CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Forrester Research, Inc.'s annual collection of trend reports highlights growth opportunities and hurdles in a number of industries and technology disciplines, according to a news release. The industries and technology disciplines include application development, automotive, consumer devices, content management, customer experience, enterprise applications, financial services, healthcare, IT infrastructure, IT outsourcing, IT spending, online retail, security, telecom and travel.
As businesses put more emphasis on customer acquisition and retention efforts, deployments of phone self-service systems and increasingly customized self-service kiosks will be a priority in the coming year. Increased adoption rates for IP telephony will be the bright spot in the enterprise communications market. According to the report, Sarbanes-Oxley will continue to be a major driver of financial management technology well into 2005.
Consumer packaged goods companies will balance flat industry growth and technology investments necessary to meet retail and regulatory mandates, and online retailers will make cautious technology investments focused on initiatives that drive differentiation and consumer loyalty.
"Attracting and retaining customers, whether they are consumers or enterprises, has become increasingly difficult in a fragmented, self-service marketplace," said Christopher Mines, senior vice president, Forrester Research. "Our 2005 trends identify how to maximize customer growth via IT investments in areas like enterprise mobility, IP telephony and supply chain management."
