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The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Decisioning

Platforms, Q4 2018
The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

by John R. Rymer and Mike Gualtieri

October 17, 2018

Why Read This Report Key Takeaways

In Forrester’s evaluation of the emerging market FICO And Pegasystems Lead The Pack
for digital decisioning platforms, we evaluated the Forrester’s research uncovered a market in which
11 most significant providers in the category — FICO and Pegasystems are Leaders; Decisions.
Appian, AuraPortal, Decisions.com, FICO, IBM, com and IBM are Strong Performers; TIBCO
InRule, Pegasystems, Red Hat, SAS Institute, Software, SAS Institute, Sparkling Logic, and
Sparkling Logic, and TIBCO Software. This report AuraPortal are Contenders; and InRule, Appian,
details our findings about how well each vendor and Red Hat are Challengers.
scored against 10 criteria and where they stand
Dev Experience, Functional Integration, And
in relation to each other. Application development
Market Approach Are The Big Differentiators
and delivery (AD&D) professionals can use this
Platforms that integrate analytics, rules
review to select the right partner for their digital
management, and process stand out and have
decisioning needs.
the best developer and administrator tools. All
of the vendors have functional-integration gaps.
Vendors’ focus on digital decisioning use cases
varies widely; those with the tightest focus have
the best approaches to the market.

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For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2018

The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

by John R. Rymer and Mike Gualtieri

with Christopher Mines, Sara Sjoblom, and Andrew Reese
October 17, 2018

Table Of Contents Related Research Documents

2 Mind The Gaps In Digital Decisioning The Dawn Of Digital Decisioning
Platforms
Now Tech: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q3 2018
2 Digital Decisioning Platforms Evaluation
Overview

5 Vendor QuickCards
Share reports with colleagues.
17 Supplemental Material
Enhance your membership with
Research Share.

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For Application Development & Delivery Professionals October 17, 2018
The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2018
The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

Mind The Gaps In Digital Decisioning Platforms

The market for digital decisioning platforms is emerging from three sources: analytics, business-rules
management, and business process automation. Digital decisioning applications combine these
three technologies, but vendors are finding that integrating them into unified platforms is challenging.
Few of the vendors offer completely integrated packages that contain all three of these technologies,
which helps to explain why we find only two borderline-Leader vendors in our analysis — FICO and
Pegasystems.

AD&D pros will find diffuse thinking on digital decisioning applications among vendors; few pursue
digital decisioning use cases as their primary missions. Most of the vendors focus on discrete parts
of digital decisioning use cases — InRule, Red Hat, and Sparkling Logic in decision management, for
example. These vendors often excel in their specialties, but they force customers to integrate other
products to automate the full insight-to-action decision cycle. For other vendors — Appian and TIBCO
Software, for example — digital decisioning is an emerging, secondary use case.

Digital Decisioning Platforms Evaluation Overview

The Forrester New Wave™ differs from our traditional Forrester Wave. In the New Wave evaluation, we
assess only emerging product segments, using 10 criteria and a stack ranking employing a three-point
scale (differentiated, on par, and needs improvement). We group the 10 criteria into current offering and
strategy (see Figure 1). We also review vendors’ market presence.

We included 11 vendors in our assessment: Appian, AuraPortal, Decisions.com, FICO, IBM, InRule,
Pegasystems, Red Hat, SAS Institute, Sparkling Logic, and TIBCO Software (see Figure 2 and see
Figure 3). Each of these vendors:

›› Provides a platform for application development and delivery of many use cases. We’ve
excluded vendors from our analysis that provide packaged digital decisioning solutions, specialize
in a single industry, and/or exclusively use their platforms to provide custom solutions.

›› Focuses on decisioning applications. We’ve included vendors that focus on decisioning

applications in their sales and marketing approaches. Among the 11 vendors, the degree of
emphasis on decisioning varies, as does vendor commitment to provide the three elements of
digital decisioning use cases — analytics, business rules, and business process.

›› Offers product features vital for digital decisioning applications. Each vendor provides, at a
minimum, business-rules management technology. Most provide analytics and/or business process
automation features, as well. All provide tools for AD&D pros.

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The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2018
The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

FIGURE 1 Assessment Criteria

Criteria Platform eveluation details

Developer experience Does the vendor offer a single unified developer experience to address all
aspects of digital decisioning — analytics, decisioning, and process —
including development, testing, and deployment?

Decision management Which decision modeling approaches does the product support?
features

Analytics features Which data analysis methods are built into the platform, and how well do
they work?

Process features Does the product provide features to automate decisions within larger
business processes and workflows?

