FOUR51 -Forester TLP

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A Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper Commissioned By Four51 May 2015 Build Cloud B2B eCommerce Applications On Your Terms PaaS Combines Speed And Agility With The Customization And Integration Businesses Need

Transcript of FOUR51 -Forester TLP

Page 1: FOUR51 -Forester TLP

A Forrester Consulting

Thought Leadership Paper

Commissioned By Four51

May 2015

Build Cloud B2BeCommerce ApplicationsOn Your TermsPaaS Combines Speed And AgilityWith The Customization AndIntegration Businesses Need

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Table Of Contents

Executive Summary ...........................................................................................1

Online Selling Flips B2B Customer Engagement On Its Head, AndDevelopers Are Central To The Transformation ............................................2

Plans Signal A Rise In Cloud-Based Development, With PaaS Poised ToSee The Largest Increase..................................................................................3

Existing B2B eCommerce Implementations Fall Short Of Developer AndBusiness Needs..................................................................................................5

PaaS Solutions Provide A Modern Approach To B2B eCommerce............7

Key Recommendations ...................................................................................10

Appendix A: Methodology ..............................................................................11

Appendix B: Endnotes.....................................................................................11

ABOUT FORRESTER CONSULTINGForrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-basedconsulting to help leaders succeed in their organizations. Ranging in scope from ashort strategy session to custom projects, Forrester’s Consulting services connectyou directly with research analysts who apply expert insight to your specificbusiness challenges. For more information, visit forrester.com/consulting.

© 2016, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject tochange. Forrester®, Technographics®, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impactare trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respectivecompanies. For additional information, go to www.forrester.com. [1-ZHNELO]

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Executive Summary

Over the past twenty years, online consumer shopping hasbecome well established, but business buyers have beenslower to migrate. But the wait for the online business buyeris coming to an end: In the US alone, the B2B eCommercemarket is now on a steady march toward $1 trillion by 2020.With the rise in prominence of the online business buyer,having a strong eCommerce presence is no longer a luxuryfor B2B sellers. eCommerce systems can’t simply be “boltedon” to existing businesses, however. They must beintegrated into sales and partner channels and customizedto accommodate unique needs. No one understands thischallenge more than the developers working to build anddeploy B2B eCommerce solutions.

In March 2016, Four51 commissioned Forrester Consultingto evaluate how B2B eCommerce systems fit into thebroader digital landscape, and what platform functionalitydevelopers require to deliver eCommerce capabilities withinmodern websites and apps. Four51 also sought to uncoverdevelopers’ perceptions of various approaches to B2BeCommerce delivery. Forrester structured a hypothesis totest the assertion that modern developers who work withB2B eCommerce solutions will gravitate toward cloud-hosted platforms over time due to their needs forcomprehensive, customizable, and quick-to-implementcapabilities and workflows.

By conducting a survey of 150 software development andarchitecture professionals in the United States with recentexperience developing B2B eCommerce solutions,Forrester found that current solutions fall far short of needs,and that Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)-based solutions arean increasingly popular option for developers seekingflexible, quick-to-deploy systems.

KEY FINDINGS

Forrester’s study yielded 5 key findings:

› Current B2B eCommerce deployments disappointdevelopers. An average of 80% of the developers wesurveyed rated one of thirteen B2B eCommerce system

qualities we asked about as important or criticallyimportant, yet an average of only 36% told us their currentsolution was excellent at delivering the same qualities.Among the qualities with the biggest deltas betweenrequirements and performance are completeness offeature sets, mobile capabilities, breadth of integrationoptions, and speed of deployment.

› Lack of integrations and customizations limit B2BeCommerce success. Nearly half of developers wesurveyed cited a lack of necessary integrations with othertechnologies and capabilities as a top inhibitor ofsuccessful B2B eCommerce development, therebypropelling it to the No. 1 spot. Ranking closely behindwere the lack of customization to business needs anddifficulty integrating with other back end systems.

