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IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Point-of-Sale Software in Grocery and Food Store Retail 2026 Vendor Assessment

Filippo Battaini — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC MarketScape assesses the capabilities and strategies of enterprise point-of-sale (POS) software vendors with a significant presence in the worldwide grocery and food store retail segment. The evaluation assesses vendors against criteria spanning omni-channel strategy, innovation, delivery, global capabilities, loss prevention, multi-vertical support, and customer satisfaction. A key component of the evaluation is how well vendors are positioning their platforms as composable commerce foundations capable of supporting the rapidly evolving operational and customer experience demands of modern grocery retail.

"Grocery POS is no longer a checkout technology; it is the operational core of the modern store. The vendors that are pulling ahead have built open, composable platforms in which AI, loss prevention, payments, and food service capabilities converge on a shared foundation, giving retailers the freedom to build differentiated experiences without being constrained by their technology stack," said Filippo Battaini, research manager, IDC Retail Insights.

IDC Market Glance: Cloud Data Logistics and Protection, 1Q26

Johnny Yu — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Glance provides an overview of the cloud data logistics and protection ecosystem, highlighting the core markets that organizations rely on to preserve, protect, and recover data across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. The ecosystem is anchored by data protection software and also includes purpose-built backup appliances (PBBA), magnetic tape, and data protection as a service (DPaaS), with DPaaS spanning backup as a service (BaaS), disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), cyber-recovery as a service (CRaaS), and archive as a service (AaaS). Together, these segments show how the market is structured across software, integrated systems, and cloud-delivered services.

The market is increasingly being organized around integrated protection and recovery architectures as organizations look to simplify operations, improve recovery assurance, and strengthen cyber-resilience. In addition to traditional backup and replication, buyers are increasingly prioritizing capabilities such as immutability, isolated recovery, forensic analysis, and orchestrated recovery workflows. This document highlights vendors participating across these segments and reflects a market that continues to evolve toward cloud-delivered protection, broader recovery services, and more tightly linked protection and resilience strategies.

IDC Market Glance: Employee Experience, 2Q26

Zachary Chertok, Leonardo Freitas — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Glance provides a current-state view of the worldwide employee experience (EX) market and its evolving ecosystem of technologies, platforms, and services. It depicts how different areas of EX, such as (but not limited to) employee wellbeing, voice of the employee, skills and learning, and EX strategy services are converging into a more connected market shaped by AI, orchestration, and business outcome alignment.

This document is intended to help technology suppliers, product leaders, and market intelligence professionals understand market structure, segment adjacency, and competitive positioning in employee experience as of 1H26.

SaaS and Agent Path 2026: Worldwide Banner Book

Nadia Ballard, Mickey North Rizza, Eric Newmark, Frank Della Rosa — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Pivot Table banner book includes data for IDC's SaaS and Agent Path 2026 program, which provides comprehensive data and guidance on the mind and journey of the SaaS and AI agents buyer, including a deep dive into 22 functional application markets: accounts payable (AP); accounts receivable (AR); collaboration applications; contract life-cycle management (CLM); core HR; asset life-cycle management (ALM/EAM); employee experience; enterprise resource planning (ERP); facility management; finance; learning experience management (LXM); payroll; procurement; product life-cycle management/computer-aided design (PLM/CAD); professional services automation (PSA); supply chain management (SCM); subscription management; talent acquisition; talent management; tax management; travel and expense management (T&E); and treasury and risk management.

Coverage includes application adoption, deployment models, budget plans and replacement cycle timing, purchasing preferences and attitudes toward SaaS buying channels, packaging and pricing options, and in-depth vendor reviews, ratings, and spend and advocacy scores for all 22 functional application markets.

Sustainability LIVE Chicago: How to drive value through Sustainability in an uncertain climate

Dan Versace — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Sustainability LIVE: The US Summit 2026 at Chicago's Navy Pier has, in IDC's view, emerged as one of North America's most strategically relevant sustainability gatherings, less because of its scale (1,000+ attendees, 50+ speakers) and more because its deliberate co-location with Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE mirrors where enterprise sustainability work is actually being executed. The 2026 edition made clear that the center of gravity has shifted away from disclosure theater toward ROI-accountable, AI-enabled action embedded in sourcing and operations, and organizers should be credited for curating an agenda that reflects that reality rather than resisting it.

