Comprehensive software reviews to make better IT decisions

Microsoft’s AI Tour visited Toronto, ON, on December 3, 2024. The event primarily showcased Microsoft’s latest AI offerings and their capabilities. There were several other vendors present as well to demonstrate their own solutions in partnership with Microsoft. These vendors included NVIDIA, Cohere, Snowflake, and Insight, among others, who displayed how their offerings were using and adopting AI to improve their businesses through information panels. While the event itself offered a promising glimpse into what AI has been doing today to help people and organizations, it also showed why there is the need for measured expectations when implementing AI.

Cisco consolidated its position as one of the largest software companies globally by completing the acquisition of Splunk.

Q headlines a bevy of announcements at AWS re:Invent 2023 in Las Vegas that shed more light on the cloud service provider’s AI strategy and where its differentiation from other vendors lies.

Automation is not a silver bullet solution to your workforce productivity challenges. Optimization and automation (optimation) must be used together to remove root cause inefficiencies and best use the features and capabilities of your automation solutions.

Traditional accounting practices are tailor made for waterfall project management. Organizations that have transitioned to the use of standing product teams using Agile and DevOps need to transform their accounting practices as well or they will leave valuable capital expenditure dollars on the table.

IBM is changing the terms of its ubiquitous Passport Advantage agreement to remove entitled discounts on over 5,000 on-premises software products, resulting in an immediate price increase for IBM Software & Support (S&S) across its vast customer landscape.

Microsoft’s AI Tour visited Toronto, ON, on December 3, 2024. The event primarily showcased Microsoft’s latest AI offerings and their capabilities. There were several other vendors present as well to demonstrate their own solutions in partnership with Microsoft. These vendors included NVIDIA, Cohere, Snowflake, and Insight, among others, who displayed how their offerings were using and adopting AI to improve their businesses through information panels. While the event itself offered a promising glimpse into what AI has been doing today to help people and organizations, it also showed why there is the need for measured expectations when implementing AI.

Discover how NICE Enlighten AI is transforming call centers. Say goodbye to traditional call centers and hello to the future of enterprise customer experience.

Q headlines a bevy of announcements at AWS re:Invent 2023 in Las Vegas that shed more light on the cloud service provider’s AI strategy and where its differentiation from other vendors lies.

Transparency, explainability, and trust are pressing topics in AI/ML today. While much has been written about why these are important and what organizations should do, no tools to help implement these principles have existed – until now.

Recently I attended the inaugural Emotion AI conference, organized by Seth Grimes, a leading analyst and business consultant in the areas of natural language processing, text analytics, sentiment analysis, and their business applications. So, what is emotion AI, why is it relevant, and what do you need to know about it?

SortSpoke’s novel approach to machine learning answers a longstanding problem in financial services – how to efficiently extract critical data from inbound, unstructured documents at 100% data quality.

Finastra launches securities financing transaction regulation (SFTR) support ahead of the European Union’s April 11, 2020 deadline.

Three global banks launched a blockchain-based platform to bring the promise of open ledgers and contracts to the loan management market.

Wolters Kluwer suffers security breach after poor security management.

Consumers using mobile devices for bill payment is creating new challenges for merchants and their banks.

POS system purchases are being driven by ease of integration. Identified as having the most satisfying of all POS systems when it comes to integration, Restaurant Manager displays that it understands the needs of restaurant operators.

As pick-up/takeout has been the only operating option for restaurants for the last few months, Silverware’s release of its “In-Seat Contactless Platform” will assist COVID-19 “new normal” restaurants to deploy mobile-first, phone-to-table contactless features that were once a convenience but are now features of necessity.

As COVID-19 swept across the globe, many food and beverage operators were forced to switch to pick-up or delivery methods only. PAR’s novel solution PARk it supplies operators with a mobile method to continue serving their customers during this time.

As restaurant, hotel, and casino operators begin to open their doors once again to guests, concerns around accepting cashless, contactless payments will rise. In the new normal, POS platform provider Agilysys’ InfoGenesis delivers on EMV and PCI compliance to enable secure and hygienic credit or debit payments.

Discover how NICE Enlighten AI is transforming call centers. Say goodbye to traditional call centers and hello to the future of enterprise customer experience.

Zoho has announced new updates to its collaboration software ecosystem to meet organizations’ productivity needs in a post-pandemic world centered on asynchronous hybrid work.

Cisco consolidated its position as one of the largest software companies globally by completing the acquisition of Splunk.

