Worldwide enterprise software revenue is on pace to surpass $267 billion in 2011, a 9.5 per cent increase from 2010 revenue of $244 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. The enterprise software market is projected for continued growth in 2012, with revenue forecast to reach $288 billion.
"The market for enterprise software continues to recover well following the 2009 downturn, with signs of ongoing growth on the horizon," said Joanne Correia, managing vice president at Gartner. "Economic recovery is evident across all regions, although concerns have arisen in some countries in Europe and Asia. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan has created additional marketplace uncertainty with a multiplicity of effects that are beginning to be determined. GDP results and other research have pointed to a 2Q11 slowdown in demand with some recovery later in the year."
Enterprise infrastructure software spending is on pace to a $153.3 billion total in 2011, a 9 per cent increase from 2010 revenue of $140.6 billion. The market is led by the operating systems (OS) segment in which revenue is projected to reach $32.6 billion in 2011, followed by database management systems (DBMSs) revenue at $25.5 billion.
Worldwide enterprise application software spending is forecast to total $114.4 billion in 2011, a 10.2 per cent increase from 2010 spending of $103.8 billion. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the largest segment within the enterprise application software market. ERP revenue is expected to reach $23.3 billion, followed by office suites with $15.7 billion.
"With this latest research, we see short-term currency uplift for US dollar-denominated growth for the period of 2011-2012 and downward adjustments in GDP across all regions," Ms Correia said. "We have identified a strong correlation between GDP growth and enterprise software spending growth, where software tends to grow 4 to 6 per cent above GDP in normal market conditions. However, we do have concerns about the rising cost of commodities, including oil, and its impact on certain regional and country economies."
