Forrester has issued their 2008 report on customer satisfaction in the computer marketspace, and Apple Inc. comes out on top.

The report is based on approximately 4500 surveys, covers the year 2008, and looks at a number of areas relevant to the area of computer usage (note this is not an Apple versus Microsoft comparison) and breaks down as follows (the higher the score the better):

1. Apple, overall customer satisfaction rating 80%
2. Gateway 66%
3. HP 64%
4. Compaq 63%
5. Dell 58%

You can get the complete report here.


BeateNetworks on StumbleUpon
BeateNetworks on Technorati

BeateNetworks on Digg

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Amidst the seemingly constant barrage of talk of bailouts, job loss, credit crisis and other negative images coming from the media these days, it's quite easy to get the impression that the economy is in a free fall and will never recover. The impression created is not a good one. Of course the news is very real and the pain is very real, but it is important to try to take a longer view and remember that things will recover. So let's look at the latest from Forrester.

Forrester Analyst Andrew Bartels updated his outlook report recently, which was originally published in September:

Our U.S. tech market forecast now assumes that the 0.5% decline in US real GDP in Q3 2008 will accelerate in Q4 2008 and the first half of 2009 before a weak recovery starts in the second half. This projection is similar to that of other economic forecasters, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the economists polled on a regular basis by The Economist magazine. Equally important, prices will fall in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009 due to the sharp drop in oil and commodity prices. The result will be actual declines in nominal or inflation-adjusted GDP in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009.

This does track with other forecasts, although until the new administration is in place, it's all still a guessing game about what exactly will be done to restructure the economy. Bartels does acknowledge this by conceding that his estimates could be wrong:

A five to seven quarter recession is the most likely alternative to the four quarter model. The likelihood of a seven quarter recession is 35% caused by an inadequate stimulus package with spreading recessions in European, Asian, and emerging markets feeding rising trade barriers.

Which sectors are most at risk?

- Computer equipment will continue to fall in 2009. It will fall 3.1% in 2009.

- Communications equipment growth will slow to 0.8% in 2009

- Software purchases will slow to 3.4%

- IT consulting will slow to 2.2%

- All areas except for computer hardware are expected to post mid to high single-digit growth for 2010.

What is Bartel's reasoning for the optimism?

- Declining gasoline prices

- Declining interest rates

- Increased demand in Brazil, India, Russia, and China

- Obama's economic stimulus program

Let's hope he is correct in his assessment.

The source report can be found by clicking here.





BeateNetworks on StumbleUpon
BeateNetworks on Technorati

BeateNetworks on Digg

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Back in July I discussed the idea that corporate blogs are tantamount to being Press Releases 2.0, a term which I made up as a result of covering a Forrester report about the topic of corporate blogs being extremely boring.

The supposition in which I engaged was as follows. Press releases are usually made-up bland corporate speak which are largely ignored as far as content is concerned. They represent a form of old media advertising which we all still utilize, but as a form it is very boring. The trend amongst corporate blogs according to the Forrester report, was to generally be bland and use corporate-speak. Hence, my take on it was that corporate blogs are nothing more than Press Releases 2.0.

Fast forward six months to a new Forrester Report (click here for link) which shows that most web readers distrust corporate blogs:

Company blogs are in a vicious cycle now. Those companies that selfishly blog about their products will reinforce the idea that corporate blogs can't be trusted. This will make it even harder for new corporate bloggers to be seen as anything other than company shills.

That's exactly my point. If you use your company blog to do nothing more than advertise for your company, you are doing yourself a disservice. Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 are all about building trusted communities which place a value on information. Be a shill and you will be shunned. Use old fashioned press releases to spew the company line, use your blog to share insight.

Some other key stats from the report:

- 16 percent trust corporate blogs

- 77 percent trust email from people they know

- Reviews are trusted by 60 percent

- Social networking profiles of friends are trusted by 43 percent

- The Yellow Pages are trusted by 48 percent of respondents,

- Newspapers are trusted by 46 percent

- Magazines and radio are trusted by 39 percent

- TV by 38 percent

- Females are just slightly more trusting of blogs than males

What these numbers tell me is that trust is built through reputation and relationships. If your blog is little more than a repeat of your TV ad, you're not doing Enterprise 2.0.







