Digital capability – social, mobile, cloud, data & analytics – disrupts business models, introduces new competitive threats, and places new demands on your business. Highlighting this fact: Forrester’s 2012 “Digital Readiness Assessment” survey found that 65% of global executives say they are “excited about the changes that digital tools and experiences will bring” to their company.

While most people know these digital trends are coming, however, far fewer know how to purchase these cutting-edge digital capabilities. What companies will you rely on? Where are the new risks? What are the pricing models?  In the survey mentioned above, only 32% of the same sample agreed that their organization “has policies and business practices in place to adapt” to those digital changes.

This is important, since developing the breadth of digital capabilities your company needs cannot all be done in-house. To succeed, your company will need to access the strengths of its supplier ecosystem, maximize value from strategic partners, and leverage emerging supplier models.  

This is a tremendous opportunity for sourcing and vendor management professionals to increase the strategic value they provide to their business. But to do this, you’ll need to balance your traditional cost-cutting goals with demands for business expectations for growth, innovation, and value.

In just over a month, Forrester will be hosting its 2013 Business Technology Forums in Washington, DC (May 6th and 7th) and in London (June 10th and 11th). At this event, we’ll bring our latest research and thought leadership together with first-hand knowledge from industry leaders on what it takes to understand, source, and deliver your firm’s business outcomes.

At the event, you’ll learn: 

  • The changing demands of business technology professionals. Forrester CEO George Colony will discuss the business-technology demands of the perpetually connected workforce and talk about the implications for your company’s technology strategy.
  • How to source for Digital Disruption. Forrester Principal Analyst Liz Herbert will discuss what it means to source digital technologies, with a focus on the governance and risk issues associated with these technologies. She’ll also provide ideas for how to improve your sourcing practices by changing the rules of working with established vendors.
  • How to negotiate for business outcomes. Our Q2 2012 Forrsights survey found that 35% of IT decision-makers say they’re see “more outcome-based contracts” as a result of greater business influence in IT services. Forrester Senior Analyst Mark Bartrick will discuss what it means to negotiate for business outcomes. He’ll discuss how to incorporate more outcome-based terms into your sourcing strategy, and the implications across services and software deals.  
  • Best practices in services, software, and telecom sourcing. Analysts Duncan Jones, Wolfgang Benkel, and Brownlee Thomas will lead sessions on taking a more strategic approach to your software, services, and mobility sourcing strategy. Brownlee, for example, will discuss hot trends like bring-your-own-device purchasing strategy and the implications for your broader telecom vendor relationships.

We’ll also have great industry speakers and two panels: a sourcing and vendor management expert panel and an analyst panel focused exclusively on best practices for generating innovation and cost savings. With each of these panels, we'll dive into tactical, real-world examples of how the role of sourcing is changing along with the technology industry. 

Forrester events are our analysts’ favorite time of the year, because it gives us all an opportunity to interact directly with you, our clients and readers, and for everyone to establish long-term connections. We hope you can join us!