Informatica empowers business users and improves customer success in its Winter ’20 release

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The new capabilities of Informatica’s winter release make data more consumable for business users

Organizations have a bevy of data spanning their on-premises and cloud environments and a growing number of employees utilizing that data — from more technical personnel, such as data scientists who are using the data to create AI and machine learning models, to data analysts and business users who are leveraging data for analytics. Simultaneously, government regulations around data privacy, such as the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in the European Union, are becoming more stringent across geographies, requiring enterprises have visibility into and control over all their data.

Informatica, through its iPaaS portfolio, can enable enterprises to derive greater value from their data sets and meet these tightening regulations with governance tools. Informatica further defined its value proposition at its Winter 2020 virtual launch event in December, announcing numerous product enhancements and capabilities, including improvements to its data governance and customer success solutions that help analysts and nontechnical business users leverage their company’s data.

As data regulations tighten, Informatica maintains governance while simplifying data requisition

Informatica’s recent updates around data governance and privacy include two key areas of the process: helping customers understand the quality of their data and streamlining their data processing pipeline. The vendor is using natural language processing to automatically generate a data quality maplet based on the functional specifications outlined by a customer’s data steward. This capability significantly reduces time to value for data sets, as data stewards typically have to collaborate with subject matter experts to create a maplet, a process that could take weeks before data can be fully utilized.

To empower business users and analysts once the data is available for analytics and reporting, Informatica created the Informatica Data Marketplace, a feature in the vendor’s Axon Data Governance offering. The marketplace is akin to consumer-oriented online shopping experiences, as business users and analysts can search data by category, subcategory and other filters. Once an employee requests a data set, it alerts the relevant data steward regarding which data set the employee would like and the intended use of the asset. Enabling data stewards to accept or deny access to these requests ensures that governance policies are still being met while democratizing data by giving data consumers more autonomy. TBR expects this will be a noteworthy selling point for Informatica as it engages with modernizing enterprises that are faced with complexities in their data governance growing alongside the number of employees consuming data.

Informatica’s enhanced Customer Success Platform helps customers from onboarding to ongoing

Business-to-business technology providers that will succeed in the 2020s understand customer success is a strategic imperative. Gone are the days of binary, transaction-oriented customer relationships with communication blackouts between product sale and renewal. Informatica understands this shift in business buying behavior, highlighted by new Customer Success Platform capabilities including the DIANA intelligent agent for license and administrative support, personalized recommendations for employee onboarding and training, product learning paths with novice to expert-level training on Informatica products, and support from Informatica experts through Concierge.

Informatica is ensuring organizations are attaining the greatest value from its offerings by scaling customers’ workforces with on-demand training, and once trained, enabling the workforce to solve issues on an ongoing basis via DIANA and Informatica experts. TBR believes these capabilities will make Informatica stickier in customers’ organizations, further increasing renewal rates throughout its customer base.

Informatica has positioned itself for success as enterprises demand more personalized engagement

In an era where customers are adopting best-of-breed offerings from multiple vendors, enterprises need a third-party integration provider that can unify their entire IT environment. Informatica will remain a leading vendor in this regard, as its ongoing innovation will continue to appeal to technical personnel such as data engineers and data scientists, while becoming more attractive to business decision makers with new capabilities at the business user level. Furthermore, Informatica’s investment in customer success will help attract and retain customers as enterprises expect, and demand, more personal vendor engagement.

Proximity or scale? Will Latin America’s startup scene challenge India’s?

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Here’s a simple question: Can a startup scene in nearshore Americas rival the one in India? Could countries and markets geographically closer to the U.S. provide the kind of energy and entrepreneurship coming from India, particularly in emerging technologies?

A few weeks ago, TBR analysts spoke at length with a PwC partner in India about the startup community and learned how a few key elements have been coming together in recent years to make that country a growing hub for digital transformation innovations. And recently, we noticed a Nearshore America’s piece on the innovation investment in Latin America that made us consider how the two regions compare.

