Forrester

Why Read This Report

Business process and applications professionals can use our survey-based enterprise applications investment planning data and adoption patterns to help rationalize their 2010/2011 investment strategies. The results presented here are based on an extensive data set collected across North American and European enterprises via Forrester's Enterprise And SMB Software Survey, North America And Europe, Q4 2009. Despite significant constraints imposed by the recession and still in effect today, enterprise applications are mission-critical assets that require ongoing investments. Finance and accounting applications, in fact, showed the highest level of adoption and expansion plans among all enterprise apps. Another major takeaway is the growth in software-as-a-service (SaaS), which is being chosen based on cost factors and speed of deployment. With the economy showing signs of recovery in Q1 2010, applications strategists will likely see opportunities to step up investments in mission-critical enterprise packaged apps, and should carefully weigh investment decisions in application upgrades, replacements, and SaaS alternatives as spending constraints from last year are loosened.