"As the global economic downturn puts pressure on IT services spending, firms are taking a range of actions to deal with the cuts," said John McCarthy, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. "The pressure to reduce IT spending is going to continue well into 2010. The data shows no quick turnaround -- it's going to be a tough year for services firms as clients increasingly ask them to justify the ROI for IT projects and provide more value for a lower price."

A top-line overview of the full survey responses is available in the report "The State Of Enterprise IT Services: 2009." Subscribers to Forrester's Business Data Services receive unlimited data support, including custom segmentation from a dedicated data advisor. Other key highlights of the survey include:

-- Infrastructure outsourcing priorities. When asked what infrastructure services their firm is currently outsourcing or plans to outsource to a third-party company in the next 12 months, survey respondents placed convergent telecommunication/network management services and data center management services at the top of the list.

-- Application outsourcing priorities. Managed hosting services lead the list of application outsourcing priorities, with 44 percent of respondents currently outsourcing and six percent planning to use managed hosting services in the next 12 months. In addition, the outsourcing of packaged applications maintenance and support services increased from 27 percent in 2008 to 38 percent in 2009, and another seven percent of respondents are planning to do so in the next 12 months.

-- Systems integration priorities. Integration work installing or upgrading packaged applications remains a top activity, with 42 percent of respondents saying they already have a project under way or will hire a consultant for this in the next 12 months. Custom application design and development follows, with 38 percent of firms doing a project or hiring a consultant to do so in the next 12 months.

-- IT consulting priorities. Forty-three percent of respondents have a security assessment project either already under way or one that will commence in the next year. Infrastructure virtualization and automation programs follow, with 32 percent of respondents hiring a consultant in the next 12 months or already having a project under way.

More information about Forrester's Business Data Services and custom data analyses for B2B Market Research professionals is available at http://www.forrester.com/Products/MarketResearch/Business.

About Forrester Research

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 20 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, customer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 26 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

(C) 2009, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester is a trademark of Forrester Research, Inc.

SOURCE: Forrester Research, Inc.

Forrester Research, Inc. 
Tracy Sullivan, + 1 617-613-6023 
Senior Public Relations Specialist 
press@forrester.com

The National Retail Federation has forecast a one percent decline in overall US holiday retail sales for this year.* A recent Forrester survey of more than 4,000 US online consumers showed that 94 percent of those who made a purchase online within the past three months plan to continue to buy online this holiday season. And 72 percent of retailers surveyed in "The State Of Retailing Online," a Shop.org study conducted by Forrester in Q3 of this year, say they expect online holiday sales to increase over last year.

As outlined in the new Forrester report "US Online Holiday Retail Forecast, 2009," online retailers will strive to balance consumer demand this holiday with profitability. Improving margins is in; chasing sales is so last year. The change in strategy will manifest itself in a number of different ways, including more limited-time and limited-quantity sales as retailers seek to reduce across-the-board discounting. Retailers will also cut down on automatic free shipping and institute price thresholds to qualify for free shipping. Customer engagement is also a priority this holiday: Expect to see online retailers deploy more cross-channel customer service options, advanced merchandizing software that will provide more product information, and enhanced social networking tools that will enable consumers to share purchase decisions with friends.

"Tighter offline inventories may benefit the online channel as consumers go to the Web looking for products -- and prices -- they can't find in stores this holiday," said Mulpuru. "Online retailers will be ready for them with a special focus this year on engagement and service."

*The NRF and Forrester forecasts do not cover the same categories and employ different methodologies.

About Forrester Research

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 20 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, consumer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 26 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

(C) 2009, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester is a trademark of Forrester Research, Inc.

SOURCE: Forrester Research, Inc.

Forrester Research, Inc. 
Jon Symons, + 1 617-613-6104 
Director, Media Relations 
press@forrester.com

Devices. The desktop still dominates the workplace. Three out of four iWorkers use a desktop, and 63 percent of desktop users spend four or more hours per day on it. However, more than one-third of respondents use more than one device at least weekly.

Productivity tools. Email, word processing, and spreadsheets are the top three productivity tools used by iWorkers, but even the use of those applications fluctuates greatly. Email is used by 57 percent of iWorkers hourly. However, word processing and spreadsheets are not used as frequently -- only 16 percent and 14 percent, respectively, of iWorkers use these applications every hour.

Mobility. Only one in 10 iWorkers has a smartphone for work, but almost one in three iWorkers agree that they use a personal mobile phone for work purposes. There is demand among iWorkers for smartphones.

Collaboration. With collaboration tools going widely untapped by companies -- only one in four iWorkers use Web conferencing and one in five use team sites -- email remains the de facto collaboration tool for most professionals, with an 87 percent adoption rate.

Intranet portals. Seventy percent of all iWorkers visit the employee portal and 43 percent do so at least daily. Search is the most commonly used resource on the portal, followed by information related to performance reviews and personal goals.

Web 2.0 technologies. Surprise -- Gen Y is not leading business adoption of social technologies. Even though 59 percent of these 18-to-29-year-old professionals use social technologies at home, only 14 percent use them in the workplace -- the same percentage as Gen X employees, ages 30 to 43. Instead of social technologies, mobile texting is Gen Y's communication method of choice: 51 percent are using their personal mobile for texting at work.

"The time has come for IT decision-makers to walk a mile in the shoes of their workforce," said Ted Schadler, vice president and principal analyst, Forrester Research. "By applying Workforce Technographics to their employees, organizations can benchmark their technology adoption and satisfaction against their peers and other industries, make better investment decisions based on hard facts, and develop metrics that clearly demonstrate IT's impact and inherent value to the business, moving the organization closer to what Forrester calls Business Technology."

In addition to Information & Knowledge Management professionals who can use the data to have meaningful discussions with business executives about technology adoption, requirements and funding, Workforce Technographics is a valuable benchmarking tool for:

-- CIOs who can identify gaps in workforce productivity, underperformance against competitors, and barriers to success.

-- Sourcing & Vendor Management professionals who can improve their negotiating position by having hard data to drive licensing discussions.

-- Infrastructure & Operations professionals who can practice lean provisioning and use quantitative analysis to tailor the workforce tool kit based on real needs and tolerance for mobility, desktop virtualization, and wireless access.

-- Enterprise Architecture professionals who can use data on technology usage of different demographics to make key architecture decisions for mobility, telecommuting, and videoconferencing.

Attendees at Forrester's Business Technology Forum will learn how to apply Workforce Technographics within their own organizations during a session entitled "Make Workforce Personas Part Of Your Lean Technology Tool Kit." For more information on the methodology, an archived Webinar entitled "Workforce Technographics(R): Benchmark Workforce Technology Success" is also available free of charge.

About Workforce Technographics

Workforce Technographics(R) is a new Forrester methodology for analyzing the needs and issues that information workers face in their jobs. This quantitative assessment gives CIOs and their staffs, as well as IT industry vendors, the tools to make better investment decisions. Forrester is expanding this research into other countries and topics in 2009 and beyond. Workforce Technographics is available to Forrester's RoleView(TM) clients today.

About Forrester Research

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 20 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, consumer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 25 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

(C) 2009, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester is a trademark of Forrester Research, Inc.

SOURCE: Forrester Research Inc.

Forrester Research, Inc. 
Phil LeClare, + 1 617-613-6441 
Senior Manager, PR 
press@forrester.com

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