At ZohoDay24, the key themes were Zoho’s long-term growth strategy and social impact, Zoho’s financial performance and customer value proposition, Zoho’s unique approach to software development and AI, and Zoho’s global expansion and localization efforts.

This post provides a review of Zoom’s 2023 conference, Zoomtopia 2023. Core aspects covered include what major product releases and upgrades Zoom announced at Zoomtopia 2023, and what these announcements mean for Zoom’s market positioning in 2024.

Zoho, a multinational software and web-based business tool provider, has announced the launch of Trident – a hub that brings Zoho’s pre-existing and new unified communications capabilities into a single pane of glass. How will Trident’s addition to Workplace impact customer migrations from Microsoft and Google.

Traditional accounting practices are tailor made for waterfall project management. Organizations that have transitioned to the use of standing product teams using Agile and DevOps need to transform their accounting practices as well or they will leave valuable capital expenditure dollars on the table.

So you’ve gone Agile. You do daily scrums, retrospectives, and all the “right” Agile ceremonies. But still your organization isn’t quite convinced. It is now critical to balance the drivers and goals of both Agile and traditional thinking in order to achieve organizational success.

When trying to implement Agile as a defined process, Scrum turned BAs or other roles into order takers with the title “product owner.” This undermines the entire value proposition of product management.

No matter how good your product roadmap and backlog are, they are only as good as your audience’s ability to understand your vision and priority.

The scrum master is like the conductor of an orchestra, ensuring that every piece fits together at the right time to create something greater than the sum of the parts. You don’t have to know how to play each instrument, but you do have to understand what each part contributes to the overall masterpiece.

Tools are important to product teams, but only when they support solid people and processes.

Vijay Sundaram, Chief Strategy Officer at Zoho, describes a major release of new apps and services focused on enabling hybrid work.

This note outlines Info-Tech’s Three C’s of Enterprise Collaboration framework to help buyers effectively navigate the collaboration software marketspace.

Zoho Workplace – a global enterprise collaboration platform – has reported that it is now supporting 15 million users and is experiencing a surge in usage for its business applications. However, compared to Microsoft’s Office 365 and Google’s G Suite, Zoho still has a long way to go in this marketspace.

Teams is designed for close integration with SharePoint, but the latest Box/Teams integration has organizations wondering if they can use Box instead. This note outlines the extent that this is currently possible and offers some best practices.

Box CEO Aaron Levie recently announced that the company will allow employees to “work from anywhere” until January 2021.

Software that facilitates enterprise file synchronization and sharing (EFSS) is always key to getting work done, but now, with many businesses operating under the necessity of working from home due to COVID-19, it is more essential than ever.

In an Info-Tech LIVE conference session titled “AI Lens – Human to Machine Interface” Dr. Imad Syed from PiLog shared how AI-powered, lean data governance can revolutionize your business. Simplify, adapt, and thrive!

Zoho (www.zoho.com), a multinational software and web-based business tool provider, has announced the new release of their analytics platform.

Boomi’s vision for using AI is to help its customers unlock the power of their data. Boomi believes that AI can add analytical, predictive, and generative benefits to data-driven decisions, but only if the data is connected, available, and correct. Boomi’s strategy is to use AI to connect the dots so even nontechnical users can access the data and make dynamic dashboards without many analysts or process steps.

Cisco consolidated its position as one of the largest software companies globally by completing the acquisition of Splunk.

Q headlines a bevy of announcements at AWS re:Invent 2023 in Las Vegas that shed more light on the cloud service provider’s AI strategy and where its differentiation from other vendors lies.

This note outlines some tips and tricks that you should be aware of when embarking on the installation and configuration of a Kubernetes cluster. Such an endeavor should only be attempted if the need for an enterprise-grade container orchestration solution is required.

Student retention, already a major concern at higher education institutions, is an even greater concern as students are unable to learn in person and on campus.

Some major LMS conference cancellations or online alternatives have been announced in an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19, though not all have canceled.

As the world responds to the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, closed schools in some affected areas are turning to eLearning and web conferencing to maintain continuity in course delivery and/or studying.

Plans to require four online high school credits in Ontario, Canada, have changed: the required credits have been reduced to two and made opt-outable.

Instructure has responded to pushback from both users and investors about their proposed sale to a private equity firm.

This is the third maintenance release since Sakai 19 was released in spring 2019. Thanks to its open-source community, Sakai is continuously providing fixes, security updates, and improvements to its users.

