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IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Advanced Distribution Management Systems 2026 Vendor Assessment

Gaia Gallotti, Jean-François Segalotto, John Villali — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC MarketScape study evaluates vendors providing advanced distribution management system (ADMS) solutions to utilities worldwide. It analyzes vendors’ capabilities, strategies, and comparative positioning in a market undergoing structural transformation as distribution networks absorb rising volumes of distributed energy resources (DERs) and utilities pursue electrification-driven grid modernization. The report provides utilities with a structured framework to assess vendor offerings across core operational functionality, DER-aware distribution operations, platform architecture, integration capabilities, and ecosystem extensibility.

“The difference between a genuinely unified ADMS and a set of interfaced applications sharing a label only becomes visible on the worst night of the year,” said Jean-François Segalotto, senior associate advisor, IDC Energy Insights. “This IDC MarketScape shows that the unified model also sets the ceiling on operational AI and autonomy, because every advance — from automated restoration to agentic operator support — ultimately inherits the accuracy of the underlying network model and operational data.”

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Edge Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems 2026 Vendor Assessment

John Villali, Gaia Gallotti, Jean-François Segalotto — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study evaluates vendors providing edge distributed energy resource management systems (edge DERMSs) solutions to utilities worldwide. It analyzes vendors' capabilities, strategies, and comparative positioning in a market undergoing structural transformation as distribution networks absorb rising volumes of distributed energy resources (DERs) and utilities pursue electrification-driven grid modernization. The document provides utilities with a structured framework to assess vendor offerings across DER portfolio optimization and aggregation, market participation and VPP orchestration, platform architecture, integration capabilities, and ecosystem extensibility.

"Edge DERMS is no longer a bet on future flexibility markets; its infrastructure utilities need now, as DER penetration outpaces the tools built to manage it. The vendors that succeed the next three to five years will be the ones proving real-time dispatch at production scale today while building the interoperability with grid DERMS and ADMS that regulators and utilities will increasingly demand," said John Villali, senior research director, IDC Energy Insights.

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Grid Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems 2026 Vendor Assessment

Gaia Gallotti, Jean-François Segalotto, John Villali — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC MarketScape study evaluates vendors providing grid distributed energy resource management system (grid DERMS) solutions to utilities worldwide. It analyzes vendors’ capabilities, strategies, and comparative positioning in a market undergoing structural transformation as distribution networks absorb rising volumes of distributed energy resources (DERs) and utilities pursue electrification-driven grid modernization. The report provides utilities with a structured framework to assess vendor offerings across DER orchestration and dispatch, network-constraint optimization, platform architecture, integration capabilities, and ecosystem extensibility.

“Grid capacity has stopped being a system-level question and become a question about a specific feeder at a specific hour, which means utilities now need the ability to enforce a network constraint at a precise point on the grid, within operational timescales, and across resources they may not own. That is no longer something an ADMS alone is designed to do,” said Gaia Gallotti, research director, IDC Energy Insights. “This IDC MarketScape shows that grid DERMS has become the system of record for that decision. As AI expands into constraint prediction and decision support, as well as automation into closed-loop dispatch, the control authority will increasingly determine how much grid capacity utilities can unlock.”

Asia/Pacific Regulatory Pulse 2026: Upcoming Financial Services Institution Regulations, Expected Impacts, and Complexity

Clay Miller, Michael Sek Pheng Yeo — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines the Asia/Pacific regulations most likely to affect FSIs’ technology road maps through 2026 and beyond, covering AI governance, digital assets, solvency and climate risk, operational resilience, and data privacy. It assesses developments across Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and other markets, and offers guidance on turning compliance into competitive advantage.

“By 2027, most of the region’s AI, digital asset, and resilience compliance has moved from proposal to enforcement,” says Clay Miller, adjunct research advisor, IT Executive Programs (IEP), IDC. “The FSIs leading are not the ones with the most documented policies, they are the ones that can prove that their systems are governed, auditable, and resilient.”

“Digital assets and cross-border data governance went from footnotes to headline considerations for what is rapidly becoming a common global theme,” says Michael Yeo, associate research director, IDC Financial Insights. “Both focus directly on technology architecture, so FSIs that treat either as a niche compliance initiative will be reactive versus proactive for requirements they should have anticipated. Institutions must embed both digital asset considerations and data governance frameworks into their core business strategies moving forward.”

Fit Over Formula: Rethinking Implementation Strategy for Sustainability Software

Amy Cravens — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective analyzes results from IDC’s 2026 Sustainability Software Survey of 8,663 use case–level observations and 816 respondents ) to assess how the implementation model affects outcomes and satisfaction. Data shows that organizational readiness, integration depth, and training investment are stronger predictors of outcomes than the implementation model (vendor-led, self-implemented, or partner-/consultant-led) chosen. The document presents four data-driven patterns on winning deployment models and provides guidance for evaluation, budgeting, and internal readiness based on these findings.