› On-premise and SaaS solutions disappointdevelopers. A majority of developers are frustrated withthe challenges of on-premise eCommerce environments –including cost of acquisition/implementation andmaintenance, time required for deployment andmaintenance, and procurement headaches. Similarly, allrespondents ranked all potential SaaS drawbacks – suchas inadequate integrations, limits on developing forcertain channels, and poor adaptability to businessprocesses and needs – as a major or moderate issue.

› PaaS-based systems are posed for the largestincrease in B2B eCommerce deployments. Comfortwith multitenant cloud services has risen steeply over thepast two years, and B2B eCommerce developers nowreport plans to decrease the share of projects built on-premise and increase those developed in the cloud. Therate of increase in planned PaaS-based deploymentsover the next two years is twice that of the increase inplanned SaaS-based deployments. Furthermore,developers told us they are significantly more comfortabledeveloping in a PaaS environment than they are in aSaaS environment, while the difference in their levels ofcomfort in PaaS and on-premise environments isstatistically insignificant.

› Customization is critical for B2B eCommercesystems. An average of 81% of developers describedeach of the six customization elements we asked about –ranging from user interface to integration with commercialapplications or RDBMSes to unique business processes –as important or critically important.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)-based solutionsare an increasingly popular option fordevelopers seeking flexible, quick-to-deploysystems.

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Online Selling Flips B2B CustomerEngagement On Its Head, AndDevelopers Are Central To TheTransformation

Business buyers are consumers, too, and it was only amatter of time before their technology-driven expectations ofmeeting their needs anytime, anywhere, causedlongstanding modes of B2B commerce to yield share todigital ones. B2B sellers have much to gain from this shift.Executives surveyed by Forrester cite factors such ashigher loyalty, spend, and profitability as motivators forshifting business buyers online.i

Delivering on this new imperative isn’t easy, however, andbusiness stakeholders aren’t the only ones wrapping theirheads around it. So, too, are members of technical staffcharged with developing, deploying, and evolving thecapabilities to make B2B eCommerce possible. Our studyfound that:

› B2B eCommerce is a new world for developers, butthere is growing demand for their skills. Engagingbusiness buyers in earnest through eCommerce is such arecent phenomenon that only one-third of the developerswe surveyed (all of whom were required to haveexperience on such projects) had B2B eCommerceexperience a mere two years ago. With what Forresterprojects to be volume of over $1 trillion by 2020 – acompound annual growth rate of 7.7% – the explosion ofB2B eCommerce means that these developers canexpect a healthy workload of deploying and refining suchsystems.ii

› Business and technical initiatives alike drive B2BeCommerce projects. The developers we surveyed aregenerally aligned with the business motivators fordeploying B2B eCommerce systems, with the majorityciting factors such as high rates of repeat business,reduced costs per order, and competitive pressure asmajor drivers. Unsurprisingly, developers are also well-attuned to the technical factors putting these projects inthe pipeline, too, with at least half of respondentsclassifying considerations like system modernization,mobile initiatives, and systems integrations as havingmajor sway (see Figure 1).

› Developers have a prominent seat at the table whenevaluating and selecting solutions. Developers are

active participants in the evaluation and selection of B2BeCommerce solutions. In fact, 58% of the developers wesurveyed said their roles in such activities have increasedrecently, a third of whom said they had become muchmore involved. The share of developers involved in suchdecision-making activities is particularly sharp at customerorganizations (i.e., end user organizations) and partnerorganizations (e.g., systems integrators, digital agencies,and consultants), where 41% and 44% of developers with

FIGURE 1An Assortment Of Business And Technical FactorsDrive B2B eCommerce Initiatives

Base: 154 US software architecture and development professionalsinvolved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflowsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting onbehalf of Four51, March 2016

39%

44%

44%

46%

47%

50%

51%

52%

55%

58%

63%

42%

45%

46%

45%

39%

38%

40%

36%

39%

33%

31%

Omnichannel initiatives

Increased loyalty

Lower customeracquisition/retention costs

Reducing order/manual errors

Higher spend/averagetransaction value

Systems integrations

Competitive pressure

Mobile initiatives

Reduction of cost per order

System modernization

Higher rates of repeat/returnbusiness

"To what extent do you believe thefollowing factors drive the B2B

eCommerce projects you work on?"

