Build A Software Sourcing Strategy To Deliver Your Firm's BT Agenda

This report describes Forrester's vision of strategic software sourcing for sourcing and vendor management (SVM) executives. You have a crucial role to play in furthering your organization's business technology (BT) agenda, in securing commercial agreements that encourage optimum outcomes from BT software projects while also minimizing costs — but it is more difficult than ever for you to fulfill that role. Standard procurement techniques don't work with large, powerful software companies, whether it is the big four (which continue to be the foundation of most enterprises' software strategies), or newer but now fully emerged providers such as salesforce.com and VMware. This report describes a better way for sourcing decision-makers to deal with their major software providers that places negotiations in the holistic context of the firm's overall software sourcing strategy, not merely as part of an individual license transaction. It will explain how some firms are using this method to secure better-aligned commercial models that drive better BT project outcomes and lower costs. This report was originally published on January 14, 2013; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy, most recently in December 2014.