A study released Monday by the ARC Advisory Group pegs the worldwide market for enterprise-asset management for software and services at $1.7 billion and estimates it will reach $2.1 billion in 2008, growing at a 4.4% cumulative annual growth rate.

While software license sales have declined a bit, customer-service requirements have risen. In particular in North America and Europe, where the market is mature, customers are looking for help adopting best practices to drive continuous improvement.

Companies that have derived good benefits from best practices, such as the Collaborative Asset Lifecycle Management model, the report says, are expanding enterprise-asset-management functionality to other groups and facilities using Collaborative Support Solutions such as Asset Information and Performance Management.