or lines of business.</li> <li><b>Flexibility when things change.</b> Simple workflows don't necessarily require AI for automation, especially those that are based on a fixed set of rules. The autonomous nature of agentic AI means <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/Understanding-the-origins-of-complexity-in-enterprise-software">handling complex workflows</a>, where ambiguity and uncertainty are more likely to arise. Deterministic models are not built for this, and this is where agentic AI can take on a wider range of workflows.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="High-value workflows for AI agents"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>High-value workflows for AI agents</h2> <p>All forms of AI need to show ROI at some point. With agentic AI, the stakes are higher because these agents are executing on workflows and making decisions along the way. Conversely, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.informationweek.com/machine-learning-ai/your-ai-agents-won-t-fail-your-processes-will-" rel="noopener">negative effect</a> can be significant if execution is poor or bad judgment leads to wrong decisions.</p> <p>Deploying AI agents for workflows implies a level of trust that better results can be achieved than with humans. It's important to note that this is a higher level of trust than with AI copilots, which just automate specific tasks. Workflows are more complex, but when AI agents can perform as advertised, the effect is much greater -- and that's what drives ROI.</p> <p>To that end, IT leaders need to identify workflows that provide high value in two ways. First would be the benefits of the workflow on the business, whether for a specific department or overall operations. Second would be the additive effect that AI brings with autonomous automation for that workflow.</p> <p>Since AI works best with large datasets and discrete forms of data, the initial focus should be on workflows that play to those strengths. To help identify those workflows, here are some defining characteristics:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Workflows that generate and/or consume large volumes of data. </b>This includes tracking measurable activity over time or requiring computation across a wide range of variables.</li> <li><b>High degree of manual involvement.</b> These kinds of workflows are prone to human error. With AI being able to detect anomalies faster than humans, AI agents will reduce these errors.</li> <li><b>Rules-based parameters</b>. The more structured the workflow, the more effective AI agents will be. This is where initial deployments should focus, but note that AI can process unstructured, ambiguous inputs. IT can move on to those workflows as trust develops.</li> <li><b>Processes are repeatable</b>. The more predictable, the better AI agents will perform. For recurring workflows, such as processing renewals, planning for monthly meetings or submitting quarterly tax payments, where the inputs are known and the steps well-defined. Autonomous automation will manage these workflows faster and more efficiently than humans.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Governance and guardrails"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Governance and guardrails</h2> <p>Governance is a must-have for any form of agentic AI that autonomously manages tasks or workflows. When AI bots are making independent decisions -- large or small -- there are direct factors to consider where AI must have a high degree of trust.</p> <ol class="default-list"> <li><b>Compliance.</b> <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/AI-innovation-in-UCaaS-requires-compliance-balancing-act">Ensure workflows are compliant</a>, especially for industry-specific requirements such as HIPAA, SOX and PCI, and supported by a clear audit trail.</li> <li><b>Security.</b> This is largely related to cybersecurity to protect workflows from malicious threats or autonomous actions that could trigger security breaches and expose data to bad actors.</li> <li><b>Privacy.</b> IT must protect employees, customers and partners when their data is connected to workflows that are being automated by AI agents</li> </ol> <p>These are the basic guardrails for establishing trust with AI agents. A governance structure is needed for all AI use cases, not just for AI agents. This <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/CIOs-must-rethink-governance-for-AI-collaboration-tools">framework will constantly evolve</a>, but requires a clear set of rules that define what AI agents can and cannot do when automating workflows. Not only that, but since each workflow is distinct, there should be <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/ai/feature/Vertical-AI-agents-explained-The-future-of-enterprise-tech">policies specific to the workflow</a> rather than being based on generic policies.</p> <p>Central to all of this is <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/ai/feature/Humans-and-AI-The-role-of-people-in-the-new-AI-world">human in the loop</a>. AI may be advancing quickly, but it cannot be fully trusted to autonomously automate workflows. Unlike task automation, workflows have multiple points of failure, and humans need end-to-end visibility to detect potential AI mishaps, such as incorrect routing decisions, sharing unauthorized files, providing access to workers who don't have permissions for this workflow and missing steps in a predefined process.