London, ENGLAND — Research firm Forrester announced Tuesday
the European launch of its Web-based service for finding
the best technology solutions in the burgeoning world of
e-business software.
Named “eBusiness TechRankings,” the service combines
Forrester’s strategic analysis with laboratory-based
product testing, addressing such categories as commerce
platforms, content management, application servers, and
customer service applications.
Emily Nagle Green, managing director of Forrester’s European
headquarters in Amsterdam, said companies are currently
spending millions of euros on the selection process itself
— which can take many months.
“TechRankings is an easy efficient tool that cuts through
the hype from vendors and radically speeds the testing and
selection process, delivering valuable time and investment
savings,” said Green.
In partnership with product testing laboratory Doculabs,
Forrester assesses each product on over 100 attributes. It
then presents the results, complete with a full analysis,
via its interactive research database.
“With our analysis and hard data at their fingertips, users
are better-positioned to select the right technology platform,
negotiate a contract, or implement a new product,” said
Ted Schadler, group director at Forrester and chief architect
behind the latest offering.
One of the most comprehensive services of its kind, TechRankings
blends laboratory-based product testing, vendor analysis, and user
interviews to help clients find products that will meet their
e-business needs.
Still a relatively new approach — Forrester introduced
TechRankings in the U.S. during October 2000 — the service is
proving popular with business. Its rigorous and objective
testing is also seen as being fair to vendors, who are not
charged for their participation in TechRankings.
Forrester says it will introduce additional categories of
product during the year while continuing to update all
existing categories. At this rate, the job of maintaining
the database will grow exponentially, as other product
evaluation providers have discovered.