About Forrester
Forrester Research, Inc. is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology.

As an analyst on the Applications Development & Delivery team at Forrester, Paul focuses on human resources management and financial applications, as well as trends and directions in the overall market for enterprise applications. His work includes analyzing market trends in technology adoption, business process best-practices, software market sizing and segmentation, competitive analysis, application deployment models (e.g., SaaS), and next-generation technologies.
Paul works extensively with both applications user clients (technology buyers) and vendor clients, internationally and across a wide variety of industries. He assists corporate and governmental user organizations with vendor selection, upgrade decisions, and business process optimization strategies. Paul advises software vendors and services providers on product strategies, competitive dynamics, product capabilities, partnering strategies, and M&A opportunities.
Paul came to Forrester through its 2003 acquisition of Giga Information Group. He has been an industry analyst for 12 years and has 30 years of overall experience in research and advisory services, management consulting, and systems integration. Prior to joining Forrester, Paul was a management consulting practice director with The Hunter Group, specializing in financial and human resources systems. He also held consulting management positions with Coopers & Lybrand and Ernst & Young, and he has served as a guest lecturer at Virginia Commonwealth University in its Executive Masters in Information Systems program for the past 5 years. Paul is frequently quoted in major media publications on industry trends in applications software, and is a frequent speaker on webcasts and industry events.
Paul earned a B.A. in economics from Connecticut College and an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. He is a certified public accountant (CPA) and a certified management accountant.
IBM Cognos, Oracle, SAP, And SAS Lead, With Clarity Systems In Close Pursuit
In Forrester's 89-criteria evaluation of business performance solutions (BPS) vendors, we found that IBM Cognos, Oracle, SAP, and SAS Institute led the pack because of their breadth of functionality...
Oracle, Cognos, And SAS Institute Lead, Business Objects And SAP In Hot Pursuit
Forrester assessed 10 leading business performance solutions (BPS) vendors across 83 criteria in a product evaluation. Cognos, Oracle, and SAS Institute were found to lead the category with overall...
The most important investments that businesses and government organizations make are in their people. In addition to direct expenditures on compensation and benefits, organizations invest in...
A broad range of options exist for human resources/human capital management (HR/HCM) solutions, usually building on a core system of record that is supplemented by best-of-breed solutions and...
Oracle's Bold Next-Generation Play Versus SAP's Less Disruptive Path
A key decision criterion for enterprise applications is how compelling and clear the vendor's vision for the future is. Oracle's vision for the future of its apps business is now clearer and more...
Core Components Show Maturity While Collaborative Elements Evolve
Human resource management (HRM) applications range from essential tools to hire and pay employees and administer benefits programs to strategic components for assessing and developing talent. More...
As the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market struggles against an unprecedented tide of economic woes, strategic opportunities are surfacing for customers. Soft market conditions mean...
An Empowered Report: Harnessing Mobile Technology For Process Acceleration
Mobile applications for business use are receiving a great deal of attention from package application software vendors and considerable interest from business process professionals. But other than...
Moderate Customer Activity Accompanies More Radical Vendor Strategies
With many enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects on hold due to recession-induced spending constraints, some pent-up demand is evident that will result in more upgrades, replacements, and...
Workday Leads, Followed By Oracle PeopleSoft, Oracle EBS, And SAP
Forrester's 69-criteria evaluation of human resource management system (HRMS) vendors found that Workday, Oracle PeopleSoft, Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS), and SAP lead the pack; each has its own...
Now is the perfect time for business process professionals to revisit their current enterprise resource planning (ERP) application commitments and future ERP plans. As the global economy gradually...

Human resource management (HRM) applications — consisting of six categories of solutions ranging from core transactions to strategic talent management — represent a market in transition....
In the next five years, enterprise apps will be transformed by technologies that disrupt preconceived notions about ownership and support costs, process flexibility, insight, and speed of delivery....

Vision: The Business Applications Playbook
This report outlines the vision aspect of Forrester's solution for application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals working on business applications strategy. It summarizes the key business...

Business process professionals responsible for packaged applications often have difficulty in getting their arms around the total costs of ownership of their business solutions. SaaS simplifies the...
Essential Business Needs Drive High Levels Of Value And Adoption
Financial management applications range from essential and ubiquitous tools for accounting and financial reporting to specialized solutions for optimizing process efficiency and cash flow. Compliance...
Economic Prospects Appear Brighter, But More Regulatory Oversight Looms
Macroeconomic forces and ongoing regulatory changes will have significant impacts on how the office of the CFO carries out its mission-critical responsibilities. Lingering effects of the recession...
Selecting an enterprise applications vendor is a systematic process of elimination. A variety of tools are available to bring about a sound decision, but tradeoffs often occur between the level of...
Enterprise applications for running your business (i.e., ERP) are evolving rapidly to enable more flexibility, better user experiences, and new deployment options offering more predictable long-term...
Reconstruct Human Capital Strategies To Get Business Back On Track
After a horrendous 2009, human resources management (HRM) business process and applications professionals will gradually see opportunities emerge to rebuild and reinvent HR processes and analytics...
Planning, Reporting, And Compliance Drive Financial Apps Strategies
Investment in financial management applications — including accounting, financial reporting, budgeting, and forecasting — will improve along with the economy in 2011. Compliance mandates...
Business Data Survey Results Show That Activity Persists, Despite Recession
Business process and applications professionals can use our survey-based enterprise applications investment planning data and adoption patterns to help rationalize their 2010/2011 investment...
HCM Software Market In Rapid Transformation
In today's hypercompetitive environment for attracting and retaining talented employees, business process owners must have the ability to seamlessly assess employee competencies and job performance...
Move Changes Competitive and Partnering Dynamics
IBM's planned acquisition of Cognos comes as little surprise following SAP's announcement to acquire Business Objects and Oracle's recent acquisition of Hyperion. IBM's move is cleaner in terms of...
Application vendor selection remains mired in a bureaucratic process that has lost relevance in today's quickly changing application market. In the world of cloud computing and software-as-a-service...