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

Phil serves Application Development & Delivery Professionals seeking strategies that will help them streamline and manage their application portfolios. Phil's coverage includes application modernization (monitoring, renewing, replacing, or retiring existing applications/platforms); portfolio management (APM) (driving business-aligned modernization via metrics/assessments); rationalization (streamlining the portfolio to reduce lights-on IT costs and increase agility); and strategic planning (aligning business and IT vision and aligning the application/infrastructure to fulfill the joint business/IT vision).
Phil focuses his research on application professionals, but his research also draws the interest of enterprise architects, CIOs, and other IT professionals.
Phil's IT experience dates back to 1982, when he held positions with: the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (consultant); Boston University (application developer); and Cullinet Software, where he held positions as a software developer and consultant before he was promoted to IT director. When CA bought Cullinet in 1989, Phil joined insurance company startup Arbella Mutual Insurance as director of applications, working with a management team to literally create an IT department and implement its initial applications/operating environment. In 1992, Phil accepted a director-level position with the National Council on (workers') Compensation Insurance (NCCI), where he directed a team that developed and distributed a commercial software package, implemented a financial applications package, and rolled out the nation's first Internet-based information service to the worker's compensation industry. Phil held the top management position in NCCI's $26 million Y2K program office — leveraging offshore programming resources to remediate its applications and onsite staff to execute Y2K testing, effectively creating a round-the-clock remediation process.
Phil joined Giga Information Group in 1997 as an industry analyst, covering the Y2K phenomenon, and he was promoted to the position of managing director of research for its e-practices group. Since Forrester bought Giga in 2003, Phil has been bringing his broad technical and managerial experience to bear on application and IT management topics that concern Forrester's diverse client base.
I go to many industry events in my job, and as the fall event season passes its peak, there is one event that has stayed with me a month after it was hosted. It's Dreamforce –...
Twenty Solutions For Delivering Differentiated Experiences
Customers demand superior service and support as the price for their ongoing loyalty and patronage, and they are increasingly leveraging the chat channel for customer service. The chat vendor...
Businesses, in 2011, are refocusing on strategies that differentiate them from their competitors. One way to do this is by focusing on customer service. We see that organizations are ramping up their...

NetSuite was kind enough to invite me to the analyst day at its SuiteWorld 2011 user conference — an event packed with product, strategy, customer, and partner information. The focus was...
We know that consumer preferences for customer service channels are rapidly changing. And it’s not just the younger generation of consumers — there’s disruption and change across...
Business process professionals supporting customer service operations understand the need for data but do little to take responsibility for its quality. Data management professionals, on the other...

Today, the gap between a customer’s expectations and the customer experience they receive is huge. In our latest customer experience survey, we found that just over one-third of US brands...
The contact center solution ecosystem that customer service organizations use has grown more complex over time, as highlighted in our latest TechRadar™ on these solutions. Customer service...
We believe we can increase sales with our call centers in our direct marketing organization if we can figure out how to transform our phone interactions into selling activities instead of...
This post originally appeared on destinationCRM. Customers want efficient, effortless service from the touchpoint and communication channel of their choice. They want to receive accurate,...
Oracle, at Oracle Open World, has released their 18th version of CRM On Demand. This product integrates their Market2Lead acquisition, made in May of this year. It closes the gap between...
There is an explosion of customer service products and services, and companies are turning to customer service as a way to differentiate themselves: 90% of customer service decision-makers tell...
Upon reading Forrester's January 28, 2010, "Rating Customer Service Experiences, 2010" report by Bruce D. Temkin, I utilized the customer service experiences article to identify companies that had...
Consumers’ preferences for customer service channels are rapidly changing. And it’s not just the younger generation of consumers — there’s disruption and change across all...
The anniversary of my two-year tenure at Forrester quietly snuck by me last week, and when I remembered about the milestone, it gave me pause to think about how much the customer service landscape...
2012 is still a vivid memory for most of us. But it’s time to look ahead to 2013 and focus on the key trends that customer service professionals need to pay attention to as they plan for...
To help business process professionals supporting customer service make smart decisions and navigate the complex contact center technology landscape, Forrester surveyed 75 companies to understand the...

In a conversation with Alex Bard, CEO of Assistly (now desk.com, part of salesforce.com), I learned a few interesting things about customer service solutions for small to medium-size businesses...
With 2011 still bright and full of hope for most of us, what are the key trends that customer service professionals need to pay attention to as you plan for success this year? Here are the top trends...
Business Case: The Contact Centers For Customer Service Playbook
Customer service is a cornerstone of a company's customer experience strategy. Delivering good customer service has quantifiable benefits measured in decreased operational costs, increased repurchase...

Landscape: The Contact Centers For Customer Service Playbook
Locking in customer loyalty via deeper engagement and differentiated experiences will continue to be critical priorities for organizations in all sectors in the decade ahead. But navigating the...
We see a number of enterprises needing contact center transformations; these include upgrading their technology, such as switches, network, telephony, IVR, etc. We have the following questions: 1)...
Assurant Solutions, a leading provider of specialty insurance, was considering novel ways to increase customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty and at the same time control operational costs. The...
We’ve all heard about ideal customer service — the mantra of customer service vendors as they tout their wares. But what does this actually mean? Service at all costs (ideal for the...