Top Digital Adoption Platforms (DAP) Products and Technology Vendors
Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) play a vital role in enabling digital transformation for organizations globally. The year 2021 was eventful for the DAP market, with enterprises looking for solutions to meet the demand for new technologies to complement the hybrid work model. They realized the importance of customer and user experience and implemented DAPs to achieve business goals such as employee efficiency, ease of training, fewer support tickets and lower costs, higher customer satisfaction scores, improved trial conversion, and minimal customer churn.
On the supply side, DAP vendors invested heavily in enhancing their product capabilities and global reach to better serve their clients. DAP technologies are evolving, with offerings including user behavior analytics, integrated chatbots, automation, data validation, robust content management, knowledge search and aggregation, and enhanced content editing options.
This PEAK Matrix® report covers the following topics:
Everest Group’s PEAK Matrix® evaluation of DAP technology vendors and their categorization into Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants
Competitive landscape of the DAP technology vendor market
Key enterprise sourcing considerations (strengths and limitations) for each of the 20 technology vendors evaluated
In this report, we evaluate 20 DAP technology vendors in terms of their DAP products, vision & capability, and market impact and position them on Everest Group’s PEAK Matrix® as Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants. The research will help buyers select the right-fit technology vendors for their needs, while technology vendors will be able to benchmark themselves against each other.
The PEAK Matrix® provides an objective, data-driven assessment of service and technology providers based on their overall capability and market impact across different global services markets, classifying them into three categories: Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants.
Until a few years ago, enterprises expected ServiceNow to help them manage digital workflows such as IT Service Management (ITSM) and IT Operations Management (ITOM). Today, enterprises expect stakeholder-centric, automation-focused, and data-/outcome-driven integrated solutions with an emphasis on stakeholder experience, even in a multi-channel, complex portfolio. Enterprises are deriving higher business value by reimagining processes and integrating ServiceNow with existing systems of record, systems of engagement, and systems of intelligence.
In response to the changing market landscape, ServiceNow has expanded its portfolio to deliver enterprise solutions, including IT, employee, and customer workflows, to help clients drive business growth, increase resilience, and enhance employee productivity. It has forayed into emerging areas such as CSM, HCM, DevOps, GRC, and security and empowered enterprises to build custom apps on its low-code-powered app engine. It has invested in building industry solutions to provide out-of-the-box resolutions and expedite the time-to-market for enterprises.
This report features detailed assessments, including strengths and limitations, of 25 providers that focus on ServiceNow services.
In this research, we provide a detailed assessment of 25 providers featured on the ServiceNow Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2022 and categorize them as Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants based on their capabilities and offerings. Each profile provides a comprehensive picture of the provider’s focus areas, key Intellectual Property (IP) / solutions, and domain investments.
The assessment is based on Everest Group’s annual RFI process for the calendar year 2021, interactions with leading providers, client reference checks, and an ongoing analysis of the ServiceNow services market
The PEAK Matrix® provides an objective, data-driven assessment of service and technology providers based on their overall capability and market impact across different global services markets, classifying them into three categories: Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants.
Top Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) Technology Providers
As data volumes increase exponentially, enterprises are adopting AI and ML capabilities to gain business insights and make decisions. However, enterprises face several challenges in deploying ML models to production. As a result, enterprises are leveraging Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) for their deployment, monitoring, and collaboration needs to improve the quality and relevance of ML model results, achieve business-oriented outcomes, and enhance stakeholder experience. MLOps is a growing market, rapidly evolving in terms of product features, architecture, training and support, deployment options, partner ecosystem, and commercial models. Technology providers can help enterprises succeed in their AI/ML transformation journeys by implementing MLOps across the enterprise.
Everest Group’s PEAK Matrix® evaluation of Machine Learning Operations technology providers and their categorization into Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants
An overview of Machine Learning Operations and key challenges in scaling AI
Key ML platform technology trends
A detailed assessment of the strengths and limitations of 18 Machine Learning Operations technology providers in terms of their market impact and vision & capability
In this research, we present detailed profiles and assessments of 18 technology providers featured on Everest Group’s Machine Learning Operations Products PEAK Matrix® 2022. Each profile provides a comprehensive picture of the technology provider’s size and scope of business, product capabilities, partnerships, domain investments, and case studies.
