Mark Grannan

Senior Analyst Serving Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Mark serves Application Development & Delivery (AD&D) Professionals and helps Forrester clients understand digital experience solutions to drive better engagement with their customers and partners. His research focuses on the architectural evolution of digital experience (DX) platforms, including web content management (web CMS), digital self-service scenarios and portal technologies, responsive web design (RWD), and digital performance.

Previous Work Experience

Prior to his current role as an analyst, Mark was a researcher on the AD&D team and senior research associate on the Sourcing & Vendor Management (SVM) team. In that role, he focused on SVM organizational structure, business case strategy, and automation tools while continuing to stay abreast of the dynamics of global IT services relationships. He interviewed hundreds of IT professionals and technology vendors while conducting primary and secondary research for research reports and consulting engagements, including pricing and licensing agreements, sourcing global telecom services, and defining innovation in outsourcing relationships. Before joining Forrester, Mark served in marketing and operational roles at Tappé Associates, an architecture and planning firm, and MDT Advisers, a quantitative investment management firm.

Education

Mark graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in international relations with a concentration in economics.

Print Bio

Mark Grannan

Senior Analyst Serving Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Previous Work Experience

Education

Mark graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in international relations with a concentration in economics.

Research Coverage

Mark Grannan's Research

Most RecentMost Popular

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Vendor Landscape: Digital Experience Portals

Ding-Dong! The Salesman's Dead — Long Live Self-Service

October 13, 2017Mark Grannan

Portal scenarios are critical to delivering secure web and mobile experiences on top of back-end and transaction systems of record. They must be part of your modern digital experience (DX) platform strategy. The landscape of portal vendors is rapidly evolving as horizontal, vertical, and DIY options take on stalwarts like IBM and Oracle. This report helps application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals understand the market for digital experience portal solutions.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Implement Essential Change Management Practices To Improve Digital Experience Delivery

Continuous Improvement: The Digital Experience Delivery Playbook

October 11, 2017 Danielle Jessee, Mark Grannan

So, you've finished your first major digital experience delivery project: You've launched the app, modernized the website, and integrated your digital experience technologies. Now, you must create a sustainable digital experience delivery organization that is able to quickly adapt to future conditions in addition to delivering on your needs today. This report helps application development and delivery (AD&D) pros understand how to do this by incorporating a robust change management strategy to support ongoing improvements to digital experience initiatives. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: The Integration Imperative Of Digital Experiences

Vision: The Digital Experience Delivery Playbook

September 29, 2017Mark Grannan

Customers demand consistent and contextual experiences, yet digital experience (DX) strategies, teams, and technologies often reinforce silos across a customer's journey. Application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals must integrate these silos, make integration core to their DX platform strategy, and collaborate with marketing and business colleagues to build a shared vision for DX technologies — all while keeping pace with the demand for net-new experiences including integration points. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Digital Experience Platform Trends, 2017

Landscape: The Digital Experience Delivery Playbook

September 21, 2017Mark Grannan, Ted Schadler

Digital experience platform technology evolution has crossed a threshold in the past two years. Enterprise organizations are starting to shift to "all-in" strategies with a single vendor for their front-office execution. On the flip-side, API-first strategies are increasingly prevalent, which casts the value of a platform "anchor" into question. Based on the findings from the Q3 2017 Forrester Wave™ evaluation of digital experience platforms, we highlight four forces shaping eight key trends for enterprise organizations that are investing in their digital experience platform capabilities.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: The Forrester Wave™: Digital Experience Platforms, Q3 2017

Oracle Leads An Evolving Market With A Balance Of Product And Platform

September 21, 2017Mark Grannan, Ted Schadler

In our 28-criteria evaluation of digital experience platform providers, we identified the 14 most significant ones — Acquia, Adobe, BloomReach, Episerver, IBM, Liferay, Magento, OpenText, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP Hybris, SDL, Sitecore, and Sprinklr — and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals make the right choice.

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Drive Unified Digital Customer Experiences With Better Technology Strategies

Executive Overview: The Digital Experience Delivery Playbook

May 23, 2017Mark Grannan, Stephen Powers

Digital customer experience has become a key business differentiator, and application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals must step up to support their firms' initiatives. To partner with marketing and business leaders, AD&D pros must transform their organizations, platforms, and processes. This executive overview describes this opportunity for AD&D — and how to create a digital customer experience delivery strategy that supports your marketing and business counterparts, from vision to implementation to ongoing optimization. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Vendor Landscape: Digital Experience Platforms

Three Classes Of Vendors Tackle The Multichannel Experience Mandate

May 16, 2016Mark Grannan, Danielle Jessee

Application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals need an array of software to create and manage the digital experience (DX). They must evaluate, implement, integrate, and build front-end experiences from a fragmented product landscape. Tech vendors try to help by bringing more complete digital experience portfolios to the market. In this report, we define the components of a digital experience platform, explore the vendors delivering these solutions, and provide insight into the approaches they take to enable the delivery of digital experiences. This report is an update of a previously published report. Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Digital Experience Technology Integration: Go Beyond Just A Basket Of Solutions

Tools And Technology: The Digital Experience Delivery Playbook

January 19, 2017Mark Grannan

Technical integration is a major pain point for application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals supporting digital experience (DX). While vendors increasingly want to tell an end-to-end story to support unified experiences, organizations will almost never adopt a single-vendor solution set. Instead, they must own their digital experience architecture and strategy. AD&D professionals must develop this strategy to connect content, data, and systems to unify workflows that drive unified experiences over time and across touchpoints. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: The Forrester Wave™: Digital Experience Delivery Platforms, Q3 2014

Vendors From A Variety Of Backgrounds Vie To Be More Than A Basket Of Solutions

July 22, 2014 Stephen Powers, Mark Grannan, Anjali Yakkundi

In Forrester's 29-criteria evaluation of digital experience delivery providers, we identified the 13 most significant software vendors — Acquia, Adobe, Demandware, Digital River, HP Autonomy, hybris, IBM, Intershop, OpenText, Oracle, salesforce.com, SDL, and Sitecore — in the category and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report details our findings about how well each vendor fulfills our criteria and where they stand in relation to each other in order to help application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals select the right products for their digital experience delivery needs.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: The Forrester Wave™: Digital Experience Platforms, Q4 2015

The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

October 22, 2015Mark Grannan, Ted Schadler, Stephen Powers

In Forrester's 40-criteria evaluation of digital experience platform vendors, we identified the 10 most significant software providers — Acquia, Adobe, Demandware, EPiServer, IBM, Oracle, SAP hybris, Salesforce, SDL, and Sitecore — in the category and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report details our findings about how well each vendor fulfills our criteria and where they stand in relation to each other to help application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals select the right partner for their digital experience platform needs.