India has some distinct advantages, particularly as digital transformation begins to mature and offshoring, scale and agility become critical to sustained success in delivering IT services enabled by emerging technologies. India also has an education system naturally geared to support a global, English-speaking technology environment, plus increasing support from two different groups: global consultancies looking for creativity and international venture investors and banks looking for new and fast-growing revenue streams.

The questions for Latin America-based startups and their various backers, including local, regional and federal governments trying to incubate and accelerate innovation, likely do not center on competitors two continents away, especially as those startups remain focused mostly on their own markets. But both startup scenes look to the same global markets for investors, clients and, eventually, scale, so IT and emerging tech startups in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Peru need to consider how they compare and what will drive additional — global and sustained — interest and investment.

In early 2020 TBR will speak with consulting and IT services leaders across major vendors, including Accenture, PwC, EY and IBM, about their experiences in and expectations for the Latin America startup and innovation scene, where they see opportunities, and how global firms weigh the potential returns on investment in that region compared to in India.

As digital transformation matures, customers voice their concerns about data and scale

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This week TBR wraps up its 2019 digital transformation insights research with our Voice of the Customer report, in which Senior Analyst Boz Hristov notes, “More buyers are beginning to embark on full transformations as new technologies promising faster, scalable outcomes push buyers to ramp investments and AI and analytics gain mindshare. Vendors can take advantage of buyers’ increased investments in AI and analytics and demonstrate tangible ROI, but only if they can guarantee they are using cleansed data.”

Additional assessments publishing this week from our analyst teams

“Forging closer relationships with clients in select regions enables opportunities to upsell and cross-sell emerging solutions and attach services as clients continue to modernize IT environments. HPE provides the infrastructure needed to modernize clients’ IT environments, creating opportunities for HPE Pointnext’s expertise around close-to-the-box services and solutions.” — Kevin Collupy, Analyst

“TBR’s 3Q19 Dell Technologies report dives deep into the complex market dynamics impacting the vendor’s go-forward path. Ongoing server market softness has caused some pivots within the Infrastructure Solutions Group’s initial 2019 goals, and VMware’s transition to more of a subscription sales model coupled with the associated expenses of completed and pending acquisitions add wrinkles to the vendor’s financial story.” — Stephanie Long, Analyst

“The 3Q19 Hewlett Packard Enterprise report tunes its lens to the implications of Antonio Neri’s Everything as a Service by 2022 goal. The impact of this goal will be felt, both positive and negative, throughout the next year as the vendor’s financials adjust to a subscription selling model from a transaction selling model and as customer demand for consumption-based pricing is increasingly satisfied by these changes.” — Stephanie Long

 “As Accenture wraps up 2019 we expect the company to continue to capitalize on its momentum, targeting Diamond clients by deploying industrialized, AI-enabled solutions. We expect Industry X.0 and other similar initiative to further support the company’s efforts to secure core revenues as buyers embark on broad-based transformation initiatives.” — Boz Hristov

“As discussed in TBR’s Hyperconverged & Converged Market Landscape, the emergence of public cloud competition in the private cloud market, as vendors seek to capitalize on the rising trend of hybrid cloud adoption, has created unique and complex dynamics for hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) vendors to navigate in the HCI space. These vendors not only continue to grapple with hardware commoditization and the ongoing emphasis on software in HCI sales, but now also face an additional angle of competition from the public cloud side, as Amazon Web Services makes Outposts generally available and Microsoft’s Azure Stack increasingly resonates with customers for hybrid cloud. On the other hand, HCI’s applicability to the edge is also resonating and creates additional pockets of opportunity for HCI vendors. Similar market dynamics are being noted in TBR’s upcoming Hyperconverged Platforms Customer Research, which examines the market through a customer-centric lens.” — Stephanie Long

Enterprise adoption of private cellular networks poses opportunities and threats for telecom industry

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An overview of key findings from TBR’s upcoming Private Cellular Networks Market Landscape

Digitalization and Industry 4.0 have sparked an emerging trend whereby some enterprises are opting for private cellular networks that they buy, own and control. These enterprises will be looking to not only leverage these private networks for traditional communications but also institutionalize these technologies into their operational IT environments, which are business critical and highly sensitive from a data and security standpoint. This approach challenges the notion that communication service providers (CSPs) will supply a 5G network slice to enterprises and it could disintermediate the CSP from these enterprise opportunities altogether.

