ERP Market Benefiting From IT Spending Increase

The global market for enterprise resource planning software is expected to grow by more than $1.5 billion this year, due, in part, to the general increase in corporate spending on information technology, a market research firm said Monday.

Revenue from software used to automate financial, human resources, procurement and other business operations is expected to reach $26.7 billion this year, up from $25 billion in 2003, International Data Corp. said.

In addition, estimates show that the top 10 ERP vendors collectively increased their market share last year to 46 percent from 44.5 percent in 2002 and 42 percent in 2001. The top five vendors last year were SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, Microsoft and Sage.

Projected market growth this year is due to the general increase in IT spending, as well as pent-up demand for integrating ERP systems to boost productivity, IDC said.