Study Finds Growth In Enterprise Software MarketStudy Finds Growth In Enterprise Software Market

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.