CIO

Supply chain management grows 10 per cent

Reaches $US6.8 billion in value over the past year

The supply chain management (SCM) software market grew 10 per cent over 2010 to reach a total value of $US6.8 billion, according to analyst firm Gartner.

The growth represents a return to double digit growth year-on-year after the market declined 2.1 per cent in 2009.

Read Part 1 of Supply Chain Management in Australia.

In Australia, the local market grew 17.8 per cent reaching $148.8 million in revenue. Research director at Gartner, Chad Eschinger, said the overall outcome was positive for the market.

“Despite a difficult selling environment, the current market for SCM shows signs of renewed health. The market for supply chain applications was more resilient than most in 2009 and rebounded well in 2010,” Eschinger said in a statement.

“Pure-play vendors and specialised (point solutions) vendors drove a majority of the overall market's growth in 2010, outpacing enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite providers' growth three to one, and, in general terms, we are seeing consistent momentum across all market segments.”

SAP was the leader in the SCM software market, accounting for some 19.5 per cent of the worldwide market, with Oracle taking second place with 17.9 per cent in market share.

Eschinger said product development in the market had come about due to signs of vendor support.

“Through 2010, SCM product development was generally focused more on solution integration, business process platforms and mobility,” he said.

“Vendors continued to show signs of resiliency and innovation, as some vendors transformed themselves to support changing user requirements and expanded their 'reach' into additional SCM markets.”

Follow Lisa Banks on Twitter: @CapricaStar

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAu