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Featured Dresner Research
Research Insight and Wisdom of Crowds® reports offer the most comprehensive and objective insights available for data, analytics, and performance management. Our process is global, encompassing thousands of organizations across all industries, functions, and organization sizes.
Wisdom of Crowds® Market Reports
Wisdom of Crowds® Market Reports offer in-depth research and reporting on key industry and technology topics, including user trends, perceptions, intentions and other drivers. Each report includes a section with objective and inclusive vendor ratings.
Analytical Data Products Report 2025
This report examines a dynamic and increasingly convergent landscape—where organizations weigh the benefits of adopting a single-vendor analytical ecosystem versus assembling a best-of-breed architecture of specialized solutions. As enterprises seek to streamline operations, ensure scalability, and extract greater value from data, this decision has never been more strategic.
Sales Performance Management Market Study 2025
In this eighth edition of this report, the Dresner Advisory community of respondents scores sales performance management use, adoption, budgets, and overall success. We analyze these attributes by organization size, geography, and other attributes.
This year, the community scores the importance of four main areas of sales planning: 1) Features, 2) Integrations, 3) Technologies, 4) Relative importance of SPM initiatives compared to the general population
Financial Consolidation, Close Management and Financial Reporting Market Study 2025
While FCCR can be considered a mature market, it benefits from new technologies. Agentic AI is transforming FCCR and similar enterprise applications by deploying autonomous agents that collect data, reconcile accounts, generate entries, and prepare reports. Unlike basic automation, these agents learn, make decisions, and adapt to context, which speeds up reconciliation and consolidation, boosts accuracy, strengthens compliance through real-time monitoring, and allows finance teams to concentrate on strategic tasks.
Research Insights
Published throughout each month, Research Insights are thought leadership articles, covering important topics and issues, with pointed advice and recommendations for readers.
As BICCs Evolve, Successful Data Leaders Will Accept Change Instead of Fighting It
Chief data officers (CDOs) and other formal data leadership roles are driving data and analytics strategies that are far broader than business intelligence (BI). As this happens, the role and value of the traditional BI competency center (BICC), focused solely on end-user query, reporting, and analytics, increasingly comes into question as new data leadership roles start to drive data and analytics strategies that extend beyond simply BI and reporting. Data leaders that resist these changes by trying to prolong a traditional BICC focus risk becoming marginalized as an isolated stovepipe. Maintaining the status quo soon enough will degrade the perceived value of the BICC, as well as make it harder to adapt to the needs of evolving data and analytics use cases and newer constituents hungry for data and insight.
BICC Success Depends on Engaging More Functions, Roles, and Strategic Business Outcomes
As new data leadership roles emerge and influence broader data and analytics strategies, the business intelligence competency center (BICC) faces increased pressure to justify its impact and value, and demonstrate that it extends beyond BI and reporting. Chief data officers (CDOs), chief analytics officers (CAOs), and various other formal roles focused on overall data strategy are increasingly prevalent. Because of their broader focus and higher-level position, these roles are capturing more executive attention and competing with the BICC for funding of BI- and analytics-related initiatives.
Don’t Spend More on Data and Analytics, AI, or Digital Transformation Without Increasing Governance Investments
For most organizations, the gap between how often they invest more in the top areas of data and analytics and AI, and how frequently they increase spending on governance, represents a potential risk. Proper data governance provides the structure and processes necessary to ensure organizations can derive optimal value from their data. If an organization hasn’t emphasized strong governance while getting its data house “in order,” investments in high-priority areas like AI and data and analytics have a bigger chance of delivering less value than intended. We believe that organizations that fail to spend commensurately on data governance likely will see diminished returns from their investments in data and analytics, AI, and even digital transformation—especially if they are multiplying investments in these areas.
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Who is Dresner Advisory Services?
We're comprised of a team of deeply experienced and seasoned analysts focused on delivering exceptional value to our members.
Howard Dresner
Founder and Chief Research Officer
Jamie Popkin
VP and Research Fellow
Bill Hostmann
VP and Research Fellow
Jim Ericson
Distinguished Analyst Emeritus
John Hagerty
VP and Distinguished Analyst
Brian Lett
VP and Research Director
Michael Moran
VP and Research Director
Chris von Simson
VP and Research Director
Saul Judah
Distinguished Analyst
John Van Decker
Distinguished Analyst
Doc Kevin Elder
Research Director
Myles Suer
Research Director
Sarah Chung
Director of Technology
Elizabeth Espinoza
Director of Analytics
Danielle Guinebertiere
Vice President, Client Services
Michelle Whitson-Lorenzi
Director, Research Operations
Sherry Fairchok
Senior Editor
Adam Tinkoff
Creative Director