BARC

𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝟱 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁-𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗵! More than 30 applications speak for themselves: the European Start-up scence around Data & AI is leading the way with innovation! We are happy to announce the five finalists of the 2026 BARC Start-up Award for Data & AI 2026: - 99BOTS: Agentic AI for finance, operations and customer service - Entropy Data: AI governance built on the open ODCS and ODPS standards - OtterlyAI: brand visibility monitoring across ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity - SOLISTIQ: foundation models for inventory and supply chain planning - Stackable: Kubernetes-native open-source data platform The winner will be announced live on stage at the DATA festival in Munich on 16-17 June 2026. There are still a limited amount of tickets left. Congratulations to all finalists! Stephan Döll, Dr. Simon Harrer, Thomas Peham, Magnus Josef Maichle, Sönke Liebau Press release: https://hubs.li/Q04hs3-F0 Join DATA festival: https://hubs.li/Q04hrZmJ0 #DATAfestival #StartupAward #AI #BARC #DataAnalytics

𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 BARC has published the fourth edition of the BARC Score Data Intelligence Platforms. The study evaluates ten vendors along portfolio depth and market execution, and maps a market that is currently reordering itself. Three developments shape the 2026 edition: AI is changing automation and user experience, AI and ML assets are becoming first-class catalog objects, and platforms deliver metadata at runtime as context for AI agents. - The Score evaluates vendors along the three use cases that define the 2026 market and that every modern platform must address: Context & Knowledge Engineering as the foundation for reliable AI agents, Data & AI Governance for regulation and trust, and Data Shopping for marketplace-style delivery of data products. - Ten specialzed vendors were evaluated - Hyperscaler tools were excluded because they are not standalone platform offerings. Read the full press release here: https://hubs.li/Q04h3Dl70 Find the study here: https://hubs.li/Q04h3_fb0 #DataIntelligence #DataPlatforms #MarketOverview #ToolComparison #BARC

Do not miss Kelley Lynn Kassa's webinar together with Paul Barnhurst a.k.a. The FP&A Guy looking at AI capabilities of tools for financial planning and analytics. May 21, 10am EST

𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗕𝗜 𝗳𝗮𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹. Power BI works great for dashboards but at scale, teams often need 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 (standards, ownership, governance) and 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 to support broader use cases such as 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲-𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 (comments, inputs, workflows). That's exactly where targeted add-ons can help. Join our webinar with BARC Senior Analyst Larissa Baier for a concise market overview and a closer look at 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗮𝗱𝗱-𝗼𝗻𝘀 that can complement your Power BI setup. Featuring live demos from insightsoftware and dScribe. 📅 May 12 | 2:00 pm CEST / 8 am ET Register now: https://hubs.li/Q04g3nkQ0

𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗦𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘁𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲: 𝟱𝟭% 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁. 𝟭𝟬% 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁. The second edition of the BARC Data Sovereignty Survey is live, based on feedback of 320 companies worldwide. Key 2026 findings - Strategic relevance is rising sharply: very important 51% (2025: 42%), 76% expect continued growth - Funding lags behind: 40% are not investing, only 10% have a dedicated budget - External drivers shift from regulation (61%, down from 69%) toward risk: US politics +8 points, cyber incidents +7, public cloud dependency +6 - Action focus: cybersecurity (43%) and hybrid/on-premises (35%) lead, repatriation initiatives doubled to 16% - Innovation impact: 46% see a positive effect, rising to 71% among companies with a dedicated budget If you are interested in a deep dive, we have a launch party virtual event, where the study's authors, Carsten Bange and Timm Grosser will present the key results: https://lnkd.in/dhyyJEwu Full report available here https://hubs.li/Q04fCy190 Press release here: https://hubs.li/Q04fCqSX0 #DataSovereignty #Cloud #USA #Europe #AIready

