"Companies are turning to social software in increasing numbers as they look for ways to increase collaboration, improve both business and individual worker productivity, and efficiently manage a growing deluge of content and information," said Michael Fauscette, group vice president, Software Business Solutions. "Compartmentalized and specific collaboration is still required by many organizations and traditional collaborative applications providing closed loop and B2B communications will retain their existence in organizations alongside more open social solutions."
IDC's research found that almost all vendors in the market had double-digit growth for 2010-2011, with the top 2 vendors, IBM and Jive, delivering greater than 70% year-over-year growth - almost double the market average. The fastest-growing vendor in the top 20 was Yammer, with a year-over-year growth rate of 132.3%.
"As organizations' workspaces become increasingly divested from traditional office environments, workers will ultimately choose the most appropriate combination of tools to perform daily tasks," Fauscette added. "It will be imperative for vendors to recognize that ad hoc collaboration will continue to complement social activity streams, particularly as enterprise social software becomes more embedded in business processes and the workspace."
The IDC study, Worldwide Enterprise Social Software 2011 Vendor Shares (IDC #235273) examines the social software applications market from 2009 to 2011. Revenue and market share for the leading vendors are also provided for 2011.