Functional integration What integration features does the product provide to create and consume
externally created and hosted decision models?

Business results Does the product provide out-of-the-box features to correlate decisions and
correlation actions to business results?

Administration and Is the vendor’s digital decisioning platform administered and managed as a
management single, unified environment including reporting on platform operations (with
a single set of tools to manage platform upgrades, updates, and patches)?

Vision Does the vendor have a compelling and credible three-to-five-year vision for
digital decisioning platforms?

Road map What is Forrester’s level of confidence in the vendor’s road map in terms of
making the solution more competitive for enterprise buyers compared to
other vendors in this evaluation?

Market approach Is the company executing a successful go-to-market approach for digital
decisioning applications?

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The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2018
The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

FIGURE 2 Forrester New Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2018

Digital Decisioning Platforms

Q4 2018

Strong
Challengers Contenders Performers Leaders

Stronger
current
offering

Pegasystems

FICO

SAS Institute

Appian AuraPortal Decisions.com

Sparkling Logic IBM

TIBCO Software

InRule

Red Hat

Weaker
current
offering

Weaker strategy Stronger strategy

Market presence

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The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2018
The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

FIGURE 3 Vendor QuickCard Overview

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Decisions.com

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SAS Institute

Sparkling Logic

AuraPortal

InRule

Appian

Red Hat

Differentiated On par Needs improvement

Vendor QuickCards
Forrester evaluated 11 vendors and stack-ranked them using 10 criteria. Here’s our take on each.

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The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2018
The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

FICO: Forrester’s Take

Our evaluation found that (see Figure 4):

›› FICO leads with world-class decision management and analytics. FICO’s Blaze Advisor is
world-class at enabling both technical developers and business analysts to author business rules.
With the addition of advanced analytics modeling, enterprises can use FICO to make sophisticated,
consequential decisions.

›› FICO still needs to shore up business process capabilities. FICO could improve process
authoring capabilities to satisfy enterprises that author decisions and business processes together
in one platform.

›› FICO is best for companies automating consequential business decisions. Because FICO
supports both business-rules authoring and advanced analytics modeling, enterprises can use
FICO to make sophisticated decisions. FICO also offers business solutions that encapsulate
decision expertise for vertical and horizontal applications.

FICO Customer Reference Summary

FICO’s two customer references noted the flexibility of FICO decision authoring tools and
implementation support.

FIGURE 4 FICO QuickCard

Wave position

FICO LEADER

Developer experience Bus. results correlation REFERENCE QUOTES

Decision mgmt. features Admin. and mgmt.
Analytics features Vision “[It] easily integrates to our
existing applications.”
Process features Road map
Functional integration Market approach “A web-based rules
development workbench
would be preferable over
Differentiated On par Needs improvement Eclipse.”

Products evaluated
FICO Decision Management Suite

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The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2018
The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

Pegasystems: Forrester’s Take

Our evaluation found that (see Figure 5):

›› Pegasystems leads the pack by integrating decisions with actions. Pegasystems provides a
unified set of tools and capabilities focused on maximum business impact. Its solutions connect
both business processes and customer experiences.

›› Pegasystems can keep its lead with more analytics capabilities. Pegasystems’ analytics
capabilities are on par with most of the vendor in this Wave. The tools focus on developers of both
automated decisions and business process, but they could improve for data science teams.

›› Pegasystems is best for enterprises that wish to fundamentally rethink business. Enterprises
undergoing digital transformation will find the way that Pegasystems unifies decision, process, and
customer experience compelling. For a narrowly scoped digital decision project, some enterprises
might find this comprehensiveness daunting.

Pegasystems Customer Reference Summary

One customer reference praised Pegasystems no-code development environment. Another cautioned
that using all of the available tools can involve a steep learning curve.

FIGURE 5 Pegasystems QuickCard

Wave position

Pegasystems LEADER

Developer experience Bus. results correlation REFERENCE QUOTES

Decision mgmt. features Admin. and mgmt.
“We use Pega as a centralized
Analytics features Vision decisioning hub across every
Process features Road map customer channel.”
Functional integration Market approach
“There is a steep learning curve,
and finding developers capable
Differentiated On par Needs improvement of using the platform efficiently is
a challenge.”

Products evaluated
Pega Infinity

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The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2018
The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

Decisions.com: Forrester’s Take

Our evaluation found that (see Figure 6):

›› Decisions.com has great decision management features and a novel market approach.
Decisions.com offers an astonishingly large number of decision management features for a
relatively young vendor. It offers its solution exclusively in the cloud, making for quick updates and
easy adoption.

