Why Some Restaurants Win and Others Struggle

Posted on April 2, 2026April 2, 2026 by Nicholas Biron

For the better part of the last decade, Wednesdays have followed a simple pattern in my household. Somewhere between the workday winding down and the week feeling just long enough, my family and I head out to dinner. It is not a special occasion, not a celebration, just a routine. And over time, that routine has turned into something more valuable than I expected. It has become a lens into the restaurant industry at its most honest point. Wednesday is not a peak night. There are no built-in excuses. No surge of weekend traffic to mask operational issues. What you see on a Wednesday evening is, more often than not, the reality of a restaurant’s performance. What stands out is how stark the contrast has […]

Monthly Research Recap | March 2026

Posted on April 1, 2026March 31, 2026 by 3Sixty Insights Editorial Team

Recent Research: Research Agenda: Bridging Leadership and Labor – 3Sixty Insights’ 2026 Combined Workforce Agenda This Combined Workforce Agenda outlines the key research priorities for 2026 from 3Sixty Insights, focusing on how organizations can bridge leadership strategy and employee experience in the modern workplace. The agenda integrates perspectives from two analysts — Nicole Roberts and Dylan Teggart — each with complementary emphases on organizational leadership capability, workforce strategy, labor market dynamics, and technology-enabled work execution. Analyst Insight: California Labor Laws and Compliance: Burden, Benchmark, or Competitive Advantage? This Analyst Insight examines the widely held perception that California’s labor laws make the state unusually difficult for businesses to operate in. While the analysis finds that California does impose more complex compliance requirements than most U.S. states, […]

Why AI Governance Requires Narrative Alignment

Posted on March 30, 2026March 30, 2026 by Kyle James

A Simple Example That Isn’t So Simple Pulling on another thread from Conga Connect 2026, one of the more interesting conversations I had during the week was with Geoff Webb, VP Product and Portfolio Marketing at Conga. While much of the event focused on pricing, workflows, and AI embedded into revenue systems, our discussion kept circling a deceptively simple example that revealed a much larger issue. We started talking about NDAs. Not complex contracts or pricing strategy. Just NDAs. As Geoff pointed out, these are among the most common documents in any deal process, and yet they regularly slow things down. A rep sends one over, legal reviews it, questions come back, revisions happen, and what should be routine turns into delay. This is exactly […]

Analyst Insight: Platform Evolved Into a Partner-Led HCM Ecosystem Serving 200K+ Employers and 9M Workers

Posted on March 20, 2026March 20, 2026 by Dylan Teggart and Nicole Roberts

Introduction Since 3Sixty Insights’ founding in 2017, we’ve seen a number of vendors come and go. One vendor in particular has consistently stood out to us as one to watch: isolved. 3Sixty Insights has referenced or partnered with isolved on more pieces than we can count. Their work with us has been a signal of their improvement in third-party perspectives, customer listening, and building a better product one day at a time. This perspective has provided us with visibility into their evolution and strategic long game, marked by thoughtful expansion and an unwavering focus on customer success and frontline workers. A Compliance Origin Story isolved’s origins trace back to the compliance shockwaves of COBRA-era benefits administration. The 1986 federal COBRA law (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation […]

Market Alert: Inside Conga’s Purple Pivot – A B2B Rebrand Done Right

Posted on March 17, 2026March 17, 2026 by Kyle James

I was at Conga Connect 2026 last week and had the chance to witness something you don’t see very often in B2B technology. A brand redesign revealed live to customers. Not teased on social media. Not rolled out quietly through a press release. But introduced directly from the keynote stage to the people who use the platform every day. I had heard some hints that a brand update might be coming, but like everyone else in the room, I got to see how it unfolded in real time. And looking back, the clues were there from the beginning. Before the keynote even started, something felt slightly off as I walked through the venue. Customers wore the standard conference badges, but Conga employees throughout the event […]

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Research Agenda: Bridging Leadership and Labor – 3Sixty Insights’ 2026 Combined Workforce Agenda

