Forrester

Deconstruct Human-Element Breaches To Protect Your Workforce

When we predicted that “Ninety percent of data breaches will include a human element” in Predictions 2024: Cybersecurity, Risk, And Privacy, we learned that not all publications, standards, or regulations mean the same thing when they talk about “human element” breaches. Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report states that human-element breaches, which form 68% of total breaches, include social engineering, business email compromise (BEC), human error, pretexting, and use of stolen credentials. Australia’s definition from its Office of the Australian Information Commissioner includes some but not all of the above, and it adds insider threats and theft of assets to its figure totaling 30% of breaches. This inconsistency takes on a new dimension with the abundance of definitions and inclusions touted by vendor thought leadership, threat actor profiles, and breach data publications. Not only are human-element breaches inconsistently defined, recommendations for how to deal with these attacks are limited to one silver bullet: security awareness and training (SA&T). Yet in spite of 97% of organizations reporting that they undertake SA&T, BEC attacks have quadrupled, chief information security officers (CISOs) haven’t instilled security cultures in their organizations, training continues to cause friction for learners, and no one knows which behaviors increase the risk of what type of breach, let alone if they’ve changed. Our upcoming research on deconstructing human-element breaches shows that risks posed by and to humans are misunderstood yet expansive. They include established and emerging attacks such as deepfakes, data exfiltration by insiders, misuse of generative AI (genAI), physical theft or loss, and just plain human error. They are expected to accelerate and become more complex with the advent of genAI and the expansion of communication channels. This upcoming research aims to allow CISOs to discern human-element risks, communicate them to their confident yet confused stakeholders, and, most significantly, manage these risks. Current Training And Awareness Solutions Won’t Fix Human-Element Risk October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the month cybersecurity pros ask everyone to be more cyber-aware. Training and awareness, however, are not enough to address human-element risk. It may also not surprise anyone that SA&T is not the silver bullet that many will tell you it is. Enterprise email security, even as protection expands to messaging and collaboration apps, won’t stop all human-element breaches, either. In fact, there are no silver bullets! Each human-element breach is managed by one or more security tech categories and various supplementary controls. For example, to manage social engineering risks, you need email security, messaging and collaboration security, easily understood policy, continual training, and relevant phishing simulations. Treat human-element breaches holistically with people, process, technology, and oversight. Finally, if you haven’t gotten the memo yet, in February 2024, Forrester announced the move from SA&T to human risk management (HRM). Early adopters of these solutions demonstrate a significant change of mindset, strategy, process, and technology about how we approach an old problem in a new world. HRM solutions help organizations detect and measure a broad range of actual human security behaviors, quantify the human risk, and initiate risk-based policy and training interventions. They bolster existing security tools and processes across all aforementioned security categories, using them to gain input and insight into the human risk equation. Join us at Forrester’s Security & Risk Summit in Baltimore on December 9–11, where we will discuss how you can master the human element in more detail. Forrester clients can also schedule a guidance session with either of us to learn more about this upcoming research and how you can address human-element risk. source

Deconstruct Human-Element Breaches To Protect Your Workforce Read More »

Nos prévisions pour 2024 étaient-elles justes ?

