September 15-17, 2025 | Dallas, TX
Agenda
Day 01
Monday, September 15, 2025
- 1:00 PM
- 2:00 PM
- 12:25 PM
Get a firsthand look into the results of the annual 2025 ISG Advisor Relations benchmark, which provides insights into the evolving trends on how service providers fund and allocate their Advisor Relations budgets and how teams are changing to engage with third party advisors. Attain the information you need to support your annual Advisor Relations strategic plan for next year.
- 12:55 PM
The future of software research at ISG is set to evolve dramatically between 2026 and 2028, driven by AI technologies. This session outlines the changing landscape of software research and establishes a forward-looking agenda that emphasizes the critical areas of focus in the coming years. It highlights the utilization of the ISG Buyers Guide for enterprise assessment and selection processes, along with an overview of ISG Provider Intelligence and the Software Index.
- Gain insight into the Software Research Agenda for 2026 to 2028.
- Understand how the ISG Buyers Guide is the gold standard
- Get a sneak peek into ISG Provider Intelligence with Software Index.
- 1:25 PM
In today’s challenging market, IT service providers must sharpen their pricing strategies to stay competitive and profitable. Explores how to compete effectively on price, improve margins, and deliver the value-based pricing clients expect. Discover insights on leveraging market price data, understanding industry-specific IT costs, and aligning service offerings to optimize contract structure and profitability.
- 1:55 PM
ISG Market Lens is conducting detailed market analysis and buyer behavior research year-round. In this session, we've consolidated some key findings that anyone at SIC needs to know. Join Alex Bakker, ISG Distinguished Analyst, as he takes you through some key findings and answers questions in this data-driven session. Be better informed about the enterprise behaviors that are driving contract activity and IT demand.
- 2:30 PM
- 3:05 PM
Global business uncertainty is at a decades-high, driven by trade upheavals, geopolitical shocks, and slowing growth—putting intense pressure on cost efficiency. In response, enterprises are racing to deploy agentic and generative AI to boost productivity, yet meaningful ROI remains elusive. At the same time, AI is rapidly blurring the lines between software and services, fueling nonstop disruption as companies struggle to scale the rising “AI Wall.” These converging forces are set to redefine the Software & Services Market in 2026 and beyond, demanding bold strategies and agile new operating models to stay competitive.
- 3:40 PM
As AI, cloud, and data converge, enterprises aren’t just modernizing - they’re rewiring. Explore how the next five years will reshape everything from infrastructure and applications to ERP, sourcing, and value delivery. What happens to our services when software becomes autonomous, data becomes decision-making, and services shift from people to outcomes? ISG's Prashant Kelker will provoke the ambition and urgency to rethink how we build, sell, and operate technology. If you’re a tech leader, platform builder, or service provider - this is your map to the future.
- 4:00 PM
- 6:00 PM
- 4:30 PM
ISG’s vertical leaders provide insight into the market, their observations of the challenges, and our vision of the future in this market.
Outsourcing offers many business benefits, but the value realized often falls short of expectations—even when milestones are met. This gap, or value leakage, is common across most contracts and carries real cost.
- How do you minimize value leakage through a holistic OCM plan?
- What are the areas that the client can control and how do you establish that control?
- How do you calculate the potential leakages and create a plan to ensure ROI is protected?
The enterprise applications landscape is undergoing rapid change, shaped by new technologies, economic pressures, and shifting market demands. Enterprises now seek greater intelligence, fluidity, and transparency across their operational value streams and application ecosystems. They expect providers to unlock more value from existing platforms, data assets, and complementary solutions—while delivering outcomes, not just services. This session will level-set realistic enterprise expectations, outline what providers can and should deliver to meet these evolving needs, and explore how providers can guide enterprises toward higher levels of AI adoption.
- 5:15 PM
ISG’s vertical leaders provide insight into the market, their observations of the challenges, and our vision of the future in this market.
Discover best practices for navigating the ISG FutureSource process and gain practical tips for success while learning how to avoid common pitfalls during the RFP phase, and explore why the FutureSource approach drives better outcomes for both providers and clients.
As client expectations, inflation, and delivery models evolve, accurate service costing is key to staying competitive. Explore IT spending trends, pricing strategies, and service performance in an AI-enabled world. How can data-driven pricing and performance insights fuel differentiation and stronger client partnerships in 2025 and beyond.
- What are the latest market pricing trends shaping IT services in 2025?
- How are enterprise needs and priorities shifting in an AI-enabled world?
- How are providers adjusting delivery models to effectively balance costs, service quality, and capability?
- 6:00 PM
ISG’s vertical leaders provide insight into the market, their observations of the challenges, and our vision of the future in this market.
