Understanding The Impact Of Technology On Business
Name of survey: Enterprise And SMB Hardware Survey, North America And Europe, Q3 2008 Product: Business Data Services Date of survey: October 2008 Region: North America and Europe Number of respondents: 2,686
Forrester's 2008 hardware study was fielded to 2,686 IT executives and hardware technology decisionmakers
located in Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the US from companies with two or more
employees. This survey is part of Forrester¿s suite of Business Data Services studies. Forrester fielded the
survey in August and September of 2008. e-Rewards fielded this survey online on behalf of Forrester. e-
Rewards provided incentives to survey respondents. We have provided exact sample sizes in this report on a
question-by-question basis.
Forrester¿s Business Data Services fields eight business-to-business technology studies that include 24
surveys in 12 countries each calendar year. For quality control, we carefully screen respondents according
to job title and function. Business Data Services ensures that the final survey population contains only those
with significant involvement in the planning, funding, and purchasing of IT products and services.
Additionally, quotas are set for company size (number of employees) and industry as a means of controlling
the data distribution and establishing alignment with IT spend calculated by Forrester analysts.
In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that the practical difficulties in conducting surveys
can introduce error or bias into the finding of opinion polls. Other possible sources of error in polls are
probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. These other potential sources of
error include question wording, question ordering, and nonresponse. As with all survey research, it is
impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors without an experimental control group,
so we strongly caution against using the words ¿margin of error¿ in reporting any survey data.
These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.
