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.
These data charts present the results of Forrester's 2011 BPM Center Of Excellence Online Survey.
Skills And Staffing: The Business Process Management Playbook
Lack of sufficient business process skills continues to dog progress and momentum for enterprisewide business process management (BPM) initiatives. Yet when it comes to growing BPM skills, most...


As 2010 winds down, many business process professionals are finalizing plans to take their BPM initiatives to the next level in 2011. With so many different BPM trends and predictions floating...
Over the past few months I’ve been interviewing companies that have successfully applied social to their BPM initiatives. As part of this research, we’re identifying best practices...
As some of you know, I’m a bit of a political junkie. I believe I picked up the political bug from years of riding shotgun with my dad as he listened to Rush Limbaugh blaring on the car radio....
Assessment Framework: The Business Process Management Playbook
Establishing a sustainable and high-impact business process management (BPM) excellence program requires that teams build a portfolio of new capabilities that blend business and technical skills,...
After getting started with business process management (BPM), many business process pros quickly find that they need to beef up their process skills to effectively deliver continuous improvement and...
Earlier this week, I sat in on a session at Oracle OpenWorld that highlighted the importance of scaling process governance as BPM initiatives expand throughout organizations. The session, titled...
Nowadays, there are two topics that I’m very passionate about. The first is the fact that spring is finally here and it’s time to dust off my clubs to take in my few first few rounds of...
A Total Economic Impact™ Analysis Uncovers Real Transformational Benefits
Companies waste millions of dollars each year on ineffective and inefficient business processes. Many companies attack this waste with process improvement exercises using approaches such as Six...
These data charts present the results of Forrester's 2011 Process Data Management Online Survey.
Recently, I interviewed a half dozen top service design agencies to better understand how they work with enterprise architects and business architects inside the client firms they serve. All of the...
This is a self-assessment tool to use along with Clay Richardson's Best Practice Framework For BPM Suites.
Value streams and capability maps are both business architecture tools that can create a platform for strategic discussion and executive decision-making. Architects, business analysts, and process...

Answering Hard Questions About Business, Process, And Technology Best Practices
Business process pros at health payers work at the intersection of business and technology, bringing process methodologies, business knowledge, and technology insights to business transformation...
Today, with some fanfare, Oracle announced its Oracle BPM Suite 11g Release. Although the product has been GA since late April, Oracle is just now launching a major campaign to announce and promote...
BPM Suite Vendor Uses Project Timelines To Drive Process Improvement
Let's face it: Certain mission-critical business processes need to run as repeatable, complex project management-oriented processes that cut across different departments and functions. Unfortunately,...
Can you provide rough product pricing for the business rules engines (BRE) and business process management (BPM) suite products?