“There is no universally best way to implement sustainability software. The real risk is a half-finished integration, which IDC data shows directly impacts satisfaction and value extraction. Buyers should match implementation to their readiness and commit fully to integration and training,” says Amy Cravens, research manager on sustainability and ESG software, IDC.

From SaaS Seats to Coworker Outcomes: New Metrics and Pricing Models for Automated Marketing

Gerry Murray, Tiffany McCormick, Roger Beharry Lall, Tapan Patel — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Synopsis

This IDC Perspective examines how agentic AI coworkers are displacing seats, sessions, and feature adoption as measures of marketing software value. It introduces a five-metric framework for Coworker Performance, Intent-to-Outcome Rate, Time to Outcome, Human Touches per Outcome, Outcome Quality, and Cost per Completed Outcome, paired with SaaS Activation per Outcome to track underlying application usage. The document surveys how Adobe, Salesforce, HubSpot, Klaviyo, Braze, and ActiveCampaign are pricing agentic AI differently, and sets out the definitions, trust, and margin questions vendors must answer to make outcome-based pricing durable.

"Every vendor claims their agent produces outcomes, but almost none can tell a customer what an outcome is, who verifies it, or what happens when the two sides disagree," says Gerry Murray, research director, Enterprise Marketing Apps and Agents, IDC. "The vendors who win the next pricing cycle will be the ones who can prove completed work, not just consumed tokens, and who can hold their margin when outcome volume swings."

IDC PeerScape: Practices to Successfully Implement Agentic AI Governance

Stanley B. Gibson — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC PeerScape examines how IT leaders from Sanofi, the government of Île de France, and a clinical research organization that requested anonymity are seeking to gain the benefits of agentic AI while controlling flaws that could put their organizations at risk. All three are implementing agentic AI in the face of regulatory pressure, reinforcing the imperative for strict governance.

“For IT leaders, agentic AI is a high-wire act. On one hand, neglecting this powerful new technology could jeopardize a company’s future due to missed opportunities. On the other hand, a poor implementation exposes a company to myriad risks that could result in significant costs and liabilities,” said Stanley B. Gibson, adjunct research advisor for IDC’s IT Executive Programs (IEP).

The Agentic SOC in 2026: Reality, Myth, or Half-Truth

Craig Robinson — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines how MDR and MXDR investigations are actually resolved today, across fully human, human plus automation, human plus agentic AI, and fully agentic models, and translates that picture into concrete evaluation and governance guidance for technology leaders. "Enterprises tell IDC that fully autonomous agentic AI resolves just 15% of MDR investigations end to end," says Craig Robinson, research vice president, Security Services at IDC. "The fully agentic SOC is not a myth, and it is not yet a reality either. It is a half-truth, real for a narrow set of well-understood incidents and not yet real for detection and response as a whole. Security leaders who understand exactly which half applies to their own environment will get far more value from agentic AI than those who simply ask their provider for more of it."

AI-ification of Retail Media

Ananda Chakravarty — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective provides a viewpoint of how AI is changing the game with respect to mapping current attribution metrics in retail media. The report also reviews how AI addresses audience targeting as well as attribution through a set of techniques being pioneered by firms such as Amazon, Walmart, and other retail media networks (RMNs). The report also highlights marketing mix modeling and how this may move the market toward a more holistic view of retail media. Finally, the report identifies the flaws of return on ad spend (ROAS) attribution and how AI may overcome these flaws through new attribution methods.

“When your retail media metrics say 10x returns, but you’re barely breaking even, it’s time to revisit attribution. AI is changing the retail media game. New AI models are being rolled out by the most sophisticated RMNs to drive precise attribution. It’s time for a reset,” said Ananda Chakravarty, research vice president, IDC Retail Insights.

IDC MaturityScape: AI Cost Management 1.0

Serge Findling, Heather Herbst — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC MaturityScape provides a framework for evaluating enterprises' maturity in terms of managing AI costs. It enables CFOs, CIOs, C-suite executives, senior IT leaders, enterprise architects, and technology leaders to assess current capabilities, define the maturity required by enterprise strategy, and prioritize actions to close the gap. The framework progresses across five connected dimensions.

"Enterprises that win the AI decade will not be those that spent the most money, but those that turn cost into a system they could see, govern, and trust," said Serge Findling, adjunct research advisor with IDC's IT Executive Programs.

"This is not a time to panic; it is a time to build discipline and ownership. It also presents an opportunity to understand that AI will cost organizations by their usage and not everything is worth using AI for," said Heather Herbst, research director, CFO Buyer Insights at IDC.