Christopher Andrews

Much has been made over the past few years about the “new” digital technology imperatives – social, mobile, analytics and cloud (collectively referred to as “SMAC”). Though the IT industry is flush with reports about SMAC, lumping these technology capabilities together is both helpful — because they do represent a collective “what’s hot” in IT […]

I am just back from the whirlwind that is Nasscom India Leadership Forum 2013 in Mumbai, India. The Nasscom event is the premier event for the Indian IT services marketplace. Besides meeting great people, eating too much wonderful Indian food, and seeing action star and local legend Amitabh Bachchan in-person, the event provides a chance to check […]

I spent two days last week at an IBM Global Business Services (GBS) analyst event titled “Transforming the Front Office.” The event was designed for IBM to share its view of the future of the technology marketplace with industry analysts — and of course speak about how IBM fits into that role. What’s clear is […]

Services budgets represent 10% of annual IT operating and capital budgets[i], but Forrester sees considerable evidence that the influence of these IT Services vendors is proportionally higher — and growing dramatically. While there are several reasons for the rising importance of your services partners, at the most fundamental level Forrester sees that: Business professionals need […]

Year over year, Forrester hears from clients who are frustrated with their providers’ inability to provide innovation. In 2011, 60% of respondents to Forrester's Sourcing and Vendor Management Survey cited "Limited ability to define or provide innovation" as one of the top complaints when evaluating their suppliers. The frustrations behind these numbers include: “I have to push my suppliers for every bit of innovation […]

After two weeks at Forrester’s IT Forums (in Las Vegas and Barcelona) the Sourcing and Vendor Management research team came back more energized than ever. Why? We were able to spend a week interacting with our clients, who all face diverse challenges, yet remain very optimistic about the strategic value they can provide to their IT and […]

With Halloween just around the corner, it’s time to get creative about how you can scare the pants off of the people in your IT organization. I’ve been attending a fair amount of CIO events recently, and in the spirit of Halloween I put together a few costumes that I can guarantee will keep your […]

Today, Forrester and Harvard Business Review Press released the print version of Empowered, a book by Forrester veterans Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler. This book is a quick and worthwhile read for just about anyone who wants to consider the changing role of technology in the workplace. After several reads of this book, I have found that in […]

As many readers know, I have a strong interest in understanding the practical realities of innovation and want to help companies define what that "buzzword" means — what it is, who manages it, and why it's important (see my just-published report on the ecosystem of innovation services providers).  I believe Sourcing and Vendor Management (SVM) […]

I recently finished the draft of my report on the ecosystem of innovation services providers.  This report, to be published in July, explores the landscape of companies that are unified by a single purpose:  they are dedicated to helping their clients unleash their own innovation potential.  These are not companies who simply use "innovation" as […]

I’m back to blogging after a busy month of travel. Two weeks ago I attended Forrester’s IT Forum in Las Vegas, and I am preparing for IT Forum EMEA in Lisbon later this week.  Unfortunately, this week’s IT Forum is at the same time as the World Innovation Forum, which many of my professional colleagues are […]

I just had the chance to attend the "Front End of Innovation" (FEI) conference at the World Trade Center in Boston May 3-5. This event is sponsored by variety of innovation management suppliers, and included some great speakers like James Surowiecki (author of "The Wisdom of Crowds") and Sophie Vanderbroek (President of Xerox Innovation Group). […]

In my recent report, “Contracting for Innovation With Service Providers,” I argue that many sourcing and vendor management professionals have difficulty contracting for innovation, because the term “innovation” itself is elusive and subject to interpretation. In my research, I note that for sourcing professionals to effectively contract for innovation, they need to be able to […]

Over the past few months, I had the opportunity to interview representatives from 10 leading technology service providers about how they help their clients innovate.  My recent research summarizing those interviews is available to Forrester clients on our website. For those interested in the high level points I raised, here are a few of the […]

During a recent set of interviews with IT service providers on how they help their client’s innovate, I had the opportunity to speak with K Ananth Krishnan, CTO at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).  Ananth described to me what I consider to be one most progressive innovation programs I encountered during these interviews – it was […]

I just took a briefing from Jive Software about their new innovation management tool, Jive Ideation.  The fact that Jive is now formally dedicated to the innovation space is significant – a move that has ramifications for the broader innovation management market, and for sourcing professionals.  Forrester has been covering the innovation management market for […]

In my recent interviews with IT services providers on the topic of innovation, one of the key findings was the many different ways in which innovation can be categorized.  Some companies view innovation as simply an extension of their traditional R&D capabilities, others view their innovation as a way to prove their thought leadership, still […]

I just completed a day of analyst information sessions hosted by executives at Wipro Technologies. A few of my thoughts: Wipro is focusing on the concept of providing business value as a key aspiration. They talked quite a bit about their increasing ability to align with business customers and hone in on the metrics that would […]

Deloitte recently made two acquisitions that may not make front-page headlines, but for sourcing professionals, they are noteworthy.  In February/March Deloitte announced the acquisition of 1) dcarbon8, a carbon and sustainability consulting company that specializes in supply-chain management and carbon benchmarking and 2) Simulstrat, a company that pioneers “wargaming” and a spinoff from the department […]