For CIOs

CIOs: Categorize And Define Technology Investment Risk

by Sharyn Leaver, September 21, 2009

Failed, delayed, and misaligned IT projects have fueled business executives' dissatisfaction with IT. The benefit and cost estimates of technology investments provided by IT executives are often far from the realized business costs and benefits. To set . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Packaged Apps Versus Platforms For Custom Development: Which Ones Sell Better?

IT Spend Analysis 2009: The Right Focus For Software Vendors

by Holger Kisker, Ph.D., Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 31, 2009

In times of economic challenge, IT budgets face the same pressures as other cost centers of a company. We thus analyzed the 2009 IT spending plans of 2,731 IT executives and technology decision-makers to identify any budget shift between different software . . .

For B2B Market Research Professionals

Software Budget Outlook And Preferred Purchasing Channels By Company Size: 2008 To 2009  (244 KB PPT)

by Ellen Daley, June 5, 2009

Software budget outlook and preferred purchasing channels by company size that provides insight into how the current global economic climate is affecting IT budgets, an overview of software budget breakdowns, and a comparison of preferred purchasing channels . . .

For B2B Market Research Professionals

Software Budget Outlook And Goals By Region: 2008 To 2009  (256 KB PPT)

by Ellen Daley, June 5, 2009

Software budget outlook and goals of North American and European firms for 2008 to 2009. An overview of spending on new initiatives versus ongoing software operations and maintenance, as well as budget breakdowns for software spending, and goals that . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Quantifying Technology Investment Risk

A Component Of The Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Methodology

by Chip Gliedman, April 10, 2009

The process of risk measurement has been confounding decision-makers within IT for some time, resulting in the use of weak qualitative analysis that only loosely ties to project outcomes. But using the basic financial community equivalency of "risk equals . . .

Commerce Platforms: Build Or Buy?

Firms Shouldn't Waste Time And Resources To Build Commerce Platforms

by Tamara Mendelsohn, January 20, 2006

According to Forrester's Business Technographics® data, in 2006, 37% of North American and European enterprises that sell products or services online will either purchase or upgrade a commerce platform. As these firms re-evaluate their eCommerce technologies, . . .

Which SMB Industries Develop Custom Apps?

by Ryan Hudson, July 11, 2005

Seventy-one percent of SMBs surveyed in Forrester's Business Technographics® June 2005 United States SMB Software And Services Benchmark Study report that they use custom-developed applications — complicating migration paths, as large software vendors . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Get Off-The-Shelf eLearning To Lower Costs

The Important Role Of Generic eLearning Courses

by Claire Schooley, March 28, 2005

The cost of developing all-custom courseware specific to individual companies is prohibitive. While this approach may be imperative when the content is very specific to the organization, in many cases off-the-shelf content already exists that vendors . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

IP VPNs: Build Or Buy?

Understanding The Pros And Cons Of Do-It-Yourself And Managed Solutions

by Robert Whiteley, January 27, 2005

To date, enterprises are taking the do-it-yourself approach to building IP VPNs with technologies like IPsec and SSL. However, new technologies like MPLS and the maturation of network-based VPN infrastructure provide enterprises with cost-effective and . . .

When European Companies Appoint “Make-Or-Buy Managers”

by Richard Peynot, June 23, 2003

In some situations it may appear useful and valuable to appoint a make-or-buy manager (or sourcing strategy manager) whose responsibilities are different from the chief sourcing officer's (CSO) responsibilities.

Banking Software Decisions in Europe: More Than Straight Build or Buy

by Jost Hoppermann, March 10, 2003

Analyze the reasons for using infrastructure software or applications as a major decision driver — look at the environmental factors that are favoring one decision driver or another.

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Making Packaged And Custom Apps Coexist

by Charles Homs, David Metcalfe, Laurie M. Orlov, Erin Hollaway, Niek van Veen, March 7, 2003

Custom-built applications will continue to exist despite their cost disadvantages. But a service-based software architecture will make the integration of custom-built and packaged applications easier and less costly.

When to Use a Marketing Outsourcer

February 4, 2003

Outsourcing the direct marketing function is a worthy solution for companies that have limited capital budget and technical support for marketing and whose marketing goals primarily include brand awareness, education, acquisition and renewal.

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Build vs. Buy vs. Rent: Enterprise Application Strategies

by Erin Kinikin, January 31, 2003

Buy vs. Build: The Best of Both Through Service Orientation

by Randy Heffner, December 11, 2002

Service orientation enables a mix of buy and build, which creates new options that may achieve the strategic advantage of a build solution while leveraging the potentially lower cost and risk of a packaged solution.

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Buy vs. Build vs. Rent: The Right Application Strategy Depends on Company Needs

by Erin Kinikin, December 4, 2002

Using Giga's Total Economic Impact™ model, companies can examine the trade-offs of buy vs. build vs. rent in their own environment.

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Buy vs. Build: The ERP/Comprehensive Enterprise Application Perspective

by Byron Miller, December 2, 2002

Nothing has changed in the fundamental trade-offs between buy vs. build vs. rent, but a lot is changing in the particulars. It does not make sense to develop software for application areas that are truly common to businesses in general.

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Three Half-Truths About Custom Applications

by Tom Harwick, November 27, 2002

The consequences of choosing a custom solution where it is inappropriate include higher cost, longer time to benefit, difficulty in maintaining the solution and sub-optimal business results.

Build or Buy? How Project Portfolio Management Can Help in Decision-Making

by Margo Visitacion, November 27, 2002

More than just status or knowledge of ongoing or planned projects, having information such as resource capacity or funding limitations allows companies to optimize decision-making to align resources and funding with the most valuable projects.

Build vs. Buy Revisited: Data Warehousing

by Lou Agosta, November 22, 2002

Reinventing the wheel is hard work — unless an organization has the available IT talent to create data warehousing infrastructure and applications, a package that matches a majority of its business requirements can be a good place to start.

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Build vs. Buy vs. Rent: Rental Applications Are Becoming More Competitive

by Paul D. Hamerman, November 22, 2002

As rental business applications improve and mature, they will increasingly appeal to midsize companies as a potential cost-effective alternative to traditional licensed software.

Big Firms Need In-House Software Development

by David Truog, Christopher Mines, October 23, 2002

Large companies should stop trying to avoid in-house software development. Packaged apps don't work right out of the box, and relying on them alone gets you mediocrity at best. To break away from the pack, extend applications with custom code.

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

The Days of Developing In-House CRM Are Over

by Richard Peynot, September 30, 2002

The maturity of the CRM market is such today that most CRM suites cover most company requirements (even if more than one package must be combined to do so). Companies should focus instead on their infrastructure and integration constraints.

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Business to Employee Applications: Build or Buy?

by Paul D. Hamerman, April 29, 2002

Generally, it is faster and cheaper to deploy packaged B2E applications rather than develop them. Occasionally, there are situations where building a custom application is necessary, because the off-the-shelf solutions can't meet certain unique needs.

Although Few Standards for Estimating COTS Projects, Can Borrow From Internally Developed Projects

by Margo Visitacion, April 22, 2002

Estimation for COTS projects has definite differences from internally developed projects, but the two share enough commonalities that best practices from traditional development projects can be incorporated.