age of the customer

Developers: Performance Testing Deserves Your Attention! Developers, you have to stop treating performance testing as an afterthought. Our Forrester Analytics Global Business Technographics® Developer Survey data shows that over half of developers spend less than an hour a day performance-testing their code. When performance testing is done at the end, just before deployment, you’ll need […]

On March 7, 2014, I wrote a report called “The Clash Of The Digital Platforms” in which I identified five companies that had a unique status in the world of technology, innovation, and overall business. The five companies were (alphabetically) Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. In a byline piece I wrote for Ad Age’s […]

Years into the digital era, we see many companies that haven’t invested enough in modernizing their core. The so-called back office and other operational systems can seem disconnected from goals such as innovation and experience — but they are intricately linked. A legacy, monolithic core hinders innovation, growth, and employee and customer experience. For example, […]

After delivering talks at several recent industry events and having a wide range of discussions with digital leaders, it’s clear that organizations are becoming increasingly pragmatic when it comes to digital. They are getting back to basics and looking to deliver small, manageable chunks of innovation. They are also tossing aside their digital road maps […]

During the SiriusDecisions 2019 Summit (May 5–8, Austin, Texas), I will join Sirius Research Director and new colleague Jeff Clark in presenting the Future Vision session on marketing operations. Here’s why I’m so excited about it: Marketing operations professionals haven’t exactly been sitting at the cool kids’ table throughout the last decade. For much of that […]

Firms Are Failing To Differentiate With CX Today, customer expectations are outpacing brands’ ability to adapt and differentiate with customer experience (CX). Take Australia, for example. Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) data shows how CX quality in Australia languished, and yet again, no brand managed to make it into the excellent category. On average, […]

Is There A Resurgence For The CIO Role? For years, the CIO role looked like it had been moving toward “chief infrastructure officer,” with many executives feeling like the transformative part of their job had been carved out and handed to chief digital officers. We have always been dubious that CDOs without deep technology expertise […]

To help retailers and brands plan for 2019, Claudia Tajima and I are interviewing our Forrester peers to discover how their 2019 predictions will affect retail for our series: “Applying 2019 Predictions To Retail.” Recently, Claudia interviewed J. P. Gownder, VP and principal analyst on Forrester’s CIO team and an expert in automation technologies. Here’s what J. P. thinks retailers and brands should expect and focus on regarding […]

The feedback on Consumer Marketing 2019 is rolling in: Attendees loved our focus on the direct-to-consumer (DTC) challenger brand trend, why consumers are responding so positively, and how traditional brands can learn from these up-and-comers. In fact, the audience was so engaged with the content and speakers that questions kept coming in long after the […]

To help retailers and brands plan for 2019 and beyond, Claudia Tajima and I are interviewing our Forrester peers to discover how their 2019 predictions will affect the retail industry for our blog series, “Future Of Retail: Applying 2019 Predictions To Retail.” In our blog series, we will explore how predictions across AI, automation, CX, […]

I occasionally find people mapping their SOC capabilities to the ATT&CK framework by checking off specific techniques that they have shown they are able to detect with the intent of measuring coverage within their SOC. In this blog post, I hope to clarify why this strategy may be misleading. There Are No Bad Actions, Only […]

Wall Street loves a digital business. These technology-driven innovators, which put customer acquisition, retention, and experience at the center, have a different way of looking at the world. They are rewarded with growth and investment. And it’s not just digital natives. Digitally advanced incumbents, firms such as Accenture, Capital One, Microsoft, and Philips, also see […]

The hype around 5G is growing. Governments are auctioning off the necessary spectrum; telcos are testing the first 5G networks; handset vendors are announcing the first 5G smartphones; business users are exploring potential 5G use cases; and consumers are seeing media reports about the possibilities of super-fast broadband. And yet, are you familiar with the […]

Leading companies recognize that complacency is the enemy of success. They also recognize that, to maintain a differentiated advantage over their competitors, they must do more than incrementally fix and improve existing experiences. Companies gunning to capture more market share or create new markets must innovate just like a startup — and this begins with […]

On April 4, IBM announced plans to sell its marketing technology (martech) assets to investment management firm Centerbridge Partners. Upon completion of the deal, likely midyear following the customary regulatory and closing requirements, Centerbridge will form a new, standalone company based around the former IBM tech. Current IBM Watson Marketing leadership and staff will continue […]

Investment into changing security culture and behavior via security awareness and training (SA&T), if done correctly, has the ability to transform your security team’s function and reach. We need to invest in these people-related initiatives to harden the ever-important human firewall. But there’s also more to this story: Changing the culture around security has the […]

Since RSA this year, the drumbeat of Zero Trust across the market has continued to grow louder. Almost daily, the inquiries and conversations around Zero Trust and ZTX are coming in at an ever-increasing rate. That’s a good thing. In truth, most of the inquiries are from end user clients now, vice the vendor side […]

Modern supply chains are faster, more dynamic, and more volatile than ever before. The digital economy thrives on scouring the globe for new markets and new sources of supply. Furthermore, agile supply networks outpace rigid supply chains, anticipating demand from empowered customers. But in contrast with rigid legacy supply chains that bind known and trusted […]

Does your company have a diversity and inclusion (D&I) program? There’s a good chance you do — D&I is currently having its moment in the spotlight. But the D&I conversation at many organizations neglects a crucial element: a process for how the company will actually fulfill its commitment to D&I in the experiences it designs […]