Stephen Hurrell's Analyst Perspectives

Ten years have passed since artificial intelligence (AI) first appeared in sales technology, and the results are mixed. Early tools applied rudimentary machine learning (ML) models to customer relationship management (CRM) exports, assigning win probability scores or advising on the “ideal” time to call. The mathematics was sound, the demos impressive, yet adoption faltered because little thought was given as to how sellers should use this information.

I was recently a guest of SugarCRM at their 2025 Analyst summit with an opportunity to meet with the executive team and new CEO, David Roberts.

Based on the number of invitations I have received to speak on the topic, usage pricing (also referred to as consumption pricing) is hot. But as I have remarked elsewhere, it is not new. I recall a conversation with a customer over 30 years ago when I was involved with analytic software who asked, “Why can’t we just pay for the software we use?” And this of course makes sense: only pay for what you use. In fact, I assert that by 2027, over one-half of all enterprises will deploy a mixed revenue...

In a previous role I was actively involved with identifying and implementing dashboards and reports tracking key sales department metrics and KPIs for enterprise-size customers as well as high-tech growth companies. These included recognizable examples such as opportunity conversion rate, average deal size and sales velocity (length of time to close, won or lost). Wind the clock forward and in my role as an industry analyst I now talk to customers and have a wider view of the market.

Spring and fall are conference seasons, and this spring I was fortunate to be invited to several software provider events that are part of my coverage of the Office of Revenue.

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well software providers’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Subscription Management: Ventana Research Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by ISG and Ventana Research.

As a business application tech analyst, I tend to focus more on B2B than B2C and the differences between the two. So, when it comes to digital commerce, I am interested in the differences from a process or functional point of view and therefore the potential digital commerce application or platform needs required to support B2B commerce. With more B2B enterprises looking to provide access in a timely manner and when and where the customer chooses, digital commerce is a growing part of the...

Much development and marketing resource is being directed at technology that supports tracking and managing the customer experience (CX) and identifying prospects. All of this is good for business and highlights some of the exciting potential for artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) to really accelerate the basic need of matching buyers and sellers to create more efficient markets for the benefit of all. But part of the B2B customer experience also revolves around quality and...

Revenue and sales performance used to be the preserve of a few software providers as many enterprises made do with in-house solutions, often built on the ubiquitous spreadsheet. But increasingly managing revenue and sales performance is becoming too complex as business models are changing in response to customer behavior.

Sales and revenue operations teams have for the most part traditionally relied on CRMs for information relating to leads and opportunities. For inside sales (sometimes referred to as high-velocity sales) as well as field sales, relevant product, pricing and customer have been loaded or entered into the CRM to be accessed via reports, dashboards or spreadsheets. For inside sales teams, dialers with prioritized seek lists were an additional need. Yet traditional CRM software providers were...