Can't Base Everything On...

I have been following Gartner and Forrester's research content on SOA, EA and other IT concepts from 2005 till present and I have learnt the following:

• Do not base ALL your IT decisions on Gartner and Forrester's predictions and recommendations. I have seen large IT companies make investments in technologies and products where the investments have not panned out because their IT environments are quite different. For instance SOA was the hype in 2005 however current Gartner analysts are saying that SOA simply doesn't work well in most IT environments. Research analysts tend to do that alot since they are reacting and analyzing current trends and make predictions and later contradict their predictions.
  
• Scope Best Practices and Products using Research. Rather than testing ten separate products for your certain IT requirements, you can choose the top five products as assessed by Research companies like Gartner and Forrester. Do assessments on the top five products and see how well they meet your IT requirements and how well do they perform in your IT environment.
• Use Research for Initial Business Justification. If you are looking to address a business problem and you want to follow Gartner or Forrester's recommendations then use their material to carefully craft a business justification on why you want to prototype their recommendation. Please keep in mind that you should address Return on Investment even if the recommendations don't work for IT enviroment.
• Engage these Research Companies. You want to market your IT strategy and progress then I highly recommend that you keep a lively engagement with the Research analysts where they will refine their research using your enviroment's results and at the same time they will give insight into current best practices. But be careful not to waste their time or yours by not having a detailed strategy on how you want to execute your vision and how you want to collaborate and market with these Research companies.
• MOST IMPORTANT: Consider the Research material however stick to your vision and requirements in executing your vision. Afterall you know the 50K feet view and the 1 inche view and therefore it is your responsiblity to execute it.

Good luck!