For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Ten Considerations For Voice Portal Upgrades

Develop Your Priorities Before Making An IVR Vendor Selection

by Elizabeth Herrell, September 1, 2010

Infrastructure decision-makers who plan to upgrade their interactive voice response (IVR) system should consider changes in customers' expectations, technology improvements, and cost models before launching vendor evaluations for voice portal (VP) upgrades. . . .

For Business Process Professionals

Benchmarks For CRM Selection And Deployment

Size Up Your CRM Initiative Compared Against 99 Projects

by William Band, August 26, 2010

How does your customer relationship management (CRM) project compare with those at other organizations? Forrester surveyed 99 organizations that are using one of 19 leading CRM suite solutions to understand their CRM solution purchase patterns, buying . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Market Overview: Smartphone Management

Empower Workers With The Freedom To Choose Their Preferred Mobile Devices

by Benjamin Gray, Christian Kane, August 26, 2010

Within the next 12 to 18 months, most IT managers worldwide will significantly alter their client computing strategies, and this will have a profound impact on smartphone adoption and management. Necessitating this change is a significant generational . . .

For Security & Risk Professionals

Market Overview: Fraud Management Solutions

Seven Tenets Of Effectively Combating Fraud Costs

by Andras Cser, August 25, 2010

Fraud causes companies to lose money in many ways: They face losses due to chargebacks, unrecoverable transfers, and unnecessary shipping costs; and spend extensive time and resources investigating many transactions. Fraud can impact a company's goodwill. . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Define Your Mobile Development Strategy

Use Forrester's Mobile POST Method To Create A Mobile Development Plan

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, August 24, 2010

Developing mobile applications used to be an arcane activity pursued by highly specialized developers, but no more. The surge in popularity of Android devices, BlackBerries, and iPhones has application development professionals gearing up to incorporate . . .

For Business Process Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Business Process Management Suites, Q3 2010

Pegasystems, Appian, IBM, and Software AG Lead The Pack

by Clay Richardson, August 24, 2010

Forrester evaluated 11 leading business process management (BPM) suite vendors against 148 criteria reflecting the requirements of business process professionals running large-scale BPM programs. We found that Pegasystems and Appian lead the pack with . . .

For Business Process Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Order Management Hubs, Q3 2010

Oracle EBS And Sterling Commerce Lead, With SAP, Oracle Siebel, And Microsoft Close Behind

by Roy C. Wildeman, Craig Le Clair, August 19, 2010

In Forrester's 112-criteria evaluation of order management hub (OMH) vendors, Oracle E-Business Suite and Sterling Commerce led the pack among the Leaders because of their ability to support both end-to-end ordering processes as well as order hub infrastructure. . . .

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 Customer Intelligence Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Online Testing, Q3 2010

Adobe And Autonomy Lead A Pack Of Strong Performers

by Joe Stanhope, August 13, 2010

In Forrester's inaugural evaluation of online testing vendors, we researched eight companies across 82 criteria. We found that Adobe and Autonomy lead the pack because of their consistent strength across the full range of capabilities and their support . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Database Tools Fill Gaps In Vendors' Bundled Tools

DBAs Gain Advanced Yet Usable Features For Heterogeneous DBMS

by Noel Yuhanna, August 12, 2010

Vendors continue adding new and improved database administration features to their database management systems (DBMS) to automate more functions, yet enterprises with large and complex environments still struggle, especially with security, availability, . . .

For Business Process Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Open Source Business Intelligence (BI), Q3 2010

Actuate BIRT Leads, With Jaspersoft Enterprise, SpagoBI, Pentaho Enterprise, And Pentaho Community Close Behind

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, Boris Evelson, August 10, 2010

Comparing open source BI technologies is often an apples-to-oranges comparison: 1) not all vendors include the same functionality in the free community versions of the software versus commercial open source versions that carry license and/or support cost, . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Organizing Apps Maintenance Work For Outcomes

Preparing To Reorganize Work Is Key To The Effort

by Bill Martorelli, August 2, 2010

Many customers that are seeking the next threshold of value are interested in gaining the benefits of managed outcome relationships but are still struggling to execute the transition. Why? Transitioning to managed outcomes is more than merely adjusting . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Responsibilities And Requirements For Common Architecture Roles

by Jeff Scott, July 29, 2010

Forrester has assembled job descriptions for five roles found within a typical enterprise architecture (EA) practice — the group of IT professionals who report to the manager of EA and provide services across the IT landscape. Based on analyst expertise . . .