›› Decisions.com should boost its analytics strategy. Decisions.com could improve by either
adding analytics capabilities directly to the platform or engaging in tighter integration with partners
that offer predictive analytics and machine learning solutions.

›› Decisions.com is the best fit for companies that want a quick solution. Companies that need
a cloud-based solution and have limited development resources can get up to speed quickly with
Decisions.com.

Decisions.com Customer Reference Summary

Customer references praised how Decisions.com’s no-code development tools empower business
users to build solutions instead of engaging expensive development resources. One reference
cautioned that learning curve of the tool can be high if using all of its capabilities.

FIGURE 6 Decisions.com QuickCard

Wave position

Decisions.com STRONG PERFORMER

Developer experience Bus. results correlation REFERENCE QUOTES

Decision mgmt. features Admin. and mgmt.
“The tool empowers business
Analytics features Vision users with limited technical skills
Process features Road map to build solutions.”
Functional integration Market approach
“The tool is feature rich and as a
result can have a high learning
Differentiated On par Needs improvement curve if [you’re] using all the
capabilities.”

Products evaluated
The Decisions Platform

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The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2018
The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

IBM: Forrester’s Take

Our evaluation found that (see Figure 7):

›› IBM has robust business rules and process features and a great vision and strategy. IBM
has huge potential as a provider of digital decisioning platforms. It has a powerful strategy for the
category, as well as deep analytics, business rules, and process capabilities.

›› IBM needs to complete its integration initiative for digital decisioning. IBM has begun creating
a platform centered on its Operational Decision Management (ODM) business-rules management
platform and business-process management (BPM) products. This also includes creating unified
web-based authoring tools for developers and business experts.

›› IBM is best for companies with challenging business-rules requirements. In digital decisioning,
IBM’s greatest strength now is in its ODM product. Large enterprises rely on it for high-volume
applications that automate decision making and event processing.

IBM Customer Reference Summary

The single customer that responded to our survey was very satisfied with ODM’s capabilities but
lamented that IBM hadn’t yet integrated them with its analytics portfolio, including its various Watson
artificial intelligence (AI) services.

FIGURE 7 IBM QuickCard

Wave position

IBM STRONG PERFORMER

Developer experience Bus. results correlation REFERENCE QUOTES

Decision mgmt. features Admin. and mgmt.
“IBM ODM is excellent, the
Analytics features Vision global support outstanding and
Process features Road map the pricing very competitive.”
Functional integration Market approach
“If IBM better aligned its ODM
efforts with its analytic and AI
Differentiated On par Needs improvement offerings, it would be [an] even
more effective decisioning
platform.”
Products evaluated
IBM Digital Business Automation

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TIBCO Software: Forrester’s Take

Our evaluation found that (see Figure 8):

›› TIBCO Software has a great vision. TIBCO Software’s decision-first vision drives its product
portfolio toward the most valuable business outcomes for its customers. It has the breadth of
products to not only develop decision applications but also to execute them at the highest scale
complexity.

›› TIBCO Software needs to improve decision management features. The tooling with its digital
decisioning is uneven in terms of user experience and integration. It could significantly improve its
standing by taking a step back and issuing a road map to connect the dots better.

›› TIBCO Software is best for companies that need smart decisions at scale. Enterprises that
have complex, mission-critical applications can benefit from TIBCO’s other execution platforms,
such as streaming. TIBCO is a Strong Performer in previous Forrester research.1

TIBCO Software Customer Reference Summary

TIBCO Software’s one customer reference was pleased with how the product could customize both
rules and workflow. The customer explained that though developers found the UI interface easy to use,
learning all the capabilities of the product could be cumbersome.

FIGURE 8 TIBCO Software QuickCard

Wave position

TIBCO Software CONTENDER

Developer experience Bus. results correlation REFERENCE QUOTES

Decision mgmt. features Admin. and mgmt.
“The product allows us to do
Analytics features Vision business our way by defining
Process features Road map business rules and custom work
Functional integration Market approach flow.”

“The tool is easy to use but

Differentiated On par Needs improvement requires training to learn how to
use all functionality.”

Products evaluated
TIBCO BusinessEvents, TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM

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SAS Institute: Forrester’s Take

Our evaluation found that (see Figure 9):

›› SAS is an analytics powerhouse. The best decisions keep betting better when they are informed
by and improved upon by analytics. Analytics continues to be SAS’s forte, and it stands out among
all the other vendors in this Wave here.

›› SAS can improve business process and expand its vision. The SAS digital decisioning
platform’s capabilities for business process development fall short.

