Based on a report by AMR Research, supply chain management (SCM) applications market experienced slight growth in 2005, increasing 3% to $5.6B. Environmental factors such as globalization, leaner supply networks, increased customer expectations, more mass customization, and increased demand variability are all affecting the current SCM market.

"New business focuses and pressures are driving pockets of vendor innovation and renewed corporate spending in supply chain initiatives," said Mark Hillman, senior research analyst at AMR Research. "However, spending is tempered by the fact that corporate supply chain organizational maturity is still relatively low, limiting adoption. In addition, consolidation will continue to play a significant role in 2006."

According to PRNewswire, for the third straight year, SAP emerged as the top SCM vendor in terms of revenue, and outpaced the market with growth of 6%. Oracle, i2 Technologies, Manhattan Associates, and Infor round out the top five vendors in revenue in the space.