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Best practices for using AI agents"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Best practices for using AI agents</h2> <p>With AI agents still new, a universal set of best practices has not yet emerged, but a guiding principle is to start off with simple workflows that already have well-established steps and processes. That way, human in the loop will be more effective with AI agents to produce the expected outcomes, especially to support ROI. To help <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/ai/news/366649796/When-AI-agents-go-rogue-What-enterprise-leaders-need-to-know">mitigate risk and build trust</a>, here are two best practices to build around.</p> <p><b>1. Establish success metrics</b></p> <p>At a high level, three types of metrics will go a long way to defining success when using AI agents to automate workflows:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Financial</b>. Driving revenue, cost savings and improving margins.</li> <li><b>Productivity</b>. Faster decisions, short timelines to complete projects and handling more inquiries.</li> <li><b>Quality</b>. Fewer errors, improved accuracy, reduced reworking and less duplication of work.</li> </ul> <p>To help develop these, team leaders responsible for the automated workflows should be involved. They have the hands-on familiarity to identify what those specific metrics should be and to map out the complete workflow, ensuring AI agents handle the entire workflow and not just part of it.</p> <p><b>2. Integrating AI agents into workflows</b></p> <p>This is another best practice that will help AI agents have maximum effect on workflows. Again, the focus would be on the workers and departments most connected to the workflow. Aside from having a working knowledge of the workflow, they can also play a direct role in getting those integrations just right.</p> <p>The latter is now possible due to the prevalence of low-code/no-code programming for building AI applications. Technical expertise in AI is not needed, meaning these workers are in the best position to properly integrate AI agents with workflows. Otherwise, these teams would have to rely on integrations built by IT, system integrators or AI vendors, who would lack the localized expertise of the teams tied to the workflows.</p> <p>By encouraging team members to be hands-on this way, not only will workflow automation results be better, but it will also build more buy-in from workers for using AI. Rather than viewing AI agents as a threat to their jobs, they will see them as tools to enhance their own performance and value to the business.</p> <p>As a follow-on benefit, when workers successfully automate workflows on their own, IT's workload will decrease. Overall, this helps accelerate AI adoption across the enterprise.</p> <p><em>Jon Arnold is principal of J Arnold &amp; Associates, an independent analyst providing thought leadership and go-to-market counsel with a focus on the business-level effect of communications technology on digital transformation.</em></p> </section> AI agents can boost UCaaS workflows, but IT leaders must follow best practices to identify high-value workflows, determine ROI metrics and establish governance guardrails. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/ai_a352095729.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/How-AI-agents-transform-UCaaS-workflows-and-ROI Fri, 11 Sep 2026 10:07:00 GMT <p>Voice of the customer tools help provide a complete view of the customer experience by collecting feedback across multiple channels. Collecting customer data can be difficult, but VoC tools can make the process easier.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What are voice of the customer tools?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What are voice of the customer tools?</h2> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/voice-of-the-customer-VOC">Voice of the customer</a>&nbsp;tools are software applications that integrate feedback collection, analysis, distribution and action into a single, interconnected platform to help organizations understand and improve customer experience. Feedback collection channels can include email, websites, paper, text messages, voice interactions and more. These complement, and are sometimes integrated with, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/What-CIOs-need-to-know-about-digital-experience-monitoring">digital experience monitoring</a>&nbsp;tools that improve quantitative analytics of user experience.</p> <p>VoC tools typically capture data from email, websites and voice interactions at scale. These tools reach well past surveys to include indirect signals such as reviews, social posts and contact center conversations, and inferred signals such as <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/clickstream-analysis-clickstream-analytics">clickstream</a>, purchase history and telemetry data.</p> <p>A successful VoC program provides in-depth and actionable feedback that guides new products and business models. It can also identify gaps or problems that enable teams to resolve issues before they grow out of control. VoC tools focus on improving the qualitative and behavioral aspects of the user experience, such as what the customer said, bought or clicked on.