the Netherlands IT Market

Introduction to the Netherlands IT Market

The total market for software products in the Netherlands increased 3.7 percent to €4.7 billion in 2004. The strongest growth was realized by the segment system software, which increased 5.2 percent to € 2.5 billion in 2004. Application software noted a plus of 2.1 percent, reaching a value of € 2.2 billion. Refer to figure 1.1 as well for more details. The Dutch market for software will reach a total value of € 5.2 billion in 2006. This is an increase of 4.5 percent compared to 2005, subdivided into system software (€ 2.8 billion, +5.0 percent) and application software (€ 2.4 billion, +3.9 percent). According to ICT Mark Monitor 2004-2005, growth will most prominent in the business market. Recent developments for 2005:

• Broadband
• Wireless Computing
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
• Application service Providing (ASP)
• Voice Over Internet protocol (VoIP)
• Open Source software (OSS)
• Electronic service (e business)
Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
• Customer Relationship management (CRM)
• Domotica
• Outsourcing
• Information planning

Figure 1.1: Software market in the Netherlands in € million, 2002-2004

Source: EITO (2005)

The IT services market increased 3.4 percent to € 6.4 billion in 2004, noting increases in support services (+0.7 percent to € 1.2 billion), operations management (+7.3 percent to € 2.7 billion) and implementation (+1 percent to € 1.7 billion). As shown in figure 1.2, the segment consulting (€ 722 million) remained almost stable in 2004.

Figure 1.2: IT Services market in the Netherlands in € million, 2001-2003

Source: EITO (2005)

The IT services market in the Netherlands will increase to € 7.3 billion in 2006.
Compared to 2005, this constitutes an increase of 7.3 percent. Operations management is the largest segment, both in terms of growth (+9.7 percent) and value (€ 3.3 billion). The latter deviates from most other EU member states, where implementation is usually the largest segment. In the Netherlands, this is the second largest segment, representing a value of € 1.9 billion in 2006 (+5.9 percent compared to 2005). Other segments are support services (€ 1.3 billion, +4.0 percent) and consulting (0.8 billion, +6.4 percent). The best opportunities in this segment can be found in desktop and network management, outsourcing, security services (assessments, scans), software maintenance and training, network consulting and integration and all types of Internet and e-commerce related services.