Newly published International Data Corporation (IDC) research shows that the worldwide and US discrete application management (AM) services market reached nearly $50-billion in 2012.

The top 10 vendors in the market, as measured by total discrete AM revenues, accounted for nearly 63% of the total market in 2012, compared to controlling an estimated 59% the year before.

“IDC has witnessed increased rivalry in the application management services market,” says Pete Parston, research manager: application development, testing and management services at IDC.
“Much of the AM services sold are through discrete contracts, however, there’s also a sizable portion of AM services sold through bundled IS outsourcing deals.”

This research shows that as rivalry intensified in 2012, IDC witnessed a market leader change with Accenture obtaining the number one spot for discrete AM services.

While IBM was edged to second place for discrete AM revenues, it continued to hold its number one spot for consolidated AM revenues, which includes both discrete AM revenues and AM revenues bundled as part of Information System (IS) outsourcing deals, also referred to as data centre outsourcing.

Additional key findings include:
* Several of the top 10 vendors for discrete AM revenues demonstrated slower growth for 2012 compared to 2011, but Cognizant and Accenture stood out from the pack with 21,6% and 13,2% year-over-year growth respectively.

* Worldwide suppliers of discrete AM services staked larger positions in the US, claiming an estimated 71% share of the total US market.

The top 10 vendors pushed the consolidated AM market higher to $41,3-billion in 2012, compared with an estimated $37-billion a year ago.