EAI Services Will Be the Largest IT Services Market Opportunity in Asia by 2011, Says Springboard Research

Building on a strong customer base, and estimated to record consistently high annual growth until 2011, the Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) Services market will emerge as the largest opportunity in Asia Pacific’s (excluding Japan) IT Services space, according to information released today by Springboard Research. Springboard, a leading innovator in the IT Market Research industry, took its data from its report titled, “Asia Pacific IT Services Market and Forecast, 2006-2011.” Springboard reported that the EAI Services market will grow from US$5 billion in 2007 to US$7.8 billion by 2011, registering a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.5% between 2007 and 2011. On the other hand, Enterprise IT Outsourcing – currently the largest market opportunity – will slip to second place by 2011 with a market size of US$7.2 billion, recording the lowest CAGR of all markets, at 7%. For additional perspective, consider that the fastest growing market segments in the region are predicted to be Application Hosting Services and Infrastructure Hosting, forecast to register CAGRs of 19%, and 16.3%, respectively, during the period under review.“Enterprise and Infrastructure Application Integration Services are the two most attractive markets in Asia Pacific’s Services space,” said Phil Hassey, Vice President – Services Research at Springboard Research. “Both have high levels of growth and an increasingly sophisticated customer base, and clearly score higher than Enterprise IT Outsourcing, which is being outpaced in growth terms as a market opportunity when compared to other markets.” According to the Springboard Market Attractiveness Index, which ranks 15 different IT Services markets on the basis of growth opportunities, the top 10 IT Services markets in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) are:
Enterprise Application Integration
Infrastructure Application Integration
Infrastructure Support Services
Network Integration
Custom Application Development
Enterprise IT Outsourcing
Application Hosting
IT Consulting
Application Management
Infrastructure Hosting Services
Springboard also added that as a broad group, Infrastructure Services will continue to represent the largest component of the Asia Pacific IT market with its size reaching US$31.6 billion, or 57% of the overall market in 2011. However, the fastest growing group is Application Services, which measured US$13.3 billion of the market, or 35% in 2007, and is expected to reach US$21.2 billion in 2011, or 38%, registering a 12.2% CAGR. Overall, Springboard forecasts the IT Services market to reach US$55.9 billion by 2011. “Domination of this infrastructure services market is the target for HP following its acquisition on May 13th of EDS. It will be very strongly positioned in this marketplace and will create significant discomfort across the competition in this marketplace”, said Mr. Hassey. “It is equally important to note that all markets are growing at varying degrees. Each year, in dollar value, the growth of the Enterprise Application Integration Services market is between 1.5 and 2 times the size of the total Application Hosting space. This data highlights the need to still focus on the big markets, because while in some instances the growth is not spectacular; the market size information shows the available opportunity and subsequent resources that are required for success,” Mr. Hassey added. Springboard’s report cautions that access to and retention of skills is rapidly becoming an issue of note for both enterprises and services providers in the region. Enterprises are struggling to retain key individuals and skill sets in house, and this has geographic, technical and project management implications. At the same time, many vendors are looking to their clients and other enterprises for staff, and there are simply not enough resources to go around.