Analyst Peter Goldmacher from Cowen & Co. sees three big trends in enterprise software next year. First, smaller organizations will take advantage of the cloud computing offerings that larger enterprises have already embraced. “We believe there is an enormous secular growth opportunity in automating processes at the very low end of the market,” writes Goldmacher. “The Cloud has ushered in a new era of software where, for less than $50 a month in most instances, the smallest of small businesses can get enterprise-class software to automate core functions like Finance and Sales & Marketing.”
Second, the idea that data is an asset will continue to impact the kind of software companies buy. They’ll be looking for data mining capabilities that can help improve sales and customer loyalty.
Third, Goldmacher believes companies will be looking to automate their marketing activities. Particularly, they’ll be looking for software to target customers based on actual preferences rather than their demographic profiles.