Major driver Moderate driver

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increased involvement call the change major (see Figure2).

Plans Signal A Rise In Cloud-BasedDevelopment, With PaaS Poised ToSee The Largest Increase

When eCommerce first emerged two decades ago, itsimpact on business buying was hard to foresee. Even lessapparent were the various development environments suchcapabilities could be built and deployed in. In addition to theestablished on-premise and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)offerings that have permeated the market, developers arealso showing increasing interest in models like Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), which offer a hosted set of tools andservices that allow for the development of custom solutions.

Which methods do B2B eCommerce developers prefertoday, and which ones will they turn to in the future? Wefound that:

› Cloud-based B2B eCommerce development, led byPaaS, is on the rise. Old habits (and code bases) diehard, so it’s no surprise that on-premise deploymentconstitutes the largest share of B2B eCommercedeployments today (28%). Yet, various cloud-basedmodels add up to nearly double that amount, with acombined share of 53%. And developers we surveyed are

FIGURE 2Developers Play An Increasingly Prominent Role InB2B eCommerce Solution Evaluation And Selection

Base: 50-154 US software architecture and development professionalsinvolved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflowsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalfof Four51, March 2016

48%

11%

34%

24%

32%

26%

Somewhat more involved

Much more involved

"To what extent has the role of developersin the evaluation and selection of B2BeCommerce solutions changed at your

organization recently?"

Partner organizationsCustomer organizationsVendor organizations

20%

Average of all respondents

38%

FIGURE 3PaaS Is Posed To See A Large Increase In Its Share Of B2B eCommerce Projects

Not all response options shownBase: 50-154 US software architecture and development professionals involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflowsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Four51, March 2016

28%19% 17% 17%

26%21% 19% 16%

On -premise Commerce Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Commerce Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

Commerce Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

"Using your best estimate, how much of the code you write for B2BeCommerce projects is deployed in the following environments today? How

do you expect that to change?"Currently In two years

Projected change intotal share ofdeployments

7% decrease 7% increase 14% increase 1% decrease

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steadily moving further into the cloud, predicting that 56%of their deployments will be in the cloud within two years.PaaS deployments are projected to see the biggest rateof increase (14%) in their share of B2B eCommerceprojects during the next two years, while SaaS’s projectedrate of increase is half that (7%) and IaaS deploymentsare anticipated to decrease slightly. On-premise projectsare slated to see the biggest decrease, with theirprevalence expected to decrease by 7% (see Figure 3).

› Multitenancy is rapidly gaining acceptance.Multitenant architectures – those which let multiplecustomers share the same applications and/or computeresources – allow service providers to achieve high costefficiencies while easing services maintenance andupdates. Yet, despite these solutions’ abilities to provideimproved security when properly configured, early cloudadopters have often worried about security orperformance issues from “noisy neighbors”.iii But thosefears are receding as developers gain hands-onexperience with the cloud. Just two years ago, less thanone-third of these developers were very comfortable withmultitenancy, and an additional 42% registered assomewhat comfortable. Today, the share of developers

claiming at least some comfort with multitenancy hasgrown significantly (from 71% to 88%). What’s more, theratio of those who are very comfortable to those who aresomewhat comfortable has been flipped, with a robust59% claiming the highest level of ease with thearchitecture, and the overwhelming majority of this shifttook place just over the past year (see Figure 4).