Evaluating vendor proposals is one of the most critical aspects of the RFP process, secondary only to negotiations. The ironic thing is that we've seen too many clients try to abbreviate this activity, take short cuts, or even avoid it altogether. Providing ample time for your team to review the vendor RFP responses is critical to a quality review process, while not rushing the evaluation process ensures that you understand their complete offer and proposal.

When leasing IT equipment, the lessor (the company providing the equipment) has one main obligation. However, most leases overlook this critical aspect completely, exposing the lessee (the organization leasing the equipment) to unnecessary risk.

If you want to lease IT equipment, you have many options with regard to potential lessors (the leasing companies). In fact, some manufacturers lease equipment directly to their customers … or do they?

SortSpoke’s novel approach to machine learning answers a longstanding problem in financial services – how to efficiently extract critical data from inbound, unstructured documents at 100% data quality.

Check your contracts and you will find that the vast majority contain a force majeure clause. This provision states the conditions by which a party does not have to perform under the contract if it experiences an event beyond the party’s control.

If you are experiencing pressure to lower your IT expense, a reverse auction might be a quick, efficient answer to ensure you are getting a competitive price.

We examine Verkada's history, market position, and core offerings, providing an expert’s perspective informed by three decades of security architecture experience.

IDeaS’ G3 revenue management solution will be highly sought after by properties looking to leverage data to make informed pricing decisions.

Bosch’s release of its INTEOX camera solution moves beyond the legacy “closed circuit” model of surveillance infrastructure to a Camera-as-a-Platform (CaaP) approach, enabling third-party apps at the surveillance perimeter edge to create innovative video-based business solutions and decisions.

Milestone Systems’ recently announced 2019R3 and 2020R1 software releases introduce several new features and capabilities to its XProtect video management software and related Smart Client.

COVID-19 continues to sweep across the globe and significantly impact various segments of the tourism, retail, and restaurant sectors as well as other public venues. As economies begin to reopen and COVID-19-related restrictions begin to be lifted, organizations need a way to monitor and comply with occupancy limits and policies. Genetec’s recently announced Occupancy Management Package enables businesses to tap into their security and surveillance system to count people, visualize data, and manage occupancy density rules.

This note offers guidance to organizations considering elevated body temperature/fever detection solutions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to assist with reopening and return-to-work efforts.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, healthcare organizations are looking for ways to expand digital patient care options. Patient management systems like Experian’s eCare NEXT help providers connect new digital clinical workflows to established workflows and revenue cycles.

Acterys enhances decision-making throughout the organization by integrating smoothly with Microsoft Power BI and Excel. The writeback and centralized data management capabilities of Acterys will extend the ability of even non–business analyst users to help with operational efficiency and financial planning.

On June 17, 2021, Smarp briefed Info-Tech on the latest updates to its communications and advocacy platform. Based out of Helsinki, Smarp provides solutions for over 300 companies worldwide, with industry specializations in professional services, banking, and fintech.

Breezy HR has made video assessment and interviewing tools free for business clients for a minimum of 60 days, in light of efforts to prevent COVID-19 pandemic spread.

What is changing in the HR technology space as a result of COVID-19? Some organizations are seeing an uptick in interest and customer support, while others are providing free access to their product.

ADP is offering updates and webcasts to keep customers informed during the COVID-19 response. There’s a significant impact anticipated for employers, including complex compliance, financial, and strategic issues surrounding workforce management.

Cornerstone is acquiring Saba, a learning management system, to further invest in its learning offerings and gain reach in the market. With this acquisition, the organization intends to accelerate product development.

BackBox represents the next generation in network automation, establishing itself as a network infrastructure integrity platform. Its robust IntelliChecks capabilities and event-driven architecture set it apart, offering a comprehensive solution for automated network management that ranges from backup and recovery to vulnerability management and compliance checks.

In a session titled “Resolving IT Crises Instantly – Transforming IT Efficiency and Business Continuity” Oren Rosen of eProc Solutions shared insights on resolving IT crises instantly at Info-Tech LIVE 2024.

Amazon Bedrock offers unified API access to leading foundation models in the cloud, enabling organizations to build generative AI applications with ease, scalability, and cost effectiveness

Acronis presents a compelling option for organizations seeking a comprehensive platform that merges reliable data protection with proactive cybersecurity measures.

Cisco consolidated its position as one of the largest software companies globally by completing the acquisition of Splunk.

Q headlines a bevy of announcements at AWS re:Invent 2023 in Las Vegas that shed more light on the cloud service provider’s AI strategy and where its differentiation from other vendors lies.

