This IDC study presents a situation overview and a five-year forecast for the New Zealand software market. Overall, IDC predicts healthy growth throughout the forecast period, seeing the software market increase at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.2% to reach a market value of NZ$940.6 million in 2011. Within this market, IDC attests customer relationship management (CRM) applications, quality and life-cycle tools, security software, storage software, and business intelligence (BI) software to exhibit strong growth potential in the double-digit range.

"New software delivery models, such as software as a service (SaaS), represent an appealing value proposition for small and medium-sized companies with limited IT budgets and resources," says Ullrich Loeffler, team leader, Software Research, IDC Australia and New Zealand. "However, the reduction of upfront investment costs is an important component of this business model; it is not the holy grail to win a significant share in this young market. Vendors should also be aware of the fact that SaaS has the potential to cause conflict of interest within the partners ecosystem, as it may rule out partners that rely on the upfront investments and licensing costs," Loeffler adds.