Chaque année, l’équipe de recherche de Forrester se réunit pour revoir les prévisions que nous avons faites l’automne précédent. C’est, bien sûr, une joie de voir ce que nous avions vu juste. Mais lorsqu’on prend des décisions aussi audacieuses que celles que nous prenons chaque année, il arrive inévitablement que l’on rate quelque chose. Alors que nous nous préparons à lancer nos prévisions pour 2025 (inscrivez-vous ici pour être alerté(e) dès qu’elles seront disponibles), voici un aperçu de la façon dont certaines de nos dernières prévisions se sont concrétisées. Les succès La prévision : Une action en justice concernant la protection de la vie privée frappera un grand fournisseur de données. La réalité : Cette prévision a fait mouche, car ce n’est pas une, mais deux grandes entreprises qui ont récemment réglé des litiges liés à l’échange d’informations personnelles avec d’autres sociétés. Tout d’abord, ZoomInfo a accepté de payer près de 30 millions de dollars pour mettre fin à des poursuites judiciaires qui l’accusaient d’avoir utilisé les noms et les informations professionnelles de personnes sans leur consentement pour promouvoir son service d’abonnement. Peu après, Oracle a accepté de payer 115 millions de dollars pour mettre fin aux accusations de création de « dossiers numériques » à partir d’informations personnelles et de leur vente à des marketers. Avant cette année, les entreprises B2B n’avaient pas été la cible de litiges en matière de protection de la vie privée ou de mesures réglementaires du type de celles prises à l’encontre des marques grand public. Mais comme de plus en plus de fournisseurs de données B2B se concentrent sur le ciblage des individus et non plus sur les données géographiques de l’entreprise, les risques augmentent. La prévision : 60 % des employés recevront une formation à l’ingénierie de l’IA. La réalité : Dans notre enquête Digital Workplace and Employee Technology Survey, 2024 , 61 % des travailleurs de l’information au niveau mondial ont indiqué avoir suivi un certain degré de formation sur la manière d’utiliser l’IA dans le cadre de leur travail, tandis que 68 % ont indiqué connaître l’ingénierie rapide et la manière de l’utiliser. L’ingénierie rapide étant la clé qui permet d’exploiter les avantages de l’IA générative (genAI), nous avons été heureux de voir cette prévision se concrétiser. La prévision : Le nombre de consommateurs éco-engagés restera constant malgré le chaos climatique et les oppositions.  La réalité : Malgré les preuves d’une augmentation des catastrophes liées au climat et le désir de nombreux consommateurs d’agir de manière durable, nous avons prédit que l’inflation et le coût de la vie influenceraient fortement les décisions d’achat. De nouvelles données de Forrester le confirment, montrant que la part des consommateurs « éco-engagés » – ceux qui prêtent une attention particulière à l’impact des entreprises sur l’environnement et choisissent massivement des produits écologiques plutôt que des options moins chères ou plus pratiques – est restée relativement stable (elle a diminué de 1 à 2 points de pourcentage dans les marchés que nous avons sondés).  Bien que les éco-engagés actifs représentent un segment relativement petit – moins d’un consommateur sur cinq appartient à cette catégorie – notre conseil aux entreprises est de reconnaître la dissonance cognitive que beaucoup ressentent lors de leurs achats. C’est le moment d’innover pour offrir plus de valeur environnementale au même prix, en particulier à mesure que les jeunes consommateurs soucieux de l’environnement gagnent en pouvoir d’achat. Les ratés  La prévision : Les initiatives d’entreprise en matière d’IA augmenteront la productivité et la résolution créative de problèmes de 50 %. La réalité : Nous avons laissé notre optimisme à l’égard de l’IA obscurcir notre jugement sur ce point. Bien que certains processus et certaines équipes tirent profit des applications alimentées par l’IA, son impact est loin d’atteindre les 50 % à l’heure actuelle. Nous croyons fermement que l’IA, et en particulier la genAI, va changer la donne – et l’idée que les gens utiliseraient ces outils pour libérer l’espace mental et la créativité n’était pas fausse. Mais le changement à l’échelle que nous avions prédit prendra plus de temps à se mettre en place. La prévision : Les titans des médias feront de la publicité dans les jeux vidéo le canal médiatique à la croissance la plus rapide. La réalité : L’acquisition d’Activation Blizzard par Microsoft l’année dernière et la rumeur d’acquisition de Take-Two par Sony n’ont pas fait exploser la publicité dans les jeux vidéo comme nous l’avions prévu. Malgré la popularité toujours aussi grande des jeux vidéo, les dépenses consacrées à la publicité dans ceux-ci ont en fait diminué en 2024 et représentent aujourd’hui moins de 3 % des dépenses de publicité numérique. Les inquiétudes concernant la facilité d’achat et de planification des publicités dans les jeux ont freiné les annonceurs jusqu’à présent. Le jury n’a pas encore rendu son verdict La prévision : La GenAI fournira des informations qui dicteront le lancement d’un nouveau produit B2B sur cinq. La réalité : Nous nous attendions à ce que les équipes produits utilisent la genAI pour l’idéation et l’innovation, car elle peut les aider à passer rapidement au crible les données clients pour en tirer des enseignements. C’est ce qui semble se produire : Un quart des décideurs en gestion de produits que nous avons récemment interrogés ont déclaré que leur organisation utilisait l’IA générative pour identifier des opportunités de produits. Nous ne pouvons cependant pas affirmer avec certitude que la genAI dicte les lancements de produits à l’heure actuelle, mais les conversations avec nos clients suggèrent que l’élan est en train de prendre cette direction. Que nous réserve l’année 2025 ? Restez à l’écoute pour connaître nos prévisions pour l’année à venir, qui porteront sur des sujets tels que l’automatisation, l’avenir du travail, l’expérience client, les acheteurs d’entreprise et bien d’autres encore. (Si vous êtes client Forrester, consultez nos rapports récemment publiés sur l’intelligence artificielle et les prévisions en matière de leadership technologique). Nous sommes impatients de lancer et de publier ces annonces audacieuses chaque année pour vous aider à

