Positive growth in engineering software spending – forecast

The latest update of the market database of engineering software spend from Cambashi indicates that, despite a challenging global economic situation, positive high single-digit growth is forecast in 2023.

The update reveals that inflation, reduced real-terms income, and uncertainty in the economy will lead to reduced demand across industries, which in turn will result in lower than previously expected engineering software expenditure, incorporating CAD, CAM, CAE, PLM, and BIM). However, Cambashi still forecasts positive high single-digit growth in software spend.

Last year finished more strongly than expected, with many vendors increasing their prices during 2022. For 2023, forecasts vary depending on the industry sectors that vendors address, leading to variations in Cambashi’s vendor-specific forecasts.

The COVID-19 pandemic was, says Cambashi, a significant contributor to market dynamics, with many industries experiencing something of post-pandemic bounce back, including industries related to travel and hospitality and the Aerospace industry. China’s zero-COVID policy during 2022 resulted in a number of factory shutdowns with significantly reduced output in some industries, including Automotive.

Supply-chain distribution continues to suppress the ability of some industries to fulfil demand, although in many cases issues have improved through the year. With lower consumer demand towards the end of 2022, some companies experienced issues related to stock surplus. These issues represent an opportunity for software providers to better enable companies to manage supply chain issues going forward.