digital business

Every company will face disruption from new market entrants and innovations that seek to solve some of the world’s most difficult issues. To get a sense for the potential impact of such innovation, a new Forrester report, “Disruptive Innovations Are Happening In Every Industry” by James Staten and Michele Pelino is a must-read for CIOs […]

IBM’s journey to rebalance its enterprise software portfolio around areas such as AI, hybrid cloud, and supply chain shifted into high gear with an agreement to sell a group of its collaboration and experience products to HCL Technologies for $1.8 billion, as announced on December 6. The products involved in the deal are: Notes, Domino, and Connections for collaboration, Appscan and BigFix in the security arena, plus several […]

After a few quiet years, Thought Machine, the fintech behind a new core banking platform called Vault, is stealing the limelight, first with its announcement of a strategic partnership with Lloyds Banking Group, then with a similar partnership with the digital bank Atom. And today we’ve learned about another partnership, this time with IBM. We […]

Too many firms are heavily focused only on what their customers are looking for today. This makes sense if you are struggling to address these current, tactical needs. But if you are meeting these needs, your focus needs to shift to:  Your customers’ needs evolution. Your customers’ ultimate objectives — beyond what they use you for. […]

We recently evaluated 12 midsize digital experience agencies in “The Forrester Wave™: Midsize Digital Experience Agencies, Q4 2018.” While nobody likes the word “midsize,” we all should pause and consider why a smaller agency can often be the best fit. In the 36 customer reference calls, we heard over and over again that these smaller […]

Forrester predicted in 2018 that digital would reach the hard stuff, the core of business: organization structure, operating models, and endless discussion of platforms. These themes are far from done; however, 2019 sees a distinct shift in emphasis — winter is coming. In 2019, economic uncertainty stalks the halls, and budgets will see pressure. Many firms […]

On November 5, in line with tradition, a huge array of sparkling displays took place across the UK to celebrate Guy Fawkes night (“Remember, remember, the fifth of November . . . ”). As days get shorter, Bonfire Night is also a friendly reminder that it’s that wonderful time of the year (again) when we […]

At its TechEd 2018 Barcelona event last month, SAP announced that it is adding robotic process automation (RPA) to its software suite, starting in early 2019. Two aspects of this announcement are particularly interesting. The first is that SAP has chosen to build its own RPA capability instead of partnering with any of the existing […]

For years now we’ve been promoting the concept of “fail fast” as if failure is awesome, something to aspire to. In many ways, it is. Thomas J. Watson Sr., the chairman of IBM in its industrial heyday, advised “If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.” I can find you a dozen similar quotes, […]

In the spirit of Halloween, I’m going to write about the bogeyman of almost every industry out there: GAFA. In the last few years, I have answered many versions of the same question: what will Google (insert Apple/Facebook/Amazon) do to us (insert financial services/healthcare/retail/media)? This fear is grounded in some reality. All four firms are […]

I’m getting more and more psyched about our first-ever Data Strategy & Insights 2018 Forum as I work on the sessions with my colleagues here at Forrester and with our external speakers. The topics are spot on for what organizations need from data and analytics today, and the sessions are going to be inspirational and […]

Context And Timing Is Critical For Robots And Humans To Work Well Together

Huawei held its flagship Connect 2018 conference in Shanghai from October 10 to 12. The event, which featured more than 200 sessions, attracted over 25,000 visitors and more than 1,500 partners from around the world. By the end of 2017, Huawei’s annual revenue had exceeded US$92 billion — half of which comes from global markets […]

When your CEO asks you for your digital strategy, you could go away and huddle up with your team for a month and produce some voluminous document full of TLAs, only to have it sit on the shelf for the next two years. Instead, simply give your CEO a copy of your business strategy. After […]

I am really honored to have represented Forrester in the jury of the eCAC40/Les Echos Index measuring the digital maturity of the largest French companies quoted at the French stock exchange (CAC 40 Index). The results are as follows (top 10 only): Société Générale  Total Schneider Electric Air Liquide Orange BNP Paribas Atos ENGIE AXA […]

It may not seem like it yet, but climate change is altering the world so drastically that all enterprises will need to undergo a transformation to avoid going extinct. Earlier this week, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported (with high confidence) that at the rate we’re going, global warming of 1.5°C is likely […]

In past Forrester/InfoWorld Enterprise Architecture Awards competitions, we had named themes to align entries and winners to the current needs of modern enterprise architecture (EA) programs. This year, we went theme-less to simply find the most dramatic stories of EA’s strategic leadership. But the winners of the 2018 Forrester/InfoWorld Enterprise Architecture Awards show that there […]

Digital banks are not eating the incumbent banks’ lunch (yet!), but they’re certainly demonstrating voracious appetite. In the UK, Monzo recently hit the one-million-customer mark, while Revolut has almost tripled its customers to 2.8 million in a year. Lifestyle app Alipay, the digital wallet and payments solution operated by Ant Financial, now has 700 million […]

Do you see the chief digital officer (CDO) as some kind of digital superhero, swooping in to rescue a dysfunctional business and transform it into a digital powerhouse? The truth is that chief digital officers can be very effective with strong CEO backing, but they are not always necessary. A business-savvy, customer-obsessed CIO can be […]