It is no surprise that a significant amount of work is being done at marketing service providers (MSPs), customer engagement agencies (CEAs), and direct and digital agencies to differentiate their organizations abilities. The vendor landscape is crowded and competitive, which creates a complex environment for marketers and customer intelligence professionals. How can they choose the best partners for their key business needs?

I am happy to have joined the Customer Insights team at Forrester Research, where I will continue the research and thinking on the CI services landscape (agencies, MSPs, CEAs, and data providers) previously covered by Fatemeh Khatibloo while she builds her research on personal identity management (PIDM).

Forrester defines CEAs as: “Agencies that focus on defining customer-oriented business strategies and mapping them to tactics and execution. CEAs help clients maximize customer profitability and optimize customer experiences by applying data and analytics to every interaction.” We believe that CEAs will not be the only type of business emerging from the MSP space. My research will focus on developing trends within the marketing services landscape, as well as studying emerging provider models. I will also support the CI team’s mission to support customer-obsessed business strategies. See our mantra here: CI’s Imperative In The Age Of The Customer: Drive Business Success.

I welcome your comments about issues, concerns, and/or trends you have witnessed within the CI services landscape and invite you to connect with me via the Forrester inquiry or briefing teams.  I’ll also be at Forrester’s Forum For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals, November 5–6 in Chicago.

I am excited to be a part of the Forrester Research team and I look forward to collaborating with you.