For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Lean: The New Business Technology Imperative

Lean Thinking Is Central To The Shift From IT To BT

by Connie Moore, Clay Richardson, John R. Rymer, Ted Schadler, Dave West, September 29, 2009

Everyone wants to be lean these days, whether when stepping off a scale in the morning or reviewing the cost of running a successful business. But just how do you define "Lean" — especially in the context of business and technology? Do you think of Lean . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

From Information Technology To Business Technology: An Interview With George F. Colony

by Connie Moore, George F. Colony, September 16, 2009

For the past four years, Forrester Research CEO George F. Colony has been preaching the gospel of converting information technologists into businesspeople. The number of converts has been lower than we hoped, but a generational change in IT and business . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Forrester's BI Maturity Assessment Tool  (85 KB XLS)

by Boris Evelson, Connie Moore, Rob Karel, James G. Kobielus, Charles Coit, September 11, 2009

Business intelligence is a set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable more effective strategic, tactical, and operational insight and decision-making. . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Get The Tools For Business Analyst Success

by Connie Moore, March 31, 2009

Organizations rely on business analysts (BAs) to facilitate the delivery of technology and use process methodologies to improve the organization's effectiveness at the business unit, business function, and/or business process level. So isn't it time to . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Cultivate Your Business Analyst Talent Pool

Your Project Management Success Depends On It

by Connie Moore, March 27, 2009

You have always depended on your business analysts for deep domain expertise, leadership skills, and the ability to see process improvement efforts to fruition. Increasingly, your expectations of business analysts have grown to encompass fluidity between . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Embracing Chaos Is Smarter Than Seeking An Elusive Work/Life Balance

Technology Populism Forces A Fresh Look At Personal And Work Boundaries

by Connie Moore, March 20, 2009

For many years, busy workers have struggled to find "work/life balance," that elusive state of harmony between professional obligations and personal needs which, we are told, will promote both better performance at work and a happier life at home. However, . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Case Study: Archstone, Drowning In Paper, Surfaces With A High-Impact BPM Solution

by Connie Moore, March 17, 2009

Archstone is a leading provider of apartment-style dwellings, with real-estate holdings in 13 states, including 180 communities and 2,600 associates spread across the United States. Stuck using manual processes, associates relied on mountains of paper . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Topic Overview: Must-Read I&KM Research For An Economic Downturn

by Matthew Brown, Connie Moore, Rob Karel, October 29, 2008

Financial bailouts, downward consumer spending, and roller-coaster stock markets are starting to put pressure on information and knowledge management (I&KM) professionals. Will industry consolidation mean gut-wrenching systems consolidation? How will . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Drive BPM Initiatives To Higher Business Value

Move Beyond Automation To Business Optimization

by Connie Moore, October 6, 2008

The business process management (BPM) value proposition goes far beyond simple process automation, but unfortunately, that is where many organizations end their efforts. And while automation certainly provides tremendous efficiency, productivity, and . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Develop Your "Design For People" Game Plan

Consider The Full Range Of Options From Conservative To Aggressive

by Connie Moore, June 27, 2008

Forrester's concept of "Design For People" emphasizes the close alignment of the technology that businesspeople use with the collection of business processes they participate in and the individual's work assignments, work style, and preferences. In fact, . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Case Study: IBM's Visionary Foray Into Web3D

by Connie Moore, June 20, 2008

IBM is a microcosm of all that's happening in Web3D. Since the company announced it would invest millions of dollars in Web3D (in IBM's terminology, the 3-D Internet) in late 2006, the company has set up an emerging business opportunity business unit . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

I&KM Pros: The New Business Analyst Takes Center Stage

by Connie Moore, May 6, 2008

Business analysts have always been an important part of any information and process-oriented IT initiative. They serve as intermediaries between business and technology stakeholders, analyzing the business processes that create, update, and consume information, . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Information Workplace Platform Vendors Light Up The World Of Work

IBM And Microsoft Are The Centers Of Gravity Today — But Watch The Spoilers

by Erica Driver, Connie Moore, March 28, 2008

Many information and knowledge management (I&KM) professionals seek to deliver next-generation Information Workplace (IW) environments by rationalizing a plethora of related technologies. At the same time, maturing IW platforms continue to expand . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

