Enterprise software mkt to touch $30 bn by 2012

SINGAPORE, SOUTHEAST ASIA: The Enterprise Software market in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) is estimated to grow from US$18.2 Billion in 2008 to US$30 Billion in 2012, representing a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.1 per cent during this period, says the latest research report titled “Different Hues of Growth: Enterprise Software Market and Forecast 2007-2012” by Springboard Research, an IT research and advisory firm.

Key findings from the report released today marked China and Australia as the largest software markets in the region respectively, with China growing faster at a CAGR of 17.7 per cent, nearly double of Australia’s rate of 9.1 per cent, said a press release.

India would surpass South Korea by 2011 to become the third largest Enterprise Software market; ultimately representing 15.6 per cent of total APEJ market spending by 2012, it added.

“SaaS and cloud computing,virtualization, collaboration, and open source software are among the Enterprise Software markets that will see strong demand throughout 2009,” said Michael Barnes, vice president, Software Research at Springboard Research.

He added that shortage of IT skills, insufficient local vendor presence and software piracy are among the leading market inhibitors.

The report added that because of the ongoing financial crisis, there would be a slowdown in ‘infrastructure’ projects involving large middleware license sales over the next two to three years.

“Enterprise-wide SOA initiatives that are not directly linked to well-defined, measurable business imperatives will be far tougher to justify in the current economic climate,” Barnes added.

“In contrast, we expect that Supply Chain Management (SCM), Business Intelligence (BI), Enterprise Content Management (ECM), and other ‘value-driven’ solutions will continue to see strong demand. Web conferencing and other collaboration tools will also see healthy growth as companies reduce spending on travel.”

The report mentioned that application software as a core segment is growing faster than the system and infrastructure software (SIS) segment, though the latter still dominates the market with a share of 59.7 per cent in 2008.

Within SIS, Operating System and Database software are the largest individual categories and they together represent 44.5 per cent of SIS spending, and 27 per cent of overall enterprise software spending in 2008, the release added.