Forrester: Technology Populism Will Drive The Next Wave Of IT Adoption

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(Business Wire)--
The next wave of change within IT organizations will be fueled by
the proliferation of consumer devices, social networking tools, and
cloud-based collaboration services making their way into the
enterprise, according to a new report by Forrester Research, Inc.
(Nasdaq: FORR). What Forrester calls Technology Populism will force
Information & Knowledge Management professionals to rethink how they
currently evaluate, provision, and support collaborative software and
services. This sea change will present IT departments with a number of
opportunities and challenges that will upend the traditional way that
technology is deployed.

"Technology Populism is driven by people's needs to interact,"
said Forrester Research Principal Analyst Matthew Brown. "Today's
organizations are increasingly dominated by Generations Xers and
Millennials, a workforce that is adept at provisioning its own
technology and one that is willing to shun traditional methods of
communication. For many employees, the telephone and email are being
replaced by text messaging, instant messaging, and mobile devices,
such as iPhones and BlackBerrys, and Social Computing tools like
Facebook and Wikipedia."

"One leading technology vendor told Forrester that one of its
clients required Sony Playstation support because many of its younger
employees used Playstations instead of PCs," said Brown.

Other drivers behind Technology Populism include:

-- Cheap broadband at home and work. Nearly 50 percent of North
American households have a broadband connection and the Web
continues to develop into the preferred platform for two-way
communication and collaboration. According to Forrester, 15
percent of North American adults use social networking sites
on at least a monthly basis and 34 percent communicate via
instant message as frequently.

-- A new generation of applications based on network
interactions. Companies are learning how to exploit services
such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and salesforce.com for business
purposes to generate sales leads, recruit talent, and test and
improve products.

-- IT views Web 2.0 favorably. Despite popular opinion, IT
leaders support Web 2.0 technologies in the workplace: a
recent Forrester study shows 72 percent of IT departments are
using some form of Web 2.0 technology.

"Technology Populism is here to stay -- it is bigger than a single
company or software provider," said Brown. "Recent moves by major
enterprise software vendors indicate cloud-based software is the next
frontier for many collaborative offerings previously installed on
corporate networks.

"However, with opportunity comes risk and there are risks facing
IT shops as these technologies -- and adoption of them in the
workplace -- mature."

Among the challenges posed by Technology Populism are how to
govern Web 2.0 technologies, ensuring information integrity and
avoiding information silos, a real issue as these new tools could
create volumes of information microsilos that make it next to
impossible to find information. In addition, IT departments are faced
with current collaboration and Social Computing technologies becoming
obsolete as Technology Populism grows.

"Embrace The Risks And Rewards Of Technology Populism" is
currently available to Forrester RoleView(TM) clients and can also be
purchased directly at http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=44664.

About Forrester Research

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent
technology and market research company that provides pragmatic and
forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology.
For more than 24 years, Forrester has been making leaders successful
every day through its proprietary research, consulting, events, and
peer-to-peer executive programs. For more information, visit
www.forrester.com.

(C) 2008, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester
is a trademark of Forrester Research, Inc.

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

Copyright Business Wire 2008