Nos prévisions pour 2024 étaient-elles justes ? Read More »

Three Key Findings From The Forrester Wave™: Revenue Enablement Platforms, Q3 2024

Turns Out … Sales Content And Sales Readiness Are Better Together For the first time, Forrester has published an evaluation of the combined space comprising sales content management and sales readiness (learning and development) capabilities. We call this new category “revenue enablement platforms,” or REPs. Content and readiness have been on a convergence course since the flurry of acquisitions in 2021. This acquisition spree saw legacy providers on each side either scooping up readiness or content platforms or announcing plans to develop the missing capabilities from scratch. Fast-forward to 2024, and we see that the Venn diagram is now a circle — readiness providers have developed content management capabilities, and content platforms now offer readiness features. In August 2024, we published The Forrester Wave™: Revenue Enablement Platforms, Q3 2024, looking at the 12 most significant vendors and how they stack up across 32 criteria. The Wave evaluation emphasizes synergies from combining content and readiness capabilities into a single platform with unified management and reporting. We were looking for a demonstration of how “1 + 1 = 3,” and for the most part, the vendors delivered: They showcase enablement dashboards that highlight how content and training efforts affect sales results and recommend improvements to training and content programs based on program effectiveness. To evaluate the revenue enablement platform vendors, we used three primary sources: responses to a detailed questionnaire, a live product demo, and an in-depth survey of the vendors’ reference customers. The Wave evaluation details the scores and strengths and weaknesses of each vendor. Here are our key findings and the trends that we identified for the REP market. Our Three Key Findings: Effectiveness, AI, And Service Are The Magic Ingredients Vendors are focused on enablement effectiveness, not just tactics. Far more than ever before, vendors are delivering metrics, reporting, and dashboards that allow enablement teams to understand their impact on the business. With CRM integrations, REP vendors can correlate enablement activities in content and learning to real-world sales results. This is an important milestone, representing some of the first legitimate attempts to field a comprehensive enablement dashboard that measures the impact of behavior-change initiatives — something that has been notoriously difficult to assess. The developments could potentially have broader impacts on other departments that also value competency development. AI is already integrated throughout enablement platforms. Vendors are using AI to streamline and improve enablement on multiple fronts: generative AI to create and optimize content and learning pathways, AI-guided pitch practice for sellers, AI-based pitch scoring, AI dubbing and transcription to engage multilingual audiences, and AI creation of quizzes and learning checkpoints. Vendors will continue innovating with AI in pursuit of better productivity and learning, but it remains to be seen how popular the innovation will be with customers. Service still really matters. In our October 2023 evaluation of the sales readiness solutions vendor market and our November 2022 evaluation of the sales content solutions market, we called out the exceptional customer service provided by some of the vendors that was recognized by their clients. We also called out some areas where customer service was lacking. This year, clients again raved about the service from the support teams of most vendors. The ability of support teams to quickly resolve implementation and development issues drives noticeable gratitude and loyalty. Again … revenue enablement platform vendors … you’re probably not paying your CSMs enough! What’s Next? Vendors are continuing along this new path of innovating in a combined readiness-content environment, and their development roadmaps promise exciting new capabilities. Their success hinges on their customers’ appetite to digest the changes as quickly as vendors deliver innovation. We expect big advances in generative AI, integrated content and readiness functionality, and more insightful reporting about the intersection of content, learning, and real-world results. source

