After a flat year in 2010, the global business software market will grow by more than 8% in 2011, according to a report from research firm, Ovum.

The forecast sees the market reaching $267 billion in 2011, recovering from the recession and continuing to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.7% until 2015, when it will reach a total value of $358 billion.

Ovum analyst Tim Jennings noted that IT investment is moving away from traditional back-office automation as economic recovery continues.

"The volume of information within enterprises continues to grow at an astonishing rate, and investment is needed to both manage this information and turn it into actionable intelligence, through technologies such as business intelligence and analytics," Jennings said.

Information management software will be the fastest growing sector in business software over the next four years, according to Ovum, with a CAGR of 10%. The report also predicted growth in systems infrastructure software and applications software of 8.3% and 6.8% respectively during the same period.

Microsoft remained the world’s top software vendor according to the report, retaining more than 20% of market share. Oracle, IBM and SAP followed in that order.

"Microsoft is still a major player and market maker, with revenues of $62 billion in 2010," said Ovum analyst Richard Edwards. "However, its level of innovation is not keeping pace with the rest of the market – it is doing just enough to stay in the game, but is not a star performer."

The report suggested that emerging markets would make a strong contribution to growth in the business software market.

"Emerging markets around the world have an insatiable appetite for technology-driven expansion, often unencumbered by the constraints of peers in mature markets," said Tim Jenning. "Software vendors have significant opportunities in regions such as South East Asia and Latin America in the same areas of information management and mobility."