The enterprise application integration (EAI) market will be worth over $31bn by 2004, according to Enterprise Application Integration: Making the Right Connections published by market research company Ovum Inc. But the report says that EAI vendors need to target specific processes and requirements within their customer base, something they have failed to do so far. Although EAI currently makes up less than 1% of today’s $96bn market for integration software and services, Ovum claims it will expand to 28% of an $112bn market by 2004.
Katy Ring, author of the report, said that EAI’s development mirrors that of the enterprise resource planning market. The EAI space is already being crowded by ERP vendors seeking relief from a saturated corporate market, and attracted by frowing EAI demand from their own customer base. The EAI vendors have too often failed in targeting specific sectors. They’ve not really bothered to focus their products, said Ring. EAI needs to tackle particular requirements in a business, rather than make noise about its importance. EAI is a maturing market, requiring planned strategies for installation by customers as well as for marketing by vendors.
Ring cites CrossWorlds, the California-based packaged software deployment company which, she says received too much publicity too quickly. Although succeeding in talking up the market, says Ring, it failed to deliver products which matched the hype.