Scope:
The assessment is based on Everest Group’s annual RFI process for the calendar year 2022, interactions with leading MLOps providers, client reference checks, and an ongoing analysis of the MLOps products landscape
The PEAK Matrix® provides an objective, data-driven assessment of service and technology providers based on their overall capability and market impact across different global services markets, classifying them into three categories: Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants.
The advent of Web 3.0 is creating exciting new opportunities for Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) firms who invest in digital technologies to deliver next-generation customer engagement and enter the metaverse. To learn more about enterprises taking the lead in piloting metaverse and Web 3.0, read on.
With Web 2.0 laying the foundation for unique customer interactions, BFSI firms are increasingly adopting an omnichannel approach as industry trends indicate consumer mindshare often translates into wallet share. Driven by consumer demand for newer experiences as well as the limited potential for further innovation in Web 2.0, industry leaders are looking at Web 3.0 as the future.
Let’s explore how Web 3.0 is enabling firms to evolve from customer interactions to engaging customer experiences in a connected ecosystem.
Defining Web 3.0 and metaverse
Web 3.0 is the next phase of web hyperscale systems built on decentralized, autonomous, and distributed technologies. It enables decentralized protocols and technology stacks that can be used to build new communities and economies such as metaverse.
Movement over the past seven years toward Web 3.0 stalled because of the lack of superior computing power availability and supporting systems to drive sustained momentum. Now, with changing consumer behavior following the pandemic, the rush toward digitalization has taken off.
The need to build differentiated experiences backed by the rapid maturity of cloud-based processes and overall sophistication of systems supporting the digital agenda are healthy signs for the next wave of innovation based on Web 3.0 – metaverse.
Metaverse is a persistent immersive mega virtual smart space, akin to a universe, where people have seamless digital experiences that can extend to the real world.
Metaverse creates a virtual community that can provide immersive client experiences, collaborations, and employee trainings. To meet this demand, technology and services providers need to invest in next-generation technologies such as cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and blockchain to extract the best out of Web 3.0.
Today’s metaverse is focused on allowing users to build a digital imitation of the physical world, leverage mixed reality devices to engage in various activities, conduct commercial transactions using digital assets, and drive collaboration and engagement through virtual events.
Web 3.0 and metaverse will enable next-generation experiences and alter economic and business models. Excitement about the potential significantly outweighs concerns.
Exhibit 1: Everest Group
Pioneers piloting Web 3.0
Leading financial services players have started piloting Web 3.0 concepts and experimenting with metaverse to test the market response. We believe this marks the start of an evolutionary change that will undergo multiple refinements rather than be revolutionary.
Exhibit 2: Everest Group
Most use cases we see are capitalizing on the following modular demand themes:
Banking:
Financial products and asset classes in the metaverse
Customer management through immersive technologies
Virtual branch inception
Affiliates and partnerships in the digital world
Financial services:
Portfolio management and client enablement
Front, middle, and back-office efficiency
Trade lifecycle management in the metaverse
Digital asset custody services
Decentralized brokerage systems
Insurance:
Decentralized insurance services
Risk profiling
Claim processing
Restructured underwriting services
Where is the market moving with regulations?
Despite the recent efforts, policymakers still need to be convinced to embrace the new possibilities of Web 3.0 to make it real for banking consumers and investors. Web 3.0 and allied technologies, such as metaverse, require a novel approach to regulatory thinking. Many governing bodies grapple with the nuances around Web 3.0 and the challenges it manifests. Governance and interoperability are critical elements to successfully scale Web 3.0 and metaverse.
Addressing these three regulatory areas can kickstart the formal growth of Web 3.0:
Investor protection – With blockchain-based transactions picking up pace, preventing fraudulent actions and safeguarding investors’ interests has become a priority for organizations such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
Privacy and disclosures – The intricacies around the nature and type of disclosures and the effect these may have on individual privacy could have serious implications as this technology gains momentum
Jurisdictional concerns – The key concerns around decentralized internet are around control, individual laws applied, and interpretations across different markets
The new computing possibilities of Web 3.0 has the potential to dynamically impact the BFSI industry structure. Data decentralization and democratization can bring investment opportunities to enterprises as well as IT providers. To seize this potential, technology and services providers must invest in cloud, AI, and blockchain to realize the many benefits Web 3.0 can deliver.
At Everest Group, we are closely tracking the developments in BFSI based on metaverse – both from the demand and supply side. For more insights, see our report, Future of Financial Services – Web 3.0, Metaverse, and Decentralized Finance, which sheds light on the future of financial services in the Web 3.0 and metaverse era.
