Software spending may have slowed in the current economy, but a leading market research firm still expects that supply chain software packages will rack up $6.4 billion in sales this year. In addition, AMR Research (www.amrresearch.com) says, the market for supply chain software should reach $13.6 billion by 2006.

Despite strong overall growth, there is a change underway in what types of software companies are buying. Companies are shifting their interests from planning to execution applications such as warehouse management and transportation management systems and related software packages.

AMR says it expects sales for long-term planning applications, which generally forecast demand, will grow by only 9 percent annually over the next five years. Meanwhile, sales of execution and fulfillment applications will grow by 26 percent annually.