Three Key Findings From The Forrester Wave™: Revenue Enablement Platforms, Q3 2024 Read More »

Systemic Gaps And Geopolitical Tensions Define Europe’s Cybersecurity Threats In 2024

European businesses, much like their global counterparts, are caught in a delicate dance, with CISOs coping with sector-specific vulnerabilities, a regulatory maze, and geopolitical complexity. Forrester’s report, European Cybersecurity Threats, 2024, offers European security leaders some much-needed clarity. Security Fundamentals Matter More Than Security Theater Technology and security professionals often find themselves captivated by the allure of the exotic, shiny technology toy. While exploring new innovations and attack mechanisms might seem to keep you ahead of the curve, don’t forget that true strength lies in a solid foundation. Most cyberattacks stem from neglecting the fundamentals. Patch management, endpoint detection and response, vulnerability scanning, and asset management are the cornerstones of any robust security effort, regardless of how alluring other “a la mode” topics may be. Security pros will see the following trends this year: Operational technology (OT) security needs to move from PowerPoint plans to implementation. European cyberthreats continue to evolve, with nation-state actors deploying advanced, persistent threats to infiltrate critical infrastructure, government networks, and private-sector systems. Critical sectors such as energy, telecommunications, healthcare, and defense are prime targets for cyber-espionage groups and need to level up their security, as “planning” for OT is not sufficient — you need to execute now, as threat actors have gone beyond “planning,” “roadmaps,” and “visioning sessions.” With the NIS2 Directive casting the net even further, regulators will also start asking difficult questions about OT security. Implementing threat hunting and leveling up contingency planning are required in order to get ahead. Cyberattacks are inevitable, and while it is important to have extensive detection capabilities, organizations also need to plan for system failures. As threat actors innovate and find new ways to evade detection systems, security leaders need to invest in threat hunting capabilities to proactively identify embedded actors and containment capabilities to minimize impact. European security leaders should test contingency plans to respond to regulatory demands for resilience and rapid recovery, given the rocket boosters provided by NIS2. Personal data theft has seen a resurgence. Incidents involving personal data theft increased in the last year within European organizations, consistent with global trends. A rise in exotic social engineering techniques such as deepfake audio means that it is only a matter of time before fine-tuned AI models designed to mimic specific individuals are applied to social engineering attacks. The data used to train these models will come from your organization if you do not secure personal data beyond compliance. Forrester provides practical guidance on how to deal with the threats introduced by emerging technology. The report goes into the threats that European security leaders face and how they can deftly address them today while anticipating the intrigues of tomorrow. Forrester clients can book a guidance session with one of us and can read the complete report here. source

Systemic Gaps And Geopolitical Tensions Define Europe’s Cybersecurity Threats In 2024 Read More »

How Accurate Were Our Predictions For 2024?

