Bobby Cameron

Vice President, Principal Analyst Serving CIO Professionals

Bobby serves CIOs. He is a leading expert on best practices for IT, including: business technology (BT), the empowered BT archetype, transformation from IT to BT, BT demand management, driving business innovation, business alignment, the business value of IT, BT strategic planning, IT governance, IT structure, IT/BT maturity, the marketing of IT, architecture and technology strategy, application development, IT operations, and serving the business.

His specialty is transformative technology use that drives business success in the emerging world of business technology (BT), like IT value creation, technology-based business innovation, and digital business networks.

While Bobby focuses his research on delivering IT excellence on the road to BT, he continues his close work with members of The CIO Group in the Forrester Leadership Boards, which he conceived and piloted in 2002. In this role, he writes CIO-targeted research, answers individual members' business and technology inquiries, and facilitates CIO Group member exchange meetings where CIOs discuss member-selected topics.

Previous Work Experience

Prior to taking on this role, Bobby's research focused on technology leadership — the impact of technology and services on organizations, budgets, and roles. Bobby previously led Forrester's research on IT services and enterprisewide applications, such as ERP, supply chain, and customer management, that can make or break a company's business performance. Bobby has also directed Forrester's software strategies service. Bobby has led Forrester's research into the transformation of IT governance, measuring IT's success, eBusiness organizations, business growth through applications, harnessing computing chaos, and distributed information infrastructures. He is also a recognized expert in many Internet/intranet technologies and client/server software issues, including packaged applications, databases, middleware, application design, decision support, software development, and security.

Before joining Forrester, Bobby spent five years as director of product management at Dun and Bradstreet Software (DBS), with responsibility for that company's client/server directions, decision support products, and tools and technologies. Bobby came to DBS from Dataquest, the San Jose, Calif.-based market research firm, where he spent two years as associate director for Northeast Research, focusing on business applications and systems. Prior to Dataquest, he spent nine years at Chase Manhattan's electronic banking business in Lexington, Mass., connecting 8,000 treasurers with 100 bank back offices worldwide. While at Chase, Bobby was MIS director and director of product management.

Education

Bobby holds a B.A. in economics from Harvard University and an M.S. in economics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Print Bio

Bobby Cameron

Vice President, Principal Analyst Serving CIO Professionals

Read Read Bobby's blog posts

Previous Work Experience

Education

Bobby holds a B.A. in economics from Harvard University and an M.S. in economics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Research Coverage

Bobby Cameron's Research

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For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Your Future Fit Technology Strategy: Adaptive, Creative, And Resilient

Embrace New Platforms, Practices, And Partnerships To Accelerate Customer Obsession

October 14, 2020Bobby Cameron, Allen Bonde

The 2020s ushered in an overnight forced migration to all things digital and virtual, thanks to a global pandemic crisis. And that's just the beginning. New customer preferences for values, privacy, and experimentation; work's redistributed future; and operating models redefined by shifting market dynamics will challenge even the best technology strategies. To succeed, CIOs need what Forrester calls a future fit technology strategy, rooted in customer obsession and enabling an unprecedented level of adaptivity, creativity, and resilience. Read this report to discover how a future fit technology strategy will reset the pace and focus of your tech investments.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Your Definition Of Future Work Should Shape Your Operating Structure

Classify Your Future Work For Successful Delivery In The Long Run

June 4, 2020 Gordon Barnett, Bobby Cameron

As firms become more customer obsessed, the CIO mandate becomes richer and more complex — and that shapes the work that IT organizations must do. To succeed in this ever-changing environment, CIOs must learn to build an adaptive IT operating model around the right work. Read this report to understand how the future definition of work is the foundation that drives the design of your adaptive IT structure. This report is one in a series of four reports covering the structure within an adaptive IT operating model.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Where To Adjust Tech Budgets In The Pandemic Recession

Our Checklist For Where Companies With Different Degrees Of Stress Should Look For Tech Savings And Investment Opportunities

May 19, 2020 Andrew Bartels, Bobby Cameron

Businesses around the world are facing the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. CIOs and their business partners will be expected to make bigger cuts to tech budgets than they have ever faced in the past. But not all firms face the same dire prospects. While some will struggle for survival, others will face the challenge of cutting in some areas but preserving or expanding in others. And some will have the financial resources and/or increased demand to expand tech budgets. To help companies in each of these situations, Forrester analysts have identified strategies for where and how much to cut (or expand) every part of your tech budget.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Don't Hinder Effective Business Execution With Rigid Reporting Lines

