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technologies, as seen in the “Hype Cycle for Digital Commerce, 2020.” Innovation profilessuch as digital commerce software as a service (SaaS), virtual customer assistants, andpersonalization engines are a few of the emerging and mature technological componentsthat will enable this shift to B2B digital commerce. Prospects and customers alike are continuing to seek multiple sources of information viaonline searches, peer review sites and content from independent third parties, for example,demonstrating channel-agnostic behavior when it comes to seeking out information for aspecific project. This means that tools like data intelligence solutions for sales and RPA canhelp capture pertinent information channels, where sellers are not present, and surfacethese insights inside an SFA solution. Sales analytics initiatives are still a major source of interest as many sales organizationshave struggled to confidently rely on their forecasting accuracy, now even more so duringthe COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, tools like sales predictive analytics have seenincreasing levels of interest and usage, Gartner inquiries have confirmed. Gartner has seen a shift in sales enablement platforms to include more buyer engagementanalytics. The overlap to sales acceleration will likely increase and be absorbed into salesenablement. Sales acceleration platforms are powered by data-driven insights such asconversational and sentiment analysis. We expect that to soon include contactpsychographics and emotion analysis needed for virtual meetings. As the pandemiccontinues to linger, there is the potential for tools like AR and VR to make an increasingsales play when closing the deal in selling complex equipment, or to fill the need for on-sitedemonstrations. Remote work and pandemic disruption. Gartner has fielded anincreasing amount of inquiries, especially in 2Q20, about the need to move sales processesfrom analog to digital because of circumstances surrounding nontravel and work-fromhome orders. COVID-19 has transformed the way sales organizations are investing in newtechnologies and, at the same time, reducing or retiring ones that are analog. It has furtherintensified the need for digital optimization and paved the way for transformative efforts. Forexample, virtual high-touch sales are potentially being enabled by innovative solutions suchas conversational engagement analytics, as well as AR and VR for sales. Prior to thepandemic, inquiries surrounding such solutions were nonexistent within sales. Thesesolutions have risen out of a necessity to facilitate a semblance of face-to-faceengagement, where product demonstrations could, for example, entail complex software orequipment.Page 6 of 54Gartner, Inc. G00441562

Figure 2. Priority Matrix for CRM Sales Technology, 2020Gartner, Inc. G00441562Page 7 of 54

Off the Hype CycleFive technologies from last year’s Hype Cycle — sales contract management, CPQ applicationsuites, digital content management for sales, lead management, and sales KPI analytics — are nolonger on the Hype Cycle due to reaching the Plateau of Productivity and maturity. In 2019, many ofthe technologies were at the preplateau level or had already reached the plateau and thus were ontheir way off the Hype Cycle. This means that a large majority of sales organizations haveembedded the technologies as part of their core sales tech stack, or that the technologies arepervasive within sales organizations.On the RiseBlockchain for Lead GenerationAnalysis By: Adnan ZijadicDefinition: Blockchain for lead generation delivers the ability to source leads and share informationusing a decentralized platform in a peer-to-peer network. It offers the ability to provide users withthe most current leads via the exchange of firmographic information based on crowdsourcing datacollection methods while monetizing and controlling data sharing and protecting privacy. Leads canbe sourced via a freemium model or via tokens on the blockchain exchange to the highest bidderusing smart contract processes and automation.Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Blockchain for lead generation has just hit theInnovation Trigger, with limited use cases and very few production implementations across the SMBor enterprise landscape. It will take time for organizations to take notice due to its embryonic stage;however, the technology offers a potential alternative to typical lead and contact generationmethods, such as via data intelligence solutions (DIS) or any other third-party databases.Blockchain for lead generation offers a single version of the truth, supported by immutable data andaudit trails, and no single entity is in control. This leads to a transparent and trustworthy biddingprocess for information and/or leads that can be bought with tokens. Blockchain for lead generationfaces many obstacles inherent in blockchain technology in that blockchain for lead generation is stillimmature and does not yet interoperate using mainstream blockchain technology standards. Inaddition, financial services are leading the planning and experimentation activity for this blockchaintechnology outside of lead generation, while other sectors such as transportation, telecom,government, and utilities are increasingly becoming engaged. The obstacles to adoption can beovercome once use cases have been proven.User Advice: Sales technology leaders will not find many vendors currently offering blockchain forlead generation. Still, organizations can learn more about its potential use cases in their particularcontext while preparing for the proliferation in the vendor landscape. It is also a good opportunity toexperiment with blockchain as a service, offered by some CRM vendors and their ecosystem ofpartners. Blockchain for lead generation offers the potential to optimize costs incurred on procuringdata from third parties by eliminating a central authority, such as data intelligence solutions whereinthe data contained is sometimes stale and unreliable, while also monetizing data shared acrossPage 8 of 54Gartner, Inc. G00441562

