Forrester ResearchEdit
Forrester Research, Inc. is a leading global market research and advisory firm with a focus on technology, business strategy, and customer experience. Founded in 1983 by George F. Colony, the company built its reputation by helping executives decide how to invest in technology, manage digital transformation, and optimize ROI. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Forrester serves a broad base of clients—ranging from global enterprises to government agencies—with a mix of subscription research, advisory services, and industry events. George F. Colony
Over the decades, Forrester has become synonymous with structured, data-driven evaluation of technology vendors and strategic guidance for decision-makers. The firm is widely known for its flagship frameworks and methodologies, which are used by senior leaders to compare offerings, justify expenditures, and chart paths to competitive advantage in a rapidly changing marketplace. In particular, its Forrester Wave vendor evaluations and its Total Economic Impact ROI studies have become standard reference points in technology procurement and business case development. Beyond long-form reports, Forrester produces bite-sized market analyses such as Now Tech and a steady stream of strategic forecasts and viewpoints that shape corporate planning. CIOs, CTO, and other senior executives regularly consult Forrester’s work when plotting digital strategies and vendor relationships.
History
Founding and early years Forrester was established in the early 1980s to bring disciplined market insight to technology investment decisions. The founder, George F. Colony, led the firm through a period of rapid expansion as information technology moved from back-office operations into core business strategy. The company’s early emphasis on practical, decision-oriented research set the template for a model that blends analytical rigor with accessible guidance for executives.
Expansion and growth Over time, Forrester broadened its coverage from core IT infrastructure to include disciplines such as customer experience, digital business strategy, data security, privacy, and the organizational implications of technology adoption. The firm also expanded geographically to serve clients around the world, maintaining offices and research footprints in multiple regions. This global reach enabled Forrester to track cross-border technology deployments, regulatory environments, and the evolving needs of multinational enterprises. Forrester Wave and Total Economic Impact projects grew in prominence as the company broadened its advisory capabilities alongside its research product lines.
Digital-era shifts Entering the twenty-first century and beyond, Forrester leaned into the integration of technology with business outcomes. The rise of cloud computing, software as a service, artificial intelligence, and data-driven decision-making positioned Forrester as a supplier of both the market context and the concrete financial business cases leaders require to approve large technology investments. The firm also aligned its offerings with broader agendas around customer-centric strategies, enterprise agility, and governance, risk, and compliance—areas where executives seek measurable impact and accountable oversight. digital transformation and customer experience became central themes in many Forrester reports and advisory engagements.
Business model and services
Forrester’s value proposition rests on a blend of research products, advisory services, and events that together help executives assess, select, and implement technology investments with confidence.
Research subscriptions and advisory services - Core subscription research provides ongoing analysis, data, and perspectives on technology markets, vendors, and industry trends. - Advisory engagements offer one-on-one guidance, tailored to the needs of a client’s organization, including assistance with vendor selections, architecture decisions, and program governance. - The firm emphasizes a data-driven approach to support decision-making, drawing on primary research, industry surveys, and executive interviews, with an emphasis on delivering measurable business outcomes. Market research
Frameworks and products - The Forrester Wave is a vendor evaluation framework that benchmarks products and services against a defined set of criteria, producing a scored profile and a published narrative to aid procurement decisions. The Wave covers criteria such as current offering, strategy, and market presence. - Now Tech reports offer quick, bite-sized views of market landscapes, helping clients understand the competitive set in sizable technology segments without the depth (and expense) of a full Wave. - Total Economic Impact studies quantify the financial impact of technology investments, presenting ROI calculations, risk considerations, and payback periods to justify expenditures to executives and boards. - Forrester also publishes Predictions and thought leadership focused on strategy, governance, and the practical steps organizations take to compete in the digital era. Now Tech and other short-form offerings complement longer research by delivering timely insights.
Events and thought leadership - In addition to written research, Forrester hosts industry events and conferences that bring together executives, analysts, and vendors to discuss trends, best practices, and implementation paths. These events function as platforms for benchmarking, networking, and disseminating the firm’s methodologies to a broad audience. customer experience and digital transformation topics are recurrent themes at these gatherings.
Business model discipline and independence - Forrester derives revenue from a mix of research subscriptions, advisory services, and events. Critics sometimes raise concerns about potential conflicts of interest given client relationships and advisory engagements; however, the firm maintains stated policies and processes intended to preserve independence of research and transparency in methodology. Proponents argue that this model allows Forrester to connect high-level industry insights with practical, defensible investment decisions. Gartner is a common point of comparison in these discussions.
