Research Note: Forrester Research
Market Leadership Analysis
Executive Summary
Forrester Research addresses the critical business challenge of helping organizations navigate digital transformation and maximize customer value through objective, data-driven research and advisory services. In the competitive landscape of technology research and advisory firms, Forrester positions itself as a customer-obsessed organization focused on delivering actionable insights that drive growth, differentiating from competitors like Gartner through its targeted service portfolios and specialized methodologies like the Forrester Wave™. The company's primary technological differentiator is its research-based approach that combines qualitative expert analysis with quantitative data, including its 2021 integration of Forrester and SiriusDecisions research into the unified Forrester Decisions platform designed to serve specific executive roles across technology, marketing, and customer experience functions. Recent business impact metrics reveal challenges, with contract value (CV) declining by 5% to $307.6 million in 2024, representing the second consecutive year of decline following a 4% decrease in 2023. Board members should consider the risk of continued revenue contraction against the opportunity presented by Forrester's ongoing platform migration, with 70% of contract value now on the Forrester Decisions platform as the company targets 80% migration to stabilize financial performance. Total cost of ownership considerations should include not just the significant subscription fees for research services, but also potential investments in dedicated resources to maximize research utilization, education costs for team members to effectively leverage research insights, and consulting expenses that might be required for specialized implementation support.
Corporate Overview
Forrester Research was founded in 1983 by George F. Colony, who continues to serve as CEO and chairman, evolving from a technology research firm to a comprehensive business advisory company over its four-decade history. Headquartered at 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140, the company maintains global operations with additional office locations in Sydney (Aurora Place Level 14, 88 Phillip Street, NSW 2000), Toronto, London, and Seoul (Suite 963, 6 Teheran-ro 79-gil Gangnam-gu), enabling it to serve clients across international markets. As a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq (FORR), Forrester operates with a traditional corporate structure, with established governance mechanisms that include a board of directors and standard public company compliance frameworks. Recent financial performance history shows concerning trends, with contract value (CV) declining by 5% to $307.6 million in 2024, following a 4% decline to $332.1 million in 2023, revealing consecutive years of contraction during a challenging period that began after reaching $349.4 million in contract value in 2022. The company's corporate governance approach emphasizes independence and objectivity in its research methodologies, with established policies designed to prevent conflicts of interest between its vendor evaluation processes and commercial relationships. Forrester's Board of Directors maintains that it is management's responsibility to speak for the company, with non-employee directors occasionally engaging with various constituencies with management's knowledge, highlighting a traditional corporate governance approach.
Management Analysis
Forrester's executive team is led by founder George F. Colony, who continues to serve as CEO and chairman, providing strategic continuity and vision since the company's inception in 1983. The leadership team includes key executives with extensive industry experience, including Chris Johnson as Chief Financial Officer, who oversees all finance functions within the organization. The executive team has demonstrated adaptability through its multi-year transformation strategy, particularly with the development and implementation of the Forrester Decisions platform launched in 2021, which represents a significant evolution in how the company delivers research to clients. Management maintains thought leadership positions through regular research publications, blog posts, and speaking engagements, with executives frequently addressing industry trends and best practices in areas like customer experience, technology strategy, and digital transformation. The company emphasizes customer engagement at the executive level, with leadership maintaining direct connection to clients through advisory sessions, events, and formal client feedback mechanisms. Despite financial challenges indicated by declining contract value, the leadership team appears focused on operational discipline and strategic investments, as evidenced by their emphasis on expense management while continuing platform migration efforts to create a foundation for future growth. Management's recent earnings commentary highlights their focus on driving retention and targeted sales strategies rather than pursuing aggressive growth in the current economic climate, suggesting a realistic assessment of market conditions.
