For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

How The Adoption Of Several Important Emerging Technologies Affects Sourcing

by Chris Andrews, August 31, 2010

Many sourcing and vendor management (SVM) professionals who Forrester speaks with know that they need to play a proactive role in sourcing emerging technologies but have difficulty identifying which technologies matter most for their business. Interest . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Maximize Your Energy Savings From Server Virtualization With Three Process Improvements

Virtualize More, Virtualize More Efficiently, Virtualize On More-Efficient Servers

by Doug Washburn, August 26, 2010

Server virtualization is already saving you money, so why not save some more? Reducing energy costs is among the many reasons to virtualize servers. It's increasingly attractive, since the costs to power and cool a server over its life may actually exceed . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Justifying Your Cloud Investment: Test And Development

Improve Time-To-Market And Lighten Lab Management Burdens

by James Staten, August 26, 2010

It's one thing to say infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals need to invest in infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud computing; it's quite another to justify the financial and resource commitments. This requires a business case that . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Web Site User Experience 2010: Marketing Software Vendors

Forrester Applies Its Web Site User Experience Review Methodology To Four B2B Software Vendors

by Vidya L. Drego, August 25, 2010

Forrester evaluated the user experience of the Web sites of four large business-to-business (B2B) marketing software vendors: Alterian, Oracle, SAS, and Unica. Overall scores were mediocre: No site received a passing grade. SAS came out on top, standing . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Global Banking Platform Deals 2009: Regions And Functionality

A Cold Breeze And Only One Hot Region Characterize The 2009 Market

by Jost Hoppermann, August 19, 2010

Forrester surveyed 17 vendors of globally deployed banking platforms on their 2009 deals. The regional analysis shows that Asia Pacific has been the single highly active region. Most of the remaining regions of the world show different levels of mediocre . . .

For Content & Collaboration Professionals

The Next Wave Of Office Productivity

Mobile, Cloud, And Collaboration Are Leading The Transformation

by Sheri McLeish, August 16, 2010

Microsoft Office remains a mainstay in workplaces. Despite media buzz about online alternatives like Google Apps Premier Edition or pragmatic arguments about free Open Office suites, most enterprises have long-terms plans to continue their Microsoft Office . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

The Digital Drop: IT Opportunities In The Oil And Gas Industry

by Holger Kisker, Ph.D., August 13, 2010

The information and communications technology (ICT) industry is facing the next big wave of verticalization. With business challenges becoming increasingly complex, ICT solutions to address and solve these challenges need to become more tailored to specific . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Who's Who In IT Management Software 2.0

Mapping Top Vendors' Portfolios — And Future Perspectives

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., Jean-Pierre Garbani, August 12, 2010

Within the next five years, IT organizations and their role in enterprises will evolve through major structural changes. If the present IT technology sustains its exponential growth rate, IT organizations will have to shift their focus from manufacturing . . .

For Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals

Demand Insights: The SMB Software Market 2010

Small And Medium-Size Businesses Are Defying Gravity

by Tim Harmon, August 9, 2010

Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs), like their enterprise brethren, are shifting their technology focus from IT to business technology (BT). As their focus on business solutions — as opposed to technology products — continues to grow, SMBs are now . . .

For Technology Sales Enablement Professionals

Sales Enablement Defined

Sales Enablement Is The Bridge Between Go-To-Market Strategy And Tactical Execution

by Scott Santucci, August 4, 2010

Tectonic forces are at work transforming business relationships away from their traditional dependency on products and services toward a focus on business outcomes and results. Inefficiencies noted within a sales organization are only early warning signs. . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

TIBCO's Plan To Acquire Proginet Highlights The Growing Importance Of Managed File Transfer

Enterprise Governance Concerns Drive Increased Demand

by Ken Vollmer, August 3, 2010

In a move designed to provide enhanced governance capability for B2B data exchanges, TIBCO Software has announced that it intends to acquire Proginet. If approved, this acquisition will give TIBCO additional governance capabilities that enterprises need . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

A Market Taxonomy For ICT

Forrester's Definitions For Tech Product Categories, Industries, And Geographies

by Andrew Bartels, August 2, 2010

Forrester is expanding the breadth and depth of data that we provide to vendor strategists on the size and growth trends of the market for information and communications technology (ICT) solutions. Our goal is to provide data for vendors on the ICT market . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Hot Insurance Tech Companies To Watch In 2010: Q2 Update

by Ellen Carney, July 29, 2010

Effective vertical strategies are becoming more critical for tech vendors as they try to address the core business problems — not just the pure technical problems — of their customers. This is especially evident in the insurance industry, which emerged . . .

For Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals

The VSB Market Under The Magnifying Glass

The Very Small Business Profile: Growing, Young, And Mobile

by Tim Harmon, July 22, 2010

The very small business (VSB) market is growing in importance for an increasing number of tech vendors, in large part due to the fact that it is the fastest-growing company-size segment in terms of technology spending. Moreover, VSBs are broadening their . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

US And Global IT Market Outlook: Q2 2010

Despite Financial Market Jitters, 8% 2010 Global ICT Market Growth Is On Track

by Andrew Bartels, July 21, 2010

Financial markets in Q2 2010 have been shaken by fears that the Greek debt crisis will metastasize across the European Union (EU) and beyond. Nevertheless, Q1 demand data was strong; we continue to expect that the tech recovery will gain strength in the . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Focus Your I&O Budget On Three Key Initiatives

Fifty Percent Of Your I&O Budget Should Go To Three New Initiatives Supporting Business Expansion: Desktops, Data Centers, And Industrialized Operations

by Robert Whiteley, July 16, 2010

I&O needs to focus the second half of 2010's budget on growth. Why? Because nearly half of the IT operating and capital budget is being set aside for new IT initiatives and increasing capacity to support business expansion. For I&O, this means . . .

For Content & Collaboration Professionals

Update 2010: Topic Overview: Enterprise Content Management

by Stephen Powers, July 16, 2010

Enterprise content management (ECM) continues to attract interest from organizations trying to manage the explosion of unstructured content. Enterprises want three things from ECM: to help make content more findable and more actionable; to mitigate content-related . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

The Evolution Of Cloud Computing Markets

by Holger Kisker, Ph.D., Pascal Matzke, Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 6, 2010

Looking past the current industry hype surrounding all things cloud, Forrester believes that cloud computing is a sustainable, long-term IT paradigm, and the successor to previous mainframe, client/server, and network computing eras. Underpinned by both . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

The Writing On IT's Complexity Wall

The Future Role Of IT Management Software

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, June 30, 2010

The past years have seen IT organizations struggle with issues of service development, deployment, and delivery. Forrester believes that these issues are directly linked to the increased complexity of IT, born from technology's diversity and exponential . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Global IT Budgets, Priorities, And Emerging Technology Tracking Survey, Q2 2010

Business View and IT View Technographics Survey, June 1, 2010

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Global Banking Platform Deals 2009

2009 Was Not The Best Of All Times

by Jost Hoppermann, May 28, 2010

Forrester surveyed 17 vendors of globally deployed banking platforms on their 2009 deals. Considering participants of both the 2008 and 2009 surveys, deal volume shrunk by 18% from 2008 to 2009. Oracle and Temenos remain the Global Power Sellers. They . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Tech Horizons: dynaTrace, When BTM Meets APM

A Solution That Bridges Business Transaction Monitoring And Application Performance Management

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, May 20, 2010

We live in a complex world. Growth in computing power, storage, and bandwidth is exponential. The direct consequence is that IT and business services have grown tremendously in size, diversity, and complexity. What could be managed in competency silos . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Five Steps To Selecting A Software Platform For Business Applications

How ISVs Should Take Customer Perception Of Mainstream Platforms Into Account

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., May 18, 2010

Independent software vendors (ISVs) that create business applications today rely on many existing software components to speed up their time-to-market. While many applications became agnostic to the underlying operating system, the selection of an SQL . . .

For Business Process Professionals

SAP Jump-Starts Its Innovation Agenda With Sybase

Strategic Acquisition Advances Plans For Mobile And In-Memory Computing

by Paul D. Hamerman, May 18, 2010

On May 12, 2010, SAP announced its intent to acquire Sybase for $5.8 billion. The acquisition aligns well with SAP's stated innovation agenda to harness in-memory computing, mobile technology, and software-as-a-service (SaaS). The cornerstone of the deal . . .

For CIOs

Do CIOs Care About IT Management Tools?

by Tim DeGennaro, Sharyn Leaver, May 17, 2010

CIOs are constantly working to run IT like a business — focusing on business orientation through capabilities like IT planning, portfolio management, and IT investment optimization. A myriad of vendors — from small niche players to traditional heavyweights . . .