SaaS Path is IDC's premier SaaS-specific benchmarking survey, providing subscribers with demand-side guidance on the mind and journey of SaaS buyers, including a deep dive into 23 functional application markets: accounts payable; accounts receivable; contract life-cycle management (CLM); core human resources (HR); asset life-cycle management (EAM/ALM); employee experience; enterprise resource planning (ERP); facility management; finance; financial governance, risk, and compliance (GRC); learning experience management (LXM); merger and acquisition (M&A) software; payroll; procurement; product life-cycle management (PLM/CAD); professional services automation (PSA); supply chain management (SCM); subscription management; talent acquisition; talent management; tax; travel and expense (T&E); and treasury and risk. For more information, view this product video.

Markets and Subjects Analyzed


  • 23 functional application markets: accounts payable, accounts receivable, CLM, core HR, EAM, ERP, finance, GRC, LXM, M&A software, payroll, talent management, talent acquisition, procurement, PLM/CAD, PIM/PXM, PSA, CRM, SCM, subscription billing, tax, T&E, and treasury and risk
  • Application adoption, deployment models, budget plans, and replacement cycle timing
  • Purchasing preferences and attitudes toward SaaS buying channels, application migration strategy, drivers and inhibitors, packaging, and pricing options
  • In-depth vendor reviews, ratings, spend, and advocacy scores for all 23 functional application markets

Core Research


  • SaaS Path: Worldwide Findings Banner Book
  • SaaS Path: Additional 20+ Banner Books — Findings by App Category/Country/Region
  • SaaS Path: Executive Summary PPT Report
  • SaaS Path: Vendor Ratings PPT Report
  • SaaS Path: Additional Survey Spotlights on Key Findings

In addition to the insight provided in this service, IDC may conduct research on specific topics or emerging market segments via research offerings that require additional IDC funding and client investment.

Key Questions Answered


  1. What applications are organizations moving to SaaS? When? Where?
  2. Which vendors are organizations looking to for each SaaS application solution? How do organizations rate those vendors, and what evaluation criteria do they use to select them?
  3. How do SaaS buyers like to be sold to and through what channels? What are their buying preferences, attitudes, fears, needs, and priorities? How do these things all vary by functional application market?

Companies Analyzed


This service reviews the strategies, market positioning, and future direction of several providers in the enterprise applications market, including:

Acumatica, Adobe, ADP, Amazon, Amdocs, Anaplan, Aptean, AVEVA, Blue Yonder, Brainshark, Certinia, Cincom Systems, Clari, Conga, Conversica, Coupa, Dassault Systèmes, Dealertrack, Deltek, e2open, Epicor, Genesys, Google, HubSpot, IBM, IFS, Infor, InsideSales, Intuit, Kinaxis, Kingdee, LinkedIn, Logility, Manhattan Associates, Microsoft, Oracle, O9 Solutions, Pegasystems, Plex Systems, Pipedrive, PROS Pricing Solutions, PTC, QAD, Sage, Sage Intacct, Salesforce, SAP, SAS, ServiceNow, Siemens, SuperOffice, SYSPRO, ToolsGroup, UKG, Unit4, Workday, Xactly, X.ai, Xero, Yonyou, and Zoho.

  • Eric Newmark

    Group Vice President & General Manager of IDC’s SaaS, Enterprise Software, and Worldwide Services Division

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  • Nadia Ballard

    Senior Research Manager, Industry Cloud and SaaS

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  • Mickey North Rizza

    Group Vice-President, Enterprise Software

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  • Kevin Permenter

    Research Director, Financial Applications

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  • Patrick Reymann

    Research Director, Procurement and Enterprise Applications

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  • Brian O'Rourke

    Research Manager, Enterprise Asset Management & Smart Facilities

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  • Heather Herbst

    Research Director, Worldwide Office of the CFO

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  • Jordan Steele

    Research Manager, Worldwide Financial Applications Support

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  • Frank Della Rosa

    Research Vice President, SaaS, Business Platforms, and Industry Cloud

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  • Mark Thomason

    Senior Research Director, Digital Business Models & Monetization

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  • Alicia Mokwa

    Research Director, Talent Acquisition and Strategy

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  • Zachary Chertok

    Research Manager, Employee Experience

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  • Simon Ellis

    Group Vice President

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  • Jeffrey Hojlo

    Research Vice President, Future of Industry Ecosystems, Innovation Strategies, & Energy Insights

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  • John Snow

    Research Director, Product Innovation Strategies

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