Software is the largest area of IT expenditures for most enterprises today. Software, unique from other areas of spend, replaces other things and brings new capabilities to your organization. Optimizing how you acquire, deploy, renew and govern
software assets provides the agility needed for business transformation and transparency to control costs.
ISG’s Software Advisory practice leverages our unmatched market insights, research analytics and expertise in validating your architecture, requirements, bill of materials, utilization and compliance to help you to effectively reduce costs, manage
software assets, mitigate software compliance risks and resolve software audit issues.
ISG brings the objectivity, research and expertise across the digital ecosystem to help you rapidly realize the benefits of your software acquisitions and the digital transformations they enable.
There are many reasons why Core Banking and associated platforms are being refreshed across the banking landscape –
Fintechs are attracting bank clients, and banks are challenged to handle the shift to digital engagement models. We can
answer your questions:
ISG can help you solve for your banking platform challenges, including building an actionable strategy and business cases, sourcing the right software and implementation partners, transforming your operating model to align with new capabilities, and realizing the value of your software investments.
Learn how to identify oversights that cause overspending and increase transparency around determining your commitment compared into your consumption.
Watch On-DemandReview Oracle’s licensing models and gain insights to Oracle’s negotiation practices and build and execute an effective sourcing and licensing strategy.
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Watch On-DemandISG’s software advisory experts discuss Microsoft 365 and its refresh of hosted user productivity offerings, Microsoft’s “last mile” of traditional perpetual software, and Windows Enterprise back from the “brink.”
Watch On-DemandWhen it comes to IT cost control, an underused discipline is Software Asset Management. Watch to learn what you need to know to drive more value out of your software investments.
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Learn MoreIn the U.S., enterprise service management (ESM) is increasingly seen as a strategic enabler of digital business, with a strong emphasis on integrating human-centered design, intelligent automation and digital strategy. This approach aims to transform ESM into the connective tissue of the modern enterprise that is adaptive, anticipatory and persistently value-driven. It has emerged from the shadow of ITSM and is increasingly recognized for its scope of functionality and strong value offered. The discipline helps enterprises speed up digital transformation from 2.0 (where they are and what they know) to 3.0 (where they aspire to be). ESM is driving this by enabling enterprises to bring traditional IT operations, disparate business services (such as CRM, inventory) and cross-functional services (HR, finance, facilities management and more) into a single, orchestrated service environment. Service providers have made impressive gains in this regard as they have notably improved their ESM architecture vision to enable business value. This mature approach to delivering business value has strengthened providers’ ability to engineer core elements that support continuous AI integration and support, multicloud execution and other features of modern systems. This fits well with how many U.S. enterprises are trying to transform their operations.
Including AI and related technologies has paved the way for reinventing the entire ADM lifecycle to explore possible methods and approaches to delivering services that realize significant benefits for both enterprises and service providers. These benefits realized have introduced new scenarios that they must consider; hence, they have reconsidered contractual terms to ensure that these scenarios are considered for mutual benefit.
ESM is a nascent software category with extreme variability in how vendors approach the discipline and the functionalities offered in their software. A true ESM solution sits atop the enterprises’ technology stack and manages the ITSM system and all other enterprise applications and business systems, including ERP, CRM, finance, sales, OT big data CloudOps and more. Most packaged ESM software solutions are not at this level today, but they do provide the pathways to achieve it. How well developed their pathways toward an integrated environment are, differentiates ESM software vendors.
In the realm of enterprise software-defined networking (SD-networking) solutions and services, organizations face a rapidly evolving landscape shaped by various strategic factors, including the emergence of new technologies, business imperatives and organizational processes. These factors are intricately aligned with global trends, such as enterprise
digitalization, business transformation, the need for enhanced security and the growing momentum toward cloudification. This study, conducted by the ISG Provider Lens™, focuses specifically on SD-networking within the U.S. market. It encompasses a broad spectrum of services and technologies, including managed SD-WAN, transformation services (consulting and advisory), edge technologies (including private enterprise 5G) and secure access service edge (SASE).
SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) is the unification of capabilities that previously existed in two separate offerings: SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud. As its name implies, Analytics Cloud was SAP’s analytics offering. However, unlike many of its competitors, it also included planning capabilities. SAP Datasphere was the evolution of SAP’s data warehouse as a service (formerly called SAP Data Warehouse Cloud) and included data management, data integration, data federation, data governance and data catalog capabilities.
There are two common models. Some vendors embed AI in the base product, which can raise subscription costs, even if usage is limited. Others offer AI as a higher tier or separate module, letting customers adopt when they determine the time is right. Pricing can be per user, per unit or based on tokens or consumption.
Validate total cost of ownership across delivery models, including migration and exit costs. Review data rights, responsible-AI terms, compliance and regulatory fit, security and processing standards and service levels. Confirm how usage is metered (e.g., tokens or units) and whether costs are forecastable.
Finding leverage with large providers can be difficult. Start by scrutinizing the bill of materials to remove waste. Set fair targets using market data, assign clear owners and an escalation path, and structure the negotiation around outcomes, so pricing and terms improve as the software delivers measurable value.
Use four anchors: Price-to-value (align pay with outcomes delivered), time-to-value (get clear on pace of benefits after purchase), flexibility (ensure capacity to adjust as needs change), and predictability (get clarity on cost for expansions, true-ups and renewals).
Run a software asset management program with accurate entitlement and deployment records, periodic internal reviews and clear governance. Common audit triggers include reduced spend, merger or acquisition activity and any major changes to your environment. Proactive hygiene reduces exposure and speeds resolution.
