According to IDC’s Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker, the market for enterprise software reached $342 billion in 2012, a 3.6 percent improvement over 2012. Several sub-categories within the market, including data access, analysis and delivery, collaborative applications, CRM applications, security software, and system and network management software, grew much more quickly—between six and seven percent.
“The global software market, comprised of a multi-layered collection of technologies and solutions, is growing more slowly in this period of economic uncertainty. Yet there is strong growth in selective areas,” said IDC’s Henry D. Morris. “The management and leveraging of information for competitive advantage is driving growth in markets associated with Big Data and analytics. Similarly, rapid growth in cloud deployments is fueling growth in application areas associated with social business and customer experience.”
From a regional perspective, the software market in Western Europe actually declined in size, but sales in the U.S. and other regions increased.