› Developers now prefer PaaS to other cloud deliverymodels. The expected increase in PaaS developmentcompared to other models can be traced at least in part todeveloper preference. When asked about their levels ofcomfort developing in a variety of environments, thedevelopers we surveyed told us that they weresignificantly more comfortable with PaaS than with SaaSor IaaS. In fact, developers’ levels of comfort with PaaSand on-premise environments are not statisticallydifferent. Developers from partner organizations areespecially comfortable with PaaS environments: 68% ofpartner respondents said they were “completely

FIGURE 5Developers Prefer PaaS To Other CloudEnvironments

Base: 50-154 US software architecture and development professionalsinvolved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflowsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting onbehalf of Four51, March 2016

44%

56%

59%

61%

59%

46%

50%

66%

72%

76%

30%

66%

68%

62%

70%

Infrastructure-as-a-Service(IaaS)

Software-as-a-Service(SaaS)

Platform-as-a-Service(PaaS)

On premise

Open source

"Generally, how comfortable are youdeveloping in the following

environments?" (answers of completely)

Partner organizationsCustomer organizationsVendor organizations

68%

Average of all respondents

65%

64%

57%

40%

FIGURE 4The Rate At Which Developers EmbraceMultitenancy Has Increased Dramatically

“To what degree are you comfortable withmultitenancy, and how has that level of comfort

changed?”

Base: 154 US software architecture and development professionalsinvolved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflowsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting onbehalf of Four51, March 2016

29%

42%

Two Years Ago

59%29%

Today

Completely comfortableSomewhat comfortable

36%

45%

One Year Ago

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comfortable” with PaaS, compared to 62% who said thesame for on-premise. Customer organizations areextraordinarily comfortable with open source software(see Figure 5).

Existing B2B eCommerceImplementations Fall Short OfDeveloper And Business Needs

Deploying a B2B eCommerce solution that meets modernbusiness is a challenging task. Through our research, wesought to understand how current B2B eCommercesolutions meet business requirements and the challengesdevelopers face in deploying them. We also wanted to knowabout the ease with which developers can work with the twomost popular approaches, on-premise and SaaS, whichtogether account for nearly half of all B2B eCommercedeployments. We found that the current landscape leavesmuch to be desired:

› Most in-place B2B eCommerce solutions don’t meet

developer needs. Businesses demand that theireCommerce systems be cost efficient, feature-rich, anddifferentiated from the competition. Furthermore, suchsystems must be quick to deploy and capable ofsupporting unique business processes. To accommodatethis list of requirements, developers need solutions thatmeet a great deal of criteria. Yet, according to our surveyrespondents, traditional solutions aren’t up to par. Anaverage of 80% of developers rated each of the thirteenB2B eCommerce solution qualities we asked about asimportant or critically important, yet a dismal average of36% said their current solution is excellent at the same –a whopping delta of forty-four percentage points (seeFigure 6).

› Subpar integration and customization capabilitieslimit success of B2B eCommerce implementations.The lack of necessary integrations with other technologiesand capabilities ranks as the No. 1 inhibitor of successfulB2B eCommerce workflows among our respondents. Tiedfor No. 2 are a lack of customization to business needsand difficulty integrating with other back end systems.

FIGURE 6The Performance Of Today’s B2B eCommerce Deployments Fall Far Short Of Needs

Base: 154 US software architecture and development professionals involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflowsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Four51, March 2016

36%34%

29%44%

32%35%

49%39%

37%

38%33%

31%29%

72%72%

67%83%

72%76%

90%82%

80%88%

84%86%

85%

Customizability of core business processesCustomizability of the solution's user interfaces

Documentation and online training resourcesMaintainability

API extensibilityScalability

SecuritySpeed/ease of deployment

Breadth of integration optionsCloud deployment capabilities/cloud-readiness

Mobile capabilitiesCompleteness of feature set

Cost

"How important are the following qualities of B2B eCommerce solutions? How doyou rate your current B2B eCommerce solution's capabilities?")

"This quality is important or critically important for a B2B eCommerce solution""Our current B2B eCommerce solution is excellent at this"

Needs vs.Performance

Delta

56%55%51%

50%43%

43%41%41%40%39%

38%38%

36%

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Difficulty customizing the user experience and extendingsupport to mobile devices also made the list of topinhibitors (see Figure 7).

