Forrester decides to buy SiriusDecisions

One version of the Sirius Demand Waterfall

Research firm Forrester announced today that it will buy B2B research and advisory firm SiriusDecisions.

The deal, which is expected to close in January, will cost the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Forrester $245 million in cash.

‘Demand Waterfall.’ Forrester’s reports on various business, technology and marketing topics are designed for business and tech leaders, centered these days around what it calls “customer-obsessed strategies.”

Headquartered in Wilton, Connecticut, SiriusDecisions is focused on providing a “Sirius Way” methodology that is based on best practices and intended to help optimize marketing, sales and product operations.

One of SiriusDecisions’ calling cards is its “Demand Waterfall” model, used by B2B firms’ sales and marketing teams to help coordinate their assessment and management of new business leads and the sales process.

‘Deeper operational understanding.’ In a statement, the companies said the deal will allow them to cross-sell services, expand the SiriusDecisions platform into IT and customer experience, move it into financial services, healthcare and other vertical markets that Forrester covers, and accelerate international growth plans, especially through Forrester’s global sales force and channels.

Victor Milligan, Forrester CMO, emailed me that this new combined entity allows his company’s clients to “understand and embrace large sweeping changes [in the market] as well as execute and drive performance every day.” SiriusDecisions provides “a deeper operational understanding” that will help to tune Forrester’s strategic advice, he added.

Forrester CFO Michael Doyle said he expects the addition of SiriusDecisions will add about $100 million to Forrester’s 2019 revenue. Milligan told me the SiriusDecisions brand will be maintained, as well as “The Sirius Way.”

Why this matters to marketers. This acquisition is the latest expansive move by Forrester, in this case bringing an additional operational methodology into its portfolio. In July, the research firm picked up customer feedback player FeedbackNow and the analytics company GlimpzIt, planning to use them as the engines to evolve its CX (customer experience) Index into a real-time CX Cloud.

Given the wide availability of various kinds of business research, Forrester and competitors like Gartner are taking their own advice by keeping ahead of the rapidly changing market. The arc of their evolution, such as Forrester’s major move into customer-focused strategy, traces the latest direction of marketing and business intelligence.