Forrester Research
 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Nasdaq: FORR | |
| Industry | Market research Information technology |
| Founded | July 1983 |
| Founder | George F. Colony |
| Headquarters | 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Revenue | $480.8 million in 2023 |
Number of employees | 1,700+ |
| Website | forrester.com |
Forrester is one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world, empowering leaders in technology, customer experience, digital, marketing, sales, and product functions to be bold at work and accelerate growth through customer obsession. Forrester's unique research and continuous guidance model helps executives and their teams achieve their initiatives and outcomes faster and with confidence.
Forrester serves clients in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The firm is headquartered in Cambridge, MA with global offices in Amsterdam, London.[1], New Delhi, New York, NY, Norwalk, CT, Singapore, Stockholm, and Sydney.
History and Key Milestones
[edit]- Forrester was founded in July 1983 by George Forrester Colony, now chairman of the board and chief executive officer, in Cambridge, MA.
- The firm’s first clients included Air Products and Chemicals and IBM.
- In November 1983, the company’s first research report, "The Professional Automation Report," was published.
- In November 1996, Forrester announced its initial public offering of 2,300,000 shares.
- In November 2015, Forrester released "The Operating Model For Customer Obsession," a strategy that puts customers at the center of all business decisions and operations.
- Forrester has made a number of acquisitions over the past 20 years, including Giga Information Group, Jupiter Research, and Springboard Research, and SiriusDecisions, a research and advisory firm helping B2B executives improve the performance of their sales, marketing and product strategies.
- In May 2021, Forrester launched its flagship research product portfolio, Forrester Decisions, which brought the best of Forrester’s vision and strategy research together with SiriusDecisions’s operational research. The portfolio offers bold vision research, curated tools and frameworks, and hands-on guidance to help clients solve their most pressing business challenges. Forrester Decisions services guide technology, customer experience, digital, marketing, sales, and product executives and their teams to tackle their most pressing priorities and accelerate business outcomes.
Forrester's Bold Vision Research Themes
[edit]Forrester's signature research themes, also known as "Bold Vision" research, help organizations plan for the future by staying ahead of changing market trends and customer dynamics. Themes include:
- Customer Obsession: In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, customers hold more power than ever before. The customer comes first. This research theme helps organizations put their customers at the center of their organization’s leadership, strategy, and operations to survive and thrive.
- The AI Advantage: AI is fundamentally changing the way we interact with technology ─ and the world. It is the fulcrum that businesses rely on to enhance, empower, and engage employees and customers. This research helps organizations reap the benefits of AI and build a competitive edge.
- Future Of Work: Automation will define the future of work. With the rise of automation and intelligent technologies such as robots, AI, machine learning, and others, the pragmatic search for margin is introducing a speed of change and uncertainty not seen since the Industrial Revolution. This research helps organizations prepare for a continuously evolving landscape that involves adapting to shifts in the workforce, hybrid work practices, organizing around AI, and progressing on customer obsession.
- The Green Market Revolution: This research reflects a global market opportunity that will unfold over decades, similar to the first and second industrial revolutions, that is driven by new energy sources that will have a significant impact on economies and societies.
- The Trust Imperative: Gaining a competitive edge by seizing the opportunities ─ and avoiding the risks ─ of strengthening trust with customers, employees, and partners.
Forrester Models and Frameworks
[edit]Forrester’s models and frameworks provide a foundation, guidance, or methodology for organizing, planning, or executing a specific task, process, or project. They are designed to help organizations standardize their approach and ensure consistency in their efforts while allowing for flexibility and adaptation to unique circumstances. Forrester’s noteworthy models and frameworks include:
- Forrester's B2B Revenue Waterfall™ provides insights into revenue engine performance by breaking down the revenue process into distinct stages and paths. This helps organizations prioritize technology investments accordingly.
- Forrester's High-Performance IT model enables organizations to continuously deliver value by aligning IT strategy with the business, building trust on a foundation of security, privacy, and resilience, and empowering the business to adapt to changing market conditions and customer demand. This model also emphasizes how most IT organizations follow a dominant “style” ─ enabling, cocreating, amplifying, and transforming ─ that best aligns with their business objectives.
- The Forrester Opportunity Lifecycle framework illustrates how B2B organizations must operationalize the connections required to transform the revenue process into one that enables marketing, sales, and customer success to focus on buyer value and drive sustainable long-term growth.
- Forrester's Zero Trust information security model advocates three core principles: All entities are untrusted by default, least privilege access is enforced, and comprehensive security monitoring is implemented.
Forrester's Evaluative Research
[edit]Forrester’s evaluative research collects and analyzes data to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of a product, service, or process. It provides insights that can inform decision-making and guide improvements in future initiatives. Forrester’s Evaluative research portfolio includes:
- The Forrester Wave™ is a comprehensive evaluation methodology to assess technology vendors in a specific market and provide buyers with an unbiased guide to help them make informed purchasing decisions. Wave reports follow The Forrester Wave™ Methodology, a rating system that compares each vendor against others in the evaluation.
- Forrester's Landscape Reports define the market maturity, detail market dynamics and use cases, and provide a list of notable vendors or providers based on size, focus, and geography.
- The Forrester Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) is a benchmark study that can be used by brands to track their customer experience (CX) performance and make improvements to enhance customer loyalty and business growth.
- The Forrester Digital Experience Review (DXR™) evaluates the digital experiences that firms in a particular industry deliver to consumers. This research evaluates both the functionality integrated into each firm’s digital touchpoint, and the user experience (UX) that the touchpoint provides its users.
Forrester and Generative AI
[edit]In June 2023, George F. Colony issued a clarion call for companies to explore generative AI, predicting its widespread transformational impact. This was followed by the launch of Forrester’s own generative AI tool, Izola, in October 2023.
Forrester’s research empowers technology, marketing, security, and customer service leaders to seize the genAI movement on topics such as:
- Vendor genAI developments.
- GenAI's impact on the future of work.
- GenAI's impact on agencies and B2B marketing.
- How enterprises can navigate AI regulation.
- Security barriers to genAI adoption.
- GenAI's impacts on customer service and consumer trust in the technology.
- GenAI's impacts on financial services.
- How technology leaders can balance genAI's risks with its rewards.
- Chipmaker and social media companies' innovations with genAI.
- Key players in the AI Foundation Models For Language landscape.
Forrester Events
[edit]Forrester’s events offer insights and actionable advice to achieve accelerated business growth. Forrester’s portfolio of events includes Forrester’s B2B Summits, CX Summits, and Technology & Innovation Summits for North America, EMEA, and APAC, and its Security & Risk Summit.
Leadership
[edit]- George F. Colony, chairman of the board and CEO.