NEWS

Indian Software Market has improved, says IDC

By VARINDIA - 2014-12-01

The Indian software market has witnessed an improved 1H 2014 compared to a slow 1H 2013. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the Indian software market registered a year- on-year growth of 10.7% in 1H 2014. This development is due to political stability and economic revival.

IDC expects the software market to grow at a stable pace in the next five years (2014-18) with a healthy CAGR of 10.5%. Some of the areas which are expected to witness software uptake are mobile application development and mobile device management, security software (related to third Platform), system software, analytics and engineering applications.

Virtualization and cloud players such as VMware, Salesforce and Red Hat have generated good business owing to greater market awareness, while database and analytics players such as Teradata, Informatica, Oracle, Qlik and others have registered strong double-digit growth due to widespread demand for customer insights and analytics.

Banking, Finance, Securities & Investment Services (BFSI), Manufacturing and Communication & Media were the top verticals which invested in upgrades and new licences. Some of the sectors to watch out for in the future include Entertainment, Retail & E-commerce, Education, Hospitality, etc.

The software market started to revive since Q2 2014 post elections. Some of the solutions which were readily accepted across verticals included customer analytics, mobile solutions, cloud solutions, customer management solutions, omni-channel management systems, data loss prevention, etc.

The government initiatives such as Mobile Seva, Digital India, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and the likes will be instrumental in triggering adoption of software solutions in the coming years.

“Large as well as SMB customers are looking at ways to curb their capital expenditure and are keen to embark on the cloud journey. This has led the vendors to make their licensing policies more flexible and easier so that existing customers could smoothly transition to a cloud environment. Some vendors are offering exchange schemes to their customers to buy back their hardware in exchange of a cloud set-up which is resonating very well with the SMB market,” said Shweta Baidya, Senior Market Analyst, Software, IDC India.

There has also been a rise in the adoption of open-source software, especially among the SMB segment which is shying away from blocking its capital on expensive proprietary software. Small and cooperative banks, retail and telecommunication sectors are looking at customized solutions based on open-source platform for greater flexibility and cost reduction. The evolution of third platform is expected to fuel the uptake of open-source solutions further in the times ahead.