Demand for business intelligence tools will drive the software market in Australia this year, but it will take three years for sales to fully recover to pre-GFC levels, new research claims.
Ovum’s prediction were part of the analyst firm’s A/NZ Market Trends 2009: IT software forecast report. Principal analyst for IT services and software, Jens Butler, said the software market was expected to grow 4.8 per cent in 2010.
“Given the amount of investment that’s happening, especially in the banking sector and organisations like that, you may see uptick in some of the licensing contributions being provided,” he said. “A/NZ is currently leading the pack in terms of economic performance and will see further influx of investment going forward, but not reaching pre-recession growth levels before 2012.”
The majority of the market increase would come from business analytics tools that provide companies with more data and control, Butler said.
“The major increase will certainly be around business analytics,” he said. “That’s going to be the key area of focus going forward. It’s about people wanting control of their information.
“Over the past 12 months, the key focus would’ve been around the renewal of licences, however…given that organisations have a little bit more money now, there is interest in considering new options such as software-as-a-service models.”
Butler acknowledged the Global Financial Crisis boosted interest in cloud solutions and cheaper options, but claimed the major percentage of the market remained with licenced software.
“[The 4.8 per cent growth] would include software through the cloud,” he said. “The market isn’t that huge in the cloud space, so while it certainly makes some contribution, it wouldn’t be the major contributor. A lot of the cloud pricing falls more under the service space rather than the software space.
“You’re starting to see a lot more …focus on on-demand pricing approaches. The past 12-18 months was very much about reducing CapEx. Going forward, organisations are going to be more savvy around unit rates and getting a better understanding of how they can gain more flexibility in licensing.”
Another major trend identified by Ovum was a strong early interest in Windows 7.
“From what we’re seeing both globally and here, there’s substantial interest in Windows 7 and the whole hardware refresh associated with it,” he said. “It’s picking up and I think it’s doing so earlier than we expected.”
