I like Radio.Rogis.Net's recipes; have to try the Cornish Pasties.  [aka food]

Caveat Lector: IDC sells reports to people with an interest in rosy predictions. So, with a grain of salt...

Worldwide eRecruiting Services Market Continues Growth Despite Reduction in Hiring and Slow Economy, IDC Reveals

FRAMINGHAM, MA, May 21, 2002 – Despite the decline in the overall recruiting and staffing services market due to the economic recession, erecruiting services continued to show strong growth in 2001 as employers looked for services that helped them find the best candidates faster and cheaper than their current processes. A new report published by IDC reveals that the worldwide erecruiting services market grew 53% in 2001 to $2.8 billion, in line with IDC's projected growth rate from adjusted 2000 annual revenue. [That's money paid by employers and employees to make the labor market work better.]

The economic slowdown, however, has flattened out the once-rocketing erecruiting services market in the second half of 2001, thus delaying overall growth in later years of the forecast. Due to this decline, IDC has adjusted its forecast accordingly and now projects the worldwide erecruiting services market to reach almost $15.7 billion by 2006 with a 2001-2006 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.9%.

"eRecruiting services demonstrated strong annual growth rates in 2001, despite the slowing economy and reduction in hiring," said Marc Pramuk, IDC senior analyst. "This growth emphasizes the fundamental shift in the recruiting and staffing services market that identifies erecruiting services as a vital part of how organizations attract and hire the best candidates for open positions."

IDC's examination of the overall worldwide recruiting and staffing services market reveals that this market declined 13% in 2001 to an estimated $62.9 billion, due in large part to the economic downturn in the United States. Despite this sharp drop in revenue for the total recruiting and staffing services market, emerging markets -- including erecruiting, online job boards, and end-to-end erecruiting services -- continued to demonstrate strong growth rates. The worldwide recruiting and staffing services market will exceed $96 billion in 2006, posting a 2001-2006 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.9%.

"Although the economic slowdown in the United States took a significant toll on traditional recruiting and staffing services in 2001, we expect the market to stabilize and continue to grow over the forecast period as the economy recovers," said Pramuk. "Continued strong growth in the erecruiting market segment across all regions will be a primary driver of overall market growth."

Worldwide eRecruiting Services Forecast, 2002-2006 (IDC #26763)

Worldwide Recruiting and Staffing Services Forecast, 2002-2006 (IDC #26705)

My spin:

• The ecruiting market is now big enough to attract outsiders.
• Seems to make money in bad times.
• The comparative growth rates make it even more attractive.

When will Microsoft enter this space?

Microsoft opens its wallet.

Microsoft Money Deluxe & Business. Developing retail channels and CPA networks.

Then they buy Great Plains. More business functions supported. Scales to multiple users. Point of sale solutions.  Solomon builds more capability.

Next comes Navision, adding international coverage for mid-market business. Features like user portals, ecommerce, CRM, supply chain, multiple currencies, data mining, knowledge management. Not SAP, but that can be a good thing.   

IDC thinks Microsoft is buying its way to become the market leader.

If you sell business apps to mid-market companies, what do you do? How should you respond?

Get out of the way.

IDC: "Microsoft's Proposed Acquisition of Navision Forces Enterprise Applications Companies to Think Industry-Specific"

"The ERP market is rapidly maturing and changing based on the Microsoft change in strategy,” said Dennis Byron, Vice President of ERP and Industry Applications research at IDC. “Other enterprise application vendors need to begin to think more industry-specific, or develop a niche strategy based on platform or function, to survive in the newly redefined enterprise applications market.”

"Suppliers of applications to midmarket businesses should also consider the following options in moving forward in the enterprise applications space:

• New deployment strategies, including revisiting the ill-timed marketplace/supply-chain-exchange ideas of the late 1990’s
• True partnering with compatible applications software based on semantics-level interoperability"

Over the next three years, watch Microsoft rationalize these legacy systems, migrate developer and deployment partners, and formulate a coherent, multinational marketing strategy.

Who is left to fight them in this space?

Will they own it outright?

Can Intuit, PeopleSoft, SAP, or Oracle make a case to enter the mid-range against Microsoft?

Suddenly the cost of entry is much higher.

[aka strategy]