Author: Keith Kirkpatrick

SAP's Flexible Support Overhaul Raises the Stakes for Enterprise Software Loyalty
July 10, 2026

SAP’s Flexible Support Overhaul Raises the Stakes for Enterprise Software Loyalty

Keith Kirkpatrick, Vice President & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Di at Futurum, SAP's flexible support model and customer-centric approach help compete for enterprise loyalty as 74% of enterprises consider...
Zoom's Platform-Agnostic AI Receptionist Reshapes Telephony Competition
July 10, 2026

Zoom’s Platform-Agnostic AI Receptionist Reshapes Telephony Competition

Keith Kirkpatrick, Vice President & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Di at Futurum, Zoom's Virtual Agent Receptionist disrupts legacy phone systems and accelerates enterprise adoption of GenAI-powered customer service solutions....
Salesforce Turns Slack Into the Agentic Enterprise's Conversational Operating System
July 9, 2026

Salesforce Turns Slack Into the Agentic Enterprise’s Conversational Operating System

Keith Kirkpatrick, Vice President & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Di at Futurum, Salesforce's new MCP servers let Slack function as an agentic enterprise's conversational OS, connecting CRM, Data 360,...
HubSpot's Warmly Acquisition Embeds Real-Time Buyer Intent Directly Into the CRM Layer
July 9, 2026

HubSpot’s Warmly Acquisition Embeds Real-Time Buyer Intent Directly Into the CRM Layer

Keith Kirkpatrick, Vice President & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Di at Futurum, analyzes HubSpot's acquisition of Warmly and how embedding AI-powered buyer intent signals directly into the CRM layer...
Zoho Inventory MCP Brings Conversational AI to Enterprise Operations
July 9, 2026

Zoho Inventory MCP Brings Conversational AI to Enterprise Operations

Keith Kirkpatrick, Vice President & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Di at Futurum, Zoho Inventory MCP uses conversational AI to streamline multi-channel inventory management while building enterprise trust and reliability....
SAP's Dremio Acquisition
July 6, 2026

SAP’s Dremio Acquisition Provides Agentic AI Data Foundation

Keith Kirkpatrick, Vice President & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Di at Futurum, SAP's Dremio acquisition strengthens its Business Data Cloud and agentic AI roadmap, enabling analytical workloads across SAP...
Oracle Makes the Case for AI Inside Everyday Leadership Workflows
July 2, 2026

Oracle Makes the Case for AI Inside Everyday Leadership Workflows

Keith Kirkpatrick, Research Director at The Futurum Group, examines how Oracle Manager Edge embeds AI-powered coaching into Oracle Cloud HCM, bringing real-time guidance into managers' daily workflows and strengthening Oracle's...
Siemens and IFS Announce Alliance to Advance Industrial AI
July 2, 2026

Siemens and IFS Announce Alliance to Advance Industrial AI

Siemens and IFS have partnered to advance Industrial AI solutions, merging Siemens' industrial automation depth with IFS's AI-embedded ERP platform. The alliance targets asset-intensive industries as enterprise software demand accelerates....
Canva Grow 2.0 Puts Ad Creation, Launch, and Optimization Into a Single AI Workflow
June 30, 2026

Canva Grow 2.0 Puts Ad Creation, Launch, and Optimization Into a Single AI Workflow

Keith Kirkpatrick, Vice President & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Di at Futurum, examines how Canva Grow 2.0 integrates ad creation, launch, and optimization into a single AI-native workflow, challenging...
Zoho Writer Desktop 4.0 Raises the Bar for Offline Productivity and File Flexibility
June 29, 2026

Zoho Writer Desktop 4.0 Raises the Bar for Offline Productivity and File Flexibility

Zoho Writer Desktop 4.0 adds offline AI spell-check, a redesigned interface, and multi-format support, offering cost-conscious enterprises a viable Microsoft and Google alternative....
Microsoft Unifies CX on a Single Dynamics 365 Data Model
June 29, 2026

Microsoft Unifies CX on a Single Dynamics 365 Data Model

Keith Kirkpatrick, Vice President & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Di at Futurum, analyzes how Microsoft's integration of agentic AI into Dynamics 365 unifies customer service, contact center operations, and...
Contact Center Silos
June 25, 2026

Zendesk’s AI-Native Voice Push Pressures Contact Center Silos as Voice Volume Surges

Keith Kirkpatrick, Vice President & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Di at Futurum, examines how Zendesk's AI-native voice platform is unifying contact center channels and breaking down operational silos, challenging...

Welcome

The vision behind everything in Futurum’s Custom Research practice is this: research should show you what is happening, what comes next, and what to do about it. It should be personal to each audience, easy for people to grasp, and structured so LLMs can reason over it accurately. And it should be fast and turnkey; you want answers now, not another project to carry for quarters.

Whether you are defining business, channel, or go-to-market strategy; evaluating vendors or justifying ROI; or commissioning research to fill an emerging market need, we have your back, with a program that answers your questions with the objectivity and credibility to drive real decisions.

To do it, we bring unmatched data to bear: Futurum research, surveys, and market projections; validated market feeds; ETR’s 15 years of insight from 10,000 technology decision-makers; G2’s buyer and user data; and what our analysts hear every day. Add leading primary collection, from AI-moderated voice interviews to surveys and analyst-led interviews, all turnkey, and every project comes out credible, nuanced, and actionable.

And we don’t just drop the results in your lap. For internal work, we provide analyst-led sessions, interactive dashboards, and a range of formats. For market-facing work, Futurum delivers turnkey activation and amplification that actually gets seen, by people and by LLMs, through our media and share of voice. This is research that moves decisions and markets.

We will meet you wherever you are, from a fast-turn brief to a multi-year program, and shape the work to your goals, timeline, and budget. The right program for your moment.

If any of this is useful, I would love to talk.

Benjamin Brown, VP Custom Research, Futurum Research

Benjamin Brown

VP, Custom Research · The Futurum Group

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