For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Addressing Diverse Stakeholders In The IT And Business Services Buying Process

Planning For 2010 Requires A Clear Understanding Of Roles

by Chris Andrews, November 20, 2009

For years, Forrester has written about the evolution of information technology (IT) into business technology (BT) — an idea that is rooted in Forrester's view that technology is becoming more relevant and strategic to business processes. This trend, which . . .

For B2B Market Research Professionals

The Online Panel Quality Wars: All Market Researchers Benefit — Especially B2B Tech

by Brad Bortner, November 20, 2009

At the same time that online quantitative research has taken off, dubiousness abounds about the representation of the online panel sample. Buyers ask: Are panels representative of the markets researchers use them for? What can we do about the moral hazard . . .

For B2B Market Research Professionals

What Type Of Market Research Online Community Vendor Should Tech B2B Market Researchers Use?

Three Choices Exist, Dependent On Budget, Usage Pattern, And Support Needs

by Brad Bortner, November 19, 2009

Market research online communities (MROCS) are the next wave in qualitative research, due to their combination of new qualitative research capabilities and ability to provide cheaper faster results. There is, however, buyer confusion about what type of . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Market Overview: The Advent Of Enterprise Carbon And Energy Management Systems

Sketching The New Opportunities For IT Vendor Strategists

by Christopher Mines, November 17, 2009

A new liability is coming onto the collective balance sheet of companies around the world: carbon. In the context of increasing awareness of the business and societal risks of climate change, corporate carbon emissions (and the energy consumption that . . .

For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

B2B eBusiness: Preparing For Online Liftoff

by Carrie Johnson, Elizabeth Davis, November 17, 2009

As more and more traditionally nonconsumer brands begin to move online, questions abound: How do we sell online? What do we sell to — or how do we service — our customers online? How do we organize to optimize the channel? The good news is that B2B companies . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Microsoft Ups The ALM Ante With Its Bet On Teamprise

Expect VS 2010 To Accelerate The Shakeout In The Application Life-Cycle Management Market

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, November 16, 2009

Microsoft's Team Foundation Server (TFS) has proven very popular with .NET developers but not so much with Eclipse developers. This presents a problem for Microsoft, because many of its largest customers develop for both .NET and Java and want a consolidated . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

3Com Gives HP Core Networking — And Amps Up Cisco Competition

The Converged Infrastructure Market Heats Up

by Ellen Daley, November 12, 2009

HP announced an agreement yesterday to acquire 3Com for about $2.7 billion. This deal is mostly about market — not product — acquisition. HP gets China (a strong growth market), a good enterprise switch, a solid security product, and a router portfolio. . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Consumer Security Market Trends, 2009 To 2010: Evolving Threats And Defenses

by Jonathan Penn, November 12, 2009

As the nature of cyber threats has evolved, consumers' definition of security and their expectations of solutions have been changing as well. With the rise of account compromise and identity theft as a primary and highly profitable goal for hackers, protecting . . .

For Consumer Market Research Professionals

Case Study: How Fox And Microsoft Used Mobile Research To Measure Movie Advertising Impact

Mobile Research Helped Gain Insight In The Buildup Of Movie Promotion

by Reineke Reitsma, November 10, 2009

Fox and Microsoft Advertising collaborated on a project at the end of 2008 to better understand the impact of and the interaction between the different media channels used to promote movies. They used MESH Planning's mobile research methodology, called . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Vendors Beware: Virtualization, PaaS, And SaaS Are Changing The Capacity Management Tools Market

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, November 10, 2009

Continuous improvement in the server technology performance-price ratio has caused many organizations to simply dismiss the need for accurate workload and resource planning efforts. In the current economic climate, infrastructure optimization and operational . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Market Overview: Workload Automation, Q3 2009

Is BSM The Future Of Workload Automation?

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, November 9, 2009

Job scheduling is a necessary component of data centers. Without job scheduling, an enterprise could simply not execute long application processes that deal with massive amounts of data and are necessary to prepare for online and transactional processing. . . .

For B2B Market Research Professionals

The State Of Enterprise IT Services: 2009

Business Data Services North America And Europe

by Pascal Matzke, John C. McCarthy, November 6, 2009

As the global economic downturn continues to put pressure on IT budgets, companies are taking a variety of measures to get more value for the money spent on IT services. But unlike the last recession in 2001 to 2002, when outsourcing and offshoring benefitted . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Market Momentum: IT Management Software Market, H1 2009

Vendors Are Missing The Cloud And Virtualization Waves

by Peter O'Neill, November 5, 2009

Forrester's market momentum overview assists vendor strategy professionals in tracking the evolution of the IT management software (ITMS) market and in gathering intelligence about the major activities. In the first half of 2009, we tracked 165 different . . .