Posted on March 17, 2026March 26, 2026 by Dylan Teggart

The future of work is no longer a theoretical concept touching artificial intelligence, remote work or skills transformation. Instead, it has become an operational reality at a time when managers are stretched beyond capacity, employee engagement is declining, compliance complexity is growing, labor markets are leaning toward employers even as companies struggle to find talent, and technology systems are expanding faster than organizations can implement governance. Across industries, leaders recognize that their primary challenge is not adopting new tools, but learning how to operate differently. The next phase of workforce transformation is defined less by innovation itself than by execution—how organizations translate technology, strategy and people practices into measurable outcomes. Research emerging from 3Sixty Insights, informed by the work of analysts Nicole Roberts and Dylan […]

Analyst Insight: California Labor Laws and Compliance: Burden, Benchmark, or Competitive Advantage?

Posted on March 16, 2026March 16, 2026 by Dylan Teggart

In more than one phone call with customers, vendors, or other analysts in the HR technology industry, I’ve heard the claim that it’s hard to do business in the state of California. According to these conversations, the state is riddled with unnecessary compliance requirements, too many hoops to jump through, a mountain of litigation risk, and constant rule changes. Business groups frequently cite labor and wage compliance requirements as part of a broader, burdensome business environment. So I decided to take a look. Is the situation in California really as out of control as people claim? Fact vs. Fiction To start, there is a significant kernel of truth behind these claims, especially when compared to the rest of the United States. California’s 2026 statewide minimum […]

Three Signals About the Future of Revenue Execution from Conga Connect 2026

Posted on March 16, 2026March 23, 2026 by Kyle James

I spent this past week at Conga Connect 2026, speaking with customers, executives, and operators across the revenue ecosystem. The brand reveal will likely be the moment most attendees remember from the event. I covered that story separately. But in conversations with operators and revenue leaders throughout the week, a different set of signals stood out. They all pointed to the same underlying challenge: revenue teams are still struggling with friction inside the deal process. During the opening session, Conga CMO Celia Fleischaker shared several statistics that framed the scale of the problem. Only 8% of organizations report strong confidence in their pricing decisions. 45% say they lose deals due to slow quote approvals. 72% report that slow contracting increases risk and compliance exposure. […]

Infographic: How One Company Rebuilt a Fragile SDR Engine with Apollo.io

Posted on March 12, 2026March 12, 2026 by Kyle James

This 3Sixty Insights infographic examines how one organization rebuilt a fragile SDR engine after realizing that its outbound motion had become overly dependent on email and weighed down by a costly “Franken-stack” of tools such as ZoomInfo, Groove, and Gong. What began as an attempt to fix declining email deliverability quickly evolved into a broader transformation, as the company consolidated data, engagement, and automation into a single sales operating environment with Apollo.io. The shift eliminated tool-hopping and manual list management, allowing SDRs to spend significantly more time on calls and active selling. The result was a step-function improvement in performance, including an 80 percent reduction in technology spend, a 95 percent increase in daily activities, and a threefold increase in pipeline generation.

Infographic: 3x Pipeline, 80% Lower Costs – Rethinking the Modern Sales Stack

Posted on March 11, 2026March 11, 2026 by Kyle James

This infographic, based on analysis from Kyle James, examines the hidden cost of the typical “Franken-stack” sales environment where multiple disconnected tools handle data, engagement, calling, and analytics. This fragmentation creates a significant productivity drain as teams spend hours each week shuffling data and managing integrations rather than building customer relationships. The analysis highlights how a unified platform approach, exemplified by Apollo, can eliminate these seams by consolidating workflows and applying AI to handle the mechanical aspects of outreach while sellers focus on judgment and personalization. The result is a leaner revenue engine capable of generating up to 3x more pipeline, reducing overlapping technology costs by nearly 80%, and dramatically improving productivity.

