Business Data Services Study Illustrates Enterprise And SMB Software Trends In North America And EuropeCAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb 17, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- More than half of IT software budgets in 2010 will go toward ongoing
operations and maintenance of existing applications as opposed to
implementing new software solutions, according to a recent survey by Forrester
Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR). The survey of nearly 2,200 IT
executives and technology decision-makers at enterprise and small and
medium-size businesses (SMBs) in North America and Europe is part of
Forrester's Business
Data Services (BDS) series, which helps Vendor Strategy
professionals profile their target market's budget allocation and
technology adoption.
According to Forrester's Enterprise And SMB Software Survey, North
America And Europe, Q4 2009, the poor economic environment created a
backlog of business application software upgrade activities for firms,
and many plan to address the issue this year. Forty-one percent of
enterprises and 21 percent of SMBs plan to upgrade existing finance and
accounting software, 48 percent of enterprises and 19 percent of SMBs
plan to upgrade their customer relationship management (CRM)
applications, and 52 percent of enterprises and 18 percent of SMBs plan
to upgrade industry-specific software. In addition, more than 20 percent
of all SMBs have concrete plans to implement CRM or information and
knowledge management (I&KM) software in 2010 or later, representing the
fastest-growing SMB software markets in 2010.
"Despite all the hype around new technologies that hit the market in the
past few years, firms are devoting most of their IT spending on
already-installed technologies," said Forrester Senior Analyst Holger
Kisker, Ph.D. "As long as businesses are prioritizing cost cutting
and efficiency improvements, tech vendors must provide clearer business
justifications for their offerings and demonstrate the functional fit
with business requirements that their solutions provide."
While cloud computing has many enterprises interested, growth of
software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications is driving the market more,
and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is still slow. About one-third of
all enterprises have subscribed or plan to subscribe to SaaS
applications in the next 12 months. However, this does not mean that
one-third of all business transaction volumes are already running on
SaaS applications. Rather, it reflects enterprises that use it for any
application, most of which are not mission-critical today.
"Many vendors mainly position their cloud services toward SMBs with a
belief that they will jump on the bandwagon first because they often
have more limited IT budgets than larger enterprises," said Forrester
Senior Analyst Stefan
Ried, Ph.D. "Instead, vendor strategists should investigate specific
adoption levels by industry, region, or company size to identify their
sweet spot for an SMB cloud offering. Large enterprises even adopt some
cloud services significantly faster than SMBs."
Top-line overviews of full survey responses are available in the reports
"The
State Of Enterprise Software And Emerging Trends: 2010" and "The
State Of SMB Software And Emerging Trends: 2010." Subscribers to
Forrester's Business Data Services receive unlimited data support,
including custom segmentation from a dedicated data advisor.
More information about Forrester's Business Data Services is available
at: www.forrester.com/Products/MarketResearch/Business.
About Forrester Research
Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research
company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global
leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals
in 20 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research,
customer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive
programs. For more than 26 years, Forrester has been making IT,
marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For
more information, visit www.forrester.com.
© 2010, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester is a
trademark of Forrester Research, Inc.
SOURCE: Forrester Research, Inc.
Forrester Research, Inc.
Tracy Sullivan, + 1-617-613-6023
Senior Public Relations Specialist
press@forrester.com
