"The applications market is still quite immature in most of China. Given the relatively small installed base, we expect growth rates across most categories, including ERP, SCM and CRM, etc., to far outpace regional averages for at least the next 3-4 years," Barnes noted.

Springboard cautioned that global vendors need to pay attention to the enormous disparities that exist among Chinese businesses in terms of IT resources, process sophistication and technology adoption, adding that these disparities often pose a risk to large-scale software project success.