The Five Top Challenges Information And Knowledge Managers Must Master In 2008

by Connie Moore, Rob Karel, January 30, 2008

Information and knowledge managers are constantly bombarded by new technologies — like RIAs, wikis, blogs, and virtual worlds — or new market trends, such as the recent consolidation in business intelligence (BI). Plus there's the ever-changing organizational . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

The Seven Tenets Of The Information Workplace

Enterprise Web 2.0 Pushes the Information Workplace Forward

by Erica Driver, Connie Moore, November 26, 2007

When Forrester first described the Information Workplace in 2005, we positioned it as the next-generation platform that delivered collaboration, content, portals and office productivity — plus a plethora of new capabilities bursting on the scene, such . . .

For CIOs

The Dynamic Business Applications Imperative

The Principles Of "Design For People, Build For Change" Will Anchor A New Generation Of Business Applications

by John R. Rymer, Connie Moore, September 24, 2007

Most business applications are too inflexible to keep pace with the businesses they support. Today's applications force people to figure out how to map isolated pools of information and functions to their tasks and processes, and they force IT pros to . . .

For CIOs

The New IT Imperative: Design For People, Build For Change

by Tom Pohlmann, Connie Moore, August 21, 2007

Each year, Forrester's Technology Leadership Forum examines a critical issue at the intersection of business and technology. This year's theme for the forum, Design For People, Build For Change, encapsulates two critically important challenges just hitting . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Peer Practices: An Interview With A Business Change Management Practitioner

by Connie Moore, August 2, 2007

Improving business processes — whether manual or automated — requires the active participation and buy-in of employees and managers at many different levels within an enterprise. Business analysts and business architects often focus their energies on . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Whoa! IBM Acquires FileNet

The Software Giant Steals A March Over Adobe Systems, CA, EMC, Microsoft, Oracle, And SAP

by Barry Murphy, Connie Moore, Erica Driver, August 16, 2006

In a move sure to send shockwaves throughout the software world, IBM announced plans to buy FileNet for $1.6 billion — IBM's third largest software acquisition ever. Many customers may be truly perplexed, given the high degree of overlapping functionality . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

The Information Workplace: Who Wants It And When?

by Erica Driver, Connie Moore, April 27, 2006

Although many vendors aspire to the Information Workplace (IW) platforms market, participants in Forrester's IW survey clearly expect the next-generation content/collaboration/portal/office productivity platform to come from today's leading collaboration . . .

Topic Overview: Business Process Definition, Improvement, And Management

by Christine Ferrusi Ross, Connie Moore, April 6, 2006

Focusing on business processes is a deceptively simple concept. At its core, business process is all about how work gets done. But knowing how and where to start in defining, improving, and redesigning a business process can be daunting. In spite of the . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Fuego Acquisition Extends BEA Software's SOA Platform Innovation Leadership

AquaLogic Platform Now Offers Human-Centric BPM

by John R. Rymer, Connie Moore, Ken Vollmer, April 4, 2006

BEA Systems announced its cash acquisition of Fuego on March 1, 2006, adding a crucial element — business process management (BPM) — to its AquaLogic SOA platform product line. There's much integration work still to be done, but with strong data services, . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Context Is King In The New World Of Work

by Erica Driver, Connie Moore, Robert Markham, March 8, 2006

As enterprises better understand the interrelationship between roles, collaboration, content, and business processes, the need to provide information within the context of an information worker's daily activities will drive the implementation of Information . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Human-Centric Business Process Management Suites, Q1 2006

Appian, Lombardi, Pegasystems, Savvion, And TIBCO Lead Our Lab-Based Evaluation

by Connie Moore, February 24, 2006

Many enterprises are now turning to business process management suites (BPMS) as a way to realize their strategic focus on business processes. To see how human-centric BPMS vendors stack up, Forrester evaluated 12 vendors across 215 criteria. The result? . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

HandySoft: Easy-To-Use Human-Centric BPMS With Integration Highlights

Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q1 2006

by Connie Moore, February 24, 2006

HandySoft, a pure-play, US-based BPMS provider owned by a Korean collaboration vendor, lacks broad market recognition. That's a shame — HandySoft BizFlow provides a best-in-class, easy-to-use portal; integration capabilities well-suited for enterprises . . .