Enterprise software sales should enjoy strong growth in 2015, but segments like CRM will experience pricing pressure as cloud and on-premises vendors battle for customers, according to Gartner.
Overall global IT spending should hit $3.8 trillion in 2015 -- up 2.4 percent from 2014,
"More price erosion and vendor consolidation is expected in 2015 because of fierce competition between cloud and on-premises software providers," Gartner's January 2015 report stated. In the CRM market, for instance, Gartner expects sales force automation seat prices to drop by 25 percent through 2018.
Gartner expects IT vendors to face additional pricing pressures as customers increasingly weigh cloud-based databases, infrastructure and middleware -- though the discounts won't likely match downward pricing trends in the CRM market, Gartner predicted.
Overall enterprise software sales will rise about 5.5 percent in 2015, Gartner predicts. Spending on devices (up 5.1 percent), IT services (up 2.5 percent), data center systems (up 1.8 percent) and telecom services (up 0.7 percent) should also show growth, Gartner stated.
