Information and communication technology (ICT) market grows dynamically

 

ICT market

As a provider of systems software and software infrastructure, Software AG is active in the software market segment of the ICT industry. According to calculations of the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO), the global market volume for information and communications technology (ICT) grew by 4 percent to €2,026 billion during 2006. Europe and the USA are among the most important regions in the global ICT market, each with a share of one-third in total volume. The ICT market rose by 3.1 percent to €644 billion in the European Union where Germany remains the largest single market.

IT market

Within the technology sector, information technology has evidenced especially high growth rates. The IT market has grown by 4.9 percent in North America and by 4.4 percent €pe according to EITO. EITO has estimated an increase of 3.8 percent to €305 billion for the European Union. An increase of 3.8 percent to €67.7 billion is attributed to the German market.

Software market

IT spending focused primarily on software purchases. The software field showed the greatest momentum within the ICT sector during 2006. The European software market grew by 6.3 percent according to expert forecasts. The German software market expanded by 5.5 percent to €17 billion.

Software has become the greatest driver of innovation in the economy. It forms the basis for productivity and innovation in all other industries. Nowadays, no company, organization, or public administrator can function efficiently without software. Competitive pressures call for increasingly customized applications in order to satisfy the variety of customer requirements.

Companies need special IT systems that can respond quickly and with flexibility to changing market and corporate conditions. This is advancing the trend toward Service-Oriented Architectures. A global market volume of approx. €38 billion is forecast by 2010 for software technology relevant to business applications. In 2005, this figure was €2 billion. Growth rates are in the triple digits.

Experts anticipate that expenditures for IT in general will continue to climb, which will have a positive impact on infrastructure software.

ETS market

The market for Enterprise Transaction Systems (ETS) is composed of two sectors: pre-relational database systems and development tools for enterprise applications.

In the area of pre-relational database systems, which includes Adabas, a growth rate of 4 percent was calculated for 2006 according to expert estimates.

In the case of development tools for enterprise applications (Software AG’s Natural belongs to this market), growth rates have been at a constant level of 6 to 7 percent annually since 2005.

Market for SOA integration products

The market for SOA integration products is showing a strong growth trend due to the introduction of new standards. Experts forecast growth of 75 percent between 2005 and 2009.