UK SITS market to reach £50bn by 2019 says analyst

Industry analyst TechMarketView predicts “difficult times ahead” for the UK software, IT and business process services (SITS) market.

Although predicted to increase by 9 percent from its 2015 levels by 2019, to a little under £50 billion in value, said the analyst, the SITS market “fell short” of expected headline growth in 2015, increasing by 1.8 percent to £45.5 billion.

The UK public sector SITS market fared worse than expected in 2015, falling to almost flat levels. Compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of 0.7 percent are forecast until 2019, to reach a market size of £11.9 billion.

Multiple barriers to digital transformation are hampering progress, the analyst said, including a lack of skills, a risk averse culture, the short-termism of politics and a silo mentality.

Much faster growth however, is expected in the UK private sector SITS market, at 2.6 percent CAGR to reach £37.6bn by the end of the 2019 forecast period.

TechMarketView analyst Anthony Miller said: “The shift to digital transformation and the cloud is having a major impact on UK SITS market growth, and will profoundly re-map the supplier landscape.

“In response, we’ve seen increasing consolidation – as tech giants such as Microsoft and Dell look to switch up their business models through major acquisitions – along with closer collaboration between tech suppliers large and small.”

Miller warned however: “While digital endeavours are building, they are slower than expected. Suppliers will have to wait until 2019 to see a notable impact on overall revenues, when the balance of spend will swing more in favour of cloud and digital transformation.”

@AntonySavvas