#HRTechChat: David Edwards on the “Last Mile” from Data to Decisions

Posted on March 5, 2026March 4, 2026 by Nicole Roberts

In this episode of #HRTechChat, Nicole Roberts (Senior Analyst & Advisor, 3Sixty Insights) is joined by David Edwards—strategic workforce planning practitioner, advisor, and author of The Strategic Workforce Planning Handbook—for a candid conversation about the gap between SWP theory and the messy reality of execution. David explains why strategic workforce planning still suffers from an identity crisis (too many definitions, too many expectations), and why organizations keep getting trapped in short-term thinking that freezes out long-term capability building. Together, they unpack why chasing “perfect data” can be just as risky as oversimplifying, and why the real skill leaders need—especially as AI accelerates planning inputs—is judgment: knowing what’s decision-grade, what matters most, and what to do next. The conversation also tackles the evolving role of managers, […]

#HRTechChat: Aman Kaur-Shaik on Why AI Adoption in HR Starts with Knowledge, Data, and Culture

Posted on March 4, 2026March 26, 2026 by Dylan Teggart

In this episode of #HRTechChat, Dylan Teggart speaks with Aman Kaur-Shaik—HR Director at Nutrien, member of the 3SixtyInsights Global Executive Advisory Council, and a 2024 Global Top 100 HR Executive—about what it really takes for organizations to adopt AI successfully. Aman explains why the biggest barrier to AI adoption isn’t the technology itself, but the environment organizations have built around it. From fragmented knowledge bases and outdated policies to inconsistent data and unclear guardrails, many HR teams are trying to layer advanced AI tools on top of systems that were never designed for them. Together, they explore why the hype around AI is beginning to settle, how HR leaders can move from experimentation to practical adoption, and why starting with strong knowledge management and data […]

Monthly Research Recap | February 2026

Posted on March 2, 2026February 26, 2026 by 3Sixty Insights Editorial Team

Recent Research: Research Agenda: Workforce Strategy, HR Enablement & HR Technology in an AI-Augmented World Nicole Roberts’ research agenda examines how workforce strategy, HR enablement, and HR technology are evolving as AI and automation reshape how work is performed and managed. The research focuses on enabling managers to lead effectively at scale, connecting skills and leadership capability to measurable business outcomes, designing HR–IT technology ecosystems that support AI-augmented work, navigating workforce transitions such as M&A and restructuring, and improving how organizations measure workforce performance to inform executive decision making. Grounded in practitioner experience and real-world case examples, the agenda emphasizes translating workforce data, technology investments, and workflow design into clearer decisions, stronger execution, and sustainable organizational capacity. Analyst Insight: Beyond Contact Data – How Apollo.io […]

Infographic: California Compliance – What’s the Difference and Why It Matters

Posted on February 25, 2026February 25, 2026 by Dylan Teggart

California is increasingly operating under labor structures that require employers to manage compliance with far greater precision than federal standards alone. Higher minimum wages, daily overtime thresholds, and strict meal and rest break requirements mean compliance is no longer just a policy exercise, it is a direct payroll and operational consideration. Missed breaks and improperly tracked time can create immediate financial exposure, while daily overtime rules require more intentional workforce scheduling. For organizations expanding into or operating within California, compliance readiness now depends on accurate timekeeping, disciplined payroll execution, and HR infrastructure capable of supporting these elevated regulatory expectations.

Is CRM Becoming Infrastructure?

Posted on February 23, 2026February 27, 2026 by Kyle James

A Quiet Migration Play Reshaping GTM For more than two decades, CRM has functioned as both the filing cabinet where structured customer data lives and the desk where go-to-market work gets done. If you wanted visibility, you logged into CRM. If you wanted to move a deal forward, you logged into CRM. If leadership wanted forecast accuracy, you logged into CRM. That coupling may be loosening. In a recent conversation with Burley Kawasaki at Creatio, a trend surfaced that I have begun to hear in multiple vendor discussions. Platforms like Creatio are being layered on top of existing CRM systems, including Salesforce. The CRM continues to store data and enforce workflow. But users increasingly operate elsewhere. Teams. Outlook. Mobile interfaces. Agent-driven environments. The system of […]

