For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

REPORT: Now Tech: Big Data Fabric, Q2 2018

Forrester's Overview Of 18 Big Data Fabric Vendors

April 17, 2018 Noel Yuhanna

You can use big data fabric to provide a comprehensive view of data resources, secure big data sources, and accelerate big data initiatives. But to access these benefits, you'll first have to select from a diverse set of vendors — vendors that vary by size, functionality, geography, and vertical market focus. Enterprise architecture (EA) professionals should use Forrester's Now Tech report to understand the value they can expect from a big data fabric provider and select vendors based on size and functionality.

For Customer Insights Professionals

REPORT: Q&A: Six Questions To Ask Before Diving Into Text Analytics

Make The Most Of Your Textual Enterprise Data

April 4, 2018 Boris Evelson, Elizabeth Cullen

Your company's understanding of its customers will be incomplete unless you can harness all types of enterprise data — structured and unstructured. While customer insights (CI) pros are comfortable with structured data analysis, they are only beginning to explore opportunities to use text analytics. In this report, CI pros will get answers to six key questions before they start on an often perilous journey of mining and analyzing unstructured enterprise data. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy. We have elaborated on the uses cases and methods for text analytics in this update.

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

REPORT: Battle Of The Data Lakes: Customer Insight Versus Enterprise Platform

February 16, 2018 Michele Goetz

The race for the most compelling customer experience (CX) is intensifying, and customer insights are the rocket fuel for CX engines. But internal battles over the "right" scope for a data lake — enterprisewide versus customer focused — are getting in the way of many firms' progress. Enterprise architecture (EA) pros should read this report to learn Forrester's strategy for a productive and effective data lake coexistence strategy.

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

REPORT: Insight Platforms Connect Data To Action

Intermediate Level: Technology Practices For Insights-Driven Businesses

January 24, 2018 Brian Hopkins

The pace of innovation and availability of data are outstripping firms' ability to keep up. Read this report to understand how an emerging class of software — insight platforms — can better connect data to action, which is what your business really wants. You likely already have several or perhaps many of these platforms. This report will help enterprise architecture (EA) pros and their peers identify them all, fill critical gaps, and assign different insight platforms to strategic or tactical roles. This is an update to a previously published report.

For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Digital Insights Are The New Currency Of Business

Beginner Level: Technology Practices For Insights-Driven Businesses

January 12, 2018 Brian Hopkins, Ted Schadler

Businesses are drowning in data but starving for insights. Worse, they have no systematic way to consistently turn data into action. This can't continue. Demanding customers and competitive pressures require firms to treat insights — not just data — as a business asset. Firms need to create "systems of insight," a combination of people, process, and technology, to close the gap between insights and action. Read this report to see how CIOs can lead their firms to find, test, and codify digital insights in software, leading to more intelligent engagement and better decisions. This is an update to a previously published report.