Data overload causes businesses to spend $4 billion

New figures from analyst IDC show that worldwide outlay on BI, in the second half of 2010, topped $4 billion for the first time, with further growth predicted as businesses look to gain competitive advantage by gaining greater insight into customer behaviour and internal performance.

IDC’s Dan Vesset says that the 12.7 per cent growth recorded last year illustrates that BI is one of the top priorities for businesses.  He says that BI vendors need to focus on delivering cloud-based BI if they are to capture the maximum share of growth.  “Although (off-premise) still represents only a small portion of the BI tools market, software as a service (SaaS) or cloud BI offerings are growing three times faster than the rest of the market."

Leading the way in terms of revenue are SAP and IBM, both of which broke the $1 billion mark last year.  IBM looks well positioned, outpacing its rivals in the key markets such as the UK, Canada, Japan.  However, SAP is winning more business in Russia, which is the fastest growing buyer of BI, delivering year-on-year growth of 200 per cent.

The top ten vendors captured 72 per cent of the overall market, with the biggest benefactors of growth being MicroStrategy, Oracle, Panorama Software, and QlikTech - all which outperformed the industry baseline.