'Net Features : forrester research

Forrester on IT Spending

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:21:00 GMT

According to the latest Enterprise IT Services Survey by Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR), IT contractors and consultants will see the deepest decreases in spending, while systems integration and outsourcing services will have the most increases.

Unlike during the last recession from 2001 to 2002, when outsourcing and offshoring experienced growth from firms seeking to reduce internal IT costs, the picture for IT services is much more mixed in terms of spending plans. 30 percent of executives surveyed said they plan to increase spending on systems integration and project work, 26 percent plan increases in applications outsourcing, and 25 percent expect to increase spending on infrastructure outsourcing. However, 41 percent of executives expect to reduce spending on contractors, and 34 percent foresee lower spending on IT consulting.

“As the global economic downturn puts pressure on IT services spending, firms are taking a range of actions to deal with the cuts,” said John McCarthy, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. “The pressure to reduce IT spending is going to continue well into 2010. The data shows no quick turnaround — it’s going to be a tough year for services firms as clients increasingly ask them to justify the ROI for IT projects and provide more value for a lower price.”

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Know Thy Customer: E-mail Communication Preferences in Focus

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:00:00 GMT

You might know where your customers are located and what they are interested in, maybe even what other sites they vist frequently, but do you know what marketing channels those customers prefer? If not, you're apparently not alone.

Data from a joint study by ExactTarget and Forrester revealed that while more than 85 percent of all marketers are executing multichannel campaigns, less than half know what channels their customers prefer. The study also found the key to selecting the best channels for customer communication is to know something about customer preference and behaviors; however, only 32 percent of the marketers surveyed know how customers behave across channels and only 37 percent know what channels their customers prefer to use.

Additional highlights from the Customer Knowledge is Marketer Power include:
- 80 percent of marketers surveyed claim customer preference is a key factor but only 12 percent ask customers their preferred frequency for email messages.
- 47 percent of marketers surveyed do not take any actions based on customer preferences.
- 27 percent of marketers surveyed measure whether efforts in one channel boost results in another.

The study was one of two research pieces released today as part of ExactTaget's Marketing Preferences Research Bundle.

“The bottom line is that in an industry where new digital communications make it easier to send a variety of messages, it’s imperative that marketers not only send the right message, to the right person, at the right time, but that they use the right channel as well,” said Morgan Stewart, ExactTarget’s director of research and strategy. “The ExactTarget Marketing Preferences Research Bundle provides marketers a complete library of research to improve their multichannel marketing effectiveness.”

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E-Commerce Web Page Response Times

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:52:00 GMT

Akamai Technologies and Forrester announced the results of a survey on website performance and its correlation with an online shopper's behavior. What they found is that consumers are seemingly growing more impatient with slow loading web pages.

Results revealed that two seconds is the new threshold in terms of an average online shopper's expectation for a web page to load and 40 percent of shoppers will wait no more than three seconds before abandoning a retail or travel site.

In 2006, Akamai conducted a similar study to understand consumer reaction to a poor online shopping experience. The 2009 study is a follow up to examine how customer expectations around online shopping have evolved in the past three years.

Additional finding from the joint study include:

- Online shopper loyalty is contingent upon quick page loading, especially for high-spending shoppers. 52 percent of online shoppers stated that quick page loading is important to their site loyalty, up 12 percent from the 2006 study.

- Shoppers often become distracted when made to wait for a page to load. 14 percent will begin shopping at another site, and 23 percent will stop shopping or walk away from their computer.

- Retail and travel sites that underperform lead to lost sales. 79 percent of online shoppers who experience a dissatisfying visit are less likely to buy from that site again, up 17 percent from the 2006 study. 64 percent would simply purchase from another online store, up 16 percent from the 2006 study.