Zoho Corporation has announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to leverage the NVIDIA AI accelerated computing platform, including NVIDIA NeMo, for the development and deployment of advanced AI models within Zoho's SaaS applications. This collaboration aims to enhance AI capabilities for Zoho's extensive customer base of over 700,000 businesses worldwide.

In a session titled “Resolving IT Crises Instantly – Transforming IT Efficiency and Business Continuity” Oren Rosen of eProc Solutions shared insights on resolving IT crises instantly at Info-Tech LIVE 2024.

Eracent is a privately held IT asset management (ITAM), software asset management (SAM) and cybersecurity solution provider founded in 2000. Their roots trace back to AT&T, Bell Labs, and Lucent’s pre-Y2K initiatives (around 1997-2000), where a core focus was placed on IT asset discovery and protection. Eracent emphasizes their experience with extensive asset discovery during a period with significantly different internet and network connectivity compared to today and have consistently focused on ITAM and SAM solutions throughout their existence. This note features Eracent’s extension into open-source software risk mitigation though software bill of materials (SBOM) management.

In this tech note I take a closer look at Devolutions, a partial stack Privileged Access Management (PAM) vendor, exploring its history, market positioning, core features, and differentiating factors. Through insights gleaned from a vendor briefing and demo, I explore Devolutions’ evolution, target audience, and its strategic approach to the PAM landscape.

Cisco consolidated its position as one of the largest software companies globally by completing the acquisition of Splunk.

This analysis examines Zscaler's cloud-based security platform, with a focus on its Zero Trust Exchange (ZTE), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), and broader suite of security solutions. It explores Zscaler's approach to overcoming the limitations of traditional VPN architectures, using artificial intelligence (AI) for threat detection, and integrating various security functionalities within a unified platform. Drawing insights from analyst demo notes, vendor information, and independent research, this analysis aims to provide a comprehensive and unbiased assessment of Zscaler's value proposition for security professionals.

Delinea’s identity security solution integrates privileged access management with other critical security components to provide a robust solution for identity and access governance. I met with the Delinea team over two analyst briefing sessions to explore their capabilities and how they address key security concerns.

As digital threats evolve, LastPass' proactive security measures will continue to gain momentum and improve their market strategy, positioning them well to serve their diverse clientele effectively.

Hornetsecurity has distinguished itself in our integrated cloud email security (ICES) quadrant with its advanced email security platform. My discussions with numerous email security vendors highlight Hornetsecurity’s standout features like its robust phishing detection, adaptive data utilization for AI enhancement, and the flexibility of their deployment models.

In our email security SoftwareReviews quadrant, IRONSCALES stands out as a leader with its integrated cloud email security (ICES) solution, now often called integrated cloud workspace security (ICWS).

Zoho Corporation has announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to leverage the NVIDIA AI accelerated computing platform, including NVIDIA NeMo, for the development and deployment of advanced AI models within Zoho's SaaS applications. This collaboration aims to enhance AI capabilities for Zoho's extensive customer base of over 700,000 businesses worldwide.

I speak to many cybersecurity vendors, some are good, some are not memorable, but others excel. Recently, one company I briefed with stood out to me for its innovative approach to identity attack path management (iAPM): SpecterOps. Its flagship product, BloodHound Enterprise, has become an indispensable tool for organizations worldwide looking to secure their identity infrastructure against sophisticated cyber risks.

Zoho Corporation has announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to leverage the NVIDIA AI accelerated computing platform, including NVIDIA NeMo, for the development and deployment of advanced AI models within Zoho's SaaS applications. This collaboration aims to enhance AI capabilities for Zoho's extensive customer base of over 700,000 businesses worldwide.

Discover how NICE Enlighten AI is transforming call centers. Say goodbye to traditional call centers and hello to the future of enterprise customer experience.

AI-powered “answer engines” are revolutionizing the way the audiences retrieve information online. These engines respond to user queries with short, straight answers, unlike traditional search engines that show lists of links.

Starting May 2021, these measurements will inform the search ranking algorithm. Google's objective is to promote websites that are fast, responsive, and visually stable. How can optimize your website for good Core Web Vitals?

How can software marketing and sales teams win in 2021? Learn how emotions affect software buying habits and how to build better customer relationships.

Mouseflow introduces live heatmaps to its web analytics platform to allow users to gain unique insights from large data sets with just a glance!

5G networks are the next generation of mobile phone service delivered at higher frequencies that requires shorter distance between “backpack” sized cell sites. Municipalities are challenged when negotiating with carriers regarding the installation of these small cell sites due to the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) 5G Order on Small Cell Siting.

