The software industry has experienced considerable boom throughout the years. According to Gartner Inc, some of the top application software growth components for this year include: content management, business intelligence (BI), social software, collaboration along with supply chain management. For 2011, the main focus would be on the modernization of the packaged application systems along with the establishment of diverse user access through software as a service (SaaS), direction of revenue, cloud services and innovation.
The revenue for global enterprise software is expected to go beyond the $253.7 billion mark for 2011. This was around a 7.5. increase from the revenue in 2010 which was pegged at $235.9 billion. The mentioned applications or platforms such as open-source software, SaaS, cloud-based services, Web 2.0 technologies and consumerization are expected to expand even reaching developing countries and other progressive nations such as India, China, Brazil and Russia. The platforms are also considered as innovations which can help developing countries grow in the long term. Further, experts have noted that the five long-term, interconnected and overarching trends influencing the market for enterprise software include: globalization, implementation, modernization, socialization and verticalization.
Globalization
This includes the consolidation of markets along with the convergence of technological trends and even the collaboration of vendor mergers and acquisitions. Basically, it has become one big connected society. More importantly, experts predict that the considerable vendor and technology consolidation will alter the current landscape of the industry. When market disruption happens, there’s a big chance for highly fragmented software markets to transform into more structured components which features a widespread reduction of vendors. Although companies compete on a global scale, it’s still important to satisfy localization requirements such as supporting the company’s orientation of the languages, laws and cultures of the target markets.
Implementation
Implementation deals mainly with how companies acquire and deliver software. Just like other applications mentioned, experts see a considerable increase in the demand of cloud-based solutions. Mobile solutions will also be providing a lot of opportunities for companies as more and more people demand convenient and easy accessible services like mobile banking.
Modernization
Enterprises will persist to engage in migrating open-source software (OSS) and SOA because older applications are harder and more costly to upgrade. Together with the increasing interest in modernizing applications and platforms, the automation of business processes and streamlining of workflows also continue to gain momentum. Enterprises can expect to offer more valuable resources for this year particularly in upgrading different types of systems and software. Systems and software include user-driven applications, personal productivity tools along with build-run-manage software. An important factor for the modernization process to take place is virtualization.
Socialization
Social media and other networking sites have also become very influential and are seen to continue for the coming years. There’s now the trend of socialization which encompasses personalization, collaboration and content with reference to activities that are more user-defined.
Verticalization
This trend includes the series of horizontal software applications turning out to become more tailored and catered towards certain industries.
