Global corporate investment in enterprise integration (EI) software is likely to grow to US$6.4 billion in 2005 (a compound annual growth rate of 10% based on US$4.4 billion in 2001), according to a report from industry analyst Datamonitor.
The report, Enterprise Integration, Portals and Web Services 2003, reveals that financial services, telecommunications, and the services sector currently represent the biggest share of enterprise information portals (EIP) revenue.
However, some 28% of revenues in 2005 are expected to come from the retail, public, and healthcare sectors. According to Datamonitor, business process management solutions (BPM) and business activity monitoring (BAM) will be the key project drivers of investment.
Lack of visibility
Too many businesses suffer from lack of visibility throughout the enterprise value chain, leading to a lack of competitiveness, agility and flexibility. For example, 80% of costs in the insurance sector revolve around the claims process (due to the complexity and organically grown architecture of the market). That leads to excess costs, disrupted processes, lost orders, and unhappy customers.
Enterprise integration, business process management, and enterprise information portals (EIPs) all empower businesses to reduce customer support when extended beyond the four walls of the enterprise, allowing customers, suppliers and partners to access the organisation using a self-service model.
Growth markets
According to the report, the public sector is set to be the fastest-growing sector with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 21%, commanding an anticipated US$203 million in revenues in 2005. Reallocated budgets have encouraged governments to eliminate inefficiencies in their political systems by using EIP and integration technologies.
And the healthcare sector is also expected to see significant growth (a CAGR of 20%) in the coming years, growing to a total of US$276 million in 2005. Enterprise portals can show a massive return on investment (ROI) in the healthcare vertical market as they are used to assist clinical trials of new drugs.
Speed is of the essence in drug trial applications, and a successfully tested drug can bring potential savings or revenues of over US$1 billion per month in its initial stages. The ability to communicate with other researchers and practitioners through the portal is likely to bring massive returns, eliminate inefficiencies and allow a faster time to market.
Growth drivers
Datamonitor says that the greatest growth will be in BPM and BAM integration solutions, predicting that BPM integration spend will reach some US$322 million by 2005, and investment in BAM will grow from at a CAGR of 110% to US$257 million by 2005.
Progressive enterprises are looking for monitoring tools that allow them to react to change and make well-informed and timely decisions, and BAM tools provide more than just a real-time alert - for example, reacting to issues such as rising fuel prices, a new competitor offering, economic shifts, bankruptcy of a customer, and so on.
"Exposure of business processes is becoming common-place but enterprises need to be able to manage and manipulate them whenever necessary," notes the report's author, Tony Hart.
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