›› SAS is the best fit for companies that want data science-driven decisions. SAS is named as
a Leader in previous Forrester’s research, reflecting the breadth and depth of its tooling for data
science teams.2

SAS Institute Customer Reference Summary

One customer reference commented that SAS’s development tools are flexible and robust. Another
complained about the complexity of licensing the product.

FIGURE 9 SAS Institute QuickCard

Wave position

SAS Institute CONTENDER

Developer experience Bus. results correlation REFERENCE QUOTES

Decision mgmt. features Admin. and mgmt.
“The tool is flexible and robust.”
Analytics features Vision
Process features Road map “Making sure that all various
Functional integration Market approach parts of the system are properly
licensed is very difficult.”

Differentiated On par Needs improvement

Products evaluated
SAS Decision Manager, SAS Model Manager

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The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

Sparkling Logic: Forrester’s Take

Our evaluation found that (see Figure 10):

›› Sparkling Logic provides a solid rules platform with novel analytics. The SMARTS platform
provides an innovative mix of decision modeling and analytics, bolstered by a very strong road map
of enhanced features.

›› Sparkling Logic can accelerate adoption by winning big vendors. The vendor markets its
platform directly to enterprises, but also seeks partnerships with software makers looking to embed
a white-labeled version of SMARTS into enterprise applications or other platforms.

›› Sparkling Logic is a very strong rules/decision management choice. SMARTS is a strong

choice for decision-management applications. Digital decisioning use cases will require customers
to integrate with third-party process and analytics technologies.

Sparkling Logic Customer Reference Summary

Only one Sparkling Logic reference customer participated in our survey. This customer praised the
developer experience of the vendor’s latest release. The customer highlighted the limitations of
Sparkling Logic’s Red Pen authoring and the work that integration with third-party products requires.

FIGURE 10 Sparkling Logic QuickCard

Wave position

Sparkling Logic CONTENDER

Developer experience Bus. results correlation REFERENCE QUOTES

Decision mgmt. features Admin. and mgmt.
“The HTML tools are a huge
Analytics features Vision improvement to the user
Process features Road map experience.”
Functional integration Market approach
“Authoring rules in Red Pen
mode is easy, but for
Differentiated On par Needs improvement sophisticated rules, you’ll need
to learn the vendor’s syntax.”

Products evaluated
Sparkling Logic SMARTS Decision Manager

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The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

AuraPortal: Forrester’s Take

Our evaluation found that (see Figure 11):

›› AuraPortal integrates digital decisioning capabilities very well. Don’t be confused by its name;
Aura Portal has a very well-integrated platform for digital decisioning applications and includes
development tools spanning rules, process, and to a lesser degree, analytics.

›› AuraPortal needs a more efficient development experience. The vendor promises and delivers
a no-code experience for developing digital decisioning applications. But Aura Portal’s tools are
clumsy and dated. Correlating decisions with business results requires work by the customer rather
than being just a reporting option.

›› AuraPortal is best to empower businesspeople to create sophisticated apps. Aura Portal is

completely devoted to empowering businesspeople to create digital decisioning apps. The tools
may be clumsy, but they address all forms of logic.

AuraPortal Customer Reference Summary

One of AuraPortal’s reference customers praised the value of the platform: “Great product for the cost!”
The same customer criticized the vendor for having an unclear road map to the future. Another wished
AuraPortal’s development tools were easier to use.

FIGURE 11 AuraPortal QuickCard

Wave position

AuraPortal CONTENDER

Developer experience Bus. results correlation REFERENCE QUOTES

Decision mgmt. features Admin. and mgmt.
“[It’s a] great product for the cost,
Analytics features Vision extremely intuitive to use.”
Process features Road map
Functional integrationI Market approach “The screen editor should be
more user-friendly.”

Differentiated On par Needs improvement “We can adapt workflows without

extensive IT knowledge and/or
long/complex designs.”
Products evaluated
AuraPortal Helium

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InRule: Forrester’s Take

Our evaluation found that (see Figure 12):

›› InRule is a leading business-rules management platform. InRule’s business-rules features

are strong, offering a wide range of deployment options, and its developer experience is highly
productive.

›› InRule needs to step up to digital decisioning. InRule partners to satisfy customers’ process
and analytics needs, but not deeply enough. The vendor’s vision is also too near term and narrowly
focused on business-rules management opportunities.

›› InRule is a very strong rules/decision management choice. InRule is a good choice for decision
management applications. Digital decisioning use cases will require customers to integrate with
third-party technologies for process and analytics.

InRule Customer Reference Summary

InRule’s reference customers praised the product’s ability to scale up, as well as its powerful developer
experience. They griped about the amount of work it takes to integrate InRule with third-party process
and analytics platforms.

