Shrinkage of 2.3% observed in the European enterprise software sector in 2012, as per IDC's findings
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The global enterprise software market experienced a moderate growth of 3.6% in 2012, reaching an estimated value of $342 billion, according to data from IDC. This growth rate, while positive, was less than half the rate seen in the previous years, 2010 and 2011.
The applications segment, which constitutes about half of the enterprise software market, grew by 3.3% in 2012. Notably, the fastest-growing segment of the industry was "application development and deployment" (AD&D), which expanded by a remarkable 24% to around $80 billion.
The growth story, however, was not consistent across all regions. While the US and Asia Pacific markets invested more aggressively in digital transformation and technology adoption, the Western European market shrank by 2.3% in 2012. This contraction was primarily due to regulatory challenges and a cautious investment climate that slowed growth in the region.
Western Europe faced strict regulatory frameworks such as GDPR and other compliance directives, which shaped slower adoption and constrained vendor operations. In contrast, the US and Asia Pacific markets, with fewer restrictions and higher demand for enterprise software solutions, saw robust growth.
Asia Pacific's software market growth was fueled by rapid industrialization, rising technology adoption, and the expanding services sector in countries like China and India, driving increased demand for enterprise software.
In the US, the enterprise software market grew by 5.9% to approximately $1.6 trillion in 2012. The standout performance within the applications segment was "enterprise social software", which grew 25% year-on-year.
Microsoft remained the world's largest enterprise software vendor in 2012, but its market share slightly decreased from 17.4% in 2011 to 17.1% in 2012. This decrease in market share indicates a growing diversity in the enterprise software supplier base, as all the top five enterprise software vendors (IBM, Oracle, SAP, Symantec) saw their market share decrease in 2012.
IDC's figures from 2012 show strong growth in selective areas of the global enterprise software market, despite the overall slow growth. Business intelligence and relational database management systems (RDBMS) solutions are driving the growth in the data access, analysis, and delivery, and structured data management markets due to the widening adoption of big data and analytics.
The enterprise software market in the US and Asia Pacific grew in 2012, while the market in Western Europe shrank. Specifically, the US market grew by 5.9% to approximately $1.6 trillion, and the Asia Pacific market grew by 8% to around $30 billion. In contrast, the enterprise software market in Western Europe shrank by 2.3% to approximately $900 billion.
IDC senior vice president Henry Morris stated that the global software market is growing more slowly in the current period of economic uncertainty. Despite this, the market continues to offer opportunities for growth and innovation, particularly in selective areas such as application development and deployment, and the adoption of big data and analytics.
[1] Source: IDC Worldwide Enterprise Applications 2013–2017 Forecast and 2012 Vendor Shares (IDC #240354, October 2012) [4] Source: IDC Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker (IDC #241938, May 2013)
- The robust growth in the application development and deployment (AD&D) segment of the global enterprise software industry, which expanded by 24% in 2012, suggests the significant influence of technology and finance in shaping the market.
- The expansion of the enterprise software market in the US and Asia Pacific regions, where technology adoption, industrialization, and demand for enterprise software solutions are high, underscores the integral role technology plays in these regions' economic growth and financial investment.