For Consumer Market Research Professionals

The Marketing Of Market Research: Successful Communication Builds Influence

by Reineke Reitsma, November 4, 2009

One of the biggest challenges that market researchers face is to show the added value of market research to the company and to gain influence at the executive level. To increase visibility, market researchers need to communicate constantly, consistently, . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Assumption Personas Help Overcome Hurdles To Using Research-Based Design Personas

by Jonathan Browne, November 4, 2009

Forrester recommends that customer experience professionals use personas founded in ethnographic research to guide the design of products, channels, and messages. However, some organizations struggle to use personas effectively. To overcome common barriers . . .

For Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals

2009 Forrester Groundswell Awards Winners Offer B2B Tech Marketers Valuable Social Media Lessons

by Laura Ramos, November 4, 2009

Business-to-business (B2B) marketers approach social strategy with a mix of enthusiasm and skepticism. Most want to know which firms execute social pursuits well and what tangible outcomes occur. The B2B Division winners of the 2009 Forrester Groundswell . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

The Changing Face Of Telecom Wholesale

Telecom Wholesale: From Regulatory Mandate To Customer Demand

by Mike Cansfield, November 3, 2009

Last year we said that the wholesale sector in telecom was at an inflection point. This study shows that the changes we detected last year accelerated with market forces driving change in what customers want from their wholesale suppliers and in the business-to-business . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

The State Of ERP 2009: Market Forces Drive Specialization, Consolidation, And Innovation

by Paul D. Hamerman, November 2, 2009

As the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market struggles against an unprecedented tide of economic woes, strategic opportunities are surfacing for customers. Soft market conditions mean fewer deals for vendors and better deals for buyers of . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

IT Buyers Prioritize Virtualization Over Cloud

Strategists Should Plan Practical Offerings And Messaging For Buyers

by Frank E. Gillett, October 30, 2009

In the Forrester Enterprise And SMB Hardware Survey, North America And Europe, Q3 2009, we used carefully worded questions to test buyer priorities on initiatives for virtualization, consolidation, automation, internal cloud, and infrastructure-as-a-service . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Targeting Eco-Friendly Consumers

by Emily Riley, October 29, 2009

Eco-friendly consumers are an educated group with higher incomes than most online consumers and a high likelihood of using the Web to research and purchase products. As the green trend rises in Europe, interactive marketers must be keenly aware of how . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Vendor Strategists: Time To Revisit Your Corporate Strategy And Your Management Portfolio

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., Daniel Krauss, October 29, 2009

The current recession clearly showed at many companies how fundamental issues with corporate strategy can lead to a savage reality, affecting corporate stability in a big way. Strategists have started fighting back with a constant stream of ad hoc decision-making . . .

For Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals

Gen Y Won't Change Workplace Collaboration; Better Integrated Tools Will

Demystifying The Myth Of A Gen-Y-Led Workplace Revolution

by TJ Keitt, October 28, 2009

Gen Yers in the US workforce, those between the ages of 18 and 29, are a confounding phenomenon. Some employers see their self-assured, authority-wary ways as a detriment to business while others see their tech-savvy as a harbinger of a new collaborative . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Market Momentum: Middleware Software Market, H2 2008 And H1 2009

Middleware Vendors Must Fight For Awareness In A Consolidating Market While Offering Cloud Innovations

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., October 27, 2009

Forrester's market momentum data includes mergers and acquisitions (M&A), product, partnership, and strategy/go-to-market announcements. A trend analysis provides vendors with important background for the ongoing market consolidation and various strategic . . .

For B2B Market Research Professionals

Do B2B Customer Satisfaction Right In Tech

Implementing Four Key Disciplines Will Save You Time And Money

by Brad Bortner, October 27, 2009

Business-to-business (B2B) customer satisfaction research is not some sort of rare, exotic research. The same benefits of highly satisfied consumer customers will come to those who execute on actionable B2B customer satisfaction research, including enhanced . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

The IT Management Software Challengers

SWOT Analysis For ASG, Compuware, EMC, Quest Software, And Microsoft, Q3 2009

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, October 26, 2009

The 2009 IT management software (ITMS) market seems to favor smaller vendors to the detriment of larger ones. Preliminary results for the first three quarters of 2009 show that the megavendors' share of the ITMS market has again declined from 2008. This . . .