The world market is divided into 226 countries of which some of the bigger countries must be considered as several geographical markets. Talking about the USA as one market when you haven’t won the first customer or independent channel partner there yet may seem overly self-confident. For most information technology companies, the USA is at least 50 geographical markets, Germany is at least 14 markets (Bundesländer), France is at least 4 markets, the UK is 4 markets, the Nordics are 4 separate markets and so on.

Table 1: The BECH Index for the Major Markets 2012-14

As can be seen from Table 1, world demand is on the move.

The Americas has a stable share of world demand, while Europe is loosing its share of global demand. Nevertheless, Europe continues to be a very interesting area with some of the biggest markets in the world and with a dramatic need for productivity improvements supported by all types of information technology solutions. The slight growth in the Middle East has most likely been negatively affected by the changes in the oil prices experienced lately and we should expect some changes here in the 2015 figures. China continues its growth and is now the second largest information technology market in the world.