Lotsa numbers from Forrester, via Oracle

Over at SearchOracle.com, self-billed as “The web’s best independent resource for Oracle professionals,” Mark Brunelli reports on some recently released Forrester Research studies on the biz, in the hope of putting it in an Oracle context.

Some key statistics released by Forrester showed that:

• 13 percent of IT decision makers will be making a first-time purchase of BI software in 2007;

• 27 percent of large firms listed “improving integration between applications” as top priority, with “upgrading security environments” and “adopting service-oriented architecture” trailing at 21 percent and 12 percent, respectively;

• 21 percent of small- to medium-sized enterprises responded that application integration is first priority in the software realm for them;

• 10 percent of SMEs plan to make a first investment in software that supports industry-specific processes;

• 43 percent of small- to medium-sized enterprises “hope to upgrade current applications with vertical functionality”;

• in 2005, the average large firm spent 23 percent of the IT budget on new software initiatives, with the ratio increasing in 2006 to 33 percent;

• among Global 2000 enterprises, “44 percent outsource for ongoing custom application development, 38 percent for maintenance and support of packaged applications, and 34 percent for maintenance and support of custom applications”;

• new software licenses will represent 33 percent of the average SMB’s IT budget in 2007, with license maintenance and code maintenance fees figuring to equal about 27 percent, and software development taking about 22 percent; and

• in order, large firms are interested most in SaaS, ERP and CRM for human resources applications.

Forrester research analyst Ray Wang kicked in a few comments regarding the studies’ findings, stating in summary that "Business intelligence software will represent the top application purchase, and enterprise resource planning will remain the top major upgrade, while messaging, email and collaboration software will lead the pack for minor upgrades.”

Wang stated that the irony revealed in the survey results comes with the growth in BI interest while “Master Data Management, which helps align data across an organization to avoid erroneous duplication, appears to be confined to the ‘early adopter’ set.” Colloquially stated Wang: “It’s ass backwards at the moment. If you really wanted your BI to work, you’d solve the master data issue."

As for SaaS, Wang opines that interest is now greater at large firms, which represents a first. "One of the interesting things is the role that HR applications will play in SaaS in 2007," Wang said. "CRM used to be the poster child for SaaS. It’s now HR apps areas like performance management and talent management, all these ancillary pieces, where people are using hosted applications."

In terms of the bottom line itself, Forrester researchers stated two weeks ago that “The market for CRM software and services will continue to grow but at a slower pace, particularly spending on new CRM licenses.” Forrester figures total CRM revenue for 2006 to be around $8.4 billion, a seven percent increase over 2005. Forrester sees this growth rate holding, for the market to eventually reach $10.9 million by 2010.

Marc Brunelli’s “BI, ERP top 2007’s IT spending list” can be read in full on the Search Oracle pages. Brunelli is the news editor of the site and is not to be confused with Mark Brunell, should you be googling…