Panjim: India software revenue is forecast to total $5.8 billion in 2017, a 12.8 percent increase from 2016 estimates of $5.2 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. This is in comparison to Gartner’s forecast for 2017 global spending for enterprise software will be $357 billion in constant U.S. dollars, with growth of 7.2 percent over 2016.
“Emerging digital business strategies are changing enterprise organizations’ buying behaviors in India and accelerating the demand for technology innovations and outcome-based solutions”, said Bhavish Sood, research director at Gartner. “New ways of monetizing the value being delivered, such as revenue-sharing models, are also evolving.”
The computer software and hardware vertical had a foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow of $5.9 billion during the period from April 2015 to March 2016. This is an increase of nearly 150 percent, compared to the same period last year. Gartner expects these investments to gather further momentum toward the end of 2016. “Make in India” is set to boost the manufacturing sector, as well as make it easier to attract investment, and “Digital India” is focused on creating digital infrastructure, digital delivery of services and increased digital literacy.
Infrastructure software spending in India is projected to surpass $3.4 billion in 2017 (see Table 1), a 10.2 percent increase from 2016. Enterprise application software spending is forecast to grow 16.8 percent in 2017.
Table 1
India Enterprise Software Spending Estimates (Millions of U.S. Dollars in Constant Currency)
| Segment | 2016 | 2017 |
| Infrastructure Software | 3,108.1 | 3,424.9 |
| Enterprise Application Software | 2,047.5 | 2,391.7 |
| Total Revenue | 5,155.6 | 5,816.6 |
| Growth (%) | 12.5 | 12.8 |
Source: Gartner (November 2016)
“Indian CEOs want IT to move from the back-office to driving revenue. Aggressive digital business strategies are putting pressure on CIOs to have a direct impact in business outcomes like growth, customer experienceand profitability. CIOs are being asked to increase the business value that IT is able to deliver, and equally important, to quantify it,” said Sood. “The CEO and business management wants IT to move from a predominantly back-office focus to become a front-office centric organization that directly impacts business outcomes like growth, customer experience and profitability. This is often in the context of an aggressive digital business strategy within a growing number of enterprises.”