Sidetrade has received The Hackett Group’s 2026 Innovation Award within the Expertise Operations class, recognising its use of AI brokers in its working mannequin.
The French software program firm was recognised for measurable outcomes from a redesign of its analysis and growth operate, relatively than for plans or pilot tasks. A characteristic that beforehand took 60 days to ship can now be delivered in three, whereas one pilot group of three accomplished work that had beforehand required six folks.
On the centre of the change is an inside R&D mannequin known as PodFlow. The system restructures growth into smaller groups that work with AI brokers throughout the software program supply course of, with controls at every stage from drawback definition to documentation.
Sidetrade’s 22 R&D groups now use the mannequin as their commonplace approach of working, and the programme paid again its prices inside six months.
Inner overhaul
The adjustments started with inside checks to evaluate whether or not AI might contribute throughout the software program growth lifecycle, together with code era. As soon as code might be produced extra rapidly, delays shifted to different elements of the method, particularly product definition, high quality assurance and launch administration.
That prompted Sidetrade to increase AI past coding. Brokers are actually used to validate issues, draft specs, write code, run checks and put together documentation, whereas engineers stay chargeable for checking and directing the output.
Two product traces, Deductions and Money App, had been used for the preliminary pilot to check whether or not the method might work throughout completely different codebases earlier than a wider rollout.
No characteristic enters Sidetrade’s R&D pipeline with no validated drawback, and none is launched with out full documentation. These guidelines are supposed to stop velocity beneficial properties from weakening oversight.
Kyle McNabb, principal and program chief for AI utilized intelligence at The Hackett Group, mentioned: “The main organizations acknowledged on this 12 months’s Hackett Innovation Awards display that actual AI worth comes from prioritizing workforce and course of transformation over know-how adoption alone. By redesigning how work will get performed and embedding AI into workflows, they’re delivering measurable efficiency beneficial properties and sustainable ROI at scale.”
Past engineering
Sidetrade is now extending the working mannequin past engineering into buyer operations, gross sales, assist and finance. Every part is meant to fund the following via financial savings generated earlier within the programme.
The corporate is focusing on productiveness beneficial properties of as much as 20% in 2026 and says any capability launched might be reinvested in customer support. It has additionally linked the overhaul to a broader monetary goal of reaching an EBITDA margin of 30% to 35% by 2030.
The transfer comes as software program distributors face higher scrutiny over whether or not they use the AI methods they promote. Sidetrade argues that some enterprise patrons now anticipate distributors to indicate they run their very own operations with the identical know-how they promote to clients.
Rob Harvey, chief product officer at Sidetrade, mentioned: “As an AI-native firm, we’re our consumer zero. We drink our personal champagne. Day-after-day, our groups work with the identical AI-first mindset that defines what we convey to market. The result’s a steady cycle of studying, innovation, and execution that instantly advantages our clients. That’s what The Hackett Group acknowledged.”
Harvey’s feedback replicate a wider shift within the software program trade, the place buyers and clients more and more need proof that AI spending is producing operational returns. Sidetrade cited McKinsey analysis exhibiting that whereas 88% of organisations are deploying AI, 81% report no significant bottom-line influence.
For Sidetrade, the excellence is between making use of AI to an present workflow and redesigning the workflow round AI. Its method is dependent upon altering group constructions and choice factors, relatively than merely including new instruments to established processes.
Mark Sheldon, chief know-how officer at Sidetrade, mentioned: “We didn’t optimize particular person developer productiveness. We redesigned the system wherein growth occurs. Brokers now validate issues, generate specs, write code, run checks, and put together documentation. The result’s options delivered sooner, steady product innovation, and an enhanced expertise for our clients. Builders now direct, validate, and govern what AI and brokers ship.”
Firm-wide mannequin
Sidetrade describes the working mannequin as the interior execution layer of its O2C Intelligence 2030 technique, which goals to make the corporate AI-native throughout the enterprise. The mannequin now makes use of all six of The Hackett Group’s AI enablers in every day manufacturing: predictive, conversational, perception, workflow, cognitive and content material.
The corporate employs 450 folks throughout Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific and serves clients in 85 nations. It focuses on order-to-cash software program and says its knowledge property are constructed on USD $9 trillion in business-to-business transactions and 42.5 million purchaser entities.
Anaïs Novasque, head of AI transformation at Sidetrade, mentioned: “What began in engineering is now the brand new working mannequin throughout our firm. We’re redesigning how each operate works, course of by course of, simplifying earlier than automating, with folks and AI brokers collaborating. That is an operational transformation, not a know-how deployment. The businesses that lead over the following three years might be people who reinvent how work will get performed via human-agent collaboration, not people who layer AI onto legacy processes.”