Analyst Notes
Is Cognitive Capture the next RPA?
Few saw the potential impact that RPA would have on the market, though many practice a form of revisionism to claim that they did. The…
2021 is Just Around the Corner
2021 is now just around the corner, and Information Management is in for a big year of change, disruption, progress, and innovation; that’s not a…
2021 – The Year of Business Analysis?
But without a sense of reality, the willingness to do some hard work, and a recognition of the need for human expertise to understand what’s…
Is the combination of Content and Process Intelligence greater than the sum of its parts? ABBYY thinks so…
Software companies, and analysts alike, love to come up with unique product positions, and categories, that enable them to stand out from their competition. Put…
Gimmal acquires yet again….
If we were to believe the industry hype, a firm like Gimmal would not be in growth mode. Instead, it would be weathering a storm…
The Danger of Over Simplifying Complex Enterprise Software
Even though analysts need to label and sort enterprise technologies into neat silos, this practice has always been of limited value. As it often makes…
The 2020 Deep Analysis Innovation Index………
2020 has been a year of misery, economic crisis, hardship, political upheaval, and of course, COVID 19. So we want to close this year out…
Enterprise Blockchain Business Value – Vive la Différence!
Blockchain projects are different from typical IT projects in the areas of: business model, external relationships, skills, data, value chain, application development, risks, information and…
Moving Files and Last Friday
well-managed and governed data and content live in well-managed and highly structured environments. Rip them out of that environment, and sparks can fly. That goes…
Enterprise Blockchain 2021?
This past week Peter Brooks and I finished up some client research on the topic of Enterprise Blockchain. The fact is from a year or…
AI Behemoth IBM enters the Cognitive Capture Market
This launch represents a pretty significant upgrade to IBM’s capture portfolio, and we expect that it will generate interest from customers partners and, of course,…
Designer Jeans and Enterprise Software
At Deep Analysis, we use industry terminology and we are well aware of who competes with who in which bucket. But that’s not of great…
A New Software Market Emerges for a Safe Return to Work and Campus
Fortunately, workforce safety software has emerged to help organize and manage the return-to-work process.
Content Services are taken to 11
Last year we oversaw a TSG* 11 Billon billion benchmarking exercise. This week we talked with Alfresco arch-rival, Nuxeo, who has now also taken it…
Microsoft SharePoint Syntex – Quick Take
Under the banner of Project Cortex, Microsoft has taken a step back and essentially rethought, reframed, and rewritten the SharePoint experience. At heart, Syntex is…
Hyland acquires Alfresco – A quick take
The price has not been disclosed, but off the record, estimates tell me that TH Lee has made a tidy profit on their investment and…
Enterprise Blockchain – its coming, ready, or not.
Although as analysts we try our best to be ‘opinionated’ pragmatists so one thing we know for sure is that the numbers don’t lie. So…
Hyland Joins the RPA Consolidation Parade with the Another Monday Acquisition
Starting now, Hyland customers and partners can begin integrating Another Monday’s RPA software into Hyland products using web services and other open standards. Hyland fully…
The Long Overdue RPA Market Consolidation Takes Off
The RPA/DPA world is now righting itself. There’s a clear trend, as these three important process automation and/or content management vendors made RPA acquisitions in…
EFSS is growing up….
The EFSS market is mature in that a handful of vendors now dominate. Similarly, it is mature in that the core technology foundations have stabilized,…
When AI is not so Intelligent
AI has become such a common term it would be easy to think that the addition of a little AI can improve everything. The reality…
Governing Home Working
In this short analyst note we discuss the importance of Information Governance in a world of home and hybrid working.
And the M&A beat goes on……..
Deep Analysis is not an M&A Brokerage, but we do network widely and actively advise senior executives, both buyers, and sellers. So I would like…
Unicorns & Fairy Tales
The Audit firm Deloitte has been fined 15m pounds for its role in Autonomy’s sale to HP. The fine follows the conviction of Autonomy CFO…
IBM acquires Brazilian RPA firm WDG ….
Now IBM joins the party, making a modest acquisition of Sao Paolo based WDG Automation.