We would like to hear your thoughts on Web 3.0 and metaverse and its growing adoption in the BFSI industry. Please reach out to us with your inputs at [email protected], or [email protected]
During the digital transformation journey, a Global 2000 enterprise uses more than 150 software solutions and toolson average to support its product or services delivery. Despite the huge investment, the value realized from this technology is still unclear to most enterprises. Read on to understand the importance of measuring the value delivered by software applications or products with value stream management (VSM) and our 4D framework to implement it.
More than 90% of enterprises have adopted agile development methods in some shape or form, and DevOps adoption is on the rise. But surprisingly, less than 20% consider themselves highly mature agile enterprises. These few have adopted a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) to implement agile and DevOps practices across the enterprise with some having DevSecOps and BizDevOps processes for product development. Even then, enterprises are unable to track and measure the organizational-wide technology value. Most of the remaining 80% have agile and DevOps adoption in pockets, making it tougher to align outcomes and realize meaningful benefits.
With the increasing investment overload and absence of tangible outcomes, the critical importance of delivering and realizing value is gaining enterprise attention. Concerted efforts for defining, measuring, and enabling value are needed.
Agile and DevOps adoption is considered by many as the ultimate step toward digital transformation. However, enterprises must realize it is just a starting stage for continuously tracking, measuring, realigning, and improving digital solutions’ outcomes and value. This is where the concept of value stream management (VSM) becomes pertinent.
Before we delve deeper into what VSM is, let’s understand what VSM is NOT.
People often use value stream management and Value Stream Mapping interchangeability, which is thoroughly misleading. The two are related but not the same.
Exhibit 1: Differences between value stream management and value stream mapping
As the graphic above illustrates, Value Stream Mapping is an activity or a subset of VSM. The value streams and processes are defined during Value Stream Mapping and act as an initial step for effective outcomes from value stream management. VSM focuses on a data-centric approach to decision making and promotes a culture of innovation and improvement through a continuous feedback loop and collaboration.
Now that we are clear on what VSM is not, let’s delve deeper into what VSM is, why enterprises need it, and how to adopt it.
Value stream management – the next step in the enterprise agile journey
In an enterprise setup, there are broadly two sets of value streams – operational and development.
Operational value streams or business value streams comprise the processes and people who deliver the value to the end user by leveraging systems or solutions created by the development value streams. Operational value streams are defined by the nature of the business and its business unit. Some examples of operational value streams are product manufacturing, software product sales and support, order fulfillment, and support functions.
Development value streams or IT value streams consist of the systems and software developers, product managers, and other IT practitioners who design, build, deploy, and maintain systems/solutions. These systems/solutions are used by either internal customers (members of the operational value stream) or external customers who are direct buyers and users. The definition of processes or steps in the development value stream is standardized and runs in parallel with the phases of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) – plan, build, release, and operate.
For example, order fulfillment in a software product company is one operational value stream involving different teams and processes – from sales enablement, licensing, and provisioning to customer support and renewals. These teams require software systems like a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) portal, service management platform, license management systems, etc., to support their processes. The development value streams will be aligned to build and support each of these software systems, enabling the operational teams to deliver the product effectively.
The SAFe principles apply to the development value streams. However, enterprises currently focus SAFe implementation efforts on delivering good products or solutions with agility versus delivering customer value. To deliver value along with agility, adopting VSM in the development value streams should be the next step. This will act as a management layer enabling more data-driven decision making at the SDLC level. VSM also can be extended to operational value streams.
Today the focus for VSM has expanded to the enterprise level bringing the delivery and operational value streams closer.
Making the business case for value stream management adoption
Aligning development value streams to the objectives of operational value streams is key to delivering optimum value to the end customer. VSM platforms connect people, processes, and technology across the SDLC and can be extended to integrate heterogeneous value streams across the enterprise.
Some of the key benefits enterprises stand to achieve with a successful VSM approach are:
Identify value streams, organize people, and perform cost-benefit analysis during product discovery
Make data-driven investment decisions and prioritize product delivery based on end-to-end visibility
Improve the value delivery strategy based on real-time metrics
While we understand the need for VSM in enterprises, implementing it in a structured manner to gain maximum value delivery is equally important.
Implementing VSM effectively using the 4D framework
Below is a recommended starting approach:
Determine the current state of value flow and define value streams at an enterprise level, starting with identifying the operational value streams and the respective development value streams. Align the operational and development value streams to the final value to be delivered by the value stream. Identify current system behaviors and interdependencies.