Market Analysis
The Total Addressable Market for technology research and advisory services is substantial, with Forrester competing for a portion of the broader business consulting and information services market that serves enterprises navigating digital transformation. Forrester commands a smaller market share compared to industry leader Gartner, which reported $6.27 billion in revenue for FY 2024, significantly larger than Forrester's declining contract value of $307.6 million. Established competitors in this market include Gartner as the dominant player, IDC for quantitative market intelligence, specialized firms like 451 Research (now part of S&P Global), GigaOm, and Omdia, as well as consulting giants like McKinsey, BCG, and Deloitte that have expanded their technology advisory practices. Market trends reshaping the solution landscape include the rise of AI-powered research platforms, increased demand for actionable rather than theoretical insights, and growing pressure for vendors to demonstrate quantifiable ROI from research investments. Forrester is positioning itself for emerging market opportunities through its customer-obsessed research approach, emphasizing practical guidance for business and technology leaders while leveraging its Forrester Decisions platform to deliver more targeted insights to specific executive roles. Recent industry analysis suggests that artificial intelligence and automation tools are beginning to challenge traditional analyst roles by providing instant, contextualized answers to complex technology questions, potentially disrupting the conventional research consumption model on which firms like Forrester rely.
Source: Fourester Research
Product Analysis
Forrester's solution portfolio addresses core business problems related to strategic decision-making in technology investments, customer experience optimization, and digital transformation initiatives, providing objective research and advisory services across these domains. The company's platform architecture consists of three main segments: Research, Events, and Consulting, with the Research component representing the foundation of its business model, delivered primarily through the Forrester Decisions platform that replaced its legacy research products. Specific products and services include the Forrester Wave™ methodology for vendor evaluation, flagship events such as Technology & Innovation and CX North America, consulting services for customized guidance, and certification programs for customer experience and other disciplines. The product has evolved significantly from its initial focus on technology research to encompass a broader set of business challenges, with the most recent transformation being the introduction of Forrester Decisions in 2021, which integrates Forrester and SiriusDecisions research into a unified offering. Proprietary technologies that differentiate the solution include methodologies like the Forrester Wave™, Digital Experience Review™, and Total Economic Impact™, which provide structured frameworks for technology evaluation, customer experience assessment, and ROI analysis, respectively. Industry-specific solutions include specialized research for sectors like financial services, healthcare, retail, and government, with tailored insights addressing vertical-specific challenges and opportunities.
Technical Architecture
Forrester's core architectural principles emphasize scalability, accessibility, and integration capabilities to deliver research content and advisory services across multiple channels and platforms. The solution handles data ingestion, transformation, and storage through a combination of proprietary research methodologies, analyst expertise, and technology platforms that aggregate and analyze information from various sources including surveys, interviews, and market data. Specific APIs and integration frameworks exist for enterprise clients to incorporate Forrester research into their internal systems, though these capabilities appear less developed than the company's primary research delivery mechanisms. The architecture maintains resilience and performance through centralized content management systems, distributed delivery networks, and cloud-based infrastructure that ensures consistent availability of research materials and interactive tools. Security architecture elements protecting data confidentiality and integrity include standard enterprise-grade protocols for access control, encryption, and compliance with relevant data protection regulations, though detailed technical specifications are not publicly disclosed. The company has made significant investments in its digital platform capabilities, particularly with the Forrester Decisions offering, which aims to provide a more personalized and interactive research experience through role-based content organization and recommendation algorithms. Data sovereignty and compliance requirements are addressed through regionally appropriate data handling practices, particularly important for global enterprises subject to varying regulatory frameworks like GDPR in Europe and similar regulations in other jurisdictions.
Strengths
Forrester's technological innovations providing competitive advantage include its research-based methodologies like the Forrester Wave™, which offers structured evaluation frameworks that enable more consistent and objective assessment of vendor capabilities across technology categories. The company demonstrates performance advantages through its ability to deliver tailored research insights for specific executive roles, including CIOs, CMOs, and CX leaders, helping these stakeholders address their unique challenges with relevant guidance and best practices. Forrester's approach distinguishes itself from alternatives through its emphasis on customer obsession as a business strategy, with research consistently demonstrating the connection between superior customer experience and revenue growth through metrics-driven analysis. Strategic partnerships expand the vendor's capabilities, particularly in specialized domains and geographic regions, enabling Forrester to extend its reach and relevance while maintaining its core focus on research quality and objectivity. The solution's ecosystem is strengthened by a comprehensive approach that includes research, events, consulting, certification programs, and peer communities, creating multiple touchpoints for client engagement and value delivery. Forrester's training and certification programs, particularly in customer experience, provide clients with structured pathways to develop internal capabilities and implement research-based best practices, representing a valuable extension of its core research offerings. The depth of the company's research expertise in key domains such as customer experience, technology strategy, and B2B marketing creates significant barriers to entry for potential competitors, as developing similar intellectual property requires substantial investment in analyst talent and methodology development.
