Data collected by the Society of IT Management (Socitm) for its latest Index of Application Software shows that the trend for a small number of companies to dominate areas of the market as these mature is continuing.
Companies that have achieved this position through aggressive marketing and acquisition within key sectors of the market include Anite, Northgate Information Systems, ESRI, Capita, Civica and Mapinfo. Rationalisation in newer sectors is less advanced, but similar trends are already in evidence.
The information about the local authority software market is culled from Socitm’s ninth annual survey of Application Software, published on 12 July. Details of software used by 343 local authorities - 78% of the total in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are provided, alongside information for 33 Fire authorities, 28 Police forces and 35 Housing associations.
It covers the software used in 82 function areas by local authorities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and also provides details of software used by Fire authorities, Police forces and Housing associations.
The functions include financial, people and property systems as well as specialist systems for front-line services such as environmental health, libraries, social services and housing management. Also included are systems to support internal management processes such as document management, CRM, content management, virus detection and much more. Specialist applications used by fire, police and housing are also included.
The Index provides a comprehensive picture of the software used by each council including supplier, operating system, installation and planned replacement dates. It also includes tables showing the relative market share of each supplier and the levels of user satisfaction with suppliers and their products.
The Index includes contact and product details for over one hundred of the main software suppliers to local government. There have been many changes in suppliers’ names over the past twelve months through mergers, takeovers and new entrants to the market.
‘Notwithstanding rationalisation in the market’ says survey editor Brian Westcott, ‘there is still plenty of choice for local authorities. There are five suppliers of council tax software with a greater than 1% market share and six of school admin systems, but as might be expected, there is a wider range of suppliers of software like payroll and general ledger systems that are not specific to local government. In newer areas rationalisation is still at an early stage, so that the top four content management suppliers account for just 39% of the local authority market – although this is up from 37% in 2006 and 31% in 2005 indicating that rationalisation has already started in this sector too.’
The survey also indicates that in house software development is mostly limited to maintenance of older software and development of less well-established applications like committee administration and waste management, or relatively simple applications that can be administered using spreadsheets or Lotus Notes.
The Socitm Index of Application Software costs £250 +VAT for commercial organisations (Socitm subscriber members £150) or £100 + VAT for not-for-profit and public sector organisations. It can be ordered from the Socitm website.
Further information:
Brian Westcott, Socitm
Tel: 01244675431 email brian.westcott@socitm.gov.uk
Vicky Sargent or Peter Coates, Socitm Press Office
Tel: 0845 094 5641 email vicky.sargent@socitm.gov.uk or peter.coates@socitm.gov.uk