FIGURE 12 InRule QuickCard

Wave position

InRule CHALLENGER

Developer experience Bus. results correlation REFERENCE QUOTES

Decision mgmt. features Admin. and mgmt.
“The tool provides a rich
Analytics features Vision grammar to define rules through
Process features Road map the user-defined vocabulary and
Functional integration Market approach English syntax rules.”

“InRule provides no built-in

Differentiated On par Needs improvement connectors, which makes
mapping values more difficult.”

Products evaluated
InRule Decision Platform

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Appian: Forrester’s Take

Our evaluation found that (see Figure 13):

›› Appian has market-leading process automation features and high potential. Anchored by its
strong process-automation features, Appian provides a fairly broad, well-integrated collection of
digital decisioning capabilities.

›› Appian needs stronger business rules and a commitment to digital decisioning. Digital
decisioning is an emerging use case for Appian; its vision and strategy for it are weak. Also, Appian
needs much stronger business-rules management features.

›› Appian is a good choice for analytics-infused process automation. Appian’s digital decisioning
approach makes very innovative use of AI to drive decisions and business processes.

Appian Customer Reference Summary

Appian’s reference customers value the vendor’s broad features and potential for speedy application
delivery. However, they caution that development costs can rise beyond initial expectations.

FIGURE 13 Appian QuickCard

Wave position

Appian CHALLENGER

Developer experience Bus. results correlation REFERENCE QUOTES

Decision mgmt. features Admin. and mgmt.
“Appian is very easy to use,
Analytics features Vision which enables us to quickly
Process features Road map deliver solutions.”
Functional integration Market approach
“Skilled resources can be hard to
find in the market.”
Differentiated On par Needs improvement

Products evaluated
Appian Platform

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The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

Red Hat: Forrester’s Take

Our evaluation found that (see Figure 14):

›› Red Hat’s strength is decision management for Java coders. Red Hat Decision Manager is a
leading choice to automate decision logic using the Java language. The vendor has a solid road
map to build a digital decisioning platform on that base.

›› Red Hat has the ingredients but lacks commitment to combine them. Red Hat has strong
components for business rules and process, a leading cloud platform, and growing strengths in
analytics. Missing is a unitary platform for digital decisioning applications.

›› Red Hat is best for companies that prefer to integrate their own platforms. Customers that
prefer to weave their own platforms from open source components — particularly Java shops —
will find a lot to like in Red Hat’s digital decisioning approach.

Red Hat Customer Reference Summary

The lone Red Hat reference customer that participated in our survey liked Red Hat’s implementation of
the Decision Modeling Notation (DMN) standard. The customer was dissatisfied with Red Hat’s product
documentation, as well as with the effort required to integrate Red Hat with third-party products.

FIGURE 14 Red Hat QuickCard

Wave position

Red Hat CHALLENGER

Developer experience Bus. results correlation REFERENCE QUOTES

Decision mgmt. features Admin. and mgmt.
“We like Red Hat’s solutions’
Analytics features Vision ease of using and testing model
Process features Road map logic using [standard] DMN APIs.”
Functional integration Market approach
“The product lacks proper
documentation on the technical
Differentiated On par Needs improvement details of using the APIs.”

Products evaluated
Red Hat Process Automation Manager

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Supplemental Material

The Forrester New Wave Methodology

We conducted primary research to develop a list of vendors that met our criteria for the evaluation and
definition of this emerging market. We evaluated vendors against 10 criteria, seven of which we based
on product functionality and three of which we based on strategy. We also reviewed market presence.
We invited the top emerging vendors in this space to participate in an RFP-style demonstration and
interviewed customer references. We then ranked the vendors along each of the criteria. We used a
summation of the strategy scores to determine placement on the x-axis, a summation of the current
offering scores to determine placement on the y-axis, and the market presence score to determine
marker size. We designated the top-scoring vendors as Leaders.

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For Application Development & Delivery Professionals October 17, 2018
The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2018
The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

Integrity Policy

We conduct all our research, including Forrester New Wave evaluations, in accordance with the
Integrity Policy posted on our website.

Endnotes
TIBCO Software is a Strong Performer in a recent Forrester Wave evaluation. See the Forrester report “The Forrester
1

Wave: Multimodal Predictive Analytics And Machine Learning Solutions, Q3 2018.”

SAS Institute is a Leader in a recent Forrester Wave evaluation. See the Forrester report “The Forrester Wave:
2

Multimodal Predictive Analytics And Machine Learning Solutions, Q3 2018.”

© 2018 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. 18
[email protected] or +1 866-367-7378
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