TBR’s Private Cellular Networks Market Landscape deep dives into the market for private cellular networks. This global report covers enterprises that are investing in private cellular networks as well as all of the major vendors and some nascent players that supply infrastructure in this space. The research includes key findings, key market developments, market sizing and forecast, regional trends, technology trends, vertical trends, use cases, and key customer deals that are occurring in the market. The report also provides profiles of each major vendor in the private cellular network market. Key vendors covered include Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia and others.

Join Principal Analyst Chris Antlitz on March 18 for an in-depth and exclusive review of TBR’s upcoming Private Cellular Networks Market Landscape.

Don’t miss:

  • How the market for private cellular networks is evolving
  • Why some enterprises will opt for private cellular networks
  • How the prevalence of private cellular networks will impact the CSP 5G business-to-business opportunity

TBR webinars are held typically on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. ET and include a 15-minute Q&A session following the main presentation. Previous webinars can be viewed anytime on TBR’s Webinar Portal.

For additional information or to arrange a briefing with our analysts, please contact TBR at [email protected].

Are digital transformation buyers ready for AI?

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An exclusive review of TBR’s Digital Transformation Insights Report: Voice of the Customer and Digital Transformation Insights Report: Emerging Technology

AI is one of the technologies that will help standardize the digital transformation (DT) market and turn the wildly loose use of the term “digital” into tangible business results. Though the technology sparks urgency for many buyers to accelerate the execution of their DT programs, they need to carefully balance messaging with external and internal stakeholders around the possibilities with shutting out the critics, many of whom project AI will kill jobs. Join us March 11 to discover what vendors need to know to compete effectively for AI-related opportunities in the quickly evolving DT market.

Join Patrick Heffernan and Boz Hristov as they dig into how enterprise adoption of DT solutions is evolving, with a specific focus on AI. Based on enterprise adoption research, TBR will give a snapshot on today’s digital transformation services marketplace.

Don’t miss:

  • The state of adoption for DT technology and services
  • Insights into buyers’ AI readiness
  • AI market maturity, opportunity and winning AI vendor strategies

TBR webinars are held typically on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. ET and include a 15-minute Q&A session following the main presentation. Previous webinars can be viewed anytime on TBR’s Webinar Portal.

For additional information or to arrange a briefing with our analysts, please contact TBR at [email protected].

Hardware commoditization pushes vendors into new ventures

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Insights from TBR’s 2020 Data Center Predictions

Join Stephanie Long and Geoff Woollacott for a detailed analysis of where the data center market is headed in 2020. With many emerging technologies coming to market, data center vendors are investing in various emerging technologies to augment their existing portfolio and maintain relevance as legacy portfolios become commoditized.

Don’t miss:

  • How cloud versus on-premises dynamics will impact data center vendors
  • The rise of quantum services vendors
  • The emerging dynamics of ODMs and OEMs in the data center landscape

TBR webinars are held typically on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. ET and include a 15-minute Q&A session following the main presentation. Previous webinars can be viewed anytime on TBR’s Webinar Portal.

For additional information or to arrange a briefing with our analysts, please contact TBR at [email protected].

IoT settles in for the long haul

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Insights from TBR’s 2020 Devices & Commercial IoT Predictions

Join Principal Analyst Ezra Gottheil and Analyst Eric Costa for a presentation on TBR’s predictions for 2020 and beyond, concerning both devices and commercial IoT. IoT is playing an increasing role in the application of IT to business, and in IT spending, but it is not drawing as much attention as it once did. The role of AI in IoT is somewhat less than first expected, but it is still important. In the world of devices, voice interfaces and other conversational interfaces are due for explosive growth.