Visually presenting data assists the public understanding of complex issues. Using GIS mapping tools is an effective way of layering data from various source for quantitative analysis.

Esri made several big announcements at its Developer Summit in Palm Springs, CA, in March 2019. ArcGIS for Developers is a suite of developer tools and resources specifically for the creation of web-based and native applications.

Esri recently hosted the sixth annual Public Sector CIO Summit. Key topics included the role of emerging technology, emerging trends like location intelligence and smart cities, and the need to create “wins” to demonstrate IT’s value.

In our email security SoftwareReviews quadrant, IRONSCALES stands out as a leader with its integrated cloud email security (ICES) solution, now often called integrated cloud workspace security (ICWS).

In the digital realm, trust is currency. Without robust identity verification, online interactions become a breeding ground for fraud and exploitation.

The recent Schrems II invalidation of the EU-US Privacy Shield has added a layer of difficulty for organizations that operate across borders, as they now require additional contractual clauses and measures in place to ensure data can transfer freely. Privacy program management vendor Proteus-Cyber offers a streamlined solution with the release of its Transfer Impact Assessment tool.

By exploiting a five-year-old configuration error, a hacker was able to access Amazon’s S3 cloud storage buckets on which Twilio’s code was loaded. As a result, customers were able to unknowingly download the modified code for twenty-four hours.

Qualys VMDR and Ivanti have announced a new partnership dedicated to improving the detection and patching of vulnerabilities. Announced July 30, the Qualys and Ivanti Partnership have already gone live as an integrated component of the VMDR solution.

IBM is changing the terms of its ubiquitous Passport Advantage agreement to remove entitled discounts on over 5,000 on-premises software products, resulting in an immediate price increase for IBM Software & Support (S&S) across its vast customer landscape.

Discover how NICE Enlighten AI is transforming call centers. Say goodbye to traditional call centers and hello to the future of enterprise customer experience.

Microsoft’s AI Tour visited Toronto, ON, on December 3, 2024. The event primarily showcased Microsoft’s latest AI offerings and their capabilities. There were several other vendors present as well to demonstrate their own solutions in partnership with Microsoft. These vendors included NVIDIA, Cohere, Snowflake, and Insight, among others, who displayed how their offerings were using and adopting AI to improve their businesses through information panels. While the event itself offered a promising glimpse into what AI has been doing today to help people and organizations, it also showed why there is the need for measured expectations when implementing AI.

A bevy of new announcements across its LLM stack show that AWS wants to give its customers choice in how they train, select, and integrate LLMs with their business processes. But how will AWS contend with the added complexity all that choice brings? Some announcements from re:Invent 2024 show they’re considering this pain point.

Zoho Corporation has announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to leverage the NVIDIA AI accelerated computing platform, including NVIDIA NeMo, for the development and deployment of advanced AI models within Zoho's SaaS applications. This collaboration aims to enhance AI capabilities for Zoho's extensive customer base of over 700,000 businesses worldwide.

Discover how NICE Enlighten AI is transforming call centers. Say goodbye to traditional call centers and hello to the future of enterprise customer experience.

Amazon Q promises to be your coding assistant and provide a new path for "citizen developer" employees that want to craft their own apps to automate tasks in their workflow.

Amazon has been updating Bedrock with access to new LLMs, evaluation features, and customization capabilities, and the result offers a lot of value to organizations that want to get started on working with LLM capabilities in their applications and move quickly.

JDA’s Workforce Management and Warehouse Labor Management software functions are now offered in an integrated manner to drive productivity gains in the warehouse.

Many people are challenged by the economic constraints of car ownership. Rising vehicle prices, registration fees, automobile insurance, ongoing maintenance, fuel, and parking fees can bleed people dry. In response, technology companies are developing innovative ways to offset the costs.

A powerful combination of supply chain visibility and global trade management is now available through E2open and its acquisition of Amber Road software.

SAP and Uber Freight are taking on a joint venture to integrate Uber Freight into SAP Logistics Business Network. The goal is to simplify load management and execution by enabling customers to leverage transportation rates from the Uber Freight network of reliable drivers. As a positive “side effect,” better utilization of unused trucks can make a positive impact on environment. For those looking for a convincing reason to go with one supply chain management system or ERP vendor over the other, this might be it.

Multibillion-dollar firms still primarily use spreadsheets for demand forecasting, but this approach leaves a lot of room for enterprise software vendors to displace manual work with solutions better suited for large enterprises, and hence gain significant revenue in this space.