Each year, the Forrester research team gathers to revisit the predictions we made the previous fall. It is, of course, a thrill to see what we’ve gotten right. But when you take the sorts of bold swings that we do every year, you inevitably sometimes miss. As we prepare to launch our 2025 predictions (sign up here to be alerted once they’re live), here’s a look at how some of our predictions from a year ago played out. The Hits The prediction: Legal action over privacy protections will strike a major data provider. The reality: This was a big hit, as not just one but two big companies recently settled claims related to sharing personal information with other firms. First, ZoomInfo agreed to pay nearly $30 million to resolve lawsuits claiming that it had used people’s names and job-related details without their consent to promote its subscription service. Soon after, Oracle agreed to pay $115 million to settle accusations of creating “digital dossiers” with people’s personal information and selling them to marketers. Prior to this year, B2B companies hadn’t been the targets of privacy litigation or regulatory actions of the type levied against consumer brands. But as more B2B data providers shift focus from firmographics to targeting individuals, their risk increases — so instituting safeguards such as stringent consent and preference management is critical. The prediction: Sixty percent of employees will get prompt engineering training. The reality: In Forrester’s Digital Workplace And Employee Technology Survey, 2024, 61% of global information workers indicated that they’ve been through some degree of training on how to use AI for work, while 68% indicated knowledge of prompt engineering and how to use it. Since prompt engineering is the key to unlocking generative AI’s benefits, we were glad to see this prediction materialize. The prediction: The number of green consumers will stay constant, despite climate chaos and backlash. The reality: Despite evidence of accelerated weather-related disasters and a desire among many consumers to act sustainably, we predicted that inflation and the cost of living would heavily influence buying decisions. New Forrester data bears this out, showing that the share of “Active Green” consumers — those who pay close attention to companies’ impact on the environment and overwhelmingly choose eco-friendly items over low-cost or convenient ones — has held close to steady (it’s down 1–2 percentage points in the markets we surveyed). Though Active Greens are a relatively small segment — fewer than one in five consumers fall into this category — our advice to companies is to recognize the cognitive dissonance that many feel when making purchases. Now is the time to innovate to deliver more environmental value for the same price, particularly as environmentally conscious younger consumers gain buying power. The Misses The prediction: Enterprise AI initiatives will boost productivity and creative problem-solving by 50%. The reality: We let our bullishness on AI cloud our judgment on this one. While some processes and teams are seeing benefits from AI-powered applications, its impact right now is nowhere near 50%. We firmly believe that AI and particularly generative AI will be a game-changer — and the idea that people would use these tools to free up headspace and creativity wasn’t wrong. But change on the scale that we predicted will take longer to unfold. The prediction: Media titans will propel in-game advertising into the fastest-growing media channel. The reality: Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard last year and Sony’s rumored acquisition of Take-Two didn’t fuel the surge in in-game advertising that we expected. Despite gaming’s continued huge popularity, spending on in-game ads actually dipped in 2024 and now comprises less than 3% of digital ad spending. Concerns over ease of buying and planning in-game ads have held advertisers back thus far. The Jury’s Still Out The prediction: Generative AI will surface insights that dictate one in five new B2B product launches. The reality: We expected product teams to use generative AI (genAI) for ideation and innovation, as it can help them rapidly sift through customer data for insights. That seems to be happening: One-quarter of the product management decision-makers we recently surveyed said that their organizations use genAI to identify product opportunities. Though we can’t definitively say right now that genAI is dictating product launches, conversations with our clients suggest that the momentum is swinging in this direction. What’s In Store For 2025? Stay tuned for our predictions for the coming year, which will span topics including automation, the future of work, customer experience, business buyers, and many more. (If you’re a Forrester client, check out our newly published artificial intelligence and tech leadership Predictions reports.) We look forward to making and publishing these bold calls each year to help you anticipate what’s ahead. Sign up to get alerted as soon as Predictions 2025 goes live. source

How Accurate Were Our Predictions For 2024? Read More »