blockchain ledgers and networks in a peer-to-peer network, offering an additional revenue streamand giving users back the control of their data and identities.Business Impact: Blockchain for lead generation can have a transformational impact on thebusiness and how sales organizations have typically sourced leads and contact information. Ratherthan source from many unreliable third-party databases, users can instead partake in a networksharing mechanism to source leads and contacts that may fit a particular organization, whilepassing on leads that do not conform to the ideal customer profile, and in the process monetizingthe sharing of information among constituents participating in the blockchain network. In addition,this will open opportunities to lower costs allocated to DIS and master data management solutionsby removing the “middle man” while also addressing data residency concerns due to theimmutability of blockchain technology, particularly for companies that have to maintain GDPRcompliance in their sales CRM systems. Blockchain allows untrusted parties to work together and inreal time to know if a lead is going to a competitor, which saves time and money pursuing a lostlead, while providing contextual insights.Benefit Rating: TransformationalMarket Penetration: Less than 1% of target audienceMaturity: EmbryonicSample Vendors: Datafund; LeadCoinIoT for CRM SalesAnalysis By: Theodore TravisDefinition: The Internet of Things comprises an ecosystem that includes things, communications,applications and data analysis. Its uses range from transforming business operations to newrevenue generation. In sales processes, the IoT includes technology that performs buying functionson behalf of customers, such as ordering technology embedded in consumer devices and B2Bapplications, or sales agents that perform actions on behalf of sellers.Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The market for both B2B and B2C sales is stillembryonic. Internet of Things (IoT) architectures are still emerging; different applications and stylesinclude the use of single instantiations of physical devices or multiples of such instantiations (selfdriving cars). Moreover, Gartner finds that many organizations are still at the planning stage, workingon higher-level considerations such as their digital transformation strategy. This means that IoT forsales is still many years away from reaching maturity.User Advice: The earliest forms of IoT for sales are B2B- and asset- (physical product) centric. It isoften linked with processes that are close to customer service, such as customer successprograms, product upgrades, spare parts sales, consumables, the increase of capacity (e.g.,additional storage, solar panels or batteries) and service sales. In this manner, IoT sales interactionswill become a new sales channel that application leaders should start to evaluate and support,particularly those working in consumer and manufacturing verticals.Gartner, Inc. G00441562Page 9 of 54