Cisco's Universal Quantum Switch Advances Hardware-Agnostic Distributed Quantum Networking

Heather West, PhD — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The Cisco Universal Quantum Switch represents a meaningful early step toward establishing the foundational networking layer of the quantum era, directly addressing the modality interoperability problem that has kept quantum systems siloed and incompatible. While still a research prototype, the device's vendor-neutral, infrastructure-compatible design signals that Cisco is building a credible full-stack quantum networking strategy with the potential to define how quantum systems connect and interoperate at scale.

Google Cloud Next 2026: Building the Agentic Enterprise

Matthew Eastwood, Dave McCarthy — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At Google Cloud Next '26, Thomas Kurian delivered Google Cloud's most integrated and enterprise-credible AI story to date. Building on last year's agentic enterprise vision, Google returned with a more production-oriented model spanning AI infrastructure, Gemini-centered agent platforms, data modernization, security, productivity, and ecosystem execution. Key announcements included eighth-generation TPUs for training and inference, the Virgo Network fabric, Gemini Enterprise, the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, Agentic Data Cloud, deeper Wiz integration, and new Workspace intelligence capabilities. Google also introduced a $750 million partner fund and highlighted commitments from Accenture, Deloitte, McKinsey, BCG, Salesforce, and SAP. Customer examples from Merck, GE Appliances, NASA, Home Depot, Macy's, Vodafone, and Virgin Voyages showed momentum beyond digital natives. From IDC's perspective, Next '26 signaled a shift from AI-native vision to a more complete enterprise operating model.

IDC Survey Spotlight: How Much Time Are Generative AI Coding Assistants Saving Developers?

Adam Resnick — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight explores how much time generative AI (GenAI) coding assistants are saving developers, drawing on insights from IDC’s 2025 Modern Software Development Survey.

Most developers using GenAI coding assistants save five hours or fewer per week, and only 4% reach the 20-plus-hour level that dominates AI productivity narratives. Beyond hours saved, 79% of developers agree that AI has reduced time spent on repetitive or tedious tasks and freed time for more meaningful work. For many developers, deeper adoption is blocked by factors outside their control, including limited tool access, production time pressures, token constraints, and lack of executive sponsorship. Enterprises that commit resources to tooling, skilling, and adoption incentives are best positioned to convert that potential into realized productivity gains.

Predict, Prevent, Resolve: Turning Customer Experience into a Self-Restoration System

Michelle Morgan — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This Market Perspective explores the evolution of proactive CX from reactive support to autonomous, self-healing systems powered by AI and real-time analytics. It highlights how organizations can predict, prevent, and resolve customer issues before they escalate, shifting CX from a service differentiator to an operational imperative. The piece outlines key use cases, common pitfalls, and strategic recommendations for businesses and technology suppliers aiming to deliver seamless, anticipatory experiences.

“Proactive CX is not about sending more notifications,” says Michelle Morgan, AI-enabled sales, customer service, and contact center strategies, research manager, IDC. “It is about redesigning how your business senses and fixes problems before customers feel the impact. When you get it right, service stops being damage control and becomes a silent, always-on growth engine,” she adds.

Figma's Expansion Strategy in Japan: Strengthening Its Positioning as an AI-Powered Platform and Expanding Value Creation Support

Tatsuhiro Soga — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This Market Note examines the latest developments in and strategy behind Figma's expansion in the Japan market as the company broadens its product portfolio for the AI era. Figma, based in California, provides a collaborative design and product development platform.

As AI-enabled development support tools and vibe coding become more widespread, efficiency is improving in prototyping and the early stages of application development. At the same time, SaaS vendors are expected to face growing pressure to move beyond functionality alone and instead leverage the best practices and operational knowledge they have accumulated through customer engagement to help customers create business value. In this environment, "Figma's advisory services will increasingly need the capability to identify and articulate concrete value-creation opportunities based on each customer's workflows, product development processes, and existing design assets," says Tatsuhiro Soga, research analyst, Software, Services, and IT Spending, IDC Japan.

This is the English translation of the Japanese document (IDC #JPJ54302326).