BeateNetworks on StumbleUpon
BeateNetworks on Technorati

BeateNetworks on Digg

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

According to the latest from Forrester, there are a number of Web 2.0 "collaboration" technologies that will rise in usage in the enterprise, and a few that will also decline. Noticeably absent on the list are virtual worlds, but in a separate report Forrester discusses how interoperability (or lack thereof) is an issue with virtual worlds. But that's a topic for a separate post.

Returning to the subject of this post, Web 2.0 in the enterprise, "collaboration" is the buzzword now for enterprise solutions, and increasingly is a term we see used in Second Life, usually in the same sentence with the word "enterprise." For Second Life, this might be a survival tactic dreamt up by Linden Lab, or perhaps they've seen these numbers:

While so much of the buzz around Web 2.0 has focused on the business-to-consumer market, the greatest opportunity today for vendors is in the business-to-business collaboration space. Some Web 2.0 collaboration technologies have shown a faster-than-normal life cycle, so it is critical for vendors to take stock of the enterprise tools that have the greatest long-term potential and invest wisely in those technologies.

Forrester previously estimated the enterprise Web 2.0 collaboration market will hit $1.8 billion by 2013. The enterprise Web 2.0 TechRadar study is based upon an analysis of previous research and interviews with industry experts, vendors responsible for building or implementing these technologies, and enterprise customers and users.

The B2B collaboration market is nearly $2 billion in size and is the "best opportunity" for tech vendors right now. It's the enterprise that is hot right now:

Web 2.0 collaboration technologies solve problems that enterprises have today, but most companies have not used these tools anywhere near their potential. This new research illustrates to enterprise users where the smart money is invested and where to place their strategic bets. In the current economic climate, Forrester believes collaboration tools can save enterprises operation costs by getting people and processes together quickly and efficiently.

But Forrester is specific which collaboration technologies will grow and which will decline and which will not be mentioned. First, those that will grow:

- Social networks will transform the nature of work. Social networks provide context to content. Cultural resistance exists, but Forrester believes this will eventually break, allowing workers to connect with like-minded colleagues and enabling a collaboration channel that previously didn't exist in the enterprise.

- Wikis help transform collaboration. One of the most promising Web 2.0 technologies for the enterprise, users report success with Wiki endeavors, particularly when sponsored by business leaders and connected to business processes, and the market shows signs of strong growth.

- Blogging is not going away — but it does not capture or hold the attention of an enterprise audience. Social networks will breathe new life into internal blogs by providing more context to blogged content, but Forrester found that blogging alone does not capture the attention of an enterprise audience.

- RSS is underappreciated in the enterprise. This ubiquitous technology provides a mechanism to get content to people where they need it, rather than expecting people to find it.

Honorable mentions:

Other technologies included in the TechRadar include microblogs, prediction markets, widgets, mashups, and social bookmarks.

Those in decline, with the caveat that these will still remain popular, however their use in the enterprise is of limited importance:

- Podcasting is on the decline. Users tell Forrester that podcasts in the context of enterprise productivity and collaboration are neither very engaging nor immersive, and the vendor landscape is shrinking.

- Forums are underused. While forums will continue on as a fundamental enabling technology for collaboration, the marketplace is flat, and forums will become part of larger community-focused packages.

The one collaboration technology not mentioned:

- virtual worlds.

It's understandable that this is the case. Virtual worlds are still immature as a market space, and don't cleanly fit into the web 2.0 paradigm. And until virtual world platforms allow much better security and robust application development and IP rights control, they will likely remain a novelty item on the list of enterprise applications.





BeateNetworks on StumbleUpon
BeateNetworks on Technorati

BeateNetworks on Digg

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Inforworld has a short article which discusses the new realities facing the area of IT offshoring and takes a swipe at the large research analyst firms, albeit in a somewhat roundabout manner. The reason is that the analysts were claiming that offshoring and outsourcing of IT would continue to be a robust market, but that was before the Wall Street credit crisis reared its ugly head.

