Forrester's B2B Awards Set a New Bar for Growth Amid Market Complexity

LONDON, UK – June 17, 2026 – Global research and advisory firm Forrester has officially opened nominations for its 2026 B2B awards in the EMEA region, signaling a renewed focus on the strategies that drive real growth in an increasingly fragmented market. The B2B Return On Integration (ROI) Honours and B2B Programmes Of The Year (POY) Awards are more than just a ceremony; they are a bellwether for excellence, spotlighting the B2B organizations that have successfully navigated economic headwinds and technological disruption through a relentless focus on the customer.

As companies across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa vie for recognition, the awards criteria underscore a fundamental shift in business strategy. The emphasis is no longer solely on isolated departmental success but on the measurable impact of breaking down organizational silos. Winners, who will be celebrated at the Forrester B2B Forum EMEA in London this September, represent the vanguard of a new business paradigm—one built on integration, alignment, and customer obsession.

The New Gold Standard for B2B Growth

For B2B leaders, the Forrester awards have become a definitive benchmark. The B2B Programmes Of The Year Awards recognize exceptional, innovative initiatives within specific functions like marketing or product, while the B2B Return On Integration Honours celebrate the holy grail of modern business: the successful, enterprisewide alignment of marketing, revenue, product, and customer functions.

“Today’s B2B leaders are under pressure to deliver growth in increasingly complex and evolving environments,” noted Paul Ferron, VP and research director at Forrester, in the announcement. This pressure is precisely what the awards aim to address. They provide a roadmap by celebrating those who have managed to “break down silos, align around the customer, and prove the value of integration with tangible business impact.”

The judging criteria are notoriously rigorous. Entrants must demonstrate not just innovative strategy but a clear, quantifiable impact on the business, using outcome-based metrics. This focus on measurable results separates true transformation from mere activity, making the recognition a powerful validation of a company's strategic direction and execution.

Beyond Silos: The Mandate for 'Return on Integration'

The concept of 'Return on Integration' is at the heart of Forrester's message. It posits that sustainable growth is the direct result of a harmonized go-to-market engine where every function is oriented around a shared understanding of the customer. An examination of past winners reveals this principle in action.

In 2025, Thoughtworks earned the ROI Honour for creating a unified KPI framework and automated reporting system that shifted its focus from simple lead generation to expanding engagement within existing buyer groups. By aligning its strategy with growth from current customers and leveraging real-time analytics, the global technology consultancy significantly accelerated deal velocity and improved client retention.

Similarly, Shell Fleet Solutions, a 2024 winner, was recognized for aligning its marketing and sales functions through an automated, data-driven approach. By combining account, contact, and behavioral data, the company generated calculated insights into customer behavior, enabling better cross-functional alignment and ultimately increasing customer value. Other past honorees, like Keysight Technologies, were lauded for implementing unified campaign strategies across global teams, proving that large, complex organizations can achieve this level of synergy.

The Programmes Of The Year awards highlight equally impressive feats of functional excellence. AVEVA, a 2025 winner, transformed its enterprise account engagement by building a fully integrated ABM Personalization Engine. This aligned marketing, sales, and customer success to deliver hyper-personalized experiences that influenced over €200M in pipeline. These case studies are not just success stories; they are blueprints for other organizations seeking to generate their own return on integration.

Navigating the B2B Gauntlet: AI, Economics, and the Empowered Buyer

The strategic importance of integration is magnified by the current challenges facing B2B leaders in the EMEA region. Sluggish economic expansion, geopolitical uncertainty, and evolving regulations create a difficult terrain for growth. Compounding these external pressures is a fundamental shift in the B2B buying process itself.

Today's buyers are more self-directed and digitally savvy, and they operate in complex 'buying networks' within their organizations. They expect personalized, relevant, and seamless experiences across every touchpoint. Simultaneously, the rapid proliferation of generative AI is transforming go-to-market strategies, creating both immense opportunity and new layers of complexity. Leaders are tasked not just with adopting AI but with turning its possibilities into tangible business reality.

These trends, which are consistent themes at Forrester's B2B Summits, render traditional, siloed approaches obsolete. A disjointed customer experience, where marketing's message doesn't align with sales' conversation or the product's delivery, is a direct path to failure. The awards, therefore, highlight companies that are not just surviving these challenges but are thriving by turning alignment into a competitive advantage.

Forrester's Blueprint: Shaping the Future of B2B Excellence

Through its awards and the underlying research, Forrester is doing more than just observing industry trends; it is actively shaping them. The firm's long-held philosophy of 'customer obsession'—defined as putting the customer at the center of a company's leadership, strategy, and operations—is the intellectual foundation for the entire awards program. The criteria directly reflect this ideology, pushing the industry towards a more customer-centric model.

For the winners, the impact extends far beyond the awards ceremony. The recognition serves as powerful third-party validation, enhancing credibility with customers, partners, and investors. It provides a significant competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace and acts as a potent tool for attracting and retaining top talent. Internally, winning validates strategic choices and motivates teams by celebrating their collaborative efforts.

By spotlighting the methodologies and successes of companies like Thoughtworks, AVEVA, and Shell, Forrester provides the entire B2B ecosystem with a clearer picture of what works. The awards are not simply a retrospective honor but a forward-looking guide, defining the future of B2B success and challenging organizations across EMEA to rise to a new standard of integrated, customer-obsessed growth.