</p> <p>Recent innovations in generative and agentic AI are now starting to support auto-tagging of topics and sentiment, conversational assistants that answer questions about the feedback and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/news/366629754/AI-agents-evolve-how-automated-customer-service-works">AI agents that recommend or trigger the next action</a>.</p> <p>This article examines 10 of the top voice of the customer tools and services to consider based on research from sources including leading market research firms. The tools in this unranked list have the essential capabilities that organizations might need to use feedback to improve customer experience. The list is in alphabetical order.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Overview of voice of the customer tools"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Overview of voice of the customer tools</h2> <h3>Alchemer</h3> <p>Traditionally, Alchemer focused on services that allow businesses to automate the collection, workflow, integration and ability to act on customer feedback. Its key strength is weaving data from other applications and processes the organization already uses, such as email, enterprise communication tools, customer support systems, CRM and IT service management systems. All feedback and data can also integrate with business intelligence tools for deeper analysis and association with revenue and customer engagement models.</p> <p>Alchemer's acquisition of Chatmeter, an AI-driven customer intelligence platform, enhanced its ability to interpret indirect signals from reviews, listings and social media channels. Together, these capabilities support a single customer view across solicited and unsolicited feedback channels.</p> <p>It supports a wide breadth of features with integrations that route feedback into the tools that teams commonly use today. This can help teams spin up or enhance their VoC program to support various use cases and customer signals without requiring an extensive enterprise-scale implementation.</p> <p>The Pulse AI <a target="_blank" href="https://help.alchemer.com/help/getting-started-with-alchemer-pulse" rel="noopener">capabilities</a> add sentiment and theme analysis across reviews and social media channels. They also support image analysis using multimodal large language models. It's a strong fit for retail, hospitality and financial services. It's used by brands such as CNN, FedEx and Alaska Airlines.</p> <h3>Medallia</h3> <p>Medallia is well-known for an extensive range of VoC capabilities for capturing and analyzing feedback across various channels to build a unified view of the customer journey. AI and machine learning help tune incoming signals for processing across prebuilt components for many industries. Its Frontline-Ready AI <a target="_blank" href="https://www.medallia.com/resource/frontline-ready-ai-brochure/" rel="noopener">service</a> simplifies access for management teams. This extends to front-line employees and can be managed using its Org Sync features to enforce governance and controls.</p> <p>These capabilities also ease the dissemination of the appropriate level of detail contextualized across different types of teams and regions. Medallia is a good fit for large organizations that need strong governance controls and broad coverage. Some of its capabilities come with a higher cost of ownership and a longer implementation timeline than some alternatives. However, it may be a good fit for organizations, particularly in compliance-sensitive industries, when these features are planned appropriately.</p> <h3>Pisano</h3> <p>Pisano provides an integrated experience management platform, has a strong presence in EMEA markets and was founded in Istanbul. The company helps customize services for collecting feedback, analyzing the data and then identifying ways to address customer needs more efficiently. For example, it has programs to help companies make sense of metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), CSAT and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/definition/What-is-a-customer-effort-score-CES">Customer Effort Score</a>, and take appropriate action to address complaints or enhance experiences tailored to local culture.</p> <p>Online feedback loops run the usual gamut of SMS, email, web and mobile apps. It can also help set up offline touchpoints using tablets deployed in retail locations and branch offices, or via low-friction QR codes.</p> <p>Pisano can also layer customer journey mapping and automated workflows for various use cases. It's a good fit for feedback-intensive sectors such as banking and retail, thanks to large programs for institutions, including one of Turkey's largest banks.</p> <p>A new generative <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pisano.com/en/en/knowledge-base/leo" rel="noopener">AI feature</a>, called Leo, orchestrates platform tasks and autonomous workflows. It's a rising star in its main markets thanks to its strong support network and extensive range of features and supported channels. It may be less of a fit for organizations outside its core market.