Industry focus and audiences - Forrester’s coverage spans technology strategy, security and risk management, data and analytics, customer experience, and business strategy. Its research targets senior executives responsible for budgeting and governance, including CIOs, chief financial officers, and line-of-business leaders seeking to align technology choices with organizational goals. The firm’s frameworks aim to translate complex technology markets into actionable plans with clear ROI implications. cloud computing cybersecurity customer experience
Methodologies and frameworks
Rigorous, data-driven evaluation - The Forrester Wave uses a transparent, criteria-based scoring system to compare vendors across several dimensions. It emphasizes both the current market offering and the vendor’s strategic vision, with a scoring rubric designed to reflect real-world deployment considerations. This framework is widely used by procurement teams as part of formal vendor selection processes. Forrester Wave
ROI-focused impact assessment - The Total Economic Impact methodology frames technology investments in terms of business value, including benefits, costs, risk adjustments, and final outcome. TEI projects are used by firms to build business cases that can stand up to scrutiny from executives and boards, especially when negotiating large capital expenditures. Total Economic Impact
Segmented market views - The Now Tech framework provides compact market maps that identify key players in specific technology segments, helping organizations quickly understand vendor landscapes and the competitive dynamics without waiting for deeper investigative reports. Now Tech
Research ethics, data sources, and transparency - Forrester relies on primary research, client inquiries, executive interviews, market data, and publicly available information. The firm often discloses its methodologies and data sources in its published reports, and it emphasizes replicability and consistency across studies. Critics sometimes question sample representativeness or vendor influence in advisory work, a debate common to major market research firms.
Influence and market position
Competitive landscape and market impact - Forrester sits at the center of a competitive market research ecosystem that includes other major firms such as Gartner and various regional or domain-specific analysts. The firm’s insights influence how many large organizations allocate budget to software, cloud services, cybersecurity, and customer-facing technologies. In procurement discussions, the Wave and TEI reports are frequently cited as objective anchors to compare competing solutions and justify decisions to stakeholders. market research
Global reach and client base - With a global client base, Forrester’s work reflects a range of regulatory environments, industry sectors, and organizational maturity levels. This breadth supports the idea that the firm’s guidance is applicable to both mature incumbents and high-growth firms pursuing rapid digital modernization. digital transformation
Industry debates and reception - As with any influential research organization, Forrester’s work is subject to critique and debate. Proponents emphasize the value of standardized methodologies, transparency in evaluation criteria, and the ROI-centric language that helps executives defend technology investments. Critics may argue that paid advisory relationships can create perceived biases; defenders point to governance practices, public report disclosures, and an emphasis on outcomes as evidence of independence. Gartner
Controversies and debates
Independence, influence, and methodology - A recurring debate centers on whether research firms can remain truly independent when they also offer advisory services to clients who purchase technology. From a market-focused perspective, the answer rests on robust process controls, disclosure of potential conflicts, and the reproducibility of results. Forrester maintains that its published Wave and TEI methodologies follow standardized criteria and peer-reviewed procedures, intended to minimize undue influence. Critics, however, argue that the presence of advisory work alongside research can create incentives that skew findings. The practical stance is that rigorous methodology, third-party audits, and a clear separation between research and consulting functions help preserve credibility, while the market ultimately judges usefulness by the clarity of business cases and the realized ROI. Total Economic Impact
Woke criticisms and business pragmatism - In contemporary corporate discourse, some observers allege that research firms lean into social-issue rhetoric or corporate cultural agendas as part of broader industry trends. From a conservative-leaning, market-first perspective, these criticisms are often overblown. The core value proposition of Forrester, in this view, is to help executives reduce risk, improve efficiency, and accelerate growth through disciplined analysis of technology investments. Where discussions touch on workforce diversity, governance, or social responsibility, the argument here is that such considerations are proxies for talent quality, risk management, and long-run productivity. Proponents would say that embracing inclusive practices and sound governance improves decision quality and talent attraction, which ultimately supports shareholder value. Critics who label these moves as political activism are seen as missing the point that a modern, competitive business environment benefits from broad talent pools, compliant operations, and resilient governance. In short, the practical business case—not ideology—drives most large-scale technology decisions. This line of reasoning contends that dismissing these factors as extraneous misses the connection between human capital, risk, and return. customer experience privacy data security
Data privacy and ethical considerations - As data collection underpins many market research efforts, Forrester’s work often involves surveys, interviews, and analysis of anonymized datasets. The ethical handling of data, consent, and compliance with privacy regulations is central to maintaining legitimacy and trust with clients and respondents. Proponents argue that responsible data practices support credible insights and better decision-making, while critics may push for heightened transparency about sampling, weighting, and potential biases. The practical conclusion is that privacy-aware research strengthens the reliability of ROI analyses and market estimates that executives rely on to plan investments. privacy data security