Our analysis of 150+ case studies and insights from 15 leading service providers reveals the game-changing impact of AI Ops in IT managed services. Automation, predictive capacity forecasting, and performance optimization are no longer emerging trends—they’re becoming the standard. These AI-driven capabilities are delivering higher service levels, reduced downtime, and stronger customer satisfaction. In this session, we’ll unpack how AI Ops is reshaping managed services pricing across both infrastructure and application domains—and what it means for the future of IT operations.
- How do you leverage AIOps to experience productivity improvements and cost reductions between 30-58%?
- How are these emerging transformations manifesting in significant IT managed services price reductions?
- How can you redefine your operating model to embrace the business value of AI Ops benefits in IT sourcing?
The advancements in Quantum computing are occurring at significantly higher pace than expected as recently as 2 years ago. This poses significant threats to organizations from a Cybersecurity and a competitive revenue perspective. Learn about the start of Quantum computing, and what your organization should be doing about this NOW!
- 7:30 PM
Day 02
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
- 9:00 AM
- 8:50 AM
- 9:25 AM
- 10:00 AM
This session brings together clients and service provider practitioners to discuss cutting edge cost optimization strategies through AI. Explore emerging and maturing AI solutions that drive cost optimization across IT, manufacturing, and SG&A expenses and discuss practical strategies toward driving adoption to enhance efficiency and competitiveness in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
- Learn how 2025 has brought new advances in maturing AI tools and strategies.
- Gain actionable insights on how GenAI-driven services translate into tangible cost reductions and operational efficiencies.
- Understand how to leverage client/service provider partnerships to accelerate scalable, GenAI-powered solutions, ensuring sustained cost competitiveness in a dynamic economic environment.
- 10:15 AM
- 12:15 PM
- 10:45 AM
ISG’s vertical leaders provide insight into the market, their observations of the challenges, and our vision of the future in this market.
The evolving landscape of AI is significantly transforming business and IT operations, yet the reality often diverges from the promises presented by software providers. Explore the critical role of services in adapting software to align with real-world business needs and identify gaps in current offerings from software and service providers.
- What are the essential elements required from AI technologies to foster IT success in business contexts.
- How are enterprises dealing with the promises and reality of AI?
- Where will AI change workplace and business productivity?
ISG’s vertical leaders provide insight into the market, their observations of the challenges, and our vision of the future in this market.
- 11:30 AM
ISG’s vertical leaders provide insight into the market, their observations of the challenges, and our vision of the future in this market.
The integration of Agentic AI is set to redefine the future of business applications, transforming front to back-office operations. This radical shift is reshaping enterprise evaluations of business software. As organizations adapt to these changes, a new paradigm for business and industry software research emerges.
- How does AI-infused software boost productivity and upskill the workforce while enhancing the user experience?
- Where does AI change the way business software works?
- What do enterprises need in business applications for the future with AI?
Despite the hype around GenAI, one challenge keeps surfacing: data. Backed by recent ISG research, this session explores the internal and provider-side gaps that are preventing organizations from fully activating their AI strategies. We will also introduce the concept of the “data tower,” a framework emerging from this research, and explore its growing relevance in an AI-driven enterprise landscape.
- 12:15 PM
ISG’s vertical leaders provide insight into the market, their observations of the challenges, and our vision of the future in this market.
Lights-out manufacturing sets the stage for the realization of Decentralized Dark Factories, promoting a completely hands-off approach to smart manufacturing. What do today's trending technologies in Industry 4.0/5.0 promise?
- What's required for an Industry 5.0 transformation?
- What adoption and implementation challenges will you face to reach the era of Dark Factories?
The emergence of Agentic and Generative AI is ushering in a new era for the AI software market, fundamentally reshaping the software universe. Investigate the evolving data foundations that support enterprise AI applications, alongside significant transformations in cloud computing and platforms for business software. As enterprises adapt, they are redefining criteria for evaluating AI and IT software solutions. We will address future directions in AI and IT software research, emphasizing key insights.
- 1:15 PM
- 1:45 PM
We are entering a new era—one where the pace of AI-driven transformation will make past technological shifts seem like slow motion. Come on a journey through a rapidly evolving economy where artificial intelligence moves from being a competitive differentiator to becoming the invisible operating fabric of businesses and industries.
Drawing parallels to the layered realities in the film Inception, we will examine how AI will fundamentally reshape sourcing at multiple levels—some visible, some systemic, and some imperceptible at first glance. Like all transformative technologies, AI today risks being overestimated in the short term but profoundly underestimated in its long-term impact.