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/pisano_product_screenshot-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/pisano_product_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/pisano_product_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/pisano_product_screenshot-f.jpg 1280w" alt="A screenshot of the Pisano voice of the customer dashboard" data-credit="Pisano" height="315" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Pisano collects customer feedback, tracks customer satisfaction and provides insights into customer journeys. Its AI feature, Leo, orchestrates platform tasks and autonomous workflows. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <h3>Qualtrics</h3> <p>Qualtrics is one of the largest VoC providers, offering a suite of tools tailored for various industries and large enterprises. Its XM platform combines survey-based direct feedback with XM Discover for analyzing structured and unstructured feedback across channels.</p> <p>It was acquired by SAP in 2019 and then taken private again in 2023 by Silver Lake and CPP Investments in a $12.5 billion deal. It has invested aggressively in AI and acquisitions. Recent acquisitions have included Clarabridge in 2021 and Press Ganey Forsta in 2026, the latter resulted in the acquisition of the Confirmit and InMoment services.</p> <p>Recent AI <a href="https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/sp-administration/artificial-intelligence-ai-administration/">innovations</a> have supported or improved conversational feedback, an assistant, synthetic research audiences and AI agents. It also provides a set of integrations and prebuilt components to improve the customer and employee experience.</p> <p>The company has strong relationships with nearly 200 consultancies and software partners to help customize and implement enterprise-wide rollouts. It does, however, have a relatively higher cost compared with other tools. It's a good fit for research-heavy programs and large rollouts, although costs may be higher than those of alternatives.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/qualtrics_dashboard_screenshot-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/qualtrics_dashboard_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/qualtrics_dashboard_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/qualtrics_dashboard_screenshot-f.jpg 1280w" alt="A screenshot of the Qualtrics omni-channel overview dashboard" data-credit="Qualtrics" height="267" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>In an omni-channel overview dashboard, Qualtrics tracks customer feedback, sentiment and points of friction. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <h3>QuestionPro</h3> <p>QuestionPro is a relatively small VoC provider. It is well suited for SMBs -- particularly in the education, hospitality, healthcare and travel industries. Over the years, it has extended its integrated suite to support surveys, customer experience and employee experience.</p> <p>It has a strong value proposition, a relatively accessible price point and an associated consulting service. It excels at standing up VoC programs that can adapt to insights from small cohorts. Recent AI innovations include support for building conversational surveys.</p> <p>A key strength is the platform's support and associated consulting services for setting up VoC communities that provide richer insight into a small cohort of engaged customers. The company has also pioneered improvements that correlate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/7-key-customer-experience-metrics-to-measure">NPS measurements</a>&nbsp;with revenue and make it easier for customers to guide improvements to product and service offerings.</p> <p>While it has a strong set of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.questionpro.com/help/" rel="noopener">surveying capabilities</a>, QuestionPro lacks more sophisticated analytics and aggregation capabilities without extensive support.</p> <h3>Revuze</h3> <p>Revuze is a newer AI-native entrant into the VoC space. The company built its platform on top of a proprietary LLM trained specifically for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.revuze.it/llm-info/" rel="noopener">VoC workflows</a> rather than bolting AI onto a legacy survey stack.</p> <p>The platform can work with a variety of VoC inputs, including reviews, social media posts and survey responses. A defining feature is its ability to mine these signals to make sense of customer sentiment, make recommendations and suggest next steps. It also helps assess the perceived customer experience, with granularity ranging from whole categories or brands to individual SKUs, in many languages.</p> <p>It's known for fast implementation and particularly for consumer brands. It also supports modules designed for different roles, including product, marketing, customer insight and e-commerce teams, that speed time to insight. It also comes with agentic AI integrations into common trouble ticket platforms like Jira, Zendesk and Monday.com.</p> <p>Revuze is a good fit for consumer packaged goods, retail, beauty and electronics brands. Its modules align well with customer support centers that focus on products and markets rather than service business operations. It may be less of a fit for companies seeking a traditional survey-driven feedback program in the service industry.</p> <h3>SMG</h3> <p>Service Management Group (SMG) offers a software with a service (SwaS) model that bundles hands-on support with data interpretation, benchmarking and program guidance to drive actionable customer experience improvement and outreach. It's a good fit for location-based services such as stores, hotels, restaurants and healthcare services.