Now that market isn't looking all that wonderful, and the credit crisis makes a good jumping off point. However, further down in the article may be the real reason that this model is in jeopardy.

Many people right now are worried about the bad news that continues to come from Wall Street, with a palpable sense of fear and trepidation. As the world watches nervously at the proposals and debates being tossed around in the political sphere, those of us in the business sector are trying to get a sense of how this might affect us who are specifically in the general market area of Information Technology.

As we have covered in several posts on this blog (search for topics under Gartner, Forrester, and IDC), the general consensus amongst the major research firms has been that spending in the IT sector will slow, but some areas such as virtualization, SOA, and Enterprise 2.0 will continue to get attention. However these prognostications happened before the news of the Wall Street problems. So Forrester CEO George Colony has come out with the statements on his blog that are encouraging:

Quickly: Forrester predicts a technology slowdown lasting three to four quarters, driven by an expected mild recession.

Forrester uses its extensive primary research with consumers, large companies, and vendors to continually forecast tech spending and the health of the overall economy. Here's what we're seeing.

Note that this isn't too far off from previous research. We all expected a hit in spending, specifically as he delineates:

The financial services sector (investment banks, regional banks, local banks, mutual fund companies, hedge funds, securities firms, credit card issuers, etc.) represents about 18% of the US IT market. The Wall Street portion (Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America,Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, et al.) is approximately a third of that, or about 6% of total U.S. IT spending. The troubled firms (Lehman, Merrill, Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie, Freddie) represent only 2% of IT spending -- this is the portion most in danger of being cut.

Now if your IT business deals with that specific sector, then expect a tough time ahead. However for the rest of the IT sector:

The biggest risk to the tech market comes, not from the Wall Street collapse, but from a collateral U.S. recession. Forrester expects a mild recession in the U.S. and Europe lasting through Q3 and Q4 of 2008, and Q1 of 2009. While tech spending grew 8% in the U.S. in 2007, we are forecasting tech purchases to be up 5% in 2008, and up 6% in 2009.

We'll keep watch to see what Gartner and IDC have to say in the coming weeks, but if your business is diversified or lies outside the scope of the financial services market, count yourself lucky.

BeateNetworks on StumbleUpon
BeateNetworks on Technorati

BeateNetworks on Digg

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

The US economy is in bad shape, and the troubles in the financial markets are beginning to affect the tech sector. Spending on the consumer side was expected to decline, but most analysts had some hope that the enterprise IT sector would weather the storm a bit better. However, that may not be the case as it appears that the downturn in IT spending is real, according to Forrester Research. However, in a glimmer of possible good news, that downturn appears to be regional, affecting the US more than it affects Europe.

Since 2000, Enterprise IT spending has been less than robust with many organizations pulling back on spending as a result of the overzealous spending that occurred during the runup to Y2K and the dotcom fiasco. So it was expected that 2008 would be the year where enterprise start investing, especially in areas such as SOA, Security, Enterprise 2.0, WOA, and Green IT. To some extent this has been the case, but Forrester is reporting:

More than 40 percent of large businesses have cut their IT budgets this year due to the global economic slowdown

That's significant, since these are cuts in established budgets, which means that money will not be spent. Further into the report, we have more detail:

- Forty-three percent of firms have already cut their overall IT budgets in 2008 in reaction to the slow down in the global economy, while 24 percent of firms have put discretionary spending on hold. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said the economy has had no impact on their IT budgets.

Translated: well over 70% of the firms surveyed are affected adversely by the economy.

- Asked how the economy will affect IT services spending, 70 percent of respondents said they will likely negotiate lower rates with suppliers, and 16 percent said they have already cut their IT services spending.

This would seem to support the first number in that the number of firms affected is significant.

- IT departments in the financial services industry were hit hardest -- 49 percent of IT shops in the financial services sector have cut their budgets. At the other end of the spectrum is the media, entertainment, and leisure industry, where only 39 percent of respondents said they have had to reduce spending.

