This IDC update is a synopsis of the significant activities and announcements in the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) or APEJ enterprise applications market. This update captures the important events that molded the enterprise applications market in the APEJ region during the 2H06. The crucial trends generated by the update include:

• Enterprise application vendors in the Asia/Pacific region continue to target the small and medium-sized business (SMB) segment, with a host of specific solutions that address SMB needs. Solutions were repackaged and bundled with hardware and services specifically to fit the SMB requirements.
• Software as a service (SaaS) continues to gain awareness in the Asia/Pacific marketplace as an increased number of global vendors are offering such services to enterprises. Applications vendors are aware of the business opportunity from this model and it also complements their current offerings to industries. From the available announcements, it is clear that there is an increase in the number of applications vendors that are offering such services in APEJ.
• Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) continue to roll in the enterprise applications vendors' community. Major global applications vendors continue to acquire smaller niche applications providers to complement their solutions suite. Telecommunications services industry applications vendors such as Comverse and Amdocs have strengthened the core of their products with some strategic acquisitions in the billing space to expand their industry portfolio.
• Another notable trend that emerged during this period was the increase in alliances and partnership between applications vendors and industry best practice providers. Applications vendors are partnering with services industry applications vendors to increase their vertical expertise and total solution offerings to enterprises. Furthermore, they are also extending their technology platform with major platform vendors to enable more ISVs to develop their applications platform.