CCID Consulting, China's leading research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: HK08235), recently released its article on unified communication and on-line mode being the development trend of OA software market.

According to the CCID Consulting's statistics, China's OA software market scale reached RMB 2.494 billion in 2007, up by 20.8% over the previous year. Despite the dropping trend, the growth rate was still kept at a high level. The user demand was becoming more rational and the industry chain was becoming mature.

Figure 1, 2004-2007 China's OA Software Market Scale and Growth Rate: http://www.ccidconsulting.com/upload/12705.jpg (Source: CCID Consulting; Nov., 2007)

(Note: the OA software market defined by CCID Consulting includes both OA software and office kit)

OA software grows rapidly and users require more high-end products. In China's OA software market in 2007, the growth rate of office kits represented by Microsoft Office and IBM Lotus slowed down, while that of OA software was remained high, which shows that users are seeking document management, knowledge management and teamwork at a high level instead of being satisfied with simple office demands.

The OA market sees severe competitions and unstable competition pattern. Now there are still hundreds of OA software developers, but no dominating one has been formed. The regional advantages and industrial experience restrict the growth of manufacturers, and provide more chances to other manufacturers.

Consulting forecasts the below trends in the market:

OA software is developing towards platform, with unified communication becomes the trend. OA begins to develop towards platform, namely modules in client relationship management, financial management, personnel management and supply chain management will be integrated to OA products in order to meet the user demand and to exploit advantages during competitions. The unified communication becomes the development trend as the enterprises are demanding more cross-region OA. With unified communication, the OA access place and access mode would be ignored, and the cooperation between software developers and telecom solution providers, system integrators, stand-alone software providers and telephone and equipment manufacturers would be enhanced.

The on-line mode will become more popular and the service income is expected to rise. OA products in SaaS mode would be further accepted by medium and small enterprises as they involve lower initial input and do not require purchase of hardware and software or maintenance by professionals and they can be used by enterprises more conveniently by virtue of the flexible renting. The manufacturers would strive to achieve better service quality and users would demand services featured in fast response, high quality and low cost. The user training would also change the pattern that emphasizes software while ignoring service and will lead to increased service income.