The Enterprise Application Software (EAS) market in Croatia remained flat in 2007 due to a combination of strong results in the previous year and a lack of major projects for some leading vendors. According to a recent study from IDC, the value of the market reached $35.75 million in 2007 for growth of only 0.5% in U.S. dollars. In local currency, Croatia’s EAS market value saw year-on-year decline of 7.6% in 2007.

“After a year of stagnation, IDC expects that EAS spending in Croatia will recover in 2008. Vendors need to stay focused on penetrating small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), as the SMB segment has far more potential than the nearly saturated large and very large business sectors,” said Karlo Pernek, Research Analyst, IDC Adriatics.

SAP remained the top vendor on the Croatian EAS market in 2007, followed by Microsoft and three local players: PIS, Point, and Laser Line. Together they controlled almost 47% of the total market. Point and Laser Line each moved up one place, after pushing Oracle out of the top five (to the sixth place).

Enterprise resource management was the most popular functional area of EAS in 2007, with a 65.8% market share. Supply chain management followed with 12.8% share, while operations and manufacturing modules were third with 12.1%. The business analytics segment increased its share to 5.2% in 2007 (from 4.2% in 2006), capturing fourth place. Sales of the fifth-ranked Customer Relationship Management segment decreased 26.0% year on year, causing a drop in its share to 4.2% in 2007 (from 5.6% in 2006).

The retail sector was the largest vertical market in Croatia in 2007, with 26.1% market share, followed by process manufacturing with 12.5%, wholesale with 11.2%, and the discrete manufacturing sector with 9.6%. The combined agriculture, mining, and construction vertical rounded out the top five with a 5.5% share in 2007.

IDC expects the Croatian EAS market to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 11.0% over the five-year forecast period, to reach a value of $60.20 million in 2012.

IDC’s Croatia Enterprise Application Software 2008-2012 Forecast and 2007 Vendor Shares (IDC #ER03Q) provides a detailed overview of the Croatian market for integrated EAS packaged software products. This study includes detailed qualitative and quantitative information, analyses and forecasts, as well as profiles of the top eight EAS vendors, including their EAS portfolios, their presence in individual vertical markets, and their largest contracts in 2007.