</p> <p>It offers a set of prepackaged modules that help companies improve specific experiences, such as click-and-collect. Its Service Profit Chain methodology quantifies the link between employee and customer satisfaction, long-term loyalty and sustainable sales growth.</p> <p>The company recently rebuilt its core offering on top of an AI core called Ignite, which supports a more consolidated approach to experience management, helping interpret signals from customers, employees and brands as a whole. The new platform supports AI agents and predictive modeling, combined with these signals, to surface root causes of problems and make recommendations to address them. It also supports Ignite Communities to help companies <a target="_blank" href="https://smg.com/ignite-communities" rel="noopener">test new offerings</a> and processes.</p> <p>It may not be the best choice for B2B companies, and its SwaS model may not be an ideal fit for brands seeking a do-it-yourself SaaS tool. Most multiunit brands can expect a full-service experience management program, which includes software and professional services.</p> <h3>Sprinklr</h3> <p>Sprinklr is a newer VoC platform that has developed a variety of AI-native customer experience management product suites, including Sprinklr Social, Sprinklr Marketing, Sprinklr Insights and Sprinklr Service. Users can work with VoC-related information across these tools using the appropriate combination of copilots, AI agents and customer feedback management capabilities. This approach supports numerous workflows across collaboration, analytics and customer experience automation.</p> <p>It's built on a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzeghscYfOw" rel="noopener">unified data management layer</a> that helps teams curate a coherent view of inferred signals from various channels and contact center interactions. This consolidated stack also supports governance and compliance guardrails grounded in the enforcement of business rules. It can also drive closed-loop feedback to automate responses to problems quickly, rather than just flagging issues in reports.</p> <p>Sprinklr is a good fit for large enterprises wanting to build or extend their VoC programs across more channels. It may not be the best fit for organizations looking to roll out a more focused survey-based VoC program.</p> <h3>Verint</h3> <p>The Verint Experience Management platform enables data collection and integration across digital, physical and contact center databases. Its key strength is its set of speech analytics capabilities built on top of its contact center expertise. These have become more comprehensive and sophisticated, with AI bots and natural language tools that enable the design of more helpful surveys.</p> <p>It also provides <a href="https://www.verint.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/cx-analytics-brochure.pdf">sophisticated analytics</a> that span unstructured text and speech, transcripts and behavioral inputs. It combines this with a predictive experience methodology to help organizations gain insights, automate decisions, keep teams on top of changes and issues, and link changes to desired business outcomes.</p> <p>As a result, it is best suited for high-volume industries such as retail, financial services, utilities, telecommunications and insurance.</p> <h3>Xebo.ai</h3> <p>Xebo.ai started as Survey2Connect to improve the customer surveying aspects of VoC. These core services have been enhanced to improve customer feedback collection across mobile apps, websites, SMS and email programs. The tools help curate dashboards, track NPS and manage the ticketing process.</p> <p>It's a cost-effective fit for companies wanting to jumpstart a survey program that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.xebo.ai/feature/sentiment-analysis" rel="noopener">interprets sentiment</a> from open text using tools for creation and analysis. It can also drive alerts in response to changes in feedback patterns. It has a strong EMEA presence, particularly in the Middle East, thanks to support for the Arabic language and local cloud hosting models.</p> <p>The voice of the customer market has deep roots in the CX world. Despite its longevity, it's still an active and evolving space with vendor consolidation and yet product innovation as the platforms now feature a wide range of capabilities. Like with other enterprise technology products, certain VoC platforms are best suited for certain business sizes and industries. As always, IT buyers need to vet the market and product options carefully before investing in the technology.</p> <p><em>George Lawton is a journalist based in London. Over the last 30 years, he has written more than 3,000 stories about computers, communications, knowledge management, business, health and other areas that interest him.</em></p> </section> Compare 10 voice of the customer tools that collect feedback, analyze sentiment and help teams act on customer experience issues. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/telecommunications_g1280903131.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/tip/10-voice-of-the-customer-tools-to-consider Fri, 11 Sep 2026 09:45:00 GMT <p>ERP software remains a bedrock of nearly every organization's IT stack, and demand for the technology remains high.