Dubai – The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) enterprise application software (EAS) market is expected to reach a value of $719.4 million this year, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.0% on 2016. That's according to the latest insights from International Data Corporation, with the global technology research and consulting firm's newly released ‘ MENA Enterprise Application Software Market 2017–2021 Forecast and 2016 Vendor Shares ’ study predicting the market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9% over the 2017–2021 forecast period.

"With businesses under pressure to optimize their cost structures, the MENA EAS market's future growth will increasingly be driven by cloud-based solutions," says Megha Kumar, IDC's director of software research for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. "EAS applications will increasingly be embedded with analytics and cognitive functionalities, and with efficiency goals in mind, organizations will be able to utilize artificial intelligence features to optimize certain back-end and front-end engagements. And as digital transformation initiatives become mainstream, the next wave of applications will be around intelligent enterprise resource planning (ERP)."

The report shows that most of the spending on EAS solutions in the MENA region currently comes from the manufacturing (process and discrete), government, and construction and mining sectors. However, IDC expects the transportation, healthcare, education, government, and retail sectors to be the major drivers of growth over the forecast period as countries continue to invest in development initiatives and infrastructure modernization projects.

"Throughout the current economic slowdown — which is expected to ease by 2018 — organizations will continue to demand application software," says Manish Ranjan, IDC's software program manager for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. "The growth of the EAS market will primarily be supported by various government-led development plans and increased opportunities for public-private partnerships, which will open investment avenues for digitalization and automation initiatives that leverage EAS solutions. Looking ahead, healthcare, transportation, government, and education will be the fastest growing sectors over the coming years."

IDC's research shows that the overall MENA EAS market reached a value of $685.3 million in 2016, with enterprise resource management (ERM) software accounting for 69.0% of the total. The region's EAS market continues to be dominated by the global players SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft, which together accounted for 81.6% share in 2016.

IDC's ‘ Middle East and North Africa Enterprise Application Software Market 2017–2021 Forecast and 2016 Vendor Shares ’ study provides a detailed overview of the MENA market for integrated EAS suites. The EAS vendors tracked in this study include SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Sage, Infor, Focus Softnet, Epicor, 3i Infotech, Applied Computer Services (HASIB), QAD, Involys, IFS, Ramco, and Caciopee.