Forrester's Consumer Forum Theater Presentations highlight Forrester’s extensive data capabilities. Data is critical to the Consumer Product Strategy teams, and we work closely with our colleagues on the data team to produce our research. Forrester analysts will share highlights from our global benchmark survey data, as well as our forecast data, examining technology-driven trends in consumer behavior. These demonstrations will be hosted in the International Ballroom at The Fairmont Chicago.

Theater Presentations

Tuesday, October 27, 2009: 1:15–1:35 p.m.

Friends, after nearly three months of leave, I am back to work and ready to take on the world again.

While I was gone, a number of notable market movements happened: McAfee acquired MXlogic, AT&T acquired VeriSign’s security service business, and Verizon Business is forming a strategic alliance with McAfee to deliver cloud solutions. Many of the new announcements, which I am busy processing out of my inbox as we speak, have to do with cloud computing. Interestingly enough, in a week or so, I’ll be able to blog about a few more cloud-centric acquisitions and partnership deals. Looks like the cloud bandwagon is as hot as when I left it three months ago.

  By Brian W. Hill

As we get closer to ARMA International's Annual Conference & Expo in Orlando, Florida, later this week, it’s likely that we’ll hear a lot about US Department of Defense (DoD) records management certifications. Some enterprises treat DoD 5015.2-STD V3 certification as a “check box” item for RFPs, but for others, such as US federal government agencies, these certifications are required.

Q3 2009 survey data show that in making future records management purchasing decisions, DoD 5015.2-STD V3 certification plays a key role. Forty-two percent of records management stakeholders rate DoD 5015.2-STD V3 (baseline) certification as "important" or "very important" in buying decisions. The comparable figures for DoD 5015.2-STD V3 (classified) and DoD 5015.2-STD V3 (Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act) are 24% and 34%, respectively (see Figure 1). The survey data show that these certifications are more important for government (local, state, and federal) organizations, but not dramatically so. In comparison with their non-government counterparts and with some variation across the specific DoD 5015.2 certifications, 5% to 10% more government records management decision-makers rated these certifications as "important" or "very important."

AT&T recently announced it has acquired VeriSign's Global Security Consulting Services business for an undisclosed amount. The news was not shocking, since VeriSign had been shopping around for a buyer a few years now and AT&T had to acquire additional competencies in their security service portfolio to compete with other telcos – who have already acquired specialized security companies. Here are my initial thoughts on this acquisition.