› SaaS solutions don’t accommodate unique businessrequirements. While SaaS-based eCommerce solutionshave taken significant market share in the early stages offirms’ moves to the cloud, we found that the majority ofdevelopers reported a moderate or major issue with eachpotential drawback of SaaS, the top of which includeinadequate integrations, limited options for developing forindividual channels (like Web or mobile), and versioncentricity (see Figure 8). We ascribe early SaaS successmore to lack of eCommerce PaaS availability thansuperior capability, as evidenced by increased PaaSadoption intentions in light of increased offerings.

› On-premise solutions don’t work with moderntimelines and budgets. Although their honeymoonphase with SaaS may be waning, developers won’t bepining for a return to on-premise dominance anytimesoon. We also asked respondents who recentlydeveloped in an on-premise environment what pain pointssuch projects inflicted, and found a similar average of58% reporting moderate or major issues across a range

of factors. Cost – of both maintenance/acquisition andimplementation – made the list of top three issues, as didthe burden of applying upgrades and new versions.Respondents also complained about the time required tomaintain and acquire, implement, and deploy on-premisesolutions, and the headache of dealing with internalprocurement and budgeting processes (see Figure 9).

FIGURE 7Lack of integration and customization limit the success of B2B eCommerce systems

Base: 154 US software architecture and development professionals involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflowsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Four51, March 2016

% respondentsplacing factor in

Top 5

47%

42%

42%

38%

36%

36%

36%

29%5%

8%

8%

9%

6%

6%

13%

8%

5%

11%

5%

5%

9%

13%

4%

9%

7%

5%

5%

7%

8%

8%

6%

13%

5%

5%

8%

8%

7%

8%

9%

9%

7%

7%

10%

7%

8%

7%

10%

8%

Overemphasis on technology versus strategy

Extending support to new devices like mobilephones or tablets

Difficulty customizing the user experience

Lack of budget

Insufficient staff expertise

Difficulty integrating with other back end systems

Lack of customization to business needs

Lack of necessary integrations with othertechnologies/capabilities

"What are the top inhibitors to successful development of B2B eCommercesystems?" (Top 8 responses)

Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5

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PaaS Solutions Provide A ModernApproach To B2B eCommerce

With the need for solutions that are not only customized, butquick to deploy, it’s not surprising that B2B eCommercedevelopers plan to ramp up their work with PaaS more thanany other environment. But not all solutions provide thehallmarks of PaaS’ value proposition, such as API-firstqualities and out-of-the-box support for applications thatsupport customer and business needs.

What customization elements are most important, whatfactors drive PaaS adoption, and what qualities does aPaaS B2B eCommerce solution need in order to besuccessful? The developers we surveyed told us that:

› UI is the top customization need, with integrationsfollowing closely. It’s no wonder that developers wantAPIs that clearly separate user interfaces from businesslogic. An API-first approach supports customdevelopment of user interfaces and eases integration withcommercial applications, the two most important elementsof B2B eCommerce customization valued by ourrespondents (88% and 85%, respectively). Other

customization wants include integration with RDBMes,plug-in architectures, access to open source code, andaccommodation of unique business processes. In fact, atleast three-quarters of respondents say any of thecustomization components we asked about are importantor critically important in the solutions they seek.Interestingly, developers at end user customerorganizations generally value customization more thanthe partners and vendors that serve them. Although thestrong majority of developers at vendor organizations saycustomizations are important, they are comparativelaggards when it comes to the magnitude of thatimportance (see Figure 10).