Design value stream maps to achieve the future state of value flow right from ideation to the value delivery stage. Organize teams to value streams by bringing together the right stakeholders accountable for each value stream step for a mapping exercise to decide steps, handoffs, and metrics.
Deploy VSM tools to connect all value stream parts to measure the flow of value in real time using metrics that track the time, velocity, load, and workflow efficiency. Expand to integrate with other value streams as necessary. Providers like Digital.ai, ConnectALL, Micro Focus, Plutora, and Tasktop offer VSM tools to consider.
Demonstrate continuous improvement in value delivery by using real-time insights from flow metrics as feedback to realign the strategy to increase throughput, efficiency, and value stream productively. Continuously measuring flow metrics gives all stakeholders end-to-end visibility to make informed decisions on investments and prioritization.
This 4D framework is a starting point to implement VSM. Additional factors like talent, governance, organizational culture, etc., can further optimize the value delivery through VSM. Adopting a performance-oriented, highly cooperative, and risk-sharing-based environment will enable smooth VSM implementation.
With growing enterprise investments in agile and DevOps adoption for software development, it will be interesting to see how adding a VSM layer will change the value measurement and value delivery game in upcoming years. Stay tuned for our upcoming blog further exploring the enterprise VSM adoption roadmap.
Low Code for Digital Transformation - Debunk the Myths and Explore the Possibilities
Low code is emerging as a key technology for enterprises to rapidly develop and deploy custom applications and accelerate their digital transformation journey. Multiple low code platform providers have surfaced in the past few years, offering immense potential. However, the technology remains underutilized because of enterprises’ lack of awareness, multiple myths and misconceptions, and the limited availability of talent.
In this webinar, we’ll share our views on the low-code market, its potential, and key opportunities for enterprises to drive digital transformation. We’ll also explore the low-code adoption journey leading enterprises to maximum benefits.
What questions will the webinar answer?
How does low code accelerate digital transformation for enterprises?
How can enterprises design a low code strategy and begin a successful adoption journey?
What are the investments needed across platforms, partners, talent, etc.?
How to eliminate the common enterprise myths about low code platforms?
The pandemic’s effects on the digital landscape are long-lasting. Businesses are evolving to rely on the intelligent process automation market (IPA) to promote growth and keep up with competitors. Read on to learn more about five growing IPA trends.
In a world becoming increasingly reliant on technology, financial services organizations are digitizing and automating more processes to keep up with the competition. The intelligent process automation market, growing by about 20% across all fields, is now becoming ubiquitous.
IPA is defined as automation in business processes that use a combination of next-generation automation technologies — such as robotic process automation (RPA) and cognitive or artificial intelligence (AI)-based automation, including intelligent document processing and conversational AI. Solution providers are offering solutions across RPA, Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), and workflow/orchestration, as well as crafting innovative solutions such as digital Centers of Excellence (CoE) and investing more in as-a-Service offerings.
Five intelligent process automation market trends enterprises should know
The question of how to become faster, more efficient, and more resilient is the focus for just about any organization undergoing digital transformation. Very often, the answer to this question is at least, in part, intelligent process automation. In the near future, we can see five emerging IPA trends:
IPA will get smarter
A greater proportion of cognitive elements is finding its way into the intelligent process automation market. About 60% of new automation projects involve more advanced cognitive tools such as IDP, conversational AI and anomaly detection. As the maturity of AI-based solutions increases, cognitive automation will be in greater demand. All-round adoption of IPA will be fueled by providers entering new geographies and organizations starting IA initiatives.
IPA will be more scalable
Although many organizations are trying to adopt intelligent process automation, the real question is if it can be scaled up or, in other words, if it can be brought across the organization. To help enterprises scale automation, solution providers are investing in expanding their partner ecosystem, strengthening technology capabilities, and enhancing their services portfolio.
Providers are also expected to help enterprises scale up through more effective change management and CoE set-up strategies. Aided by the prevalence of process intelligence solutions to form robust pipelines and orchestration tools to facilitate holistic automation, enterprises are better equipped now to move away from siloed applications of IA to scaled-up automation implementations.