The Secret To High Growth: Cocreate A Customer-Obsessed Strategy

In the competitive B2B landscape, above-average growth is a common ambition, yet many businesses fail to achieve this objective. According to Forrester’s State Of Customer Obsession Survey, 2024, 83% of B2B decision-makers see meeting commercial growth targets as a top priority, but only 24% are outpacing their industry’s average growth. The underlying issue? A misalignment in growth strategies that are too often aspirational, internally focused, and not attuned to customer needs. High-growth companies distinguish themselves by being more likely to have stronger growth strategy alignment between marketing, sales, and product functions. These companies also put customer needs at the center of their leadership, strategy, and operations. Don’t Expect A Subpar Strategy To Yield Above-Average Growth As Yogi Berra, the baseball legend known for his malapropisms, once quipped, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Simultaneously driving growth, reducing costs (or at least being more efficient), and improving customer experience at the same time is a tall order for any B2B organization. The answer lies in cocreating a customer-obsessed growth strategy across marketing, sales, and product. Key Foundations To Develop An Effective Growth Strategy Four foundational elements illuminate the path forward for B2B leaders: Move beyond aspirations. High-level goals such as “grow revenue by 30%” or “become the industry leader” are not strategies but aspirations. Effective strategy development must deconstruct these goals into concrete decisions, objectives, priorities, and initiatives. Align executive assumptions and decisions. Successful strategy execution requires many subordinate decisions and actions. A well-articulated growth strategy codifies executive assumptions and decisions, accelerating downstream decision-making and improving the quality and alignment of strategy execution. Pivot to customer obsession. The increasingly digital-savvy, self-directed buyer and continued market turbulence have exposed a gap in traditional B2B growth strategies. Prioritizing customer problems, needs, and expectations is crucial. Forrester’s research finds that customer-obsessed companies have significantly higher revenue growth, profitability growth, customer retention, and employee engagement. Make tough calls about focus. Resources are finite. Making exclusions explicit is key to curtailing drift in execution. A well-formed growth strategy makes what’s in scope and what’s out of scope explicit, ensuring no ambiguity when it comes time to execute. Strategy Development Requires A Process And Cross-Team Effort The Forrester Customer-Obsessed Growth Strategy Model offers a structured decision-making process, emphasizing the importance of the company’s vision, mission, and purpose in grounding strategy. It requires a comprehensive assessment of business context and market conditions, aiming to foster a customer-centric perspective that drives strategic growth vectors. Developing a customer-obsessed growth strategy is a collaborative effort. It necessitates the collective expertise of marketing, sales, product, and IT leaders to bring diverse insights and ensure a unified approach toward execution. This team effort extends beyond senior leadership to include roles critical for bringing the strategy to life, such as revenue operations, portfolio marketing, product management, demand and customer marketing, and customer success. Strategic Clarity Drives Execution Efficiency And Success For B2B enterprises aiming for high growth, the path forward is clear: Develop a customer-obsessed growth strategy that aligns internal capabilities with external market demands. This not only ensures strategic clarity and execution efficiency but also positions companies to navigate the complexities of modern business dynamics successfully. By centering growth strategy around customer needs and fostering cross-functional alignment, businesses can unlock their growth potential. Forrester clients can read more in the report, Accelerate B2B Growth With A Customer-Obsessed Strategy, and schedule a guidance session to get started. source

The Secret To High Growth: Cocreate A Customer-Obsessed Strategy Read More »