FIGURE 8SaaS Solutions Are Viewed By Many As Inflexible

Base: 142 US software architecture and development professionalsinvolved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflowsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting onbehalf of Four51, March 2016

55%

57%

59%

60%

61%

62%

Poor adaptability tobusiness processes/needs

Limited user interfaceoptions

Limited scaling capabilities

Version centricity

Limits of developing forindividual channels

Inadequate/limitedintegrations

"To what extent have the followingpresented an issue, if at all, when

developing in a SaaS environment?"(answers of major or moderate issue)

FIGURE 9On-Premise Solutions Require Prohibitively HighTime And Expenditure Outlays For ModernOrganizations

Base: 135 US software architecture and development professionalsinvolved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflowsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting onbehalf of Four51, March 2016

56%

56%

57%

57%

58%

58%

59%

60%

61%

Time required to deploy

Time to acquire and installrequired hardware/software

Poor adaptability to businessprocesses/needs

Procurement/budgetingprocesses/personnel

Time required formaintenance

Configuration and support

Cost ofacquisition/implementation

Applying upgrades or newversions

Cost of maintenance

"To what extent have the followingpresented an issue when developing in

an on premise environment?" (answers ofmajor or moderate issue)

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› Quick to-deploy, API-first platforms that supportmodern technologies are the PaaS trademarks thatwoo developers. Survey respondents who indicatedplans to increase the share of B2B eCommerce projectsthey develop in PaaS environments indicate a range ofinfluences leading to their shift from other environments.Measured by total mentions within their top three factors,a modern development environment (includingframeworks and APIs) is the most important, followedclosely by better support for the mobile devices customershave embraced and improved security. Measured bymentions as a No. 1 factor, the ubiquitous need forimproved security takes top place, followed by the abilityto roll out new capabilities to customers faster and a tiebetween more modern development environment andlower infrastructure maintenance costs (see Figure 11).

› Successful PaaS-based B2B eCommerce depends onhaving the right factors in place. Despite their “ready-to-go” status, respondents indicated a need for a varietyof resources to get the most out of their PaaS solutions.Overall, software development kits (SDKs) are seen asmost essential, with training, documentation, ongoingsupport services, and RDBMS integration supportfollowing closely behind with no statistically significantlevel of difference. What constitutes the most important

resource differs for each respondent group, however.Partners see documentation as most critical, whilecustomers are more likely to require ongoing supportservices and vendors seek a complete RESTful API set(see Figure 12).

FIGURE 10Customization Is An Imperative For B2B eCommerce Solutions

“How important, if at all, is customization of the following elements of a B2B eCommerce solution?” (answersof critically important or important)

Base: 50-154 US software architecture and development professionals involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflowsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Four51, March 2016

74%

75%

80%

81%

85%

88%

Unique businessprocesses

Access to coresource code via an

open source license

Plug-in architecturethat allows event

interception or…

Integration with mybusiness’s RDBMes

Integration withcommercialapplications

User interface

All respondents

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%User interface

Integration withcommercialapplications

Integration withbusiness's RDBMes

Plug-in architectureallowing event

interception/triggers

Access to core sourcecode via open source

license

Unique businessprocesses

Partners Customers Vendors

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FIGURE 12Top Resources Needed For Successful PaaS-Based eCommerce Vary By Company Type

“What resources would you need to successfully implement PaaS-based eCommerce?” (answers of criticallyimportant or important)

Base: 135 US software architecture and development professionals involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflowsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Four51, March 2016

27%

31%

35%

37%

41%

42%

42%

43%

43%

44%

Componentized architecture

Recommended/vettedconsulting partners

Online sandbox to test code

Code Samples

A complete set of RESTfulAPIs

RDBMS integration support

Ongoing support services

Documentation

Training

Software development kits(SDKs) or seeds

All respondents

Partners Customers Vendors

No.1Resource

DocumentationOngoing support

services

Complete

RESTful API set

No. 2Resource

SDKs or seedsRDBMS integration

supportTraining

No. 3Resource

Ongoing

support servicesSDK or seeds Documentation

FIGURE 11PaaS Adoption Is Driven By Need For Modernization, Support, Security, And Speed

“Which of the following factors have the greatest influence on your decision to increasingly develop B2BeCommerce projects in a PaaS environment?”