</p> <p>Fortune Business Insights, a market research and consulting firm, valued the global ERP software market at $92.6 billion in 2025 and predicted it will hit $281.6 billion by 2034 -- a 13% compound annual <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enterprise-resource-planning-erp-software-market-102498" rel="noopener">growth rate</a>.</p> <p>According to numerous research reports over the years, most organizations that successfully implemented ERP recouped their initial investment well within two years and saw significant ROI during the lifetime of their ERP system.</p> <p>However, executives currently are under tremendous pressure to achieve positive returns faster. "Today's economic environment makes risk, cash discipline and speed-to-value the priority," noted Panorama Consulting Group in its "2026 ERP Report." Consequently, CIOs have little room for error when estimating the cost of a new ERP system.</p> <p>Successfully deploying an ERP system is notoriously challenging, and the risk of budget overruns is high.</p> <p>In fact, Gartner claimed that more than 70% of recently implemented ERP initiatives will fail to fully meet their original use-case goals, and up to 25% of those initiatives will fail catastrophically. Thirty percent of survey respondents in the Panorama report said their ERP projects were over budget. Scope expansion, technical issues, organizational issues, underestimating staffing needs and having to buy additional technology were the top five reasons for overruns.</p> <p>Experts said many CIOs anticipate those kinds of costs yet still encounter unexpected ones as they shepherd their ERP projects from design to deployment and beyond.</p> <p>"The biggest surprises typically come from selecting an ERP that isn't the right fit," said Walter Merkas, a partner at Withum, a consulting firm. Common reasons are not fully understanding current-state processes, underestimating integrations and data work, and making customization decisions that bring upfront and long-term ownership and maintenance costs, Merkas said.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Why ERP implementations are so expensive"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Why ERP implementations are so expensive</h2> <p>Implementation costs vary widely. One ERP vendor targeting SMBs, Acumatica, estimated them between $150,000 and $750,000, but systems for large enterprises can reach into the millions.</p> <p>The hefty cost matches the software's complexity.</p> <p>ERP is one of the most complex pieces of software in the enterprise tech stack because it supports processes in nearly every part of the business. ERP platforms have several components, called <i>modules</i>, for functions such as accounting, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/definition/ERP-finance-module">finance</a>, HR, customer relations, procurement and supply chain. Bringing all these business units and their processes into one system takes significant work, such as connecting the ERP software to other systems and ensuring data moves seamlessly between them.</p> <p>In fact, much of the expense of bringing a new ERP system online comes not from the technology's price tag, but from the work required to first determine the organization's needs, then map connecting systems, deal with data issues and train workers on new business processes.</p> <p>Organizations that fail to put in adequate planning upfront are the ones most likely to encounter hidden costs and budget overruns, Merkas said.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/erp_implementation_steps-f.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/erp_implementation_steps-f_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/erp_implementation_steps-f_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/erp_implementation_steps-f.png 1280w" alt="List of 10 ERP implementation steps" height="339" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Without proper planning, unforeseen expenses can lurk in every step of the ERP implementation process. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Hidden costs of ERP implementations"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Hidden costs of ERP implementations</h2> <p>Despite such advice, many organizations still get hit with unexpected bills from their ERP implementations. IT leaders cited the following 10 items as the most common hidden costs.</p> <h3>1. The final price of the software itself</h3> <p>One of the first surprises to hit organizations is the licensing costs. Many organizations learn as they start the implementation work that their plans weren't as accurate or detailed as they should have been, said John Harrison, managing director at the Protiviti consultancy.</p> <p>"If you're not granular enough, then a certain amount won't be included in that first bid. So, as you go through your design phase, you realize you need more modules, and that can be a quick escalator on the software cost side," Harrison said.</p> <h3>2. The cost of a bad fit</h3> <p>Similarly, organizations that don't fully understand their processes might select an ERP system that does not <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/tip/A-complete-ERP-requirements-checklist-with-template">match their needs and requirements</a>. "A lot of people pick the wrong application," Merkas said. That might not tank the entire project, but it usually leads to unanticipated costs for the extra work required to better align business needs with the new software.