Worldwide Business Rules Management Systems 2008-2012 Forecast and 2007 Vendor Shares

This IDC study examines the business rules management systems (BRMS) market for the period from 2005 to 2012, with vendor revenue trends and market growth forecasts. The worldwide BRMS market continues to enjoy healthy growth with revenue increasing 11.4% from $234.2 million in 2006 to $260.8 million in 2007. However, there are considerable warning signs on the horizon that are suggesting to ISVs that Bette Davis was right when she said, "Fasten you seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy ride."

There is no doubt that business rules will become a core construct of most software applications. The only real questions that remain are how long this will take and how functionality will cluster from a go-to-market perspective. This later issue is key because it determines to what extent BRMS will emerge as a primary application development construct or evolve into a supporting role because of "supersetting" or a changing user focus.

"The BRMS market will no doubt face a significant amount of uncertainty in 2008 and 2009 because of the global financial crisis," said Stephen D. Hendrick, group vice president for Application Development and Deployment at IDC. "However, the use of BRMS is well beyond the tipping point, which means that the future of BRMS is secure and the challenge will simply be weathering the current financial storm."