Enterprise Software: Weathering the Storm
After these past few months, it has become clear that not every enterprise software firm is addressing or weathering the storm equally well. That said,…
The ABC’s of Process and Task Automation
I got an interesting question about RPA this week from our graphical designer. She has completed the design and layout for many of my reports…
Enterprise Blockchain progress and challenges
It turns out that building a global blockchain infrastructure, though not cheap or straightforward, is very do’ able. What was impossible to access just five…
Oil & Gas – Information Management Crisis
This year we spent time researching and talking to experts in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the US. The result is this new report Oil…
China’s Blockchain Network should rattle our cages
Oracle, SAP & IBM all have impressive Blockchain credentials; within those organizations, there are people with vision and ambition. But we need that excitement to…
RPA’s Limitations Are Everyone’s Limitations
All established organizations must deal with their legacy IT, with decades of hodge-podge implementations, custom development, and little appreciation for the bigger picture. But the…
AI in Digital Process Automation: It’s Complicated
Whenever we discuss trends, the conversations inevitably turn to the future of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in process automation and robotic process automation…
Deciphering Corporate Norms in a Virtual World
The question that intrigues everyone is whether organizations will remain highly virtual when the pandemic recedes or whether hordes of workers will restart their commutes…
Documentum… still rockin’ in the free world
We recently revisited FileNet (still alive and kicking) and thought it time to check in with our old friend Documentum (also alive and kicking). What…
Intelligent Business Automation: The Nexus for Process, Content, Data, AI/ML, and More
Increasingly, my colleague, Alan Pelz-Sharpe, and I are finding substantial convergence and common ground in our coverage areas. (Alan covers blockchain, content, compliance, and AI/ML,…
Process Mining & the Lost Art of Continuous Improvement
Have you ever wondered where all the Lean, Six Sigma, continuous improvement, and operational excellence practitioners have gone? When the BPM (methodology + software) conversation…
Three Recent Acquisitions – Hyland, OpenText & Alfresco
Though one can speculate that these deals may not have gone through had they been delayed a week or two, the fact is they did,…
The Business and Government Landscape in a (Post?) COVID-19 World
COVID-19 has turned the world upside down, changing the lives of individuals and deeply impacting how businesses, governments, and even countries operate. The closest equivalent…
The way ahead….the new norm
But tech became detached from reality and showed little compassion or, indeed, common sense at times. Frankly, tech is a sector that has been ambivalent…
SAP’s Take on the RPA Market
I just got off an informative and compelling webinar by SAP about its robotic process automation (RPA) offering. The bottom line is that SAP sees…
Missing in Action: Women Executives in the Technology Provider’s C-Suite
Wouldn’t you know it had to happen in the same week that the most prominent woman candidate for president dropped out of the race?[i] A…
Innovation – A call to action!
We have been ongoing about innovation (or the lack of it) for some time now. And though there is no question that the process and…
ECM 2.0 – Adobe Document Cloud….
Adobe is best known for its Experience & Creative Cloud businesses. For over the past decade, it has become the dominant force in Customer Experience…
RPA in 2020
RPA, as an intelligent automation platform, will transform enterprise priorities: from a focus on technology adoption to process transformation, from number-of-bot measurement to process improvement…
Where does Enterprise Search go next?
One way or another enterprise search is going to be headline news again this year! Let’s work together to ensure the news is ultimately good…
Appian Buys Jidoka—Let the Consolidation Begin!
The robotic process automation (RPA) and digital process automation market have just received a big jolt that promises to be a harbinger for consolidation in…
IBM FileNet Re-Emerges
For years now, the term ‘legacy’ ECM system has been synonymous with the word FileNet, the firm purchased by IBM back in 2006. It’s a…
Brazil, a new growth market for ECM
So this past year we dedicated time, resources and partnered with Sao Paolo based ImageWare, to research in more detail how the Brazilian ECM market…
Regulations for ethical AI?
I was recently interviewed by TechTarget journalist Mark Labbe, regarding the need for regulating AI (Artificial Intelligence). The interview was prompted by the release of…
Deciding on AI
Hiding our heads in the sand and pretending there is not a problem, is not going to cut it anymore. The concerns over bias and…
ECM Management Shuffles… change ahead?
Experience has taught us never to read too much into senior executive changes at prominent software companies. For sure, when a CEO is replaced, you…
Where is the innovation?
Advent doesn’t start yet so it’s not too late to get a ‘bah humbug’ piece published in 2019… so here goes. This past year at…
OpenText to bridge the governance vs security divide?
Once again, I have to spend time with Law Enforcement and Lawyers; fortunately, this time around, it’s at the EnFuse OpenText conference in Las Vegas.…
Crossing the Abbyy Road
RPA vendors want to automate more sophisticated processes, BPM vendors wish to capture more regular transactions. Content management firms want to gain more insight into…
Dropbox Launches Large File Transfer
Large File Transfers (LFT’s), in other words, files over 40MB have long been a challenge. Most systems max out below that level and either reject…
AI for RM?
This past week I was speaking and running a workshop at the annual ARMA event, this year held in the home of country music, Nashville,…
Technology Careers: Advice From Women to Women at ASG Technologies Evolve Conference
I recently attended a women’s event at ASG Technologies’ Evolve conference. Women in Technology always grabs my attention. I’ve participated in and led many such…
Mover moves to Microsoft
Microsoft recently acquired the Alberta, Canada based file migration company Mover. It’s an interesting acquisition that though unsurprising, illustrates the challenges that firms like Microsoft,…
RPA and Process Automation—It’s An Upside Down World
For the past six months, I’ve taken a deep, research-driven look at the state of the market for digital process automation. The result? Take a…
Enterprises beware of Deep Learning
As AI works its way into the enterprise, we have noticed one particular term gaining traction, that of ‘Deep Learning.’ Both in conversations with buyers…
The dialectic of buyer & seller technology conversations
Dialectic – The tension or opposition between two interacting forces or elements Technology vendors cannot resist telling industry analysts that they replaced their rivals (Documentum,…
Did Cisco just make a big Blockchain mistake?