Base: 42 US software architecture and development professionals involved in B2B eCommerce / order management workflowsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Four51, March 2016

2%

10%

7%

7%

14%

17%

19%

10%

14%

14%

7%

7%

12%

7%

12%

7%

17%

17%

2%

10%

14%

12%

10%

10%

14%

14%

14%

Shifting capital expense (Capex) to operating expense(Opex)

Easier updates to new versions and product features

Easier to customize

Executive pressure to move to cloud-hosted solutions

Lower costs of maintaining application infrastructure

Faster roll out of new capabilities to businesscustomers

Improved security of data and transactions

Better support for mobile devices

More modern development environment, frameworks,or APIs

1st ranked 2nd ranked 3rd ranked

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Key Recommendations

Forrester’s in-depth survey of B2B eCommerce developers yielded several important recommendations:

› The future of B2B eCommerce is in the cloud, so prepare for it now. There’s a gradual, but absolute,movement to the cloud on the part of B2B eCommerce developers. If your development shop is not comfortablewith cloud economics, or the cloud’s technical underpinnings, then it’s a top priority to start gathering experiencesooner rather than later. Hiring developers with implementation experience is a good start, but teams should alsofocus on exposing in-house developers to modern principles like APIs, service consumption, multitenancy andHTML 5 standards, frameworks, and programming languages.

› Support developers’ exploration of new eCommerce capabilities. Implementing a B2B eCommerce solutionused to be a daunting proposition that required in-depth planning, a long project schedule, and considerablecapital to fund. But modern solutions don’t require teams to “buy the battleship”. Instead, let your developersexperiment with modern solutions that are quick to deploy, pay-as-you-go, and highly customizable. When pairedwith Agile development approaches, you’ll quickly find out that today’s B2B eCommerce platforms have more incommon with modern development projects then yesterday’s package implementation efforts.

› Make sure your eCommerce investments support more than just the Web. While we still expect the Web tobe an important buying channel for B2B commerce, it won’t be the only one. Business buyers will followconsumers and become increasingly comfortable buying from their mobile phone, tablets, and perhaps from theirtrucks or other connected devices. Make sure that the eCommerce solutions you invest in provide good supportfor mobile today, but also that this support doesn’t lock you into an off the shelf mobile app that can’t easily becustomized. Examine how mobile support will evolve into multi-channel support, and how teams can track buyerhabits across multiple channels, at every stage in their purchase journey.

› Consider the flexibility that PaaS eCommerce platforms deliver. Good PaaS platforms are designed to beflexible. Look for platforms that separate functional services from user interfaces through an API-first approach.Other needs like mobile app support, integration with third-party applications, and integration with customsystems are all much easier when there’s not a hard-linked UI getting in the way. Platform APIs should extend toadministrative functions and reporting functions as well. When implemented properly, a PaaS based eCommerceplatform will quickly prove itself through quick, cost-effective delivery of just the features that developers need.

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Appendix A: Methodology

In this study, Forrester interviewed conducted an online survey of 150 software development and software architectureprofessionals in the United States with experience with B2B eCommerce development projects, with significantrepresentation of respondents from three segments: Customers (those working to develop software to support theirbusinesses); partners (those working at a consultant, systems integrator, or digital agency on projects to meet the needs ofclients; and vendors (those working to develop software or online services sold to customers. The purpose of the researchwas to discover the motivators for and prevalence of B2B eCommerce development, which development approaches arebeing used for such projects, and what challenges developers experience in developing quality B2B eCommercecapabilities. Respondents were offered small incentives determined and administered by their respective survey panels as athank you for time spent on the survey. The study was conducted in March 2016.

Appendix B: Endnotes

i Source: “The Case For Channel Shifting Offline Customers Online,” June 24, 2015ii Source: “B2B eCommerce: A Trillion Dollar For The Taking,” Forrester Research, Inc., September 28, 2015iii Source: “Understanding Cloud’s Multitenancy,” Forrester Research, Inc., March 15, 2012