BOSTON, MA and CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- Apr 26, 2016 -- Cambashi, a leading global industry analyst and market consulting firm, today announced the 2016 first quarter update to its market data resource, the "Cambashi Market Observatories." These observatories provide a comprehensive, quantitative view of the engineering software market -- CAD, CAM, BIM, GIS, PLM, and Visualization software tools and IoT development tools -- and ensure a sound basis for analyzing size, growth, movement and other trends to support planning at local, regional and global levels.

Growth Remains Positive but Slows
Latest figures for the growth in spending on engineering software show how external events and one-off commercial decisions impact the software market.

Spending growth for 2015 was 12.5% measured in constant currency terms, falling to 5% in 2016. The 2015 figure shows continuing demand growth, but, measuring the market in actual 2015 dollars, this growth is obscured. The result is about a third lower because of the 20% strengthening of the dollar during the year. The slower, 5% growth forecast for 2016 reflects the move to subscription licensing by providers. Although there has been a steady trend towards subscription licensing in the last few years, the impact is heightened in 2016 by the decision of one of the market leaders, Autodesk, to switch all licensing to subscription.

The Future of Engineering Software
"Market demand will continue to enjoy steady growth," said Cambashi Managing Director Peter Thorne. "Three and five year CAGR figures show the combined PLM/BIM/GIS/VIZ segment continuing at about 8% p.a., and the IoT development tools segment leading the way, accelerating from recent 10% CAGR to a forecast 13% CAGR." Thorne revealed Cambashi's market assessment during the Conference on the Future of Engineering Software ( COFES), held earlier this month in Scottsdale, AZ.

A 360 degree perspective
The Cambashi Market Observatories are a set of consistent and multi-perspective datasets for the technical software market. They provide detailed information on software spend by country, industry and product and the size of user communities, for a range of technical software application types, including:

• CAD, CAM, CAE
• PLM
• BIM
• AEC
• GIS
• IoT (software development tools)

Each data set provides a different way of measuring the use of software in industry, and can be used in combination to support business planning at global, regional and local levels. The methodology combines public and 3rd party data sources with Cambashi's quantitative and qualitative research in each of these market views. Developed over 25 years, the combination of top down macroeconomic, industry detail and bottom up supply side (software provider) views leads to a highly consistent, multi-granular view of the market. In detail these views are:

• The Cambashi Product Observatory segments the technical applications market by product group, revenue stream and major geographic area for the top 28 software providers.
  • Sources: Cambashi provider research, public financial data
• The Cambashi Country Observatory provides a snapshot of market opportunity by investigating technical application spend across more than 50 countries worldwide.
  • Sources: Oxford Economics, IMF, World Bank, EITO, national statistics
• The Cambashi Industry Observatory breaks down global technical applications spend into over 100 industry classifications in over 50 countries.
  • Sources: Oxford economics, national statistics, Kew Associates, Cambashi research
• The Cambashi Employment Observatory highlights the potential user base for technical software in over 100 different industries and occupations and across 50 countries.
  • Sources: National statistics, ILO, Cambashi research
• The Cambashi Provider by Industry Observatory maps the revenues of the top 28 global technical applications providers across 11 major industry sectors and 3 major geographies.
  • Sources: Cambashi provider research, Product and Industry Observatories
• The Cambashi System Engineering and Embedded Software Observatory captures provider revenues of over 300 software providers by major geography and revenue coverage of SMART industries in 8 major segments in 50 countries.
  • Sources: Cambashi provider research, public financial data, Industry Observatory

About Cambashi

Cambashi is a market research, industry analysis and consulting firm based in Cambridge, UK, and Boston, MA, US. Its independent research and analysis delivers compelling insights on the use of IT to address business issues in manufacturing, process, distribution, energy, utilities and construction industries. The Cambashi Market Observatories provide companies worldwide with the objective information needed to clarify decisions assess trends and develop effective marketing strategies. In addition to delivering global market data and related consulting services, Cambashi offers a unique web-based industry training curriculum. http://www.cambashi.com/