The Research

Our collection of independent and objective technology research is designed to help you make smarter, data-driven decisions.

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ROI Case Studies

An ROI case study is a thorough examination of the actual benefits a customer achieved from a technology deployment.

Value Matrix

The Nucleus Research Technology Value Matrix is concise assessment of the operational value a solution delivers.

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  • Research, Value Matrix P28

    Technology Value Matrix First Half 2015: Supply Chain Design

    The market for supply chain design software was shaken up this past year by Llamasoft’s debut of a cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tool. Until then vendors…

  • Research P29

    Apttus gets a boost

    On February 2, Salesforce Ventures led a Series B funding round for Apttus, which raised $41 million. Apttus will be using the investment to build…

  • Research P30

    Logi announces pay by the drink service

    On February 10, Logi Analytics announced new pricing parameters for its Logi Vision product on Amazon Web Services. With Logi’s new pricing parameters, customers can…

  • ROI Case Studies O271

    IBM Smarter Cities ROI Case Study: City of Fort Worth

    The City of Fort Worth implemented a joint emergency operations center (JEOC) based on IBM social software and software from an IBM business partner, UnifiedEdge,…

  • Research P26

    SilkRoad Announces HRMS Targeted for SMB Market

    Vendors of technology for human capital management (HCM) continue to tout their solutions’ ability to integrate across HCM to connect workforce management (WFM), core human…

  • Research P27

    Selling HCM Technology to the CFO

    Chief financial officers won’t invest in technology for human capital management (HCM) because it improves employee engagement or makes a human resource practitioner’s workday easier….

  • Research P21

    Four ways Salesforce Wave is different

    At Dreamforce in October, Salesforce announced Wave, its cloud analytics platform. Although customers have found Salesforce’s analytics capabilities limited and turned to partners to meet…

  • Research P23

    Cloudera catches up in analytics

    On February 3, 2015 Cloudera announced the acquisition of Xplain.io. Xplain.io is an emerging start-up whose product analyzes user queries to optimize locations and pathways…

  • Research P24

    SAP announces Business Suite 4 SAP HANA

    On February 3, 2015, SAP announced the next generation of its Business Suite, Business Suite 4 SAP HANA. This is a further step in SAP…

  • Research P22

    IBM Business Analytics for nonprofits

    Nonprofit organizations are increasingly challenged to prove the effectiveness of their programs while attracting and retaining new funding sources. In looking at the experiences of…

  • ROI Case Studies O249

    IBM advanced analytics ROI case study – Michigan State University

    Michigan State University’s University Advancement department implemented IBM Cognos Business Intelligence and SPSS predictive analytics to provide greater insight for management of its alumni and…

  • ROI Case Studies P14

    PTC Windchill ROI case study: Plastic packaging manufacturer

    A plastic packaging manufacturer deployed PTC Windchill to support a more collaborative and productive development environment. Nucleus found moving from an application with limited capabilities…

  • Research P18

    Assessing Acumatica in the ERP Value Matrix

    On January 22, Acumatica launched its new cloud accounting software. Nucleus found that this most recent version furthers investments in functionality, and provides users with…

  • Research P17

    A closer look at Base CRM

    Nucleus took a closer look at Base and found that it offers a consumer relationship management (CRM) solution focused primarily on sales management. The solution…

  • Research P16

    The clouded SCM judgment of Oracle

    At the Oracle Value Chain Summit, the Redwood Shores, California-based vendor said it planned more rollouts of cloud-based versions of its supply chain tools this…

  • Research P15

    Cortana could become a Watson substitute

    On January 23, 2015 Microsoft announced the acquisition of Revolution Analytics. Revolution Analytics’ main product is Revolution R Enterprise (RRE), an open-source analytics platform that…

  • ROI Case Studies P6

    Collaborative Managed Services benefit case study: Anonymous insurance company

    A leading excess and surplus lines insurance company moved from a project-based contract with Collaborative Consulting to an onshore managed services agreement that took advantage…

  • Research P13

    Assessing QADs position in the ERP Value Matrix

    QAD provides ERP for global manufacturers in the discrete and configured product sectors, and specifically in the automotive, life sciences, industrial products, high technology, consumer…

  • Research P12

    GoodData makes data science easy

    On January 27, 2015 GoodData announced updates to its analytics platform. Updates include improvements to the user experience of its Insights Engine and the addition…

  • Research P11

    Anatomy of a decision: Unit4 Agresso versus Microsoft Dynamics NAV

    As a part of Nucleus Research’s ongoing investigation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, analysts conducted in-depth interviews with recent Unit4 Agresso customers. Customers reported…

  • Research P10

    A closer look at AnyLogic

    As more supply chain executives seek to have supply chain designs encompass a wider range of factors to paint a more realistic view of operations,…

  • Research, Value Matrix P2

    Technology Value Matrix First Half 2015: Inventory Optimization

    This edition of the value matrix examines on-premise and cloud software vendors who provide inventory optimization (IO), applications that allow companies to minimize their inventory…

  • Research P5

    Guidebook: MuleSoft

    Accessing enterprise data from on-premise systems and cloud applications in a consistent, cost-effective way is one of the biggest challenges facing organizations today. The MuleSoft…

  • ROI Case Studies P8

    Llamasoft Benefit Case Study: McCormick and Co

    McCormick & Co. deployed Llamasoft to support its regular performance evaluation of its global supply chain network and to assist the company in evaluating the…

  • Research P9

    IBM smarter retail apps

    At the National Retail Federation (NRF) Show this year, IBM announced new apps for retailers as a part of its MobileFirst for iOS initiative. Nucleus…

  • ROI Case Studies P7

    Microsoft Dynamics Benefit Case Study: KEXP Radio

    KEXP deployed Microsoft Dynamics to support its growing contributor base. With the assistance of Microsoft Gold Partner, Webfortis the company was able to configure the…

  • ROI Case Studies P1

    Arachno Orbit Benefit Case Study: City of Champaign

    The City of Champaign, Illinois, deployed Arachno Orbit to replace an aging content management system that limited users’ ability to find the information they needed….

