About Forrester
Forrester Research, Inc. is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology.

Sharyn serves CIOs. She leads Forrester's research into IT leadership, with a focus on the emerging world of business technology (BT). Sharyn delivers strategic guidance, helping enterprises identify best practices and identify vendors and technologies that help drive business success. Her current research agenda includes enterprise application strategies as well as IT planning processes and technologies. She also maintains a research interest in business process management (BPM); RFID; and other emerging technologies in consumer-driven and manufacturing industries such as life sciences, healthcare, and consumer products. In addition, Sharyn was a key contributor to the development of the Forrester Wave™ methodology to help clients accurately assess key vendors in a given technology-focused market.
Before joining Forrester, Sharyn spent several years as a consultant and project manager for Clarkston Consulting, a full-service professional services firm. She was responsible for the delivery of vendor selection and implementation projects involving SAP and other ERP applications, integration technology, and enterprise portals.
Sharyn holds a B.S. in computer information systems technology from Purdue University.
Speed and agility are at the heart of business today — and, unfortunately, those are two areas in which IT is falling short. Two trends — neither of which is going away anytime soon...
In today’s business environment, the pressure to change, and change quickly and often, is growing, thanks to the proliferation of empowered customers, emerging global markets, regulation (and...
Recently my colleague David Cooperstein and I had the opportunity to meet with Robert Mead and Michael Mathias, the CMO and CIO respectively at Aetna. They will be speaking at our upcoming CIO-CMO...
Forget Brad and Angelina (or "Brangelina" for those that are more plugged in to pop culture than I), the new "it" couple is the CIO and CMO. Why? In the digital world we live in today, which...
Today we’re kicking off Forrester's IT Forum 2011 at The Palazzo in Las Vegas. Prepare for three exciting days of keynote presentations and track sessions focused on business and technology...
I am so looking forward to hearing from our keynoters next week at the Forrester's IT Forum 2011. Poised to be one of the most informative – and entertaining – will be Michael...
IT leaders are at a crossroads. To thrive in today's -- and tomorrow's -- rapidly changing digital world, they must move beyond the elusive idea of business and IT alignment, where business...
Are you ready for Forrester's IT Forum 2011? Mark your calendars for May 25-27 in Las Vegas and June 8-10 in Barcelona — and help us design an event that is as relevant and productive...
A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to submit your questions for Stephen Gillett, EVP, CIO, and GM, Digital Ventures, Starbucks. Stephen will be giving a keynote address on how to elevate the role...
Is it me or do you feel like everyone is restructuring their IT organization – or at least talking about it? Chatter among CIOs often turns into a debate over the merits of plan-build-run...
Forrester’s IT Forum 2010 is right around the corner, and much of Forrester’s research community is gearing up for a great event. Having spent a considerable amount of time working...
CIO job tenure is now averaging 4.6 years, according to the Society for Information Management. That’s up – way up -- from the 2-3 year average that we saw just a few years ago....
Economic relief is in the air. When Cisco executive John Chambers is in a "sunny" mood and describes revenue growth as “dramatic,” you know that positive signs will shortly be all...
IT-related jobs are set to grow through to 2016. Sounds like good news — increased demand equals more career opportunities, specialized training, and job security (and maybe higher...
It’s kind of intriguing, in some twisted way, that articles popped up like 8 Gadgets That Will Be Huge in 2010 or that 2009’s 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries includes MIT’s...
We’ve become curious ever since we interviewed Linda Cureton of NASA a few months ago, when we were a bit surprised to discover that she has an active blog (her Thanksgiving entry...
I’ve met many CIOs, all with their own unique challenges and approaches to overcome them. But despite their differences, all CIOs ask me the same question: “what is the next big...
There is certainly no shortage of books to read about how to do a better job in 2010. One of those just noted is "8 Things We Hate About IT" by Susan Cramm. Given a quick review of...
This caught my eye recently in a CIO-focused publication. Titled “Ten Ways To Re-energize Your IT Workforce”, it is advice from a workforce motivation expert: “Jon Gordon, a...
This past summer, Forrester conducted a series of in-depth interviews of CIOs (as well as some directors of IT planning and finance) to get a better understanding of their roles: how they see...
On Tuesday of this week I hosted a webinar along with Ted Schadler and John Rymer — "Harnessing Key IT Trends — Three Tech Movements CIOs Should Know." As promised, below are the...
Maybe it’s because it’s planning season. Maybe it’s because they’re just tired of focusing on cost-cutting and incremental improvements. Or maybe the IT to Business...
by Sharyn Leaver CIOs in all industries face a challenge (or opportunity depending if you’re a glass half full or empty kind of person): how to craft near- and long-term plans as technology rapidly...
by Sharyn Leaver It has been an interesting year – who would have thought that the federal government would have done such a thing – provided a Federal IT Dashboard of allocation of federal IT...
by Sharyn Leaver We had a pretty good idea recently (or so we thought) to look at the relationship between CIOs and their strategic vendor partners. The idea was to take a different perspective —...