- IT departments in North America have been affected by the economy more than their European counterparts: 49 percent of North American firms have cut their IT budgets compared with 31 percent of respondents in Europe; although it should be noted that the Forrester survey was fielded in Q2 2008 prior to the deteriorating economic conditions in Europe.

Again this makes sense as the meltdown in the financial sector continues and it is primarily being seen in North America. However, another interesting trend in the report is the growth of outsourcing as opposed to the growing amount of dissatisfaction with outsourcing:

- The demand for services holds steady. Forty-five percent of firms plan to increase their use of applications outsourcing, while 43 percent of firms are increasing their use of infrastructure outsourcing. Forty-three percent of respondents said they are moving more work offshore.

Backed by this:

- Satisfaction with outsourcing remains low. While overall firms are satisfied with their decision to use a third party, 52 percent say their biggest challenge with existing IT services and outsourcing relationships is that cost savings are lower than expected. Other noteworthy challenges include inconsistent or poor service quality (40 percent) and the inability of the vendor or contract structure to respond rapidly to changing business needs (35 percent).

Overall things look rather bleak if this report is accurate, and there is no reason to believe it isn't. Whether the recent steps with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the US will bolster confidence remains to be seen, and this report represents trends that were in place prior to the most recent move by the US Govt, and of course directions could change drastically if the presidential elections in the US yield to the democrats this year. So there's a lot of uncertainty out there. In the meantime, one thing appears certain, expect some pushback if you're dealing with enterprise IT contracts. It looks like it will be a bumpy ride for the next few months.







BeateNetworks on StumbleUpon
BeateNetworks on Technorati

BeateNetworks on Digg

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

The saga of Apple in the enterprise is continuing to impress the major analysts, or perhaps the Apple reality distortion field has finally permeated Gartner, Forrester, and IDC. All joking aside, a new Forrester report indicates that OSX continues to grow in the enterprise, and this despite Apple not having an enterprise IT sales and marketing strategy in place.

Whether you love or hate Apple, you have to admit that their story this decade has been impressive, and it continues to impress. Growth in enterprise IT, in the absence of a sales and marketing strategy to that demographic, is almost unheard of. So in many respects, this story is all the more impressive.

But before we look at Forrester's latest, let's review some of what we've covered regarding Apple so far to date.

1. In February, Gartner lists Apple as one of the top ten trends for IT over the next several years.


2. In May, Gartner issues a report calling Windows Vista "doomed."


3. In June, the Yankee Group issues a report showing that Macs are now found in 80% of enterprises.


4. In July, Forrester issues a report calling Vista "the New Coke."


Now Forrester has a new report which shows that Macs and OSX are actually growing in the enterprise, despite Apple's lack of marketing towards the enterprise. Here's the chart that is most interesting:





Forrester attributes these factors as leading to the enterprise growth:

Strong iPod branding and sales have led to greater consumer sales of Apple PCs; in turn, this has lured enthusiasts and small workgroups with supple IT departments beyond the standard domain of design and media

The way the process has worked is that consumers buy iPods, iPods lead to growth in Mac adoption for personal use, the adoption of Macs for personal use has made them more palatable for a sector of the enterprise IT world. Still, Forrester says Macs can make even more headway into the enterprise if Apple does the following:

Desktop operations professionals now realize that:

1. Emerging client virtualization solutions shift the focus from standardized hardware to more secure and manageable PC architectures and operations.

2. The success of the iPhone is driving many to improve the end-to-end experience with Macs.

3. Tech Populism drives younger, more tech-savvy workers to buy whatever tools they need, to work smarter, faster, and cheaper.

Apple, if it chooses to market to the enterprise, has two trojan horses, assuming Forrester is correct. The iPod and the iPhone. Of the two, the iPhone is the ultimate killer app for enterprise penetration, if Apple can get IT concerns addressed. It remains to be seen if Apple will really focus on the enterprise, but we have to think that these trends are something that the folks in Cupertino must be discussing, so don't be surprised if Apple marketing starts to show more focus on the enterprise.




