Enterprise software forms the digital fabric that modern business is woven from. By providing the critical systems enabling operations, productivity, connectivity and automation, enterprise technology spending surpasses $600 billion annually.
Simply put, enterprise software covers the large-scale applications and platforms that companies license to solve business problems. Unlike the single-user productivity apps consumers buy, tools like analytics, supply chain management and financials require robust functionality and reliability that large vendors provide enterprises.
With so many critical business functions running on these integrated softwares, the leading vendors boast tremendous influence. The 10 largest enterprise software companies alone generate over $300 billion in revenue annually. Hundreds of thousands of organizations entrust these providers to equip employees with latest capabilities and securely manage sensitive data.
By taking a closer look at who the software titans are and what they actually sell, we can better appreciate their indispensable roles serving customers across sectors.
Defining the Massive Enterprise Software Market
Before highlighting individual leaders, let‘s scope the full enterprise software landscape. The category spans numerous segments meeting wide-ranging organizational needs:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – Managing sales pipelines and marketing campaigns to customer support efforts
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) – Integrating core finance, HR, manufacturing, inventory and other back-office functionality
- Business Intelligence and Analytics – Generating insights from data to guide business strategy
- Supply Chain Management (SCM) – Tracking materials sourcing through production to final delivery
- IT Management – Administering enterprise IT infrastructure, systems, applications and information security
Combine this functional breadth with swelling demand for cloud delivery models, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and cutting-edge user interfaces…it’s no wonder research firm Gartner forecasts enterprise software spending will cross $605 billion globally this year.
And the 10 software heavyweights we will profile dominate enterprise deals by the hundreds daily. Let‘s dive in!
Enterprise software fuels digital transformation and data-driven decision making (Image credit: IBM)
10. Broadcom
Headquarters: San Jose, CA
Year Founded: 1961 by professor H.T. Chua
Annual Revenue: $7.1 billion
You likely interact with Broadcom technology daily without even knowing it. As a leading designer of silicon chips critical for cloud, networking and edge connectivity, Broadcom hardware enables the infrastructure running enterprise software.
For example, the WiFi and Bluetooth chips coordinating devices in your office route through Broadcom components. The complex warehouse systems tracking millions of packages globally tap into Broadcom chips speeding automation software guiding robotics arms. Essentially, Broadcom provides the building blocks powering seamless enterprise solutions integrating software with cutting edge hardware.
And their software footprint grows after strategic acquisitions…
Broadcom raised eyebrows acquiring Symantec’s enterprise security business for $10.7 billion in 2019. Gartner estimates this deal instantly made them the #7 cybersecurity software vendor by revenue over night. Broadcom also purchased CA Technologies for $18.9 billion in 2018 to expand infrastructure management and app development tools.
These software capabilities complement Broadcom’s chips enabling cloud, AI and data analytics. For enterprise leaders, the duo supplies integrated security and observability into growing digital ecosystems.
9. Dell Technologies
Headquarters: Round Rock, TX
Year Founded: 1984 by then 19-year old Michael Dell in his University of Texas dorm room.
Annual Revenue: $11.9 billion
Chances are that Dell laptop, PC or tablet you‘re reading this on traces back to Michael Dell‘s startup origin story. By cutting reseller middlemen and selling custom configured computers directly, Dell pioneered a sales model and growth trajectory never before seen. While Dell maintains its position as third largest PC maker globally, selling servers, networking and infrastructure solutions to enterprises worldwide propels most revenues.
To understand their shift toward enterprise services, we have rewind back to 2016 when Dell merged with data storage giant EMC for $67 billion. This deal positioned Dell Technologies as a one-stop-shop for critical infrastructure from PCs and servers to cloud software and storage. With dominance in external enterprise storage systems and worldwide server market share, Dell makes infrastructure supporting enterprise software applications fly.
And their software ambitions grow perpetually through internal innovation and further acquisitions. Dell scooped up software-defined storage trailblazer ECS, multi-cloud experts Virtustream, automation specialists VMware, participation platform Box and integration specialists Boomi over the years. By removing enterprise infrastructure complexities, Dell Technologies accelerates digital innovation for organizations across sectors.
8. ADP
Headquarters: Roseland, NJ
Year Founded: 1949 by Henry Taub
Annual Revenue: $14.6 billion
With 740,000 clients around the globe, ADP takes the #8 spot focusing squarely on back-office human resources (HR) solutions integral for all companies. From payroll, benefits and retirement to recruiting, onboarding and employee wellness programs, ADP optimizes the entire employee lifecycle experience.
As a human capital management (HCM) leader, ADP pays 1 in 6 American workforces while providing recordkeeping services for nearly 40 million workers and retirement plan participants. Simply put, enterprises rely on ADP as a foundational HR platform supporting people operations at unprecedented scale. Beyond simplifying tedious tasks like paycheck runs and tax filings, ADP analytics helps organizations glean workforce insights for stronger talent investments.
ADP clocks over 58 million paychecks annually across 110 countries. With intimate local knowledge and tailored multi-national capabilities, ADP unlocks holistic transformation putting global people first.
7. Fiserv
Headquarters: Brookfield, WI
Year Founded: 1984 by Leslie Muma and George Dalton
Annual Revenue: $15.2 billion
Fiserv provides the technology backbone powering mobile banking apps, peer-to-peer payments like Venmo and CashApp and card reader systems in stores worldwide. With over 40,000 clients globally across banking, mortgage, wealth management insurance and more, Fiserv facilitates 24 billion digital payment transactions annually.
Fiservsolutions promote seamless experiences, real time money movement and analytics driving personalized financial services. Application programming interfaces (APIs) also allow enterprises to readily embed payment functionality and customer insights directly into their own offerings.
As demand for digital banking surges, Fiserv enables innovation and drives results through targeted solutions:
- Card issuer processing platforms handle 1.9 billion card accounts
- Risk management and fraud detection software monitors $725 billion in annual eCommerce volume
- Open banking and data aggregation solutions link customers, businesses and banks
With integrated financial services infrastructure at monumental scale, Fiserv propels transformation for over $9 trillion moving across their systems daily.
6. Adobe
Headquarters: San Jose, CA
Year Founded: 1982 by Charles Geschke and John Warnock who pioneered PDFs still used universally
Annual Revenue: $15.8 billion
First hitting it big popularizing design icons like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro and Acrobat Reader, Adobe sits comfortably atop the global digital creativity software market across individuals to Hollywood studios. In fact, 91% of creative professionals reportedly run Adobe tools.
Yet their position as a leading enterprise software vendor stems from molding their design prowess into data-driven customer experience management solutions.
Flagship offering Adobe Experience Cloud stitches capabilities for content creation, personalization, advertising, analytics and commerce into one platform. This integrated view helps enterprise marketing and sales teams centralize creative assets, run targeted campaigns, and measure engagement holistically based on unified customer profiles.
Specific experience cloud solutions like Adobe Commerce powers enterprise eCommerce for giants like Costco, Verizon and Petco. With Adobe Exchange, developers readily build apps plugging into Experience Cloud too.
Bottom line – Adobe equips enterprises worldwide with tools creative gurus love while optimizing critical customer touchpoints through software scale few can match.
5. Salesforce
Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
Year Founded: 1999 by former Oracle executive Marc Benioff
Annual Revenue: $17.1 billion
In 1999, charismatic founder Marc Benioff spun cloud-based CRM tools for businesses of any size into a revolutionary company now worth over $170 billion. Salesforce‘s subscriber-based model bypassed costly on-premise software by delivering apps over the internet. By focusing squarely on user experience versus complex implementations, Salesforce eased enterprise adoption across roles from sales representatives to service agents.
Today, Salesforce Cloud stretches across nine powerful yet intuitive connected solutions:
- Sales Cloud – CRM Managing contacts, pipelines and forecasting
- Service Cloud – Customer service case management
- Marketing Cloud – Campaign automation and analytics
- Commerce Cloud – Unifying commerce across channels
- Tableau – Business intelligence insights from data
- MuleSoft – API integration between apps and data
- Trailhead – Skill building and training platform
With 150,000+ companies leveraging these tools worldwide, Salesforce boosts productivity and digitally transforms customer engagement end-to-end. Their astounding 23,000% growth within seven years still fuels unrelenting innovation benefiting enterprise customers globally.
4. IBM
Headquarters: Armonk, NY
Year Founded: 1911 marking its 110th anniversary this year
Annual Revenue: $23.4 billion
IBM‘s pedigree as an influential technology trendsetter stretches across modern computing history. From pioneering mainframes and personal computers to ATMs and floppy disks, IBM hardware defined early enterprise IT.
However, present-day IBM rakes in more revenues from software and services spreading next-gen technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing to customer worldwide. With infrastructure securely managing 30 billion transactions per day globally, IBM provides digital tools enterprises trust.
Prominent enterprise software solutions include:
- Cloud Paks – Containerized software packages running across hybrid cloud environments
- Cloudant – NoSQL "database-as-a-service" on open standards
- Blockchain Platform – Trusted blockchain network foundation
- Watson – Leveraging AI and machine learning for various business use cases
- Red Hat – One of the most widely used enterprise Linux operating systems
And with consulting teams 190,000 strong, IBM Global Services ensures customers successfully enable complex solutions while managing monumental change.