  • ROI Case Studies O248

    HighRoads ROI Case Study: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBS MA) deployed HighRoads to automate management of the federal mandate to deliver standard and custom Summary of Benefits…

  • Research O246

    Guidebook: ON24

    As more companies look to Web conferences and Webcasts to broaden and deepen their sales and marketing pipeline, audience experience can have a significant impact…

  • Research P3

    Content unification OpenText acquires Informative Graphics Corp

    On January 5, 2015 OpenText announced the acquisition of Informative Graphics Corporation (IGC). IGC’s products include Brava!, Myriad, Redact-it, and Blazon. IGC’s products make a…

  • Research P4

    Epicor retail updates

    Recently, Epicor has been making announcements regarding advancements in its retail offerings. On December 22, 2014, it announced a partnership with AJB Software Design Inc….

  • Research O270

    Nucleus Top Ten Predictions for 2015

    Nucleus’s top 10 predictions for 2015 take into account the impacts of cloud, changing development cadences, more intelligent software, and mobile adoption on the enterprise…

  • ROI Tools

    Nucleus Research On premise vs On demand TCO tool

    <em>UPDATED January 2015</em> This tool helps you answer the question: does an on-demand solution deliver a lower TCO than an on-premise solution? NOTE: End-user organizations…

  • Research O273

    Equipping sales with the power of analytics

    Much has been made of the potential for business intelligence (BI) and analytics in CRM. Until quite recently, the promise of these tools has been…

  • Research O274

    A new source of field services solutions

    Epiphany announced on December 2 that it will be launching a new company, Elysian Field Software. Elysian will deliver HCM and field services capabilities for…

  • Research O275

    Cloud ECM delivers nearly 3X Returns

    ECM lags behind other enterprise management solutions in terms of customers choosing to migrate to the cloud. Despite the relatively low migration rate compared to…

  • Research O269

    IBM launches care management

    IBM adds onto its Smarter Care Portfolio with IBM Care Management, designed to create a holistic approach to healthcare in which social care and clinical…

  • Research O272

    Game Changer Salesforce gamifies change management

    Badgeville, a dominant player in the gamification space, recently announced deeper integration with Salesforce. The new integration focuses on organizational needs, such as change management,…

  • Research O268

    Great expectations for inventory optimization

    Although many companies have adopted Inventory Optimization (IO) software over the past decade, Nucleus has found in talking to users that there’s still a high…

  • ROI Tools O266

    Ceridian Rapid Financial Business Case Tool

    When Nucleus Research analysts investigated organizations that have selected Ceridian for human capital management solutions they found organizations were able to simplify payroll processing, reduce…

  • ROI Tools O267

    Ultimate Software TCO Assessment Tool

    This tool is designed to compare the total cost of ownership of Ultimate UltiPro to another HCM solution. It is designed as a companion assessment…

  • ROI Tools O266

    Ceridian Rapid Financial Business Case Tool

  • Research O265

    Style and Substance OpenText Acquires Actuate

    On December 5, 2014, OpenText announced the acquisition of Actuate. Though OpenText and Actuate compete in the ECM space, where the companies don’t overlap is…

  • Research O264

    A closer look at Blue Ridge

    Because managing inventory in a dynamic market environment requires consideration of point-of-sale information, special promotions and even social media, companies need to apply a customer-facing…

  • Research, Value Matrix O263

    Technology Value Matrix Second Half 2014: ECM

    The enterprise content management (ECM) market is rapidly evolving, customers are warming to the notion of storing their content on external servers and competition is…

  • Research O262

    Llamasoft unveils SaaS platform for supply chain design

    On December 4, 2014 Llamasoft announced the release of SupplyChainGuru.com, a SaaS cloud platform for supply chain design. This development means that companies can now…

  • ROI Tools O153

    Benefitfocus Rapid Financial Business Case Tool

    Nucleus Research analysts found that organizations using Benefitfocus were able to reduce the costs and risk of errors in benefits administration. The company gives organizations…

  • Research O261

    Why Microsoft should buy OpenText

    On November 12, Ontario based OpenText announced a new enterprise information management solution at its annual OpenText Enterprise World Expo in Florida. The solution, OpenText…

  • Research O260

    A closer look at GAINSystems

    As more enterprises look for ways to minimize their inventory holdings and free up working capital in a dynamic global and digital marketplace, they’ll need…

  • Research O259

    The SMB application hub

    Salesforce launched the Desk.com App Hub on November 24. This release aims to provide an offering that is built specifically for small to mid-sized businesses…