As social, big data and the consumerisation of IT continue leaving their footprint on the industry, IDC estimates European software will experience "moderate" 3.1% Y-o-Y growth during 2012.
The analyst says CRM will lead in enterprise software, as updates on salesforce automation and customer service applications start featuring social capabilities including discussion forums, activity streams, follow/subscribe options and external feeds.
Social in enterprise leads directly to the consumerisation of IT, where employees demand to bring their devices to enterprise networks-- opening new opportunity within security. As a result, IT managers will need to invest in mobile device and application management tools, including cloud-based options.
IDC also predicts 2012 will be the year for "the big data road map," as organisations will start creating architecture connecting big data and data warehouses in order to analyse new data while speeding up processing. It also expects a good year for the security industry, where it will outgrow its niche due to increasing cyberthreat risks.
