RESEARCH NOTEPROGRAM: ALL
DOCUMENT NUMBER: T169 DECEMBER 2019

HOT COMP ANIE S TOWAT CH IN 2020
ANALYSTS

Ian Campbell, Barbara Peck, Trevor White, Dan Elman,
Andrew MacMillen, Evelyn McMullen, Isaac Gould

THE BOTTOM LINE
Nucleus selected 12 companies to watch in 2020 that are top performers who will continue
to show exceptional performance into the future. As either leaders or strong challengers intheir respective markets, Nucleus has assessed the ability of the vendors featured in thisresearch note to execute on their strategies and continue their current momentum. Withsome of the featured organizations, Nucleus is optimistic for particular product areas thatare either maturing well or strengthening an established lead. In every case, we see theroadmap and product developments moving forward as aligned with the goal of providing
value to customers.

©2019 Nucleus Research Inc. | 100 State Street, Boston, MA, 02109 | +1 (617) 720-2000 | NucleusResearch.com

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OVERVIEW
In identifying the hot companies, Nucleus analysts debated the current position of eachvendor and their potential for unique growth, justifying inclusion based on the company’s
momentum and recent successes. Some vendors on the list typify innovative approaches or
new applications of technology. Other companies are on the cutting-edge of theirrespective markets, delivering novel technology capabilities to customers and seeking tounseat incumbent solutions.

ACUMATICA
Acumatica is one of the fastest growing cloud ERP vendors in the marketplace today. It wasrecently acquired by EQT Partners (the parent company of IFS) and as a result, will be able
to aggressively expand its global client base through IFS’s established channels. Strategic
hub-and-spoke configuration ispossible, along with plenty ofproduct and best practice synergies
Acumatica has added over 5,000that will better equip it to competecustomers to its deployment base since its
with other midmarket ERP vendors
founding in 2008.
such as NetSuite. Adjacent CRM
and field service management
functionalities will continue toexpand the value message to more enterprise departments and make it an attractive choiceboth for customers looking to replace legacy solutions and net new customers coming from
QuickBooks and spreadsheets.

AERA TECHNOLOGY
Aera Technology has made strides toward realizing the self-driving enterprise, adding
additional capabilities over the last year as well as raising another round of capital funding.
Leveraging a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language
processing, Aera seeks to help decision makers with real time and context-sensitive analysis
drawing on data from across the entire enterprise. The Aera platform delivers a suite ofcognitive Skills that are each designed to answer specific questions that organizations face.
For example, Aera’s Supply Chain 360 provides visibility into key performance indicatorssuch as inventory, demand, supply, and production, helping supply chain professionals

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address the most pressing issues within their extended value chain and automate tasks likeinventory adjustments, expediting or delaying shipments, and revising plans. As thetechnology matures and Aera is able to successfully demonstrate the value of its platform
within large enterprise customers, Nucleus expects the vendor to mount a significant
challenge to many of the legacy platforms.

ALLYO
AllyO is an end-to-end recruiting and employee engagement platform that uses chatbots,leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to identify qualified job seekers, automate recruiting
processes, and deliver actionable insights to hiring managers. AllyO integrates with existing
career pages, as well as job boards such as LinkedIn, Monster, and Indeed, as well as
Facebook and Twitter and HCM suites like Oracle and SuccessFactors. AllyO also allows
recruiters to configure and automate tasks such as screening, scheduling, and post-hiring
check-ins. The solution is available in multiple languages across channels including web,text, and email and enables candidates to continue conversations with the same persistentidentity. A fairly recent product, AllyO already possesses a number of large corporate clients
including Fortune 50 organizations.

APTTUS
Apttus offers configure-price-quote (CPQ) and contract lifecycle management (CLM)
solutions built on the Salesforce platform. In 2019, we see more companies reaching
maturity in their CRM deployments, marked by strong internal adoption, responsible andorganized data collection, and noted increases in user productivity, report quality, and useof analytics to drive decision making. This creates an ideal growth environment for CRMadjacent solutions like CLM and CPQ as companies look to further modernize their salesorganizations.
As a partner of a leading CRM vendor like Salesforce, Apttus is well-positioned to capitalize
on cross-sales from those customers reaching maturity with their Salesforce deployments.
Additionally, the company leadership is strong, and the product roadmap is grounded inuser feedback. The company continues to invest in emerging technologies like artificial
intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), particularly in the area of natural language processing(NLP) for automating areas of contract review, as well as blockchain and mobile. Nucleus
expects to see noticeable growth from Apttus in 2020.

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BOX
Box began in 2005 as a file sync and share (FSS) platform that focused its efforts on astrategy of a simple, safe, and organized system for working on files. Since then, Box has
followed the same approach while expanding its functionalities, resulting in a broad-based
cloud content management platform (CCM). Box operates under the premise that content
drives insights, is essential to thesuccess of any enterprise, and is thefocus of all R&D expenditures. Box
A company reduced its customer churn byis known for its usability and25% using Box as its file sync and sharecollaborative capabilities andsystem.
enables users work across a varietyof content types, devices, apps andservices both on-site and remotely.
Box Content Management also has strong security features and a simple data capture
process for any device. Nucleus believes that Box is equipped for renewed success because
it still operates like a start-up and remains in sync with its mantra of “manage, collaborate,and govern”.

