European software vendors have generally enjoyed a relatively good year and have responded well to recessionary pressures. In 2013, the last full year for which accounts are available, revenues for the top 500 European ISVs increased by 13.04% to €104.9 billion ($137.8billion). Overall publicly listed ISVs outperformed the major groups and their subsidiaries with growth of 14.73% (compared with 5.84% for parent companies and 11.01% for subsidiaries). Independents also fared well, growing by 10.46% over the same period. These are amongst the findings from “ISVs in Europe – The Top 500”, the latest database report from IT Europa which is published today.

The database report, which provides detailed business profiles of each of the top 500 European ISVs, provides further evidence that is applications rather than hardware that is driving IT sales in Europe. Despite the challenging economic climate in many parts of Europe, ISV revenues showed increases in all 33 countries covered by the report. The Danish market exhibited the most dramatic increase in revenues (up by 30.9%) followed by Hungary (23.9%) and Turkey (19.6%) and Russia (18.6%). The UK returned one of the lower growth rates at 3.0%.

IT Europa research manager Auri Aittokallio says: “Generally, ISVs are proving extremely resilient in the face of both market and economic pressures. There are signs that this stems largely from adjusting their business models with services last year accounting for 44.2% of total revenues - up from 36.9% in our previous report.”

The “ISVs in Europe – The Top 500” database report spans 33 countries and represents the most detailed view available of this key market sector. It has been compiled from detailed interviews by IT Europa’s own research team. The company profiles include sales breakdowns by company activity, which markets a company operates in, and detailed information on staff numbers and development plans, along with contact details for the top executives of each company. The report is available from IT Europa (http://www.iteuropa.com/) costing from £2,350. Data can also be extracted and supplied by country, region or on a bespoke basis.