Summary

The application software sector is undergoing profound and rapid change, with an inexorable shift away from on-premise software designed for traditional screen, mouse, and keyboard interfaces. Even the most conservative industries demand cloud as the default platform for new software products, while consumer applications are all mobile-first. The value was historically all in the application itself but is now driven by the integration of software.

Furthermore, advanced functionality like artificial intelligence (AI) or augmented reality (AR) is now incorporated into application software. Embedding analytics within enterprise applications is a trend that will continue, particularly given the current demand for all things AI.

All leading independent software vendors (ISVs) are moving to applications as a service, although smaller ISVs are less advanced. The mid-market is ripe for disruption by innovative, cloud-native, AI and AR-savvy start-ups.

This report provides information on key themes that will impact the application software sector over the next two years, including AI, augmented reality, cloud, process automation, and machine learning.

Scope

- This report is a sector scorecard, which identifies those companies most likely to succeed in a world filled with disruptive threats. Inside, we predict how each theme will evolve and identify the leading and lagging companies.
- It includes a theme map that shows the 50 biggest themes driving growth in the application software sector.
- It explains how some of the largest listed players in the sector have performed over the last three years.
- It looks at major technology and macro-economic trends impacting the appliction software sector.

Reasons to buy

- Companies who invest in the right themes become success stories; those who miss the big themes end up as failures.
- Corporate executives and investors who want to outperform their competitors need to understand all the themes that impact their sector.
- However, many of these themes are, by definition, outside of the core competencies of company boardrooms because they typically originate from external industries. This application software sector scorecard provides a top-down, comprehensive outlook for the key players in the industry over the next two years, based on the key themes set to transform their market.