Weaknesses
Specific capabilities that lag behind competitive offerings include Forrester's overall scale and breadth of coverage compared to market leader Gartner, with less extensive research available for certain technology categories and geographic markets. Operational challenges customers typically encounter include difficulties in navigating the extensive research library and extracting actionable insights relevant to their specific business context, often requiring dedicated resources to curate and distribute content effectively within their organizations. The architectural approach may limit flexibility for clients seeking highly customized research experiences or integration with their internal knowledge management systems, as the company's primary focus remains on delivering standardized research products rather than fully adaptable solutions. Integration challenges have been reported regarding the transition to the Forrester Decisions platform, with some clients experiencing disruption as research content and methodologies are migrated and reorganized. Recent corporate changes and declining contract value metrics have created uncertainty about the company's long-term market position and investment priorities, potentially affecting client confidence in making multi-year commitments. Performance limitations under high-volume scenarios may exist in the company's ability to provide timely, personalized advisory services during peak demand periods, as the analyst-based delivery model faces inherent scaling constraints compared to more automated alternatives. Customer ratings of technical support quality and responsiveness have been mixed, with some clients reporting difficulties in accessing appropriate expertise for specialized inquiries or receiving timely guidance for urgent decision-making needs. Migration challenges exist for organizations transitioning from competing research providers, as differences in terminology, methodologies, and content organization can create short-term disruption and learning curves for new clients.
Client Voice
Reference customers report achieving business outcomes such as improved decision confidence for major technology investments, enhanced customer experience maturity, and increased alignment between technology initiatives and business strategies. Customers characterize their implementation experience as requiring significant internal commitment to derive maximum value, with successful organizations typically designating dedicated research champions who curate content and connect appropriate stakeholders to relevant insights. Unexpected challenges encountered by clients include the considerable time investment required to fully leverage research assets, difficulties in measuring concrete ROI from research subscriptions, and occasional misalignment between research coverage and their specific industry or technology environment. Clients generally describe Forrester's support effectiveness positively in terms of analyst quality and expertise, while noting variability in response times and sometimes experiencing challenges in connecting with the most appropriate subject matter experts for specialized inquiries. Executive-level outcomes emphasized by customers include improved strategic alignment, better informed investment decisions, and external validation for transformation initiatives, with C-suite stakeholders particularly valuing the objective third-party perspective that Forrester provides. Organizational change management strategies proven most effective for adoption include establishing formal processes for incorporating research into decision-making, creating regular review cycles for relevant content, and developing internal expertise in translating research insights into actionable implementation plans. Customer feedback indicates that the most successful implementations involve proactive relationship management both from Forrester account teams and from internal client champions who understand their organization's priorities and actively connect research to current initiatives.
Bottom Line
Large enterprises undertaking significant digital transformation initiatives or strategic technology investments should consider Forrester's services for objective guidance and risk mitigation, particularly those requiring external validation to align stakeholders around major decisions. Organizations with dedicated experience management functions will find compelling ROI through Forrester's customer experience research and certification programs, with case studies demonstrating measurable improvements in customer satisfaction, retention, and revenue growth across industries like financial services, retail, and healthcare. Technology leadership teams responsible for vendor evaluation and selection will benefit from the structured frameworks provided by Forrester's Wave methodology, especially when facing complex procurement decisions with significant financial implications and multiple stakeholder perspectives. Successful implementation requires minimum resource commitments including dedicated research champions who can curate and distribute relevant content, executive sponsors who model research utilization in decision-making, and sufficient budget not just for licensing but also for potential consulting and certification services. Critical success factors for enterprises to realize maximum value include integration of research into formal decision-making processes, regular engagement with analysts beyond published content, and cross-functional sharing of insights to extend impact beyond the primary research consumers. Specific risks to mitigate include potential over-reliance on external perspectives without sufficient internal contextual adaptation, challenges in measuring concrete ROI from research investments, and knowledge management issues as key personnel familiar with the research transition to different roles. Organizations should structure their evaluation and procurement process by clearly defining the specific business problems they need to solve, identifying the key stakeholders who will consume the research, and establishing concrete metrics for measuring value realization, rather than making purchasing decisions based solely on brand reputation or analyst relationships.