Social Business Applications Ride a Growth Wave

From 2014 to 2019, social business revenue is projected to surge by more than a factor of 2.5, according to a new forecast from 451 Research. The five-year forecast, based on an analysis of 145 vendors, shows the social business market segment expected to post the most growth in revenue by 2019 is the social media monitoring and management sector. "The convergence of social, mobile, analytics and cloud, along with innovations such as file sync and share, is bringing about a long-awaited reinvention of business applications," said Alan Pelz-Sharpe, research director for 451 Research's social business applications channel. "We are seeing the business become a legitimate buyer of online business services challenging the notion of 'shadow IT' and legacy core applications in supply chain, financials and HR rethought as the access, value and use of them now extends to any time, anywhere." One of the fastest-growing tech sectors, the social business applications market is showing no sign of slowing, Pelz-Sharpe said. The analysis covers four social business sectors: marketing automation, social media management and monitoring, enterprise collaboration/social and Web experience.