Enterprise software spending is climbing, and the pace will pick up considerably after the end of this year, according to the results of a study released Friday by AMR Research. The firm says the market for supply-chain management, product life-cycle management, customer-relationship management, enterprise resource planning, and exchange platform software will grow from $38 billon in 2001 to $70 billion in 2006.

AMR says enterprise software buyers will spend $41 billion this year and $46 billion next year. The analyst firm's data shows that the market for supply-chain management and product life-cycle management software will expand from $5.6 billion last year to $13.6 billion in 2006; the CRM market will grow from $11 billion in 2001 to $26 billion by 2006, and the ERP market will increase from $20 billion in 2001 to $31 billion in 2006.

AMR says the market mix is changing significantly. In 2001, CRM accounted for 29% of spending and will grow to 38% by 2006. Supply-chain and product life-cycle management accounted for 20% of enterprise software spending last year, and that's likely to increase to 30% by 2006. Exchange platforms made up 3% of overall enterprise software spending, and that will rise to 5% by 2006. Spending for ERP made up 47% of the market in 2001, but that's expected to shrink to 27% by 2006.