Power Your Firm's Customer Obsession — Evolve From Functional To Adaptive Structures

May 12, 2020 Gordon Barnett, Bobby Cameron

As firms become more customer obsessed, the CIO mandate becomes richer and more complex — customer led, insights driven, fast, and connected. Succeeding in this ever-changing environment means CIOs must learn to have an adaptive IT operating model. CIOs who adhere to a stagnant model will struggle. Instead, they should design reporting lines that can adapt to match changing business needs. Read this report to understand how to overcome one of the biggest issues facing the structure of an operating model: misaligned and unresponsive reporting lines.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Reset Technology Governance To Innovate And Drive Value

Beginner Level: Tech Governance Practices For IT Transformation

February 26, 2020Bobby Cameron

To innovate with technology in the service of customer obsession, tech leaders must develop a solid foundation for technology governance. Technology governance — the policies, frameworks, and processes that facilitate funding and resource allocation, risk management, and measurement of progress — plays a critical yet often overlooked role in maximizing the business value that technology delivers. This report examines the actions tech leaders must take to lay the foundations for effective tech governance.

For CIO Professionals

REPORT: The Top 10 Technology Trends To Watch: 2018 To 2020

Ten Trends Will Help You Maximize The Value Of Business Technology

October 19, 2017 Brian Hopkins, Bobby Cameron, Ted Schadler, Rusty Warner

Maximizing the value of your business technology investments requires an understanding of trends — not just as interesting reading but as vital clues to your firm's future success and, possibly, even survival. CIOs must demand trend analysis that goes deeper than trite statements about artificial intelligence, digital platforms, or meshes. Our 2018 to 2020 trends do exactly that. Read this report to understand the top 10 trends and how they will change the nature of your business.
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

REPORT: The Top 10 Technology Trends To Watch: 2016 To 2018

The Age Of The Customer Will Drive Firms To Increase Their Investments In End-To-End Technology Solutions

September 8, 2015 Brian Hopkins, Bobby Cameron

Five years into the age of the customer, investments in mobile, cloud, big data, predictive analytics, and social technologies are booming. But unlike previous technology cycles, tech investments will continue to grow rather than diminish throughout the refinement period. This year's top 10 tech trends demonstrate why; a shift is underway from cyclical, invention-led spending on point solutions to investments targeting customer-driven, end-to-end value. Enterprise architects should read this report to understand the trends that are enabling continuous customer value innovation from end to end — across journeys, channels, and the enterprise.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: The Emerging Technology Trends That CIOs Should Care About

August 13, 2008Bobby Cameron

Today's technology trends may appear like only incremental changes compared with historic changes like ERP and the Internet, but Forrester believes that we are in the initial phases of a major technology innovation and growth wave called "IT everywhere." We are witnessing multiple trends that, when combined, will drive a dramatic change in technology adoption and use. Some of these trends — like X Internet, mobile, SOA, and BPM — have been around for a few years but are just gaining the footing required to launch them into enterprise use. Others — including Technology Populism, Digital Business Architecture, security and risk management, IT ecosystems, the Information Workplace, master data management, and Dynamic Business Applications — are just truly coming online. CIOs must continuously assess these trends to successfully navigate this new wave.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Engaging Customers With Technology

Take An Outside-In View Of The World

February 8, 2016Bobby Cameron

Technology brings together technology and traditionally customer-facing roles like marketing, sales, service, brand/product management, and fulfillment to deliver superior (digital) customer experience. The increasingly crucial role that digital technologies play in customer engagement elevates the CIO role in business. Read this report to understand how the age of the customer requires tech management to transform into an outside-in function that plans, builds, and runs technology according to customers' expectations.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Forrester's Balanced Scorecard Helps Redefine How You Manage Performance

Make Business Outcomes And Agility The Key Metrics For Your Team

September 15, 2016 Martha Bennett, Bobby Cameron

Forrester developed its IT Balanced Scorecard for CIOs almost a decade ago, based on the original Balanced Scorecard framework proposed by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton. In 2014, we updated this framework to reflect that — in an age where powerful customers are disrupting every industry — companies will have to change how they develop, market, sell, and deliver products and services. CIOs and their teams need new metrics to track transformation and performance. This report discusses Forrester's current Tech Management Balanced Scorecard.