Application development market braced for Brexit impact

With the clock ticking loudly in the last few months before Britain leaves the European Union warnings have been sounded over the impact the move will have on the app development and maintenance services market.

There continues to be a great deal of uncertainty around just what Brexit will look like, with disagreements still raging between the politicians trying to come up with something to build on in talks with the EU over the next few weeks.

That vacuum is having a negative impact and areas that like to know where they stand in terms of compliance and regulations like banking, financial services, healthcare and life sciences are likely to suffer some adverse impact from Brexit, according to a report from a report from Information Services Group.

The report found that both app providers, with issues around the prospect of new rules and tariffs, and users who might look at flooding the market with demand once the picture becomes clear and they know what they need.

“At present, there is no clear answer as to what exactly will happen and what agreement the UK will reach with the EU,” said Barry Matthews, partner, ISG UK, Ireland and Netherlands.

“The majority of companies in the UK have not yet begun preparing for Brexit, and there are growing fears of supply-chain disruptions. As for providers, the large ones should be able to cover most situations that arise, but smaller UK-based providers may struggle with the changing market dynamics," he added.

It is hard to know just what life will be like after 29 March next year but many are braced for a spike in users looking to use apps along with testing and maintenance services as customers try to get in-line with any changes quickly.

The report highlighted that banks had already started to move headcount out of the UK and there was talk of some movement in the car manufacturing areas and that would be a strain on existing systems based on the current situation.

There were also signs that aside from Brexit customers were looking for more focus on next generation options from their application development management partners. Areas of interest included: analytics, IoT, cloud-native architecture, SaaS-based offerings, security, customer experience and mobile.