This IDC study focuses on vertical markets' horizontal solutions investment plans in 2013, covering storage, ERP, CRM, content management, unified communications, and BI and analytics solutions. It draws on the results of IDC's European Vertical Market Survey carried out between August and October 2012 in the top 5 Western European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K.) among 1,603 companies with more than 20 employees. Results are provided for total Western Europe for the following vertical markets: financial services, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, telecom/media, utilities/oil and gas, retail/wholesale, professional services/transport, healthcare, and government.

"Economic conditions are still volatile, and Western European companies across most if not all vertical markets sectors taking a cautious approach to IT spending. In this setting, IT solutions will remain a core part of investments as companies realize these are keys to address the many challenges being faced," said Nina Bonagura, senior research analyst, IDC European Industry Solutions.