During March 2010, Intrinsic Executive Search conducted a survey of CXO and VP Level Executives who work in the European Enterprise Software markets for their opinions on the performance of various technology areas in 2010, the most difficult European countries to hire quality staff and general opinions on the European market.

A total of 217 participants took part in the survey. All participants currently work at the CXO-, VP- or Director-lLevel in the European Enterprise and Banking software market sectors. Intrinsic Executive Search surveyed a cross section of executives across Europe, purposely targeting different software sectors within the market. Here are four findings from the study.

1. Open Source Solutions - The Number One Predicted Growth Software Area in 2010
Open Source software is predicted to the number one high growth technology performer in 2010, followed by Risk Management, Web Analytics and Business Intelligence. CRM and Integration /EAI solutions received the least favorable results.

2. Most Difficult European Country to Hire Quality Staff
Eastern Europe is the hardest European geographical region to source high caliber senior commercial staff.

During various recruitment campaigns to source tier one candidates in countries such as Poland, Intrinsic has found the quality to be limited in comparison to other European regions. Many of the senior sales candidates are junior in terms of years of service compared to their Western European counterparts and often only focus on the Polish market as opposed to additional Eastern European countries. Intrinsic found candidates covering larger regions such as Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Poland are occasionally located in Germany, UK or Switzerland.

An incredible 46% of the respondents believed that it is getting harder and harder to find great enterprise software sales people in today's market which Intrinsic believes will result in wage inflation across Europe.

3. IT Spending 2010
According to the respondents, the telecommunications market will experience the highest increase in enterprise software spending compared to 2009. Automotive, central/local government and manufacturing are predicted to have the biggest decline in enterprise software spending in 2010. Both investment and retail Banking will do better in 2010 compared to the previous year.

For more information from Intrinsic's survey of European software executives, including 2010 forecasts for specific technology areas and salary levels, email Ben at bew@intrinsicsearch.com for the full report.


Ben Watkins is the European director of Intrinsic Executive Search.