According to a recent study by IDC, with major economic stimulus packages announced during H1 2011, public services, housing projects, and the availability of credit are expected to rise over subsequent quarters, boosting IT and Enterprise Application Software (EAS) investments in the short term.
Ongoing and greenfield infrastructure projects are also expected to contribute to increased spending on EAS solutions.
“Spending on EAS solutions in the Middle East and North Africa, or MENA, region has recovered after the global economic crisis, with pent-up demand for up-to-date EAS solutions driving growth. That said, recent political turmoil in several states in the region will affect projects and delay some anticipated EAS spending for 2011 and 2012,” says Dhiraj Daryani, research manager of IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.
All MENA markets expanded in 2010, with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries other than Saudi Arabia and the UAE growing the fastest, followed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Growth in the Levant (Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria), North Africa, and the United Arab Emirates was comparatively slow. Saudi Arabia remained the largest market in the MENA region, followed by the UAE. The other GCC countries combined (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar) followed in third position, the North Africa sub-region (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia) was fourth, and Egypt came fifth. The Levant was the smallest EAS market in the MENA region in 2010.
EAS license and maintenance (L&M) spending in MENA reached $459.92 million in 2010, representing 7.5% year-on-year growth. The biggest spenders were process manufacturing companies, which accounted for 19.2% of the market. The government sector was the second-largest vertical market, with 14.1% share, while combined finance ranked third, with 11.8% of the total market in 2010.
The MENA region’s EAS market is dominated by the global giants SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics. SAP was again the largest EAS vendor in the region, reporting L&M revenues of $170.51 million. Oracle placed second, with L&M revenue of $156.39 million and 34.0% share of the market. Microsoft Dynamics remained in third position, with EAS revenue of $39.6 million in 2010, reflecting 8.7% year-on-year growth.
