The Forrester Landscape Methodology

The Forrester Landscape helps our clients identify and explore the technology vendors and services providers that align with their most critical business technology issues.

Landscapes help Forrester clients become more educated about a market by defining the market maturity, detailing market dynamics and use cases, and providing a list of notable vendors or providers that they can prioritize based on size, focus, and geography.

The Forrester Landscape builds on Forrester’s knowledge of key technology and services markets. Specifically:

• Landscapes focus on use cases for technology markets and business scenarios for services. Analysts define the top use cases that a tech market or business scenarios that a services market addresses.
• A Landscape report accommodates markets of multiple maturity levels. It details markets in three different levels of maturity: emerging, established, and mature. The components of the report vary depending on the maturity of the market.
• Forrester bases Landscapes reports in part on data that vendors and providers submit to us. The research process includes the distribution of a questionnaire to vendors in the market to help define and segment the market.

As part of the Landscape process, Forrester:

• Conducts preliminary research. In preparation for the Landscape, the analyst defines the scope of the category, creates the market definition, and identifies the relevant vendors in the space.
• Defines use case and functionality/business scenarios and capabilities. For technology markets, the analyst defines top use cases and key functionalities. For services markets, the analyst defines top business scenarios and key capabilities.
• Develops and distributes the questionnaire. The research team creates and distributes a questionnaire to relevant vendors in the market. This is the opportunity for vendors to provide data related to their company and products or services. Vendors have approximately three weeks to complete the questionnaire. We use vendor-reported data in key report graphics. If a vendor doesn’t answer some or all parts of the questionnaire, Forrester reserves the right to use estimates in the report. We encourage vendors to download and review their answers at the end of the survey and let us know of any issues prior to the graphics preview stage.
• Aggregates questionnaire responses, defines market maturity, and creates graphics. The analyst reviews the full data set to determine the overall market maturity; defines the top market dynamics; and creates the vendor-focused, use case, and functionality graphics.
• Shares a preview of the report graphics. At this stage, Forrester shares a courtesy preview of the graphics with featured vendors. This is a courtesy step only; we don’t accept new information or requests to revise the original questionnaire responses.
• Moves to courtesy preview and publication. Prior to publication, Forrester provides a courtesy preview of the report in full to participating vendors. We consider the content of the Forrester Landscape to be final at this point, although we reserve the right to make corrections until publication.

Email vendorcontacts@forrester.com to provide or update contact information for future Landscape questionnaire distribution. For each provided contact, include an email address, name, and job title. Please also specify the contact’s coverage area.

Please note, Forrester reaches out to two contacts per vendor for each Landscape. If we can’t connect with a vendor, we reserve the right to list the vendor in our report using estimates.

Our company name has changed since we submitted our questionnaire. Can this be updated?

Forrester presents each company in a Landscape report as it is publicly represented when the questionnaire is returned.

How can we correct an error in our survey response? 

Vendors may download a copy of survey answers upon submission. If you identify an error, please alert the Forrester project manager within two business days of your submission. In the interest of fairness to participating vendors, we don’t allow modifications after we begin the graphics preview process.

Can we update our information in the notable vendors (size, industry focus, geographic focus, deployment options) or extended use case (extended use case focus) tables?  

We don’t allow vendors to submit new information or change submissions after the questionnaire period is closed and we begin the graphics preview process. In the interest of fairness, if we allowed one vendor to change a submission, we would have to make that opportunity available to all.

What should we do if we’re unable to complete the full questionnaire in time? 

If you’re unable to complete the questionnaire before the due date, consider answering the following questions that directly correspond to the data published, and skip the other questions:

• Deployment options (for applicable markets)
• Product/service revenue
• Revenue by region
• Top industry focus
• Top extended use case focus

How does Forrester define the industries in your list? 

We derive our industry list from the list of industry codes included in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Please review the NAICS to help inform your selections in the questionnaire.

We didn’t receive the questionnaire. Can we submit information after the due date? 

Forrester makes a concerted effort to reach appropriate vendor contacts but may make estimates if we can’t connect with the appropriate person. Please send us the correct contact information at the address listed above and we will update this information in our database for future Landscape or Wave outreach for this market. Consider establishing a general analyst relations email address or alias where Forrester can send initial outreach for future reports.