WBSP796: Grow Your Business by Learning from Enterprise Software Stories - Jul 2025, Ep 28, an Objective Panel Discussion

Send us a textRecent announcements across enterprise software, AI platforms, and services point to an accelerating convergence of intelligence, automation, and scale. Product expansions from Deltek, CallMiner, and Hightouch reflect a push to embed advanced analytics, personalization, and contextual intelligence directly into operational systems, while launches from Intellistack and Kognitos highlight growing demand for no-code and neurosymbolic approaches that reduce dependence on scarce technical talent. Strategic transactions such as IFS acquiring TheLoops and Capgemini acquiring WNS signal a broader shift toward end-to-end, AI-enabled business transformation that blends software, services, and domain expertise. At the same time, substantial funding rounds for PhysicsX, Vellum, and Vultr underscore continued investor confidence in platforms that support AI-native workloads, from applied engineering intelligence to workflow orchestration and cloud infrastructure. Collectively, these moves suggest the market is moving beyond experimentation toward integrated, production-grade AI capabilities embedded across the enterprise stack.In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry analysts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to analyze current enterprise software stories. We covered many grounds including the direction and roadmaps of each enterprise software vendors. Finally, we analyzed future trends and how they might shape the enterprise software industry.Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NufAeaJoPwIQuestions for Panelists?🔗Sam Gupta: linkedin.com/in/samguptausa/🔗Robert Kramer: linkedin.com/in/robert-kramer-58239b22/🔗Brian Jackson: linkedin.com/in/urbanpaddler/🔗Michael Fauscette: linkedin.com/in/mfauscette/🔗Donald Farmer: linkedin.com/in/donalddotfarmer/Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Send us a textSelecting the right CRM in the K-12 education sector is less about sales enablement and more about orchestrating complex, long-lived relationships across an entire educational community. Before we present our Top K-12 Education CRMs in 2025, it is important to align on what success looks like in this context—where the “customer” spans students, parents, teachers, administrators, district leadership, and external partners, each with distinct engagement cycles and data needs. K-12 organizations require platforms that can manage enrollment journeys, communications, compliance, and support interactions over many years, often under strict regulatory and budgetary constraints. As a result, CRM selection in this space prioritizes governance, data integrity, and lifecycle visibility over traditional pipeline management or revenue optimization.In this episode, our host Sam Gupta discusses the top 10 K-12 Education CRMs in 2025. He also discusses several variables that influence the rankings of these K-12 Education CRMs. Finally, he shares the pros and cons of each CRM system.Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIIesikgPkoRead: https://www.elevatiq.com/post/top-non-profit-crms/Questions for Panelists?🔗Sam Gupta: linkedin.com/in/samguptausa/r-58239b22/Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Send us a textRecent product launches, acquisitions, and funding announcements underscore how rapidly enterprise software and AI platforms are evolving across both horizontal and vertical use cases. Vendors such as Orbit Analytics, Deltek, and Advantive are extending core operational solutions with deeper analytics, compliance, and decision-support capabilities, while companies like Pipefy, Aquant, Kognitos, and Intellistack are pushing AI further into everyday workflows through agents, retrieval-augmented conversations, neurosymbolic reasoning, and no-code automation. Strategic moves like IFS acquiring TheLoops highlight growing demand for AI-driven operational intelligence embedded directly into ERP ecosystems, rather than bolted on at the edges. At the same time, significant growth financings for PhysicsX and Vultr signal continued investor confidence in infrastructure and applied-AI platforms that can support increasingly compute-intensive, industry-specific use cases. Together, these developments point to a market shifting from experimental AI features toward scaled, production-ready capabilities tightly integrated with core enterprise systems.In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry analysts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to analyze current enterprise software stories. We covered many grounds, including the direction and roadmaps of each enterprise software vendor. Finally, we analyzed future trends and how they might shape the enterprise software industry.Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw7jW3wPtFQQuestions for Panelists?