For Content & Collaboration Professionals

It's Time To Break Up With Your Custom-Coded WCM

by Tim Walters, Ph.D., July 26, 2010

It's hard to believe, but some enterprises still use custom-coded Web content management (WCM) solutions. However, consumer demands have forced firms to shift from just managing and publishing Web sites to the daunting complexities of multichannel customer . . .

For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

Market Overview: SMB eCommerce Solutions

A Guide To Selecting Your eCommerce Solution Across North America And EMEA

by Brian K. Walker, July 26, 2010

A solid technology foundation is one of the keys to success for eCommerce businesses looking to optimize their customer experiences, market effectively and creatively, and scale their business to make more meaningful contributions to their companies. . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Choosing The Right Pricing Model For Your Applications Maintenance Engagement

by Bill Martorelli, July 20, 2010

Applications maintenance pricing models are in flux. While many clients want to move beyond staff augmentation relationships, finding the right type of pricing to employ in the managed context can be a challenge. Maintenance engagements lend themselves . . .

For Business Process Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites Customer Service Solutions, Q3 2010

by William Band, James G. Kobielus, July 19, 2010

Forrester evaluated the customer service and support capabilities of 19 leading CRM suite solutions against 196 criteria. Customer service and business process professionals face a diverse range of products to sift through to support the quest to create . . .

For Security & Risk Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Vulnerability Management, Q2 2010

Qualys Leads; Rapid7, nCircle, McAfee, And Lumension Follow

by Chenxi Wang, Ph.D., July 15, 2010

In Forrester's 53-criteria evaluation of vulnerability management vendors, we found that the market is rife with mature products. Qualys led the pack because of its strong vulnerability assessment capability, forward-thinking strategy, and exceptional . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Market Overview: Service-Level Management Tools For Outsourcing Governance

by Patrick M. Connaughton, Philipp Karcher, July 15, 2010

The advent of new service delivery models and the rise of multisourcing have complicated an already difficult task for clients — monitoring vendor performance and ensuring that contractual obligations are met. As a result, sourcing and vendor management . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Hands-On Retail Pricing Execution

How To Streamline Retail Pricing Execution

by George Lawrie, July 14, 2010

As retailers adopt more-sophisticated price planning tools to contend with more-complex assortments and more merchandise with shorter life cycles, they face practical challenges in executing their plans. Forrester found that while many retailers expect . . .

For Content & Collaboration Professionals

eDiscovery Market Consolidation Continues Its Steady March

How Mergers And Acquisitions Will Impact Your eDiscovery Strategies

by Brian W. Hill, July 9, 2010

Organizations struggle to keep up with eDiscovery demands and are burdened by a proliferation of point products. Navigating the eDiscovery marketplace isn't trivial, and many enterprises report challenges in shifting data across disparate applications . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Five New Microsoft Licensing Twists That Every IT Buyer Should Know

Buyers May Need To Refine Their Microsoft Licensing And Adoption Strategies

by Duncan Jones, Christopher Voce, July 9, 2010

Forrester has studied Microsoft's recent pricing and licensing changes and found several that could have profound implications for enterprise IT departments, including price increases and repackaging for Office, changes to the rules on remote access and . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Forrester's Software Asset Management RFP/RFI

by George Lawrie, July 9, 2010

Forrester developed the request for proposal/request for information (RFP/RFI) tool based on past experience and research into the widest range of possible environmental requirements. The tool includes information to compile to evaluate vendors' software . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Defuse Software License Time Bombs With Software Asset Management

How To Defuse The Software Asset Management Time Bomb In Your Basement

by George Lawrie, July 9, 2010

As large firms place ever more critical reliance on software apps and tools, restructure through mergers and acquisitions, and outsource elements of software development and delivery, they face challenges in ensuring that they neither overprovision nor . . .