We are currently finalizing a new report on Enterprise Blockchain. This research has allowed us to spend time looking at the market globally, its trajectory,…
Oracle the Blockchain Dark Horse
But the dark horse seems to be Oracle, who have quietly yet steadily creeping up on the inside track. It started innocuously enough with the…
KM blasts back from the past…
KM (Knowledge Management) has been a recurring topic in the past year. It keeps coming up again and again in the most diverse of situations,…
Machine Learning for Personalizing CX
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques have evolved and it is now much easier than ever to use these to implement personalization now.…
The impending collision of Mar & Tech
Recently I spoke at the inaugural MarTech Conference in Delhi, and both the excellent presentations and the many off the cuff conversations led me to…
Enterprise Blockchain Market Forecast
This month we launched our first Enterprise Blockchain Market Forecast. In it, we detail how the market is shifting away from the stealthy and steady…
Myth Busting the ECM Cloud
Pretty much all enterprise content should now be stored and managed in the Cloud, for that was the bold analyst prediction circa 2008. The reality today…
Can AI ever be bias-free?
In our upcoming book ‘The AI Playbook’ we discuss in some detail the issue of bias in AI. For those that don’t know, AI bias…
Salesforce & Blockchain
Though under-reported at the time, Salesforce (one of the largest enterprise software firms) made a set of announcements this year regarding Blockchain. On the surface,…
The Resistance to AI
It seems like every week; a technology vendor tells me how their AI product will free workers from mundane jobs and enable them to do…
Googling OpenText
This past week OpenText announced a partnership with Google Cloud (GCP), that announcement lifted OpenText’s share price to his highest ever level. At first blush,…
AI Training for Information Professionals
This past spring, we have been publishing a series of articles on CMSWire on the topic of artificial intelligence. The goal was to demystify the…
Research Agenda – 2019-20
Here is our research agenda for the coming year – it may change and will certainly be updated but hopefully this provides you some insight…
Are Portals back in fashion?
Twenty years on and workers struggle with the same problems of uniting their digital workplace applications and files into a single and usable screen. Today,…
The New Dropbox
This week I had a chance to catch up with the folks at Dropbox, it’s been a busy time there with the acquisition of HelloSign…
Industry Analyst Hype
Every technology vendor and investor needs and wants to know the size of their target market and its potential for growth. They can’t run or…
Blockchain will disrupt ECM & BPM
Today content and process technology vendors are simply waiting for customers to ask them for Blockchain, but I don’t think that is going to happen…
Is Microsoft OneDrive Bouncing Back?
Over time, OneDrive has improved, and its consumer version is now equal to both of its significant rivals. But OneDrive for Business, the commercial version,…
Will the Market for Packaged Process Automation Apps Ever Take Off?
Most of the process automation vendors are still having that same business applications conversation with prospects and customers. With the exception of Pega, and to…
A Digital Transformation gone predictably wrong
“Overhauling and modernizing legacy web and commerce systems, particularly those with multiple geographies, products and sites is very difficult indeed,” Pelz-Sharpe said, adding that the…
Veritone: Illuminating AI
Recently we were contacted by Veritone to request an analyst briefing. At first I wasn’t sure that this was in the scope of our focus…
DocAuthority: AI for Information Chaos
Finding value within mountains of unstructured data is both the challenge and the opportunity. Organizations have amassed millions, and in some instances billions, of files…
Salesforce Einstein a pragmatic approach to AI
The first thing to note is Salesforce is no longer trying to compete with IBM Watson. Rather than leading with AI as a broad solution,…
Cisco – Reinventing the Customer Experience
First, let’s put Cisco into context. Cisco is a giant with over 60,000 partners generating 85% of its revenue. Technology firms that sell through partners…
Alfresco Software: Flying High in the Back Office
My colleague, Alan Pelz-Sharpe, and I spent time with Alfresco at its annual analyst event. The product updates and customer examples were interesting, and the…
Connie Moore joins Deep Analysis
Deep Analysis is truly delighted to announce that today, Connie Moore has joined our team. Connie is an industry analyst legend, having spent over 20 years…
Climbing the governance decision tree
When you think about it, finding the right starting point for information governance is often the biggest stumbling block for any governance initiative. As we…
AIIM Conference Report – 2019, San Diego
Once a year Information Management professionals travel from around the world to attend the AIIM Conference. It is the premier event for networking, education and…
OpenText…. Off & On Cloud
I find the world of OpenText observers fall into two well defined camps. The first camp believes that OpenText’s business is in serious decline and…
ECM and Machine Learning – What are Box, IBM, OpenText and other Vendors doing?
To be fair, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have been used for a long time in enterprise applications but their usage has really been for…