KINAXIS
Having established itself as a leading supply chain planning solution, Kinaxis will continue its
momentum in 2020. The vendor is achieving success supplanting legacy and incumbent
technology in the space with its high level of usability, leading users to adopt the softwareand become vocal advocates for the vendor within medium-to-large enterprise accounts.
Despite its success, Kinaxis has remained grounded in what has resonated with the market;
namely, practical applications of technology that avoid the hyperbole that surrounds
technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and the Internet ofThings. Acknowledging the difficulty and significant resource requirements of enterprise
supply chain change doesn’t hurt either.
The future for the vendor continues to focus on improvements to the user interface such asa new web-based client and allowing users to display information the way that best suits
them and additional use cases for AI and ML. The vendor is looking to expand the platform
on which it delivers its software, with capabilities that allow for third-parties, super users,programmers, and data scientists to build applications and algorithms themselves, andembed or connect externally built ones. With the potential opportunity for growth in thesupply chain planning market, Kinaxis is well-positioned to provide an alternative path forenterprise organizations that have long-relied on tools insufficient to the demands ofDocument Number: T169 December 2019

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modern supply chain challenges (Nucleus Research T123 - Beyond Excel in supply chain
planning, August 2019).

LOOKER
Looker is an analytics/business intelligence (BI) platform, built on SQL and expanding toenable more data science tools, partnering with next-generation cloud data warehouses likeFivetran and Snowflake. As more companies modernize their backend data infrastructure, itwould be a logical move to consider a solution that is tightly integrated. Additionally, there
is an extensive base of users with SQL experience making adoption less of a hurdle giventhat Looker is SQL-based. For companies that are investing in data science and are maturein their analytics usage to where an organization-wide platform is attractive (no longer using
departmental silos or depending on IT for BI), Looker is well-positioned to help companies
push forward with data-driven decision making initiatives and also simplify tech stacks.

RAPID7
Rapid7 is a leading provider of security analytics and automation. At a time when mostcybersecurity solutions struggle to provide clear value messages and instead focus on afear-based selling strategy, Rapid7 is different. The vendor helps organizations to unite
teams and amplify efficiency with a focus on vulnerability risk management, incidentdetection and response, application security testing, and orchestration and automation.
Rapid7’s intuitive security platform enables organizations to implement its product suite withminimal training, from initial deployment and onboarding through expansion and growth.
Nucleus found that organizations were regularly able to reduce the internal training of theirstaff more than 90 percent, savings thousands of dollars of internal labor that was deployed
to high value-added tasks.

SABA
In the age of AI, customers continue to expect further automation of processes from the fullsphere of talent management providers along with capabilities that are engaging to end
users and easy to integrate with other solutions. Saba’s Learning Experience Platform (LXP)
connects recruiting and onboarding, personal learning and skill development, coaching andfeedback and career planning. The solution leverages interest-based personalization,

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Saba has made a large number of investments in its portfolio over the past year, solidifyingits position as a leading full-suite talent management provider, while creating a new
approach to the experience of people at work. Notable moves include the addition ofglobal talent acquisition, candidate relationship management and onboarding experiences
via Saba’s acquisition of Lumesse, and the launch of Saba me:time. Saba continues to be aleader in the learning and talent AI space, and has recently unveiled a roadmap vision thatincludes deeper personalization across the user experience, improved insight and analytics,
and better connectivity between talent journeys and overall corporate outcomes.

UNIT4
One of the original proponents of “ERP realism”, Unit4 is starting to reap its benefits with anumber of big North American customer wins over more established brands such as Oracleand Microsoft. By focusing on service-based industries, Unit4 has developed unique ERP
capabilities for local governments, nonprofits, educational institutions, and professional
services that make it an attractive
choice for any organization within
On average, Unit4 customers have athose verticals. (Nucleus Researchpayback period of less than two years.
T123 – The business value of ERP
realism, November 2019) The
addition of CPM and HCM capabilities have equipped the vendor to compete with the likesof Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft by offering a comprehensive suite of enterprise applications.
Unit4 is positioned well to take business away from legacy providers in its specialized
verticals and will continue to make inroads in the North American market.

VENA SOLUTIONS
Vena Solutions is a cloud native financial planning and analysis (FP&A) vendor that isaddressing a huge greenfield opportunity for mid-market CPM customers. The company isdelivering modern CPM capabilities (including planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting,and dashboards) closer to Microsoft Excel’s user interface framework than any other vendor
before it. Vena continues to mature functionally, relative to its direct competitors, and its
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familiar UI will guarantee that it has a loyal customer base for a long time to come. The
solution’s high usability has produced quick adoption rates for its current customers, leading
to high return on investment rates and short payback periods (Nucleus Research T30 – Vena
Solutions delivers value with rapid adoption – February 2019). Vena still needs to develop its
functionalities as aggressively as its competitors, but the lack of direct competition will
enable it to expand quickly.

ZOHO
Zoho offers solutions across the full spectrum of business applications, spanning HCM,
analytics, CRM, ERP, and digital infrastructure. It is privately held and thus able to react
quickly to market forces and trends, and the leadership is focused on growth and steadyproduct innovation. The solutions are tightly integrated and offer core functionality acrossthe application portfolio. With strong performance internationally and among small- andmedium-sized business customers, Zoho is looking to move upmarket and solidify a leading
presence in the United States; tothat end it recently opened a new
campus in Austin, Texas. TheA Zoho customer saved over $300,000
biggest challenge currently facing
annually by replacing its numerous legacy
Zoho is stronger brand recognition
solutions with Zoho One.
(a much better problem to havethan inferior technology!). However,as more customers come tounderstand the breadth of the Zoho platform, Nucleus expects to see strong growth. From
past ROI case studies, it is apparent that the solutions offer significant value at a low TCO
relative to competing vendors. Zoho displays strong core competencies in all major markets,
while its ease of use and adoption, attractive pricing structure, and value from a unified
platform should prove desirable to the majority of its target market.

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