No matter what job you have, chances are that the software you use in your work is made by at least one of the 10 biggest enterprise software companies in the world.
Enterprise software covers a vast array of products, from corporate database and cloud-enabled productivity tools to mission-critical vertical applications and enterprise resource planning solutions. Over the past decades, ever since the computer has occupied a big role in business operations in companies regardless of size, enterprise software products have been responsible for boosting workplace productivity.
As a result of this increase in demand for workplace software such as cybersecurity tools, spreadsheets, accounting programs, and middleware, enterprise software companies enjoyed decades of revenue growth. However, every product hits a saturation point, and that point for enterprise software is just about now.
The enterprise software market grew from $313 billion in 2014 to $320 billion in 2015, according to Apps Run The World, a technology market research company that focuses on software and applications. That $7 billion growth looks huge, but it’s actually just a modest 2.2% growth, very small compared with what we commonly see for technology-related industries and companies. With the recent dominance of mobile technologies, as well as cloud computing, enterprise software of today has to be smaller, more mobile, and less expensive than what they were just a few years ago.
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Not that it concerns some of these enterprise companies too much. Some of these industry giants have already diversified their revenue streams, so as to create software for purposes other than business-centric. Some of the enterprise software giants here are also part of the 11 biggest software companies in the world.
Besides, the tepid growth exhibited by the industry as a whole as of 2015 (latest figures available) is not a reflection of how individual enterprise software companies performed. Among the 10 highest-earning enterprise software companies: Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) unit Amazon Web Services, Dassault Systemes SE (OTCMKTS:DASTY), Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DVMT) unit EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), Fidelity National Information Servcs Inc (NYSE:FIS) unit SunGard, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), and SAP SE (NYSE:SAP), six companies have posted double-digit revenue growth, while three registered revenue declines.
All rankings are mainly based on research made by Apps Run The World, in accordance to 2015 revenues relate to enterprise software for each of the 10 companies we listed above. To see how the 10 Biggest Enterprise Software Companies In The World fared with regards to the top line, click on for a countdown from number 10 to number 1.
10. Dassault Systemes SE (ADR) (OTCMKTS:DASTY)
The French company, part of the Dassault Group, primarily develops 3D design, 3D digital mock-up, and product lifecycle management software. In 2015, the company grew its enterprise software revenues by 24.7% to $2.79 billion.
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9. SunGard, owned by Fidelity National Information Servcs Inc (NYSE:FIS)
SunGard started in 1983 as a spin-off of an oil company and a pioneer of the disaster recovery business. It has since developed software for education, financial services, and public sector organizations. FIS bought the software maker in 2015. During the same year, SunGard earned $3.80 billion in enterprise software revenues, up by 2.3% from the prior year.
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8. Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE)
Chances are that you’re reading PDF files or seeing images edited by some of the renowned software created by Adobe. Since its foundation in 1982, Adobe has played a huge role in the desktop publishing industry. The company’s revenues connected to enterprise software grew 16.1% to $4.29 billion in 2015.
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7. salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM)
Salesforce, that ranked 7th on our list of biggest enterprise software companies in the world bills itself as a cloud computing company, but the bulk of its revenue comes from its customer relationship management products. The company is worth $55 billion, but hasn’t been generated profits since it was founded in 1999. Nevertheless, its enterprise software earnings advanced by 23.8% to $6.21 billion in 2015.
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6. Amazon Web Services, owned by Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
This cloud computing company may be just a spoke of the giant wheel that is Amazon, but this spoke is one of the tech giant’s fastest growing units. By fast growth, we mean 69.7% enterprise software revenue growth year-over-year to $7.88 billion in 2015. Not bad for a side project that started just over a decade ago.
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5. EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), now part of Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DVMT)
EMC, which sells software related to data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, and cloud computing, is a giant by itself, if it’s not obvious by its $11.91 billion enterprise software revenue in 2015 or the 20.6% revenue growth for that year. Last year, EMC was acquired by Dell Technologies.
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4. SAP SE (ADR) (NYSE:SAP)
SAP SE (ADR) (NYSE:SAP), next on our list of biggest enterprise software companies in the world creates software that manages business operations and customer relations. This German multinational company chugs along just fine in 2015, during which it earned $18.95 billion in enterprise software revenues, 20.4% higher than last year.
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3. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM)
The top three companies on this list of the 10 biggest enterprise software companies in the world have enterprise software earnings of more than $20 billion, but their revenues decreased compared to 2014.
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For instance, IBM, whose name is synonymous with enterprise software (and enterprise everything), saw its business software-related revenues shrink by 9.4% to $21.12 billion in 2015.
2. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)
This renowned maker of database management systems also had a down year in 2015, with enterprise software revenues at $28.95 billion, lower by 3.5% than the previous year.
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1. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
The tech giant may have seen its enterprise software revenues inch down by 2.1% in 2015. But those revenues amount to $45.43 billion, still dwarfing sales of the other companies on this list of the 10 biggest enterprise software companies in the world.
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Disclosure: none