🔗Sam Gupta: linkedin.com/in/samguptausa/🔗Robert Kramer: linkedin.com/in/robert-kramer-58239b22/🔗Thomas Wieberneit: linkedin.com/in/thomaswieberneit/🔗Kenneth ("Kengon") Gonzalez: linkedin.com/in/kengon/🔗John Santaferraro: linkedin.com/in/johnsantaferraro/Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Send us a textInnovation districts sit at the intersection of real estate, research, community building, and economic development—making them fundamentally different from most commercial enterprises. Unlike traditional organizations with a single revenue engine or operating model, innovation districts are ecosystems designed to orchestrate universities, startups, investors, public agencies, and anchor institutions within a shared physical and digital footprint. Their success depends less on transactional efficiency and more on their ability to foster collaboration, attract talent, manage long-term stakeholder relationships, and translate research and entrepreneurship into measurable economic impact. This multi-stakeholder, mission-driven structure creates unique governance, funding, and operational complexities that require purpose-built strategies rather than off-the-shelf commercial playbooks.In this episode, our host Sam Gupta discusses the top 10 CRMs for Innovation Districts in 2025. He also discusses several variables that influence the rankings of these CRMs for Innovation Districts. Finally, he shares the pros and cons of each CRM system.Video: https://youtu.be/eBYRIZZ1zJoRead: https://www.elevatiq.com/post/top-non-profit-crms/Questions for Panelists?🔗Sam Gupta: linkedin.com/in/samguptausa/r-58239b22/Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Send us a textManufacturing ERP systems may appear similar on the surface, but their differences become stark once you look underneath—especially for industries where precision, engineering complexity, and compliance cannot be compromised. While many vendors promote similar modules, only specialized ERPs are architected to handle the rigorous demands of electronics, wire harness, and other engineering-intensive sectors. This webinar will unpack why industry-specific systems consistently outperform generic, one-size-fits-all ERPs, showing how they enhance traceability, strengthen real-time visibility, and seamlessly connect quoting, ordering, production, inventory, quality, and shipping into a unified operational flow. We’ll explore how features like dynamic scheduling, embedded revision and configuration control, automated quality enforcement, and real-time WIP and material visibility are purpose-built—not bolted on—to support complex manufacturing. By the end, you’ll clearly see how the right specialized ERP can improve accuracy, reduce errors, accelerate throughput, and ultimately drive profitability in high-stakes production environments.In this episode, Sam Gupta hosts Tanner Rogers, Director of Sales, Cetec ERP, to discuss the ultimate ERP playbook for Electronics & Wire Harness companies.Video: https://www.elevatiq.com/events-and-webinars/the-ultimate-erp-playbook-for-electronics-manufacturing/Questions for Panelists?🔗Sam Gupta: linkedin.com/in/samguptausa/🔗Tanner Rogers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanner-rogers-72347b106/Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Send us a textThis week’s enterprise technology updates highlight major movements across ERP support, AI automation, testing, analytics, and workflow orchestration. Rimini Street extended support for all SAP ECC 6.0 and S/4HANA releases through 2040, offering long-term stability for organizations navigating SAP’s transition timeline. Zencoder launched Zentester, an AI-powered end-to-end testing agent designed to transform vibe coding into enterprise-grade engineering, while Acorn secured $12.3 million in Series A funding to accelerate its growth. Algolia introduced its MCP Server to empower developers, and Aravo enhanced its Evaluate Engine with new features to strengthen risk and compliance workflows. Avetta rolled out upgrades to the Avetta One platform, and Orbit Analytics expanded its GL Sense solution with new capabilities. Pipefy launched AI agents tailored for HR teams, Advantive released a new version of its statistical process control solution, and Aquant detailed its retrieval-augmented conversation technology—together showcasing how AI, automation, and modernization continue reshaping every layer of the enterprise software ecosystem.In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry analysts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to analyze current enterprise software stories. We covered many grounds including the direction and roadmaps of each enterprise software vendors. Finally, we analyzed future trends and how they might shape the enterprise software industry.Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06EUjRBLHDAQuestions for Panelists?🔗Sam Gupta: linkedin.com/in/samguptausa/🔗Robert Kramer: linkedin.com/in/robert-kramer-58239b22/🔗Shashi Bellamkonda: linkedin.com/in/sbellamkonda/🔗Thomas Wieberneit: linkedin.com/in/thomaswieberneit/🔗Donald Farmer: linkedin.com/in/donalddotfarmer/Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Send us a textWhen evaluating the top 10 large-company CRMs in 2025, it’s essential to ground the discussion in how we define this segment: organizations with more than 5,000 employees and over $1 billion in annual revenue, representing the true enterprise tier. Unlike startups, small businesses, or even mid-sized firms, large enterprises operate with global scale, complex geographic footprints, and deeply layered organizational structures that demand far more from their CRM systems. Their priorities include advanced territory and quota management, multi-layered sales and service planning, global data consolidation, and strict compliance with regulations across multiple jurisdictions. As a result, CRMs designed for this tier aren’t simply expanded versions of mid-market solutions—they are built with entirely different architectural assumptions, offering deeper configurability, stronger governance controls, more sophisticated integration frameworks, and data models engineered to support highly interconnected business units operating across regions, languages, currencies, and regulatory environments.In this episode, our host Sam Gupta discusses the top 10 Large Non-Profit CRMs in 2025. He also discusses several variables that influence the rankings of these Large Non-Profit CRMs. Finally, he shares the pros and cons of each CRM system.Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFtzoHQiqfgRead: https://www.elevatiq.com/post/top-non-profit-crms/Questions for Panelists?🔗Sam Gupta: linkedin.com/in/samguptausa/Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Send us a textThe aerospace and defense industry operates in one of the most demanding environments, where compliance, traceability, and precision are non-negotiable—yet many manufacturers still rely on generic ERPs that were never built for aviation. As a result, they pour millions into customizations just to meet basic FAA, DoD, and OEM requirements, only to end up with fragile systems that struggle under the weight of cert linkage, serial and lot tracking, shelf-life controls, and calibration traceability. In this webinar, we’ll break down the “Aerospace ERP Gap,” exposing the risks and costs of forcing generic ERPs into aerospace use cases, including the all-too-common “$2M customization trap.” You’ll see how industry-built ERP platforms close this gap with out-of-the-box capabilities for MRO, manufacturing, and defense contractors—delivering compliance-ready workflows, integrated configuration management, and real-time visibility across every aircraft, tool, and certificate. Ultimately, these purpose-built solutions help organizations move from reactive and fragmented to unified and intelligent, without blowing budgets or stretching implementation timelines.In this episode, Sam Gupta hosts Ralph Merhi, CEO, ERP.aero, to discuss the inside of the aerospace ERP gap, the $2M cost of getting it wrong.Video: https://www.elevatiq.com/events-and-webinars/erp-aero-overview-webinar/Questions for Panelists?🔗Sam Gupta: linkedin.com/in/samguptausa/🔗Ralph Merhi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralphmerhi/Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Send us a textThis week brought a surge of AI-driven innovation across CX, martech, enterprise software, and development tooling. Treasure Data introduced five new AI suites aimed at elevating customer experiences, while Uniphore unveiled a suite of AI marketing agents and Zeta Global provided more details on its Zeta Answers platform—each reinforcing the rapid expansion of AI across customer engagement. In the enterprise and ERP ecosystem, Accenture launched its Distiller agentic AI framework, Precisely rolled out AI-driven automation for SAP ERP, and Rimini Street extended support for all SAP ECC 6.0 and S/4HANA releases through 2040, signaling major momentum in long-term ERP modernization and support. On the engineering and DevOps front, Zencoder debuted Zentester, an AI-powered end-to-end testing agent designed to turn vibe coding into enterprise-grade engineering. Meanwhile, Acorn secured $12.3 million in Series A funding to accelerate its growth, Algolia released its MCP Server to enhance developer productivity, and Aravo expanded its Evaluate Engine with new features—collectively highlighting how AI, automation, and modernization continue reshaping every layer of the enterprise technology stack.In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry analysts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to analyze current enterprise software stories. We covered many grounds including the direction and roadmaps of each enterprise software vendors. Finally, we analyzed future trends and how they might shape the enterprise software industry.Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrKYmqgnWMgQuestions for Panelists?🔗Sam Gupta: linkedin.com/in/samguptausa/🔗Robert Kramer: linkedin.com/in/robert-kramer-58239b22/🔗John Santaferraro: linkedin.com/in/johnsantaferraro/🔗Jon W. Hansen: linkedin.com/in/jwhansen/🔗Michael Fauscette: linkedin.com/in/mfauscette/Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Send us a textWhen evaluating the top 10 mid-sized CRMs in 2025, it’s important to anchor the discussion in how we define the mid-sized market: organizations with roughly 100 to 5,000 employees and annual revenues from about $100 million to $1 billion. While some vendors might loosely label this range as enterprise, its operational profile aligns more closely with a true mid-sized segment—complex enough to require mature workflows, multi-layer security, and structured organizational planning, yet not burdened by the extreme global compliance, multinational consolidation, or governance demands seen in large enterprises. This tier sits squarely between the lightweight needs of startups and small businesses and the heavy global operational requirements of enterprise firms. As a result, CRM systems built for mid-sized organizations strike a deliberate balance: they offer richer data models, stronger automation, and more advanced capabilities than systems targeted at smaller businesses, without introducing the excessive overhead or architectural rigidity common in enterprise-focused platforms.In this episode, our host Sam Gupta discusses the top 10 Mid-Sized Non-Profit CRMs in 2025. He also discusses several variables that influence the rankings of these Mid-Sized Non-Profit CRMs. Finally, he shares the pros and cons of each CRM system.Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLnUew0p7iURead: https://www.elevatiq.com/post/top-non-profit-crms/Questions for Panelists?🔗Sam Gupta: linkedin.com/in/samguptausa/r-58239b22/Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.