Citizen development will grow
Many organizations are experimenting with what they can do with citizen development, especially with the current talent shortage. Citizen-led development also holds the power to disrupt the current state of building automation and addresses the issue of talent availability. Solution providers are expected to invest in citizen development and low-code/no-code technologies enabling business users to build automation, consequently also addressing the talent shortage in the market.
Solution and technology providers are also expected to invest substantially in developing the low-code/no-code capabilities of their platforms to enable business users with limited technical exposure to build automation solutions on their own. A few solution providers are implementing citizen development programs in their own organizations and are planning to leverage the learnings to develop effective governance programs for enterprises.
IPA service providers will bring IPA solutions packages to the market
Packaged solutions are gaining traction in the IPA market due to their ease of implementation and quick Return on Investment (RoI). Solutions for F&A are the most prevalent in the market. These solutions will need training on particular data sets to make them functional for a particular process, but they will speed up implementation. Providers are expected to take conscious steps toward promoting sustainable AI by developing solutions complying with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) parameters. They are also investing in AI solutions that are transparent about their working and usage of data.
IPA service providers will pre-build connectors to legacy and other systems
There are a host of technologies, including RPA, conversational AI, process mining, and process orchestration in the IA ecosystem. Very often these IA solutions need to talk to the various other systems. Many IPA service providers are driving innovation and crafting new solutions to keep pace with the fast-moving IPA market and create a more holistic integration process. One such method is offering enabling capabilities like pre-built connectors for a faster and less complex implementation.
If you would like to learn more or discuss the intelligent process automation market and IPA trends, reach out to [email protected].
As enterprises work to remain resilient and competitive in a post-pandemic era, they are increasingly focusing on becoming digitally unified. Digital twins, or virtual replicas of physical products, processes, and systems, will help them achieve this goal. The technology leverages a physical entity’s real-time data for decision-making and predictions. Digital twins are helping firms reduce downtime, improve tracking and tracing of products, and better monitor asset conditions by simulating diverse scenarios.
The need for accelerated time-to-market of digital twins, smoother IT/ OT integration efforts, and increased data and infrastructure security, as well as talent shortage across various enabling technologies, is driving enterprises to partner with service providers.
The assessment is based on Everest Group’s annual RFI process for calendar year 2021, interactions with leading digital twin service providers, client reference checks, and an ongoing analysis of the digital twin services market
What is in this PEAK Matrix® Report:
In this research, we present an assessment of 16 digital twin service providers featured on the Digital Twin Services PEAK Matrix®.
In this report, we feature:
Everest Group’s Digital Twin Services PEAK Matrix® evaluation of 16 digital twin service providers
Characteristics of Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants in the digital twin services landscape
Analysis of the key strengths and limitations of each of the 16 digital twin service providers featured in the assessment
The PEAK Matrix® provides an objective, data-driven assessment of service and technology providers based on their overall capability and market impact across different global services markets, classifying them into three categories: Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants.
Comprehending aCloud Service Agreement (CSA) can be difficult. With the increasing clout of hyperscalers, buyers need to fully understand a CSA to effectively negotiate with cloud service providers.Learn how to better evaluate these contracts in this blog.
With the increased adoption of cloud services, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure have come to dominate the public cloud space in recent years. The negotiating power of these hyperscalers has significantly increased, changing the dynamics of the CSA.
As the influence of cloud providers grows, customers need to carefully evaluate the proper terms and conditions in the CSA. First, let’s better understand the key terms:
Cloud service agreement (CSA) – a service level agreement (SLA) for cloud computing services between the cloud service consumer and cloud service provider
Cloud service consumer – an individual or a corporate enterprise end user accessing cloud computing resources and services from the cloud service provider
Cloud service provider (CSP) – third-party suppliers of cloud-based platforms, infrastructure, application, or storage services
Customer agreement – the relationship between the provider and the customer, including roles, responsibilities, and processes used by the CSP
The contract may be written according to the service delivery model selected, such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or Software as a Service (SaaS). CSPs can modify their contract terms at any given time.
Based on our observations, many customers have difficulty understanding these contracts. With the growing portfolio of cloud services in every organization, understanding the nuances to better negotiate contracts with service providers is crucial.
Below is a practical reference to safeguard customers’ interests.
Ten Steps to Evaluate a Cloud Service Agreement
Understand the roles and responsibilities properly
Evaluate business-level policies thoroughly
Understand service and deployment model differences
Identify critical performance objectives
Evaluate security and privacy requirements of the environment
Identify service management requirements
Ensure proper backup for service failure management