</p> <h3>3. Underestimating or missing needed connections</h3> <p>Organizations underestimate how many systems need to connect to the new ERP platform, which adds labor, technology and other costs for <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/feature/ERP-API-integrations-Top-challenges-and-tips-for-success">implementing and maintaining the integrations</a>, Merkas said.</p> <p>"Modern ERP systems sit at the center of a much larger application ecosystem, and companies routinely underestimate how many integrations they'll need," he said. "The initial build is only part of the cost. There are ongoing expenses for middleware subscriptions, API limits, monitoring, security and keeping integrations working as systems change. What looks like a one‑time technical task often becomes a permanent operating cost."</p> <p>Harrison said he, too, has seen these costs sneak up on organizations, citing, as an example, how companies might see an increase in middleware subscription costs as a result of pumping data into their new ERP software.</p> <h3>4. The high cost of customization</h3> <p>Organizations that tweak their ERP systems to their own unique workflows also face unplanned costs, Merkas said. Modern ERP products, especially multi-tenant <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/definition/SaaS-ERP-software-as-a-service-ERP-hosting">SaaS ERP</a> platforms, support processes that meet industry best practices and have optimized and automated those processes to help organizations become more efficient. However, when ERP buyers don't already use or want to adopt&nbsp; industry-leading processes and instead prefer to customize their new ERP system to align with their existing workflows, they can be shocked by the price they pay for taking that path.</p> <h3>5. The ongoing costs of custom code</h3> <p>"A lot of the delivery consulting firms will say yes to the customization requested by [organizations], and when they're saying yes to the customization, they're just going to bill the client for the code," Merkas said.</p> <p>Then come the ongoing costs. The ERP buyer -- not the vendor -- owns the custom code and must handle all the updating and maintenance. "That customization will cost a lot of money in the long run," he said.</p> <h3>6. The true price of talent</h3> <p>While organizations typically experience unexpected labor costs when they misstep in planning their ERP implementations, many face other surprises from miscalculating the available talent, said Sam Gupta, principal consultant at ElevatIQ, a provider of technology, management and digital transformation services.</p> <p>For example, enterprise leaders often underestimate the skills required for the ERP work and overestimate the expertise of their own employees. That leaves a big shortfall in the talent needed to move the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/tip/How-to-choose-the-right-ERP-project-team-5-secrets-to-success">ERP project</a> across the finish line.</p> <p>Enterprise leaders also tend to overestimate their workers' availability and expect them to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/feature/Understand-cloud-ERP-project-team-duties">work on the ERP project</a> while still performing their regular duties. When that doesn't pan out, organizations end up paying for extra help to work directly on the implementation or backfill positions so staff can shift from their regular jobs.</p> <h3>7. Dealing with data</h3> <p>One of the most significant hidden costs on almost all ERP implementations comes from the data work that's required, said Greg Taffet, managing partner and CIO at Taffet Associates, a technology consultancy.</p> <p>Organizations often don't have a good handle on their data when they head into an ERP implementation, in part because their legacy ERP software hindered <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/data-management">data management</a> in the first place. And, unless they were meticulous in building up their data program in advance of the implementation, they encounter surprise bills for cleaning, managing and migrating their data to the new ERP system, Taffet said.</p> <h3>8. Missed work and missed business opportunities</h3> <p>Besides the unexpected costs associated with backfilling positions as employees shift to working on the ERP implementation, organizations face other hidden talent costs. Specifically, they often find that the workers covering for the diverted staff aren't as experienced, so work takes longer to complete or might go unfinished, Harrison said. That, in turn, impacts productivity levels and perhaps the ability to act on business opportunities -- both opaque <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/feature/How-to-prevent-scope-creep-in-your-ERP-implementation">costs of an ERP project</a>.</p> <h3>9. Resistance to change</h3> <p>New ERP systems aren't enhancements as much as they are transformations, and they require employees to work in new ways, especially if they were used to an old ERP system, Taffet said.</p> <p>That may be more so today than ever before.