This IDC study describes Japan's collaborative applications market, with a competitive analysis for 2004 and forecast for 2005 to 2009. As well, market trends are expounded upon and the profiles of the top vendors of this market are provided. This study also touches on and analyzes enterprise portals (enterprise information portals or EIPs in IDC's software taxonomy up to 2004) as the market is closely related to the collaborative application market.
IDC Japan Software Group's research manager, Kazuyuki Ide, says, "User companies are once again focusing on collaborative applications as a means of improving staff productivity and that they have high expectations for client solutions based on Web technologies. Vendors should clearly present their product portfolio and road map, and promptly provide products that cater to users' needs."