As technology providers rapidly pivot to support hybrid ecosystems of human workflows, humans-in-the-loop, and AI-driven decision engines, the very structure of complex services and commercial pricing models will evolve. New forms of value will emerge—driven by AI autonomy, human-AI collaboration, and dynamic sourcing ecosystems.
This keynote will provide cutting-edge research, emerging use cases, and a strategic vision for navigating this rapidly changing landscape. Leave with a practical roadmap to evolve from AI-first adoption to AI-last integration, preparing your organizations to lead in the AI-saturated economy of the future.
- 2:10 PM
- 5:30 PM
- 2:55 PM
The future of the software economy, shaped by AI and technology, is poised for transformative changes between 2026 and 2028. Explore how agentic and generative AI will revolutionize the software landscape, impacting both businesses and IT infrastructures in public to sovereign clouds.
- Discover strategies for enterprises to transition from legacy software systems towards innovative solutions.
- Witness the unveiling of ISG Provider Intelligence which will aid in informed decision-making, offering crucial insights into software providers.
- Learn how to navigate the profound impact of AI on industry evolution, the potential of agentic AI to modernize software practices, and strategies to navigate complex software research landscapes.
- 3:30 PM
- 3:30 PM
Based on emerging GenAI trends, new themes are reshaping the manufacturing landscape, driving transformation across operations and business models. Explore today’s strategic priorities for adopting GenAI in manufacturing and examine the critical role service providers play in scaling innovation, enabling manufacturers to move from pilot initiatives to widespread adoption.
When organizations outsource IT or business functions, they aim to achieve cost reduction, cost avoidance, and value creation—but these goals can be undermined without the right change management approach. Explore how strategic OCM planning and targeted people enablement minimize value leakage, drive adoption of new operating models, and strengthen client-provider partnerships. How can you overcome resistance, reduce cognitive load through clear, consistent messaging, and empower retained teams for long-term success?
As AI agents shift from theoretical promise to practical implementation, service providers are facing a new challenge: reconciling client business goals with the unpredictable behavior, autonomy, and complexity of agentic systems. How is the emergence of AI agents transforming delivery models, project architectures, and client expectations? What are the lessons learned so far?
- 4:15 PM
When it comes to AI, we as an industry are often finding ourselves in uncharted waters. This session shares real-world lessons from teams navigating the uncertainty of developing and delivering AI solutions in client-facing environments. Gain practical insights you can apply immediately to your next engagement—whether you're scoping an AI project, managing risk, or aligning stakeholders.
AI is reshaping healthcare, driving advances in diagnostics, personalized treatment, and operational efficiency. In clinical settings, AI outperforms humans in detecting early-stage cancers, extracts insights from notes, predicts patient deterioration, and powers remote monitoring. In non-clinical areas, providers and payers use GenAI and agentic AI to optimize costs and streamline administration. While challenges around data privacy and bias remain, AI adoption is accelerating, with record investments and mainstream implementation across global health systems.
- How can you improve know-how on implementation of data-oriented services that address core healthcare needs?
- How would AI need to process unstructured data and imaging data?
- How can technology assist in personalized and pro-active care?
Successfully delivering value in complex, multi-project ERP transformation programs require more than just robust planning and execution — it demands a proactive approach to identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks across both IT and Business domains. Explore a structured Risk Advisory Framework tailored for large-scale ERP programs and discover why this is critical, how it helps de-risk implementations for both you and your clients, and the tangible outcomes it enables.
- 5:00 PM
As the security solution market continues to expand and evolve, organizations are confronted with the increasingly difficult task of assessing the most suitable solutions. At the same time providers face challenges in effectively communicating their value propositions. Explore the evaluation process to discern the ideal cybersecurity solution from a myriad of options and gain valuable insights into the criteria and methodologies employed to identify and select solutions.
- Identify the factors clients prioritize when choosing security solutions.
- Discover ways providers can facilitate the evaluation process.
- Gain an insight into clients' security provider strategies that influence the selection.
Enterprise value reaches its full potential when platforms, providers, and enterprises work in sync—but achieving that alignment is becoming increasingly complex. Rapid technological change, mismatched expectations, and unexpected friction points are creating new challenges. Hear directly from platform leaders, providers, and enterprises on how to harness fluidity and intelligence to drive ROI in today’s evolving application ecosystem. Explore what it takes to bring these forces together effectively—and spotlight the pitfalls and anti-patterns to avoid.
- 7:00 PM
Day 03
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
- 9:00 AM
- 1:00 PM
(8:30 am shotgun start)
Buses depart at 7:30 am
- 12:00 PM
- 1:00 PM
- 10:30 PM
* Paragon Awards
* IPL Awards
* Star of Excellence
* Software Industry Awards