Starfleet Media is announcing twelve titles in its 2027 Benchmark Report series and inviting technology solution providers to explore sponsorship and licensing opportunities. The series covers enterprise software used across multiple industries, from finance and workforce operations to application integration, cybersecurity and customer service.
Each report is being independently produced by Starfleet Research, Starfleet Media’s IT market research arm. The research will examine how organizations use technology, improve business processes and measure results, translating practitioner experience into practical guidance for technology decision-makers.
For participating solution providers, the opportunity extends beyond visibility on a report cover. An individually branded edition gives marketing and sales teams a substantive resource for attracting relevant prospects, explaining the business value of their solution category and supporting informed purchase decisions.
An established research series, expanded for 2027
The Benchmark Report series builds on more than a decade of Starfleet Research’s work examining enterprise technology adoption and performance improvement. The 2027 lineup brings that approach to twelve categories where buyers face increasingly complex choices about automation, integration, governance and business value.
Each report will contain newly developed research addressing current platform capabilities, emerging innovations and the needs of the people responsible for evaluating, implementing and using these solutions. AI will be examined within specific workflows, with attention to business outcomes and the data quality, oversight and human judgment required to make it useful.
The research will look beyond feature availability to examine how technology works in practice. It will investigate approaches to reducing delays, improving productivity, managing risk and supporting adoption. Where the data supports meaningful comparisons, it will examine practices associated with stronger performance.
For prospective sponsors, this focus connects the research with the business problems their buyers are working to solve. A report can give an early-stage prospect a useful starting point, help a buying team clarify its requirements and provide a reason for a sales representative to reengage an account.
Explore the twelve planned titles below, or visit the 2027 Benchmark Report series page to request sponsorship details. The accompanying surveys provide a closer look at each research topic. Solution providers are also welcome to share the relevant survey with qualified customer practitioners who can contribute their operating experience.
The 2027 Benchmark Report on Accounts Payable Automation
Reducing invoice processing costs requires attention to the exceptions, approvals and controls surrounding each transaction. This report will examine invoice capture, matching, approval workflows and connections with financial systems. It will explore how organizations combine automation with human review to improve processing speed, accuracy and financial control.
View the accounts payable automation research survey.
The 2027 Benchmark Report on Workforce Management
Effective workforce management balances business demand, staffing requirements, labor costs and employee preferences. This report will examine forecasting, scheduling, time and attendance, employee self-service and workforce coordination. It will help buyers evaluate how connected capabilities support managers, give employees more control and improve visibility into staffing across locations and operating environments.
View the workforce management research survey.
The 2027 Benchmark Report on Procurement Intake and Approval
Purchasing requests often move across procurement, finance, legal, IT and security before an employee can proceed. This report will examine how organizations simplify intake, route requests and coordinate approvals while maintaining appropriate controls. It will explore practices that improve purchasing visibility, reduce delays and make the process easier for employees and reviewers.
View the procurement intake and approval research survey.
The 2027 Benchmark Report on Digital Asset Management
The value of a digital asset depends on whether the right people can find, use and distribute it appropriately. This report will examine asset organization, metadata, search, permissions, approvals and connections with content workflows. It will address AI-assisted tagging and discovery alongside the governance needed to improve asset reuse, content delivery and brand consistency.
View the digital asset management research survey.
The 2027 Benchmark Report on Enterprise Application Integration / iPaaS
Application integration increasingly shapes how quickly organizations can change processes and put data to work. This report will examine connections across cloud and on-premises applications, API and event-driven approaches, reusable integrations and low-code development. It will explore how teams balance delivery speed with monitoring, security, governance and integration reliability.
View the enterprise application integration / iPaaS research survey.
The 2027 Benchmark Report on Backup and Recovery
A successful backup provides value when an organization can restore the applications and data it needs. This report will examine recovery objectives, testing, immutable backups, isolation and protection across operating environments. It will help buyers assess recovery readiness, including how teams validate restoration outcomes and prepare to reduce disruption from ransomware and other incidents.
View the backup and recovery research survey.