𝗦𝗔𝗣 𝗮𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝗯𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗼 - 𝗕𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 Two acquisitions in one day. SAP's dual acquisition of Prior Labs and Dremio aims to boost its predictive AI and data‑lake capabilities by adding Tabular Foundation Models (TabPFN) for structured data and a high‑performance, open‑source federated query engine. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: ▪ 𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: With Reltio (acquired earlier tis year), Dremio, and Prior Labs, SAP is closing critical gaps in its data and AI stack. ▪ 𝗙𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Dremio enables query-in-place across SAP and non-SAP data, lowering migration friction for BW customers. ▪ 𝗧𝗮𝗯𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗔𝗜: TabPFN delivers predictions on structured enterprise data without a full data science pipeline, complementing LLMs in Joule. ▪ 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁: Pressure rises on Databricks, Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric and federation specialists. Open standards (Iceberg, Polaris) become harder to ignore. ▪ 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Bidirectional access, semantic-layer clarity, and overlap with SAP-RPT-1 still need answers. Sapphire next week should bring more. Full analysis from our BARC analysts here: https://hubs.li/Q04fkdvJ0 #SAP #PriorLabs #Dremio #BusinessDataCloud #AI

Stay tuned for our BARC Perspective on the acquisition of Dremio by SAP - to be published soon. In the meantime, you can find below our analyst Florian Bigelmaier's first take on the announcement #SAP #AIEnablement #DataAnalytics #DataManagement #AI

𝗖𝗙𝗢 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲: 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗜𝘀 𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗮 𝗖-𝗦𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 BARC has published the BARC Score Financial Performance Management 2026. The report evaluates 18 leading software vendors based on diverse criteria such as functionality, business user friendliness, portfolio integration, product strategy, and customer satisfaction making it one of the most comprehensive independent analyses of the FPM market. The results make clear: The pressure to modernize finance departments is growing, yet implementation remains patchy in many organizations. Less than 50% of companies have largely automated or fully implemented the integration of financial consolidation and planning. More than 20% have no integration at all – a structural deficit that hampers real-time decision-making and slows finance transformation. Read more about the capabilities of each evaluated vendor and understand current market trends and developments: see comments #CFO #FPM #EPM #MarketOverview #FPMTrends

Yesterday, 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝟭𝟬𝟬 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 came together at the 𝗕𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁 in Ingelheim to share how they are embedding data into the way their organizations think, decide, and operate. The event is proof that data culture has moved firmly onto the leadership agenda. Harsha Deshmukh, Member of the Board of Managing Directors at Boehringer Ingelheim, joined us to speak very personally about why data culture matters to him as a leader, and he underlined how seriously Boehringer Ingelheim is treating the topic as a strategic priority for the entire organization. 𝗦𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘆: - Leadership commitment remains the strongest predictor of whether data initiatives deliver lasting change across an organization. - Data literacy continues to act as the real multiplier behind every platform investment and every governance framework that companies put in place. - Trust inside an organization is built slowly through transparency, honest metrics, and a shared sense of accountability at every level. - Cultural transformation is a long journey that rewards patience, consistency, and visible sponsorship from the very top of the house. The keynote speakers pictured in the group photo from left to right: Dr. Anna Dieckmann, Dr. Florian Kache, Feryal Tanriverdio, Jutta Schubert, Viola Meisterling, Dr. Christian Petri, Bhawna Paul, Till Eggers A big thank you to all attendees, our keynote speakers, and to everyone working behind the scenes! Christine J., Max Fink, Frank Sommerer #DataCulture #BARC #DataLeadership #BoehringerIngelheim #DataLiteracy

𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝟮𝟬% 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀. We published the 𝗕𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲, evaluating 17 vendors across functionality, portfolio integration, product strategy, customer satisfaction, and financial results. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 The IP&A market is maturing, but vendors vary in their speed of innovation. The central innovation theme across all vendors is currently agentic AI: - AI-powered planning as well as reporting and analysis as primary focus areas - AI support for consolidation, closing, and group accounting - Relief of users, process optimization, task automation, and workflow management - Conversational AI assistants (copilots) based on natural language interaction - Role-based and domain-specific AI agents to support modelers, planners, analysts, and administrators - Environments for managing and developing custom AI agents Read the full announcement: https://hubs.li/Q04bTQYN0