3. SAP
Headquarters: Walldorf, Germany
Year Founded: 1972 by early employees at IBM
Annual Revenue: $32.3 billion
If IBM seeded enterprise computing historically, German software giant SAP built the systems growing businesses run on. By standardizing process workflows across accounting, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain and other core enterprise functions, SAP eliminates the need for disjointed niche applications.
Result? The SAP Business Technology Platform underpins operations for 77% of Forbes Global 2000. Flagship ERP solutions integrate with business planning tools, advanced analytics and automated reporting.
Beyond breadth, SAP prioritizes intelligence – infusing workflow enhancements, decision recommendations and automation throughout enterprise systems rather than bolting them on later. With 350,000 customers across 25 industries in 180+ countries all connected into their systems, SAP harnesses network effectsno competitor can touch.
Add end-to-end services from implementation to upgrades via the expansive SAP partner ecosystem, and it‘s no wonder SAP is projected to cross €30 billion in 2023 revenues. As one of Europe‘s first software giants competing head-on with American tech titans, SAP shows no sign of slowing down their torrid pace sustaining innovation.
2. Oracle
Headquarters: Austin, TX
Year Founded: 1977 by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates
Annual Revenue: $40.5 billion
From popularizing relational databases managing business information to cloud platforms now fueling the latest innovations, Oracle sits firmly among influential enterprise software institutions. Drilling deeper, Oracle Solzhenitsyn provides a wide stack beyond databases including analytics, infrastructure management, application development and industry specific solutions.
For example, Oracle Fusion ERP centralizes financial planning, accounting, procurement, project management and supply chain operations within connected cloud modules. Top tier organizations adopt tools like Autonomous Data Warehouse skipping manual tuning to automatically run predictive queries at scale.
Recognizing the present and future would unfold in the cloud, Oracle enables hybrid environments securing legacy on-premise systems while leveraging cloud efficiency. In fact, 29% of Oracle’s 2020 revenue derived directly from top-line cloud services up 33% annually.
Yet founder Larry Ellison seeks more bellwether moments. Oracle currently invests heavily in distributed ledger technology (blockchain), AI assistants for enterprise workflows and low-code development platforms allowing anyone to build powerful applications (no coding required).
Always an innovator, Ellison summarized his life‘s work saying:
"Making technology accessible and understandable to the world – so businesses can use it to find answers they need.”
1. Microsoft
Headquarters: Redmond, WA
Year Founded: 1975 by childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen
Annual Revenue: $168 billion across productivity, cloud, devices and gaming
Scan your surrounding workplace. Chances are your colleagues run Microsoft Windows computers, collaborate using Office apps like Outlook and Teams and store files in SharePoint while away from desktops. Such sheer ubiquity after 40+ years speaks to Microsoft‘s dominant grip equipping enterprises to be productive.
But as world passed the PC era moving toward mobile and cloud, Microsoft skipped a beat before embracing what‘s next under CEO Satya Nadella. Today Microsoft Azure provides a trusted foundation for business apps security connecting cloud and legacy systems. Windows resurfaces as Microsoft 365 where Office apps, tools managing devices and identities, advanced security sync workers everywhere.
Dynamics 365 then layers business process workflows like ERP and CRM with no code customization atop common data models. PowerBI yields insights from analytics while Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents lets anyone design solutions fast. Plus game changing acquisitions like Nuance brings cutting edge AI directly into enterprise.
This tightly integrated product ecosystem melds the familiarity workers want with capabilities businesses demand. Is it any wonder 95% of Fortune 500 companies run on Microsoft, even rivaling iOS in revenue? Beyond market strongholds, Microsoft‘s future shines bright as architect driving digital transformation worldwide.
Outlook on Enterprise Software Titans
The 10 longstanding vendors we explored pass essentiality tests protecting positions. First, switching enterprise systems proves extremely expensive, so companies stick with winners meeting needs as they multiply. Incumbents then erect regulatory moats as partners guiding massive integration projects across domains like manufacturing, finance and healthcare.
But competition swells with disruptive threats rising. As machines grow smarter and connections explode in the internet of things (IoT) era, every company must become a software business. Youthful infiltrators like ServiceNow, Coupa and New Relic pioneer hot demand areas like IT management, procurement and observability. Niche insights then scale across clouds to topple legacy giants.
Still, this cloud-based future favors net winners equipped to adapt. Microsoft‘s comeback reveals possibilities for consummate contenders embracing change despite regulatory pressures to honor past promises. SAP S/4HANA momentum and long-term Oracle Cloud growth echo readiness meeting moments.
So while upstarts spark the latest innovations, count on enterprise incumbents to spotlight progress maturing for global 1000 adoption. By balancing legacy strengths with disruptive adjustments, the largest software vendors seem poised to extend their influential industry reigns. Just don‘t expect the status quo to persist.