Decentralized Digital Identity: The Global Acceptance Network Gains Momentum

Bhutan is the first country to join the Global Acceptance Network (GAN). GAN, in turn, is a foundation that aims to operate a nonprofit decentralized digital identity (DDID) network. GAN was founded, among others, by Accenture, cheqd, Interac, NTT Digital, Pearson, and other organizations. GAN will not develop technology standards on its own. The goals of GAN include creating global acceptance of DDID/verifiable credentials by: 1) building a trust framework and network; 2) contributing to open standards organizations’ DDID work (W3C, ISO) and; 3) most importantly, promoting and ensuring iteroparity between existing DDID ecosystems, such as the European Union’s eIDAS’s European Digital Identity Wallet initiative, the USA’s AAMVA mobile driver’s licenses, the Nordic BankID framework, and others. This diagram shows GAN’s high-level architecture:   Forrester expects that the primary vertical market use cases for GAN will include nonprofit and government, travel (e.g., digital passports, airline cooperation), education, and healthcare. GAN’s long-term success will depend on: National governments’ and regions’ willingness to work with a trust proxy. While governments have been issuing national digital identities and wallets, government DDID’s focus (understandably) has been domestic use cases (such as identification of citizens to government agencies), law enforcement, and utilities (verifying account holders to utility companies). Governments have not yet cared much about international interoperability of their digital driver’s licenses and national IDs with other countries’ verification systems. Working with a trust proxy (such as GAN) requires compromise — traditionally, not the forte of national government law and IT decision-makers. Reconciliation of privacy measures across GAN member ecosystems. GDPR has served as a de facto blueprint for many jurisdictions’ privacy laws, but the landscape is still rugged when it comes to harmonizing privacy laws and data protection across borders or even administrative regions (states, prefectures, etc.) of a single country. GAN needs to be able to take these differences into account and help with proxying not just trust but also data protection and privacy requirements between its member countries and organizations. Viable business models for all DDID initiatives. While the common good is a significant motivation in DDID and digital national ID issuance and acceptance, issuer and verifier organizations and ecosystems need to have financial motivation to join GAN. So far, the DDID business model is unclear and will need to get resolved to drive more industry adoption. GAN must serve clear, and initially simple, use cases. Forrester expects that GAN’s acceptance will also depend on how well it can immediately serve specific use cases such as travelers’ usage of digital passports and national IDs at border crossing, presentation of higher-education diplomas across borders, proving coverage of travelers’ health insurance during a visit to a foreign country, and others. source

Decentralized Digital Identity: The Global Acceptance Network Gains Momentum Read More »

In A World With No Digital Destination, Get To Digital Mastery And Accelerate Growth With Forrester’s Digital Engine

To outpace the pack and win in today’s market, firms must embrace the ubiquitous nature of digital as the competitive weapon and embed digital capabilities into the core of their business. Forrester’s report, Accelerate Business Growth With Forrester’s Digital Engine, shows how leaders can use components of Forrester’s Digital Engine to build digital mastery that drives top-line growth, operational effectiveness, and delivers value beyond customer conversions. Specifically, it focuses on how to: Set the core of your digital business in motion first by focusing on operations. Exceptional digital outcomes cannot be delivered, much less sustained, if the core of your business is weak. Focus first on nurturing digital talent, continuously calibrating your tech strategy, comprehensive planning, and robust measurement practices. This is the backbone to achieving digital mastery and making next-gen digital strategies a reality. Establish a continuously calibrated digital strategy in a world with no “digital destination.” As generative AI innovations add business value and customer expectations continue to evolve faster and faster, digital strategy, customer intelligence, and innovations must align and recalibrate often to deliver enhanced customer value, ahead of the pack. Deliver business results that transcend the status quo of today’s digital businesses. The beauty of the Digital Engine is, once it’s properly set in motion, it delivers consistent and stronger business results because it balances customer obsession, high-performance IT, and the AI advantage. Digital leaders are bringing new products and services that accrete revenue and accelerate business growth through this unique combination of evidence-backed research.   Learn More For more information, read the report or connect with a Forrester analyst to engage in a fully functional assessment and an exploratory conversation to develop your unique digital strategy.   source

In A World With No Digital Destination, Get To Digital Mastery And Accelerate Growth With Forrester’s Digital Engine Read More »