Rethinking Recurring Revenue: Why Customer Retention Is the Real Growth Strategy

Posted on February 19, 2026February 19, 2026 by Nicholas Biron and Kyle James

Kyle James and I recently had a conversation with Zuora, one of the early pioneers and leading platforms in subscription-based billing. They have spent more than a decade helping organizations operationalize recurring revenue models. What stood out in our discussion was a simple but critical distinction. Subscription billing technology enables recurring revenue. It does not guarantee recurring success. Across the B2B software market and other subscription-driven industries, companies have adopted recurring billing infrastructure at scale. Platforms like Zuora provide the mechanics. They allow organizations to invoice accurately, manage subscription terms, automate renewals, and support complex pricing models. That enablement layer is foundational. However, many organizations mistakenly believe that implementing subscription billing is synonymous with building a sustainable recurring revenue engine. The financial model tells a […]

Nicole Roberts Contributes Analyst Perspective to HR Voices 2026 Compliance Report

Posted on February 18, 2026February 18, 2026 by 3Sixty Insights Editorial Team and Nicole Roberts

As HR compliance grows more complex in 2026, Nicole Roberts, Principal HR Industry Analyst at 3Sixty Insights, emphasizes a critical reality: compliance technology is only as effective as the expertise guiding it. In the HR Voices: 2026 Regulatory Transformations and Disruptions in HR Compliance report, developed with OutSolve, Nicole highlights the widening gap between tool adoption and practitioner judgment. As organizations deploy more automation across HR and compliance workflows, validating outputs with experienced human oversight becomes essential. Nicole’s contribution centers on the operational risks emerging from overreliance on systems alone. “Tools can’t replace expertise,” she explains, noting that compliance teams must still interpret signals, validate decisions, and understand regulatory nuance beyond what dashboards and alerts can provide. This perspective reflects what many HR leaders are […]

Market Alert: The EU’s New Pay Transparency Directive

Posted on February 18, 2026February 17, 2026 by Dylan Teggart

The EU Pay Transparency Directive is a new set of rules that says companies operating in the European Union must be more transparent and consistent about pay, particularly to reduce unfair pay gaps, most notably gender pay gaps. Instead of pay being a bit of a “black box” where people only find out if they’re underpaid by accident, or after years, the directive pushes pay into the open in a few practical ways: Job seekers get pay info earlier: When you apply for a role, the employer has to tell you the pay range or starting pay early in the process, likely in the job posting, or at least before interviews. The idea is to reduce wasted time and end the guessing games in which […]

Research Agenda: Workforce Strategy, HR Enablement & HR Technology in an AI-Augmented World

Posted on February 17, 2026February 17, 2026 by Nicole Roberts

Analyst Overview Nicole brings more than 20 years of senior HR leadership experience, including serving as Chief People Officer and the first HR executive at several high-growth, private-equity–backed, and multi-site organizations. She has built HR functions from the ground up, led organizations through Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and rapid scaling, and evaluated, selected, and implemented a wide range of HR technologies as a buyer. She specializes in helping HR leaders translate workforce data into clear, executive-ready narratives that resonate with CEOs, CFOs, and private-equity stakeholders. In addition to her executive experience, Nicole serves as faculty with the Human Capital Institute, where she teaches courses in strategic workforce planning, talent acquisition, HR business partnering, change management, and leadership development. This work provides deep insight into the […]

From Data Abundance to Decision Scarcity in Sales Intelligence

Posted on February 17, 2026February 12, 2026 by Kyle James

Sales teams have more data and more recommendations than ever. What they have less of is confidence in what to do next. Across GTM organizations, a consistent pattern is emerging: sales intelligence systems are excellent at surfacing signals, but far less effective at reducing decisions. The result is not ignorance, but hesitation. Not a lack of insight, but analysis paralysis. Sales intelligence has largely solved for visibility. It has not yet solved for conviction. Why this is happening now Over the past decade, sales intelligence vendors have steadily filled in every layer of the data stack. Conversation intelligence platforms like Gong introduced a powerful form of judgment scaffolding. They surface deal risk, coaching gaps, and behavioral signals that were previously invisible. For many teams, Gong […]

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