This IDC study provides an analysis and sizing of the Western European collaborative applications market for 2009 to 2011, and a forecast for 2012–2016. The study segments the collaborative applications market by functional market (four functional markets), and by Western European country.

"The Western European collaborative applications market grew by 4.4% in constant currency in 2011 to $2.2 billion. Growth was driven by increasing uptake of cloud-based collaborative applications, as the cloud delivery model greatly improves ease of deployment; the social web, because it showcases interfaces and techniques that can be used to great effect in the enterprise; mobile computing, as collaboration moves to mobile devices; and the consumerization of IT, which brings all these drivers together by helping enterprise buyers to articulate the ease of adoption and use that successful consumer applications achieve," said Alys Woodward, research director, European Business Analytics, Enterprise Collaboration and Social Solutions, IDC.