</p> <p>"While many systems include AI routines, these routines normally add more features to the package and require people to learn how to use them to get the most out of the software. These additional changes to their normal work routines often make people more resistant to the new system, but it can be overcome with additional training and coaching," Taffet said. "We actually have to work on changing people's mindsets."</p> <p>It helps that many workers are incentivized to learn how to use AI. "People now fear that if they don't learn to use the new technology quickly enough, AI will replace them," he said.</p> <p>However, organizations often don't anticipate how much effort such a transformation requires, so they underbudget training and underestimate the time needed for <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/feature/Top-change-management-tips-for-ERP-implementation-success">changes in the workplace</a>.</p> <p>They pay a price for miscalculating, he said. Productivity drops as workers muddle through, and training costs rise as they try to catch up with managing the change. Or employees develop workarounds and resist adopting the new processes enabled by the ERP platform, which reduces its value.</p> <h3>10. Post–go‑live costs</h3> <p>Cost overruns don't end at deployment, these experts warned.</p> <p>"There's a common assumption that costs taper off after go‑live, but that's rarely the case. Organizations spend heavily on hypercare to stabilize the system, retrain users, resolve defects and tune performance," Merkas said. "Over time, ERP becomes less of a project and more of a product, requiring continuous investment in optimization, automation and process improvement."</p> <p>Merkas said organizations can also be hit with SaaS ERP pricing realities and subscription creep.</p> <p>"With SaaS ERP, the surprise isn't infrastructure anymore -- it's subscription creep," he explained. "Organizations often start with a core license and later realize they need additional users, premium modules, sandbox environments or advanced analytics that weren't part of the original estimate. Usage‑based pricing for transactions, APIs or data volumes can also materially change costs once the system is live. If those scenarios aren't modeled upfront, total cost of ownership can escalate quickly."</p> <p>Additionally, Gupta noted that many organizations underestimate the consumption-based bills they'll see post-ERP deployment. He explained that while consumption-based pricing isn't new, it is more novel for AI and is something that executives still struggle to predict.</p> <p><iframe title="Deloitte experts: Internal controls key in ERP cloud migration" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px); height: 150px;" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=7ubdp-19f0bac-pb&amp;from=pb6admin&amp;pbad=0&amp;share=1&amp;download=1&amp;rtl=0&amp;fonts=Arial&amp;skin=1&amp;font-color=auto&amp;logo_link=episode_page&amp;btn-skin=2baf9e" loading="lazy"></iframe></p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Hidden costs expected but not inevitable"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Hidden costs expected but not inevitable</h2> <p>Studies have shown and experts have attested to the frequency of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/feature/7-reasons-for-ERP-implementation-failure">cost overruns in ERP implementations</a>.</p> <p>But hidden costs aren't inevitable, Gupta said.</p> <p>He acknowledged that the costs of some ERP implementation work is hard to pin down, especially those associated with readying and migrating data. And many organizations struggle to build accurate cost estimates because they don't do ERP implementations often.</p> <p>Those factors can be mitigated with more comprehensive upfront planning, Gupta said.</p> <p>"The only way to remove invisibility from any model is to really break down your plan," he said. "You have to break down your implementation plan to know what you're going to see, and you need detailed planning assessments at the process, data and technology levels."</p> <p>But even here organizations often face a pay-now-or-pay-later choice, Gupta said.</p> <p>It is clear, he explained, that executives who put in more legwork when planning an ERP implementation can identify more of the needed work upfront and, thus, more <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/tip/How-to-calculate-the-total-cost-of-ownership-of-ERP-software">accurately calculate project costs</a>.</p> <p>"The more you do in advance, the more confidence you'll have with your cost estimates," he said.</p> <p>But that advance work also adds costs to the project, Gupta said. Moreover, it doesn't necessarily lower the overall cost. It just helps cut down on surprises.</p> <p><b>Editor's note: </b><i>This 2023 article was updated in September 2026.</i></p> <p><i>Mary K. Pratt is an award-winning freelance journalist with a focus on covering enterprise IT and cybersecurity management.</i></p> </section> It's easy to know what the software costs, but what about variables like customization, productivity and training? Experts reveal the pitfalls so you can avoid expensive surprises. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/money_g1021600178.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/enterprise-software/feature/Explaining-the-hidden-costs-of-ERP-implementations Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:00:00 GMT 60 webmaster@techtarget.com