The Future Of Network APIs

Many of my recent client conversations have been on network APIs, also known as network open APIs. In particular, they want to discuss timelines, challenges, opportunities, use cases, and future market outlook. Similar to what I discussed in my previous blog about 5G network slicing, the reality is not as rosy as one might expect, once again due to the heavy dependency on software development communities outside the telecommunications industry’s reach. Why are people excited? In principle, network APIs allow carriers to provide network information or invoke network actions using RESTful open APIs, creating a much-welcomed monetization stream for telcos. Its success, however, relies upon a pervasive ecosystem and significant involvement from software developers. Vendors and telcos alike seek to solve for the decade-long shortage of application engineering knowledge within the telco ecosystem. What will be its future? I’ve organized my views across a timeline and major advancements expected in each period. Short-Term: 1 to 2 years This period will be mainly about experimentation, with a few point examples appearing in industries such as financial and commerce (e.g., anti-fraud, know-your-customer [KYC], identify verification, etc.). Although many telco-driven alliances trying to promote the ease and scale of consumption will form, a rapport with the software development community won’t be achieved. Software developers won’t include these APIs in their software development lifecycles (SDLCs) yet. Midterm: 3 to 5 years The first software alliance promoting adoption is formed. A true evangelization of a network-aware SDLC starts in this phase. An initial adoption is achieved, with the software development community understanding the value stream and starting to use some network APIs. Application design, engineering, and testing efforts are well understood, as well as the potential security and privacy risks. Some network APIs (e.g., quality on demand) won’t be used widely yet due to the parallel development of 5G stand-alone mode (SA) networks and devices with slicing capabilities. Long-Term: 5+ years Network APIs become common and play a key role in most application SDLCs. Proliferation of APIs and use cases is expected. A network-aware SDLC is a recognized practice within the software development community. Quality on-demand APIs are consolidated based on ubiquitous 5G SA slicing and roaming availability. Initial experimentation with APIs for 6G networks starts in this period. These APIs will provide new information such as network sensing data to be used by applications. Do you concur with my view? Have you launched a commercial application using network APIs? I would love to hear your feedback. Need more guidance? Engage with me via an inquiry call by emailing [email protected]. source

The Future Of Network APIs Read More »

The Future Of Banking: By 2030, Banking Will Be Invisible, Connected, Insights-Driven, And Purposeful

In the rapidly evolving financial landscape, banks are facing challenges that require them to adapt and innovate. But amidst all these changes, the importance of trust remains constant. Trust is the foundation upon which successful banking relationships are built, and it will continue to be a crucial factor in shaping the future of the industry. But consumer trust in banks has stalled globally, and factors such as poor customer experiences, privacy and data breaches, and the growth of AI in banking are further straining it. A decade ago, banks hoped that digital transformation would revolutionize the way they operate. Unfortunately, many banks failed to prioritize customer obsession and truly transform their business models. What remained are transaction-focused organizations that leave customers feeling that their banks don’t understand or care about their financial needs. This disconnect hampers trust, resulting in financial, competitive, and reputational impacts. To meet the needs of future consumers, banks will use technology to anticipate customer needs. They will deliver proactive, relevant services, connecting with partners and ecosystems to create better financial outcomes for their customers. By leveraging data and insights to create value, they will align their businesses with customer values in a purposeful way. Banks can stay relevant and build trust in a rapidly changing industry by adopting these characteristics: Invisible. Leading banks will use technology and far deeper customer insights to insert financial services at the customer’s moment of need, potentially at the expense of brand visibility. Connected. Technologies, partnerships, ecosystems, and platforms will combine across multiple industries, sharing data and resources to deliver financial outcomes. Insights-driven. Banks will create value from data and elevate custodianship of consumer trust. An expanded role around consent and identity will enable consumers to have finite control of their financial and digital lives and build a mutually beneficial relationship. Purposeful. Consumers will prefer banks that align with their values in a new, more purposeful age that sees local and cooperative principles aligning to matters of global responsibility. Leading banks are adjusting strategies, embracing innovation, rethinking business models, and deepening their understanding of their customers to chart their future paths. To learn more about what leading banks are doing and how to prepare your firm for the future of banking: Clients with additional questions can book an inquiry or guidance session here. source

The Future Of Banking: By 2030, Banking Will Be Invisible, Connected, Insights-Driven, And Purposeful Read More »