BeateNetworks on StumbleUpon
BeateNetworks on Technorati

BeateNetworks on Digg

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

In May we posted a report stating that Gartner was calling Windows Vista "doomed" and we noted that the outlook sounded bleak for Microsoft. Now Forrester has issued a new report that eviscerates Vista and worse, shows signs that Windows 7 is too far away to be of much help (it's currently slated for a 2010 release).

The Forrester report calls Windows Vista "the New Coke" which is a reference to the infamous 1985 marketing debacle which Coca-Cola wrought upon itself. In the case of Coca-Cola however, the mistake was reversible because Coke was able to reinstate its previous product line and continue forward. In the case of Vista, backpedaling to XP is not a viable long term strategy for Microsoft, and as users begin to defect to alternative operating systems, those users are likely to be lost to Microsoft for the long term.

Eighteen months after the release of Windows Vista, enterprise adoption is still in the single digits, and the majority of that seems to have come from upgrades of legacy Windows versions, not XP. Here’s a tip: Consider following the lead of Microsoft’s most important partner Intel and re-evaluating the case for Vista. Windows 7 is penciled for release in Q1 2010.

Here's the chart that is the foundation of the tale of Vista:




According to this Forrester chart, the situation is that XP is not going anywhere, and whatever anemic growth does exist with Vista is at the expense of Win 2k. The growth of OSX and Linux are not yet apparent, but as Gartner noted, OSX is expected to grow in the enterprise by 2011, so it's too early to determine if they are correct in that assessment. Nonetheless, Forrester notes that now is an opportune time for Apple to get some enterprise sales focus, so it remains to be seen if they actually do so.

One other key point in the report concerns browsers and Flash players. On the browser side, Firefox is gaining more acceptance in the enterprise. It is now used by nearly 20% of enterprises, and is up from 17% usage in January. In addition, Flash players are used in 97% of the enterprises. This should indicate that web developers and Enterprise 2.0 development needs to be browser independent. It also indicates that Silverlight has yet to make headway in the enterprise.




BeateNetworks on StumbleUpon
BeateNetworks on Technorati

BeateNetworks on Digg

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

In what is claimed to be the largest survey ever of North American consumers, Forrester Research is reporting that Generation Y, the small generation of 18 to 28-year-olds, which amount slightly more than 10% of the population (38 million US adults), sets the pace for technology adoption.

Conversely, Generation X, the demographic of 29- to 42-year-olds, which amount to approximately 20% of the population (63 million US adults), uses technology when it "intersects with a personal need or fulfills a desire." What this means is that Generation Y, according to Forrester, is the first truly digital generation in that technology is their lifestyle rather than a tool to be used to assist a lifestyle.

“One of the questions we’re asked most frequently is the difference between Gen Y and Gen X, and this year’s data clearly shows the distinction. Gen Xers use technology when it supports a lifestyle need, while technology is so deeply embedded into everything Gen Yers do that they are truly the first native online population.”

Nine in 10 Gen Yers own a PC, and 82 percent own a mobile phone. But it is technology use that sets this generation apart: Gen Y spends more time online — for leisure or work — than watching TV; 72 percent of Gen Y mobile phone owners send or receive text messages; 42 percent of online Gen Yers watch Internet video at least monthly.

In contrast, 32 percent of Gen X households own an HDTV, and 29 percent have a DVR. In the past three months, 69 percent of online Gen Xers shopped online and 65 percent banked online, higher percentages than any other generation. Gen X is also ramping up its Internet and mobile activities, including reading blogs (21 percent of online Gen Xers do it at least monthly, up from 15 percent in 2007) and texting (61 percent of Gen X mobile subscribers do it today, up from 49 percent in 2007).

While these numbers are not surprising, it is worth noting that we have entered an era where "being digital" is all todays kids will know. The analog world of the time before the web is becoming a distant memory, and in a few decades will be merely a footnote on Wikipedia.

As Bob Dylan sang many years ago, "the times they are a changin'"

BeateNetworks on StumbleUpon
BeateNetworks on Technorati

BeateNetworks on Digg

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner