Forrester's Forrsights For Business Technology

Understanding The Impact Of Technology On Business

Name of survey:	Enterprise And SMB Software Survey, North America And Europe, Q4 2008
Product:	Forrester's Forrsights For Business Technology
Date of survey:	February 2009
Region:	North America and Europe
Respondents:	2,227

Forrester's 2008 software study was fielded to 2,227 IT executives and technology decision-makers located in Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the US from companies with 2 or more employees. This survey is part of Forrester’s suite of Business Data Services studies. Forrester fielded the survey from December 2008 to February 2009. e-Rewards fielded this survey online on behalf of Forrester. e-Rewards provided incentives to survey respondents. We have provided exact sample sizes in this report on a question-by-question basis. Forrester’s Business Data Services fields eight business-to-business technology studies in 12 countries each calendar year. For quality control, we carefully screen respondents according to job title and function. Business Data Services ensures that the final survey population contains only those with significant involvement in the planning, funding, and purchasing of IT products and services. Additionally, quotas are set for company size (number of employees) and industry as a means of controlling the data distribution and establishing alignment with IT spend calculated by Forrester analysts. In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that the practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the finding of opinion polls. Other possible sources of error in polls are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. These other potential sources of error include question wording, question ordering, and nonresponse. As with all survey research, it is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors without an experimental control group, so we strongly caution against using the words “margin of error” in reporting any survey data. These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.