[London, 30 January 2014] Independent software vendors (ISVs) are set for an interesting year or two, with vendors looking to engage their influence over customers and with customers thinking more carefully about what they buy and how they buy it. Enterprise software will be a particular focus with spending continuing to exhibit the strongest annual growth of all IT sectors – rising to 6.8% in 2014 (from an already sector-leading 5.2% in 2013) according to Gartner.

This recognition of changing customer IT strategies in response to the impact of new technologies and how ISVs need to respond will be a major focus at the European ISV Convention in London, 26th March 2014 (www.isvconvention.com ). Now in its 7th year this year’s convention will attract even more attention from European software companies and developers looking to see who to work with, which technology areas are being invested in, and how to tap the increased support that major vendors are now putting behind ISVs.

The convention will feature a keynote from Gartner's Mark Paine who says: “The Nexus of Forces (the convergence and mutual reinforcement of the four interdependent trends: social interaction, mobility, cloud, and information) has had profound effects on what technology is now significant and who buys it. The advancements in Big Data, business intelligence and Hybrid cloud platforms introduces different buyers of these products.”

In his presentation, Mark Paine will outline the opportunities provided by these technologies and the reasons companies are choosing them. He will also share insight into the CXO priorities and the business drivers influencing them. Mark will then explain the shift in customer buying behaviours and will recommend ways for ISVs to succeed in selling to these ‘new’ customers.

Other presentations from Oracle, IBM and Microsoft will provide further insight into the key technology trends impacting the software industry and highlight the growth opportunities specifically for big data, business intelligence and hybrid IT solutions, making the event a “must attend” for directors of European ISVs who are being faced with important decisions on where to invest their resources.

The theme of the European ISV Convention 2014 is Innovation, Intelligence and Integration – driving better business outcomes, picking up the ideas of rising demand from customers for new software that enables working with diverse and growing data across a proliferation of new connected devices and with new types of partner to deliver success. Leading platform technology companies and distributors who are driving application development in the European market and participating in the convention include: IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Ingram Micro, Jaspersoft, SafeNet, and Avnet. ISVWorld, the world’s most comprehensive database of software products and vendors will also be supporting the convention as a partner.

The European ISV Convention 2014 will take place at the Lancaster London Hotel, on 26 March 2014. ISVs wishing to attend the convention and vendors or service providers interested in sponsorship opportunities can find further information at: www.isvconvention.com. The convention will end with a gala dinner at which the winners of the European IT & Software Excellence Awards 2014 will be announced. Full details of the awards can be found at www.iteawards.com