On September 29, IBA Group announced its inclusion on the Software Magazine's Software 500 ranking of the world's largest software and service providers, now in its 27^th year. IBA Group was ranked 254, representing 15.7% growth from the previous year.

 The Software 500 is a ranking of the world's largest software and services suppliers targeting medium to large enterprises, their IT professionals, software developers and business managers involved in software and services purchasing.

The ranking is based on total worldwide software and services revenue for 2008. This includes revenues from software licenses, maintenance and support, training and software–related services and consulting. Suppliers are not ranked on their total corporate revenue, since many have other lines of business, such as hardware.

“Watching how companies move into and out of the software business sectors… is indicative of what's in and what's out in the software industry. When we combine that with a look at which sectors are adding or subtracting employees, we gain insight into some major industry trends,” says John P. Desmond, editor of Software Magazine and Softwaremag.com.

According to Desmond, “much of the growth in this years Software 500 is the System integration Services/ IT Consulting and Outsourcing services sectors.”

The ranking revealed that the total 2009 Software 500 revenue is $491.2 billion. The growth rate has slowed down from 14.7 percent in 2008 to 8.7 percent in 2009. The total number of employees in the Software 500 has increased by 26% percent, amounting to 3,707,957.