Application leaders supporting sales should: Be aware that IoT-based selling, as currently adopted, is still an innovative pace layerapplication. This means that during the next five years you will need to consider customdevelopment to connect devices with your back-office systems and processes. Assess the ability of the IoT architecture to integrate with CRM and marketing applications inorder to support consistent messaging with prospects and customers. Train existing sales or selling partners on how IoT will enhance their ability to sell to consumers,but only if direct human interaction remains a requirement.Business Impact: Experimental IoT selling has the potential to become a major disruptor to bothB2C and B2B sales. It is possible that IoT for sales will develop different selling styles. And that ahuman or agent “handler” will assign responsibility to initiate and conduct the automated salesdialogue to individual sales engines, based on their predictions, with the ability to detect the needfor shifts within a sales process.Benefit Rating: TransformationalMarket Penetration: Less than 1% of target audienceMaturity: EmbryonicSample Vendors: Amazon web Services; Google; Microsoft Azure IoT Edge; Oracle; Pegasystems;ZohoRecommended Reading:“Market Definitions and Methodology: Internet of Things Forecast”“Explore the Internet of Things’ Potential for CRM”Extended Planning & AnalysisAnalysis By: John Van Decker; Melissa Hilbert; Robert AndersonDefinition: In the market, financial planning and analysis solutions have been augmented with usecases that leverage their core “rate X volume” capability into other disciplines beyond the financedepartment, such as in sales and operations planning, human resources planning, and IT planning.This extension into these new areas is referred to as XP&A and provides a more complete integratedenterprise planning footprint beyond what integrated financial planning (prior Hype Cycle entry)attempted to fulfill.Position and Adoption Speed Justification: NOTE: This replace the Integrated Financial PlanningHype Cycle entry from 2019. It has evolved to become a component of eXtended Planning andAnalysis (XP&A).Page 10 of 54Gartner, Inc. G00441562

Many organizations strive to have an integrated enterprise planning environment, however, mosthave evolved to having more than five to 10 different planning solutions in their enterprise, as amultipurpose planning solution has only recently become available. This is a result of the variousdepartments being able to pursue their own planning solutions independently, often without acommon theme and consistency of purpose. While many of these tools have specific functionalityaddressing much needed requirements in specific disciplines (e.g., sales force compensation), theseXP&A solutions are increasingly stepping up to the challenge by incorporating more of these nichefunctionalities into their use cases.When an organization chooses an XP&A approach, they are able to leverage the same compositearchitecture platform for multiple use cases. They can concentrate usage and economies of scale toleverage a trained IT staff across multiple areas. It can also provide opportunities to betterintegration of operational planning areas with finance as well as other operational areas. The initialbase of XP&A platforms has evolved by improving performance, collaboration, workflowmanagement, analytics, governance and ease of use.XP&A is being implemented by many business process consultancies in client organizations asmore new ERP projects are being extended by ERP-based XP&A tools. The solutions will continueto develop, however, some are not as robust as a best-of-breed counterpart. As a result, businessculture and data integration pose significant challenges to adoption of integrated planning. Basedon these factors, we expect integrated planning to reach the Plateau of Productivity in five to 10years.User Advice: Initially, organizations need to take an accurate inventory of planning solutions,including specific business applications, Excel-based processes and planning done offline todetermine where there could be consolidation opportunities.Monitor the progress of XP&A vendor roadmaps and determine where functional gaps may existversus specific best-of-breed applications. Determine if and when it would be possible toconsolidate some of these one-off planning tools into a more common XP&A approach.Develop an ideal vision for integrated enterprise planning (IEP) for your organization, includingconnections between operational and financial planning processes. Build a business case basedupon the ability to better integrate planning into a more consistent platform.Business Impact: XP&A can be leveraged to consolidate as well as provide a formal consistentapplication approach to the enterprise planning process. By consolidating these into a companyplatform, organizations can achieve economies of scale that leveraged new compositearchitectures, and can be a value tool to link operational and financial planning. This can alsoprovide innovation in codifying new planning models and enable organizations to reforecast intoday’s changing economy at a more rapid pace. It enables organizations to have bettercollaboration and provide the ability to bring often disconnected planning into a commonenvironment.XP&A is an approach to consolidate enterprise planning solutions, however, it will not be a goodsubstitute for all planning processes (e.g., multienterprise planning, integrated business planning) asGartner, Inc. G00441562P

Gartner has seen a shift in sales enablement platforms to include more buyer engagement analytics. The overlap to sales acceleration will likely increase and be absorbed into sales enablement. Sales acceleration platforms are powered by data-driven insights such as conversational and sentiment analysis. We expect that to soon include contact