The 2027 Benchmark Report on Identity Governance and Access Lifecycle
Access needs change as employees join, move between roles and leave, and as contractor and nonhuman identities expand. This report will examine provisioning, access requests, reviews and permission removal. It will explore how organizations provide timely access while reducing excessive permissions, improving audit readiness and maintaining clear accountability for access decisions.
View the identity governance and access lifecycle research survey.
The 2027 Benchmark Report on Application Performance Management
Application performance affects customer experience, employee productivity and business continuity. This report will examine how teams detect and diagnose problems across distributed applications and hybrid environments. It will explore observability, incident investigation and the connections between technical signals and business impact, with attention to practices that improve reliability and shorten resolution times.
View the application performance management research survey.
The 2027 Benchmark Report on Financial Planning and Forecasting
Finance teams need planning processes that can respond as business conditions change. This report will examine connected planning, scenario modeling, operational data and AI-assisted forecasting. It will explore how organizations shorten planning cycles, improve forecast reliability and make financial information more useful to the people making operating and investment decisions.
View the financial planning and forecasting research survey.
The 2027 Benchmark Report on Contract Lifecycle Management
Contract performance depends on what happens before and after signature. This report will examine intake, drafting, review, approval, execution and ongoing obligation management. It will address AI-assisted analysis and workflow automation alongside human oversight, helping buyers evaluate approaches to shortening agreement cycles, reducing manual work and improving visibility into obligations and renewals.
View the contract lifecycle management research survey.
The 2027 Benchmark Report on AI-Enabled Customer Service
AI creates new possibilities for resolving customer issues and supporting service employees. This report will examine AI agents, agent assistance, knowledge management and handoffs to human teams. It will explore how organizations evaluate accuracy, escalation and customer trust, and measure whether AI improves resolution quality, service costs and the overall customer experience.
View the AI-enabled customer service research survey.
The 2027 Benchmark Report on IT Service Management
IT service management helps employees get back to work and keeps business services running. This report will examine incident, request, problem and change management, together with self-service, AI assistance and workflow automation. It will explore how organizations improve service coordination and measure restoration speed, service quality and employee productivity.
View the it service management research survey.
Independent research with a practical purpose
Starfleet Research’s best-practices benchmarking approach examines technology alongside workflows, staff readiness, integration, data and performance measures. It seeks to identify practices associated with stronger outcomes and translate those findings into useful recommendations for technology decision-makers.
Sponsors can contribute subject-matter expertise and provide feedback, while Starfleet Research retains editorial control of the analysis, findings and recommendations. That independence is central to the value of the finished report for both readers and participating solution providers.
The surveys invite practitioners who use, evaluate or help implement these solutions to contribute their experience. Respondents can also request a complimentary copy of the relevant report when it becomes available.
A branded research asset for marketing and sales
Participating solution providers receive an individually branded edition featuring their company’s name on the cover and a company profile in the appendix. Sponsors receive perpetual licensing rights and can repurpose the content with proper attribution to Starfleet Research.
Marketing teams can use the report as a downloadable resource, build campaigns around relevant findings, develop webinar topics and share useful excerpts through email and social channels. Sales teams can use it to introduce a business issue, help prospects assess their current practices and support conversations about evaluation and implementation.
Reports are available through exclusive licensing or shared programs capped at three participating companies per report. Each company in a shared program receives its own separately branded edition; other participating sponsors’ names do not appear in that edition.
Connect the research with qualified sales opportunities
Solution providers seeking managed demand generation can add a separately scoped Starfleet Velocity program. The campaign pairs the report with targeted promotion and qualified lead generation based on agreed audience and qualification criteria.
The report license is the core sponsorship. Any managed lead generation campaign is scoped and priced separately, with its audience, deliverables and timing confirmed in the proposal. This allows companies to use the research through their own channels or combine it with a managed campaign designed around the buyers they want to reach.
Explore sponsorship opportunities for the 2027 series
Participation is limited by the licensing model selected for each title. Enterprise technology solution providers are invited to discuss the reports most relevant to their platforms, prospective customers and marketing priorities. A title-specific proposal will confirm sponsorship availability, investment, usage rights, research scope and production timing.
Explore the twelve planned titles and request sponsorship details, or contact Marv Allen to discuss the right fit for your company.