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Forrester Predicts Drivers in IT Market for 2006
TMCnet Associate Editor
Forrester Research has published a series of reports which predict the expected drivers for the IT market in the year ahead.
Cumulatively, the reports find that size, geography, sector and product category will affect IT purchasing behavior in new ways in 2006.
The recently-released reports include: “2006 Outlook For ANZ: Cleaning Up The IT Backyard;” “Commerce Platforms: Build Or Buy?;” “Demand For Business Process Management Suites Will Accelerate Through 2009;” “Digital Business Networks;” “Government IT Follows Software Trends, But Legacy Issues Continue To Slow Progress;” “Hospital IT and Business Execs Share Technology Buying Decisions;” “Hot Application Infrastructure Areas in European Financial Services;” “HR/HCM Applications: Strategic Processes Move To The Forefront;” “Outsourcing Trends To Watch In 2006;” “Salesforce.com: Time For A Standard SLA;” “Security Features: To Embed Or Not To Embed;” “Small Businesses Are Heavy Users Of Computing;” “The Forrester Wave: Information Quality Software, Q1 2006;” “The Forrester Wave: Warehouse Management Systems, Q1 2006;” “The Forrester Wave: Web Analytics, Q1 2006;” and “UK Mobile Forecast: 2005 To 2010.”
Summaries of the reports were released yesterday in the company’s “IT First Look.” Here are some of the highlights:
- US SMBs are heavy users of basic computing technology with high adoption rates for servers with local area networks (88 percent) and high-speed Internet access (89 percent). Technologies that enable mobility, such as wireless LANs and mobile devices, have adoption rates of 53 percent and percent, respectively.
- In the UK, one of the most competitive mobile markets in Europe, Forrester expects that 68 percent of all mobile subscribers will use 3G, and more than 50 percent will regularly use mobile Internet services by 2010.
- In European financial services firms, the strategic focus within application infrastructure is shifting - and business process management/workflow, services repository, and the enterprise service bus will emerge as the winners. European financial services firms are preparing for service-oriented architecture (SOA), a financial services backbone, and - over time - digital business architecture.
- In Australia and New Zealand, companies are showing continued emphasis on improved security, infrastructure consolidation, and application renewal for 2006.
- Integration, security and standards-based technology implementation are the major software issues for government IT execs in 2006. Approaches to custom development like agile processes and application life-cycle management lead and attitudes toward open source and SOA are similar to those of their private sector counterparts. Dealing with legacy mainframe COBOL apps is the biggest differentiator between government and nongovernment software organizations.
- Healthcare IT and business execs have forged a much closer working relationship than their counterparts in other industries, crafting processes that keep technology aligned with hospitals' departmental and enterprise goals - including sourcing and procurement. Vendors looking to sell into the hospital market must be prepared to win over both parties.
- Security responsibility is fragmenting between dedicated security teams that focus on business issues and operational teams that focus on specific technical aspects. Vendors must keep a close eye on where organizations want security measures to reside and who is responsible for what security functions - and then build, market, and sell their products accordingly.
- Human resources and human capital management - a $3 billion market - is growing at a rate of 7 percent, but performance/talent management and learning management systems are growing at robust rates of 20 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
- The business process management suite market will grow from $1.2 billion in 2005 to more than $2.7 billion by 2009 as enterprises seek to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and strategic value of key business processes. Two major segments have emerged: human-centric or integration-centric business processes.
- In 2006, 37 percent of North American enterprises that sell products or services online will purchase a new commerce platform. Most firms will find that buying a commerce platform and combining the packaged functionality with custom services offers greater benefits in agility and scalability, outweighing the custom fit and control a build approach provides.
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