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

Shar serves Marketing Leadership professionals. She is a leading expert on how businesses can leverage interactive marketing channels and technologies to drive sales and deepen customer relationships. During her 12 years with Forrester, Shar has been instrumental in the development of many of the company's interactive marketing program evaluation methodologies, training courses, and marketing planning tools and has also been part of Forrester's sales and consulting organizations.
Shar's research focuses on overall interactive marketing strategies; crafting efficient, effective interactive programs; organizing for interactive marketing; and integrating interactive channels into the rest of the marketing mix. Specific subjects addressed in Shar's research include email marketing, online advertising, search engine marketing, ad serving and targeting, interactive budgeting and forecasts, and interactive marketing organizational models.
Shar returned to Forrester in 2004 after several years away working in marketing consulting. Shar served as research director for marketing research boutique, TideWatch, where she led internal strategy efforts and client strategy projects. Shar was also a consultant with Carlson Marketing Group's Business Strategy Consulting team, developing CRM and email programs for clients including British Airways, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, and Home Depot. Shar began her career at Forrester in 1997 during the early days of the Internet and has written research on customer loyalty, ad networks, and marketing measurement and planning.
A popular speaker, Shar has been seen on stage at ad:tech, MITX, DMA, and the Email Service Provider Coalition events, among others. She is on the board of SEMPO — the search engine marketing professionals organization — and is also widely quoted in the press including such media outlets as BusinessWeek, Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal and is a frequent guest on CNBC and National Public Radio.
Shar is a graduate of Harvard University.
Highly Integrated With A Risk Of Lock-In
Microsoft looks to strike three very familiar chords with the release of Office 2013: mobile, social, and cloud. Each has become table stakes for enterprise software, and in order for Microsoft to...

A Look At The Players And The Criteria You Should Use To Differentiate Them
Infrastructure and operations executives have shown a tremendous interest in the cloud to provision email and collaboration services to their employees. Why? Cloud-based email and collaboration can...

Executive Overview: The Mobile Security And Operations Playbook
This report outlines the executive overview of Forrester's solution for security and risk professionals working on managing mobile and consumer devices. Smartphones and tablets are quickly becoming...

Companies of all industries and sizes are considering, planning for, and implementing cloud-based solutions in their infrastructure. One of the first questions that comes up is: “Where do we...
Microsoft is in a very critical period with their fiscal year ending this week, as my colleague Duncan Jones recently wrote. But today, Steve Ballmer is announcing one of Microsoft’s most...
With the economy being tough for investments, why should we move to Exchange 2010 as opposed to keeping what is working already?
Licensing SharePoint, And How Federation And Virtualization Play A Role
Microsoft's SharePoint has been a runaway success with many companies: so much so, that it tests the mettle of infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals who are charged with building and...
Vision: The Workforce Enablement Playbook
This report outlines the vision of Forrester's solution for infrastructure and operations (I&O) executives responsible for "end user computing" — the delivery and support of technology and...
According to press releases here and here, Attachmate is acquiring Novell in a US $2.2 billion transaction. As an infrastructure and operations or security professional with investments in either...
From an infrastructure point of view, what are some best practices and traps to avoid when migrating email?
When you hear the words “end user computing”, what do you think of? If you’re in infrastructure & operations (I&O), you might think about the corporate standard laptop or...
With Microsoft's fiscal year end coming to a close today, I wanted to spend some time focusing on future licensing direction. Windows Intune is a significant offering from Microsoft that blends...
Solid Preparation And Proper Pilots Lead To Successful Migrations
Infrastructure and operations (I&O) chiefs at companies large and small are beginning to entrust their email to Google, IBM, Microsoft, and other hosters. Migrating email — a business-critical...

Interest in cloud-based email is mounting as pressures for IT infrastructure and operations professionals (I&O) to manage and secure smartphones and tablets for an increasingly mobile workforce are...

Buyers May Need To Refine Their Microsoft Licensing And Adoption Strategies
Forrester has studied Microsoft's recent pricing and licensing changes and found several that could have profound implications for enterprise IT departments, including price increases and repackaging...

Last week I recorded a podcast on what has recently become a very hot IT research topic at Forrester right now — Microsoft licensing. June 2010 signifies an extremely active and very hectic...
Infrastructure & operations executives have shown a tremendous interest in looking for opportunities to take advantage of the cloud to provision email and collaboration services to their employees...
Google Apps Business Is Growing; Mobile, Social, And APIs Move To The Fore
Forrester spent a day with Google Apps Vice President Dave Girouard and members of his team to hear the latest on Google Apps for Business and Google Apps for Government. With the US General Services...
Executive Overview: The Workforce Enablement Playbook
BYOD. BYOPC. Consumerization. These are the words that send shivers down the spines of infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals responsible for "end user computing" in their companies....