http://www.forrester.com Forrester helps businesses thrive on technology change. The listed research is available to all registered clients and guests. http://www.forrester.com/imagesV2/affiliates/logos/forrester.gif http://www.forrester.com/ 140 80 Forrester Research http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45693&src=RSS Apr 5, 2008: Forrester's Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 research helps information and knowledge management (I&KM) professionals get to grips with the sometimes viral adoption of Microsoft's collaboration, enterprise content management (ECM), search, portal, and business intelligence (BI) platform. MOSS's breadth forces many to ask: "Where do we start?" "Do we need the whole system?" and "How does it fit in our enterprise?" Our research helps answer these questions by providing strategic guidance, technical assessments, and planning best practices for MOSS in collaboration, ECM, and enterprise search initiatives. We also provide guidance on how to look at MOSS and Microsoft Office 2007 desktop applications for Information Workplace strategies. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45550&src=RSS Apr 2, 2008: Identity and access management (IAM) is the entire aspect of maintaining a person's complete set of information, spanning multiple identities and establishing the relationship among these various identities with the goal of improving data consistency, data accuracy, and data systems security in an efficient manner. IAM helps extend business services, improve efficiency and effectiveness, and allow for better governance and accountability. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=44963&src=RSS Apr 2, 2008: The majority of IT infrastructure and operations professionals today are rationalizing IT to some degree. This leads to IT consolidation projects for most large organizations, as the finite resources must do more and as nearly everyone faces space, power, or budget limitations. Server consolidation dominates the activities in this space, but IT consolidation encompasses data center, storage, network, and even client systems rationalization efforts. New technologies, including virtualization, multicore processors, unified networking, and application delivery, are enabling new levels of consolidation and efficiency. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45576&src=RSS Apr 3, 2008: Outsourcing in the context of today's IT organization means partial or complete delivery of an IT service by a third party. Outsourcing promises significant benefits, but those benefits are achieved through proper coordination with internal systems and processes, not ad hoc attempts at blindly reducing costs. Offshore outsourcing presents multidimensional challenges of cultural differences, communication, and coordination. There has been a boom in these firms, showing high-quality results at much lower costs. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45570&src=RSS Apr 2, 2008: Technology has become an integral underpinning of virtually all business interactions. However, just as a smoothly running infrastructure can enable business users to succeed, flaws in this technology or training can impede business progress. To support business users in the use of technology in the performance of their tasks, every organization has established some form of support organization. At its best, this service desk anticipates and resolves problems before they affect business; at its worst, this "helpless" desk can subvert the entire IT/business relationship and impede the overall effectiveness and growth of the organization. Establishing a smoothly running service desk, therefore, should be an imperative of IT management at every organization. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45138&src=RSS Mar 3, 2008: Forrester's customer relationship management (CRM) research helps CRM professionals embrace best practices — from process optimization to technology implementation — to improve the customer experience and drive top-line growth. Our research spans marketing, sales, customer service, customer analytics, data management, and how the rise of the social Web is affecting the way customers buy from and interact with organizations of all types. Key topic areas include anticipating and exploiting customer and technology disruptions, strategizing to pinpoint quick wins, justifying CRM investments to prove value, selecting the right CRM solutions, and optimizing customer processes through adoption of best practices. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=40327&src=RSS Mar 2, 2008: Enterprise content management (ECM) has grown into a major software category through the consolidation of different point solutions, including document management, Web content management, document imaging, records management, and digital asset management — and a close alignment with collaboration and business process management. But the software category represents only a portion of what ECM means to an enterprise. In its totality, ECM must be a strategy for: 1) how to manage all unstructured information — images, Web content, rich media assets, and corporate records; 2) how to mitigate content-related risks; and 3) how to put content to use for business people and business processes. By doing this, ECM technologies and strategies help information and knowledge management professionals manage the company's unstructured information to reduce risk, boost productivity, and improve customer experiences. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45128&src=RSS Feb 4, 2008: Many economists now believe we are in, or approaching, an economic recession. In the last recession, online spending cratered along with the rest of the advertising industry. But since interactive marketing programs are now fueled by measurable results, not dot-com madness, we believe that they can thrive in a recession. Social applications in particular, such as communities and social networking sites, are cost-effective and have a measurable impact on prospects' decisions in the consideration stage, which will be important to companies under recessionary pressures. Interactive marketers should stop toe-dipping and invest only in programs that can deliver on measurable metrics. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=44743&src=RSS Jan 5, 2008: In two out of three US firms, senior executives do not regularly interact with target consumers, and do not incorporate their needs in decision taking. Their firms do not closely monitor interactions with, and do not have a companywide image of, those target consumers. Firms that miss out on any of these criteria need a Voice of The Customer Program, which is a systematic approach to incorporating customers' needs in the design of customer experiences. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=44748&src=RSS Jan 4, 2008: More than 19 million consumers worldwide participate in virtual words like Second Life and Cyworld, or in massive multiplayer games like World Of Warcraft. For marketers, these rich interactive environments form a promising channel. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=44741&src=RSS Jan 4, 2008: Ask not what you can do for a channel, but what a channel can do for you. Don't ask: "How can we use email in the funnel?" but rather "Which channel do we need to address the needs of the consumer?" Forrester has developed a methodology that helps marketers choose the right channel for each touchpoint based on interface needs and information and operational requirements. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=44740&src=RSS Jan 4, 2008: Many firms have purchased an island in Second Life and built a venue to engage a target audience, raise funds, test products, educate users, or sell virtual or digital goods. High initial investments, short life cycles, and the need to keep a constant watch add up to tangible experiments with hard-to-measure returns. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=44739&src=RSS Jan 4, 2008: The vast majority of marketers use search, banner advertising, and email as part of their media mix. With more consumers going online, and in particular more consumers switching to always-on broadband, we predict that European marketing budgets for these three channels will increase from 9% to 18% of total marketing budgets. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=44726&src=RSS Jan 4, 2008: Gen Yers spend as much time on their mobiles as on the Web for personal reasons. Most of this time is spent sending and receiving text and picture messages, but with more than half also using social networking sites, the likes of Facebook and MySpace have now launched mobile social computing sites, and new mobile networks like Zingku are popping up. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=39221&src=RSS Dec 4, 2007: The practice of IT security is undergoing a significant transformation as demands and priorities change. Certainly, IT security still addresses IT threats, yet we now face more sophisticated threats perpetrated for profit rather than notoriety. And in addition, the weight of regulatory compliance and the building of a sustainable IT controls framework also falls heavily on the IT security professional's shoulders. Amidst all this, the very nature of business itself is changing and becoming increasingly externalized, with systems access and the transfer of information no longer confined within well-defined corporate networks. With the direct risks to business and brand posed by all these challenges, IT security is no longer just about IT, nor is it just about security; it's about information risk management. A successful IT security program both educates and works with executives and business managers both to prioritize and respond to these risks and also to communicate the value it delivers. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=39611&src=RSS Nov 4, 2007: Companies face pressure to adopt a comprehensive approach to governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) management. Without proper governance and control, business processes, employees, and systems behave like leaves blowing in the wind — but control and monitoring force them to become more efficient and well managed. Inefficiencies, errors, and potential risks can be identified, averted, or contained, reducing exposure of the organization and ultimately creating better business performance. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=43580&src=RSS Nov 2, 2007: Forrester's research shows that a key driver of deeper customer relationships is a trait we call "customer advocacy" — the perception on the part of customers that a firm does what's best for them, not just what's best for its own bottom line. When customers feel that a firm acts in their best interests, they are willing to invest more, borrow more, and buy more products from the firm. In this document, we have compiled our most important research on customer advocacy to provide an overview of our research and perspectives on the subject. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=43494&src=RSS Nov 2, 2007: Environmental responsibility is emerging as an important topic for corporate IT organizations and their technology suppliers. Corporate IT will go green in the coming years, driven by a combination of cost efficiency, regulatory compliance, and corporate responsibility motivations. This document outlines Forrester's existing and planned research coverage of the green IT phenomenon, including related subjects like data center architecture, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and supply chain management.