Don’t miss:

  • How customers and vendors are treating IoT, and how treatment has changed
  • The more purposeful role of AI in IoT
  • How the conversational interface, and smart speakers, have only begun to demonstrate their relevance

TBR webinars are held typically on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. ET and include a 15-minute Q&A session following the main presentation. Previous webinars can be viewed anytime on TBR’s Webinar Portal.

For additional information or to arrange a briefing with our analysts, please contact TBR at [email protected].

Webinar: The emerging and evolving landscape of enterprise edge computing

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Join Cloud Computing Senior Analyst Nicki Catchpole and Data Center Analyst Stephanie Long for an exclusive preview of TBR’s first edition of the Enterprise Edge Compute Market Landscape. These two TBR teams have come together to analyze the enterprise edge market, an emerging and rapidly evolving opportunity for existing data center and cloud players as well as entrants across a broad spectrum of industries.

Don’t miss:

  • The primary drivers of enterprise investment in edge computing
  • The spectrum of edge business models
  • TBR analysis of the leaders and laggards in the enterprise edge compute market
  • Established and emerging use cases for enterprise edge compute installments

TBR webinars are held typically on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. ET and include a 15-minute Q&A session following the main presentation. Previous webinars can be viewed anytime on TBR’s Webinar Portal.

For additional information or to arrange a briefing with our analysts, please contact TBR at [email protected].

A decade in, cloud’s real work begins

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Insights from TBR’s 2020 Cloud Predictions

The easy days of cloud are coming to a close. The good news is that the benefits of cloud are not just a marketing pitch; they are very real for adopting customers. Customers will need the experience they have developed with cloud to address any remaining on-premises workloads, which are a challenge and risk to change regardless of the delivery method. Put simply, the real work of applying cloud not purely as a technology but as a solution to core business problems begins in 2020, and vendors must also adjust to accommodate customers’ heightened needs.

Join Allan Krans, Meaghan McGrath, Nicole Catchpole, Catie Merrill and Jack McElwee as they dig into developments in the cloud market through 2019 and expectations for 2020.

Don’t miss:

  • Executive changes — the initial stewards of cloud’s growth are turning over.
  • Cross-vendor cooperation moves from important to necessary.
  • Customers eventually favor best-of-suite rather than best-of-breed.
  • Amazon Web Services is being challenged by both direct competition and new market approaches.

TBR webinars are held typically on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. ET and include a 15-minute Q&A session following the main presentation. Previous webinars can be viewed anytime on TBR’s Webinar Portal.

For additional information or to arrange a briefing with our analysts, please contact TBR at [email protected].

The end of ‘digital’

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Insights from TBR’s 2020 Services Predictions

A potential global economic slowdown has management consultancies and IT services vendors considering how they must reshape their strategies if and when clients backpedal on spending for digital transformation. Reassessing partnerships and seeking acquisitions will be one approach. Selling products, integrated solutions and software more aggressively will be another. And in 2020, at least one IT services vendor or management consultancy will declare the death of the term digital, arguing that everything every enterprise does has become digital.

Join Patrick Heffernan, Boz Hristov, Kevin Collupy and Kelly Lesiczka as they review developments in the IT services and professional services market from 2019 and expectations for 2020.

Don’t miss:

  • IT services vendors’ reactions and strategic shifts as enterprises slow spending
  • The acceleration around products, platforms and SaaS delivered by consultancies
  • The disappearance of “digital” as a marketing term and the rise of post-digital services

TBR webinars are held typically on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. ET and include a 15-minute Q&A session following the main presentation. Previous webinars can be viewed anytime on TBR’s Webinar Portal.

For additional information or to arrange a briefing with our analysts, please contact TBR at [email protected].