This study presents the key findings of IDC's European Vertical Market Survey, carried out in June to August 2006 in the top 5 Western European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K.) among 169 retail and wholesale companies with more than 20 employees. The purpose of this study is to understand the following:

This study presents findings for:

The results are presented for the top 5 Western European countries (France, Germany, the U.K., Italy, Spain) for retail and wholesale respondents and for total Western Europe.

"Manufacturing Insights believes that the short to medium-term outlook for enterprise IT solutions investments will be increasingly positive within the Western European retail and wholesale industry. While overall retail and wholesale respondents are indicating strongest short-term investment plans on security technologies, ERP, and CRM solutions, it is very interesting to asses how the investment focus varies, both on a sub-vertical and on a country level." said Ivano Ortis, program manager, Manufacturing Insights.