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Study: SaaS Most Important Enterprise Software Trend
Research firm says SaaS, SOA continue to be the most important technologies for "enterprise software customers."
According to a recent survey of 850 "enterprise software customers," Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) continues to be the most important enterprise software trend, followed closely by and Web services/service-oriented architecture (SOA), then offshoring/globalization, open source software and software industry consolidation.
The survey, conducted by research firms McKinsey & Company and the Sand Hill Group, asked participants to select "the most important [software] trend impacting your business." 31 percent selected SaaS, up one percent from the last time the firms asked the question in 2006. Web services/SOA also rose 1 percent, from 24 percent to 25 percent.
Offshoring/globalization remained in third place, but dropped two percentage points, from 15 percent to 13 percent. Open source also dropped, from 10 percent to eight percent, as did software industry consolidation, with only 7 percent choosing it as their top trend this year, as opposed to 17 percent in 2006.
16 percent chose "other" this year, compared to 4 percent in 2006.
The research also points out that IT budgets are more focused toward subscription/on-demand licenses, with 19 percent of the average respondent's budget going toward "Subscription/On-Demand" services in 2008.
The amount of money enterprises are expected to spend on software overall is also on the rise, the study states, with the average percentage budget of those surveyed dedicated toward software rising from 30 percent in 2006 to 32 percent in 2008, and an expected rise to 35 percent in 2010.
"Despite the economic downturn in the U.S., there is slow but steady growth in software's share of the overall IT budget," the researcher's commented in the report. "Survey respondents projected that this growth pace will continue for the next two years, indicating that software plays an ongoing role in delivering business productivity gains."
Respondents were also asked to choose where they think the industry is in its current innovation wave. Sixty-two percent said that it is "on the upswing," while 17 percent said it's "at the peak," five percent said its "past the peak" and 17 percent picked "What innovation wave?" as their answer.
To download the study in PDF format, click here.
About the Author
Becky Nagel serves as vice president of AI for 1105 Media specializing in developing media, events and training for companies around AI and generative AI technology. She also regularly writes and reports on AI news, and is the founding editor of PureAI.com. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Users" and other popular AI resources with a real-world business perspective. She regularly speaks, writes and develops content around AI, generative AI and other business tech. Find her on X/Twitter @beckynagel.