For Customer Experience Professionals

Member Registration Plagues Health Plan Sites

Interviews Of 17 Health Plans Uncover The Need For Email Addresses

by Elizabeth Boehm, November 20, 2009

The Web is becoming a bigger part of health plans' member service and member communication strategies, but health plans struggle to drive adoption. Forrester recently interviewed customer experience professionals responsible for member service Web sites . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Design Sites To Work In A High-Resolution World

The Decline Of 1024 x 768 And What To Do About It

by Ron Rogowski, November 20, 2009

The proliferation of high-resolution screens that well surpass 1024 x 768 adds a new layer of complexity to site design. Not only is there no standard resolution to design for, but higher-resolution screens pose usability challenges for sites that were . . .

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 eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

Online-Influenced Sales Exceed Direct Sales In Financial Services

How The Internet Influences Sales In Other Channels

by Brad Strothkamp, November 20, 2009

In 2008, the majority of US online adults who researched a financial product did so online, and the majority of those online researchers applied in a channel other than the Web. These cross-channel shoppers illustrate the importance of online-influenced . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Peer Adoption: The State Of Server Virtualization  (471 KB PPT)

by Christopher Voce, November 20, 2009

This data chart examines the usage and trends of server virtualization in enterprises today as well as the motivations that drive adoption.

For Security & Risk Professionals

Know Your Code: How Static Analysis Tools Make Applications More Secure

by Chenxi Wang, Ph.D., Andrew Jaquith, November 20, 2009

Many companies, besieged by audit findings and application vulnerabilities, recognize the benefits of eliminating security vulnerabilities early in the software life cycle. For this reason, static analysis technologies for analyzing code-level security . . .

For Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals

Understanding Information Worker Smartphone Usage

Emerging Smartphone Use By Information Workers Opens Doors For Vendors

by Michele Pelino, November 20, 2009

Understanding how information workers use smartphones and applications enables marketing executives across the mobile value chain to successfully develop products and services to address the needs of these workers. Currently, 13% of information workers . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

For Gen Y, Mobility Trumps Web 2.0 At Work

Workforce Technographics®

by Ted Schadler, November 19, 2009

Gen Y is four times more likely to visit a social networking site at home than they are to use one for work purposes. But if they are unable to bring their Social Computing habits and sensibility to work, Gen Yers can at least use their personal mobile . . .

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 Interactive Marketing Professionals

Navigating The Twittersphere

How To Market On Twitter

by Nate Elliott, November 19, 2009

Successfully engaging with consumers on Twitter requires both the right overarching strategy and a series of small best practices. Interactive marketers must ensure that consumers can find their brands' accounts, confirm that they are legitimate, and . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Business Performance Solutions, Q4 2009

IBM Cognos, Oracle, SAP, And SAS Lead, With Clarity Systems In Close Pursuit

by Paul D. Hamerman, November 19, 2009

In Forrester's 89-criteria evaluation of business performance solutions (BPS) vendors, we found that IBM Cognos, Oracle, SAP, and SAS Institute led the pack because of their breadth of functionality and strength of their business intelligence (BI) foundations. . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Harnessing Social Networking To Drive Transformation

by Rob Koplowitz, November 19, 2009

When one of the world's largest defense contractors says, "We need to move from a culture of 'need to know' to a culture of 'need to share,'" you stop and listen. Competing in an industry driven by the mantra "loose lips sink ships," BAE Systems has identified . . .

For CIOs

Inquiry Spotlight: Retail Point-Of-Sale Systems, Q3 2009

by George Lawrie, November 19, 2009

Retail line-of-business executives know that technology plays a central role in helping to deliver improved customer service with increased margin. They look to CIOs to push what were once purely tactical point-of-sale (POS) systems to become solutions . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: Consumer Wireless Strategy, Q3 2009

by Julie A. Ask, Seth Fowler, November 19, 2009

Mobile is rapidly expanding as a medium for interacting with consumers, and it will only continue to do so. Many of Forrester's nontelecommunications clients — from the travel industry to consumer product goods to automotive companies to financial firms . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Status, Challenges, And Near-Term Tactics For Cloud Services In Enterprise Outsourcing Deals

by Paul Roehrig, Ph.D., November 18, 2009

The blab-o-sphere is full of warnings, proclamations, and sales pitches about cloud services and this is only making it tougher for IT decision-makers to sort the reality from the hype in the face of pressing technology challenges. Decision-makers are . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Driving Multitenancy In Your Virtual Environments

How To Get Business Units To Share Your Consolidated Infrastructure

by James Staten, November 18, 2009

As you continue to consolidate your server infrastructure and make it more cloudlike, a key hurdle you and most enterprises must overcome is the sharing of physical infrastructure between business units (BUs). While some organizations have a centralized . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Charging Back For Your Virtual Infrastructure

How To Allocate Costs For Virtual Machines And Drive Greater Adoption

by James Staten, November 18, 2009

As you continue to consolidate your server infrastructure and make it more cloudlike, a key hurdle that you must overcome is cost allocation for the virtual infrastructure. While most enterprises are not yet charging back or tracking virtual machine (VM) . . .

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 Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

The Psychology Of Early Adopters

Three Concepts From Academic Psychology Can Help Sell Newer Products

by Abe Garon, James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., November 17, 2009

Understanding how and why consumers experience the drive to adopt new products can help consumer product strategists trying to sell newer products. Concepts from academic psychology can be wedded to Forrester's Technographics segmentation to demonstrate . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

The Five Essential Metrics For Managing EA

by Jeff Scott, November 17, 2009

Enterprise architects frequently ask what metrics they should use to demonstrate EA's progress and value to the organization. CIOs want to know what they are getting for their investment in EA, and EAs see metrics as an important tool for promoting their . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Client Management Software Adoption Trends, 2009  (445 KB PPT)

by Benjamin Gray, November 17, 2009

This presentation analyzes client management software adoption trends across the North American and European enterprise and SMB market.

For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

Travelers Are Cashing In On Loyalty Programs

How US Online Travelers Redeem Travel Loyalty Points And Rewards

by Henry H. Harteveldt, Elizabeth Stark, November 16, 2009

Travel loyalty programs may be old news, but that old news pays the bills and generates revenue in the billions of dollars every year for travel companies. Forrester data shows that half — 52% — of all US online travelers actively use travel loyalty programs, . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

TechRadar™ For Infrastructure And Operations Professionals: Infrastructure Virtualization, Q4 2009

I/O Virtualization Enters Its Growth Phase

by Galen Schreck, November 16, 2009

Every major category of IT infrastructure has been endowed with some virtualization capability. Although virtualization can make your IT environment more cost-effective and agile, the underlying technologies have matured at different rates. Furthermore, . . .

For Security & Risk Professionals

Case Study: Baker Tilly Virchow Krause Builds Trust With Strong Authentication

Customer Data Is Accessible Yet Safe Whether Users Are Connected Or Not

by Bill Nagel, November 16, 2009

Matt Jennings at Baker Tilly Virchow Krause needed to overhaul the accounting and advisory firm's security processes and technologies to ensure ongoing regulatory compliance and customer confidence. Replacing the company's use of a single password as . . .