Enterprise software market in sound shape

Healthy growth forecast for the infrastructure and application categories as market continues to shake off 2009 low

The downturn that hammered the enterprise software market in 2009 shows no sign of rearing its head again as Gartner predicts the market will expand by 9.5 per cent this year.

According to the market watcher, worldwide enterprise software revenue is on pace to rise from $244bn (£151bn) to $267bn in 2011 and is forecast to hit $288bn next year.

Enterprise applications are set to lead the way, growing 10.2 per cent on last year to hit $114.4bn. Of that, ERP revenue will reach $23.3bn and office suite sales will come in at $15.7bn, Gartner said.

Meanwhile, enterprise infrastructure software spending is on course to rise nine per cent to $153bn, with operating systems and database management systems contributing $32.6bn and $25.5bn to that total respectively.

Joanne Correia, managing vice president of Gartner, said there is a strong correlation between software spending and the general economy, with software growth tending to grow four to six per cent above GDP in normal market conditions.

"The market for enterprise software continues to recover well following the 2009 downturn, with signs of ongoing growth on the horizon," she said. "Economic recovery is evident across all regions, although concerns have arisen in some countries in Europe and Asia.

"The earthquake and tsunami in Japan 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."

Western European enterprise software spending is set to rise from $70.3bn to $78.3bn this year, Gartner added.

Fabrizio Biscotti, research director at Gartner, said: "In Western Europe, enterprise software spending could see slightly stronger growth in the latter half of 2011, but the headwinds are getting stronger. The pace of growth in Europe is slowing, mostly because of recent currency appreciation, fiscal tightening, higher commodity prices and concerns about debt in countries such as Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.

"The result of these additional constraints on growth will exacerbate some country growth trends in the region. However, countries on the upside of this trend are Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway and Sweden."