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=55951&src=RSS Jan 4, 2010: Information architecture (IA) is a cornerstone of enterprise architecture (EA), but 43% of the architects we surveyed either have not yet addressed this domain or have only begun to implement what they need. And for the vast majority of the established IA programs, the most substantial portion of the value they expect to deliver is still in the future. IA has been EA's problem child, but demands for high-quality real-time information and advances in information management software that provide significant new business capabilities — but entail "garbage in, garbage out" scenarios — mean architects can't afford to delay its implementation any longer. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55884&src=RSS Jan 3, 2010: Forrester's customer relationship management (CRM) research helps business process professionals embrace best practices — from process optimization to technology implementation — to improve customer interactions and drive top-line growth. Our research spans the business processes that support sales, marketing, customer service, the related topics of customer business intelligence, and data management. We are researching how the rise of the social Web affects the way customers buy from and interact with organizations of all types — a phenomenon that has become known as social CRM. Business process professionals should follow Forrester's seven steps for social CRM success: 1) initiate social CRM experiments immediately; 2) benchmark customer and prospect social readiness; 3) define your social customer objectives; 4) assess your social CRM capabilities; 5) understand the social CRM solutions landscape; 6) map out your social CRM capabilities-building plan; and 7) define your CRM metrics for success. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55937&src=RSS Dec 3, 2009: The worst CIO misunderstanding about service-oriented architecture (SOA) is thinking of it as only another technical initiative for software reuse. Although SOA's reuse potential is real and good, its business impact goes much further: In Forrester surveys, 38% of Global 2000 SOA users say they are using it for strategic business transformation. SOA's true source of power is in its business design models, not its technology — and this means that SOA provides a broad foundation for a much-larger shift in business technology (BT) architecture that goes far beyond SOA itself. By correctly understanding SOA, CIOs can lead their organizations on a solid and well-managed path toward a strategic technology future and greater business value. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55486&src=RSS Dec 3, 2009: With 74% of the Global 2000 now using service-oriented architecture (SOA), most architects recognize that SOA is about much more than Web services and better application integration. SOA continues to gain industry recognition as a key element of strategic business transformation — which represents a much higher level of business impact than mere application integration. Strategically, SOA-based business services provide a modular, digital-world implementation of your business that is a foundation for many business-oriented architectural directions that go far beyond SOA. For architects to lead their organizations on a successful journey to SOA — and beyond — they must understand SOA's overarching concepts, its relationship to business design, and its impact on governance, technology platforms, and solution delivery life cycles. Then they must build strategies both for SOA and for the larger architectural shifts around it. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55485&src=RSS Nov 2, 2009: If developers treat service-oriented architecture (SOA) only as Web services standards for better application integration, it can easily result in siloed, point-to-point Web services that solve only short-term, project-level problems. Longer-term application delivery benefits from SOA — such as reduced time-to-market and lower development costs — require cross-project, portfolio-level strategy and planning. SOA is proven in the market — the majority of SOA users say they get enough benefit to expand their use of SOA — but getting it right requires application architects and developers to think correctly about what SOA is and how it adds value. Capturing longer-term strategic value from SOA requires designing around business capabilities, creating a business-aligned foundation for a wide range of other business technology (BT) innovations beyond SOA. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55390&src=RSS Sep 3, 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 as a way to drive down costs for technology solutions? Or does Lean conjure visions of streamlined business processes that deliver ever-higher levels of productivity and quality? Or does Lean mean creating a Lean business that delivers more customer value and innovation to compete in today's Lean economy? We assembled some of our top analysts on this subject and put them to the test in a no-holds-barred roundtable discussion. The truth is that you must embrace Lean from all perspectives — people, process, and technology — and focus as much on adding value as on eliminating waste. http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55326&src=RSS Sep 4, 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 leadership is beginning to force the issue. George calls this concept "moving from information technology to business technology — or IT to BT." At its heart, the message is for IT to measure itself using business metrics that matter to the COO, CEO, and board of directors, instead of assessing its success with a technology yardstick, such as network availability or server uptime. But the IT-to-BT message goes beyond the need for action by CIOs. CEOs and corporate directors, too, can no longer ignore IT issues by relegating them to the CIO. Connie Moore, a research director serving business process professionals, caught up with George while they were both preparing for Forrester's Business Technology Forum 2009. His message is nothing less than a clarion call for IT and business execs to start thinking and acting in a profoundly different way.