Consolidation, market maturity to cause slower BI growth, Gartner says

Heather Havenstein   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Business Intelligence Stories  

Forrester Best Practices: Improve IT Service Delivery and Support with Remote Services Google Search Appliance - New Features Complexity is Good 'Green' IT - Cut Your Travel Costs and Carbon Footprint with Web Conferencing BI: Proven Tools for Competitive Advantage in Uncertain Times Enterprise Findability Without the Complexity Computerworld Technology Briefing: Intelligent Users Use Business Intelligence Computerworld Technology Briefing: Intelligent Users Use Business Intelligence Virtual Reality Sign up to receive Business Intelligence Resource Alerts

January 22, 2008 (Computerworld) -- While business intelligence remains a mission-critical tool for businesses, the days of double-digit BI market growth are almost over, according to Gartner Inc.

The market researcher cited the massive industry consolidation over the past year, with consistent BI market leaders Business Objects, Hyperion and Cognos getting snapped up by larger software firms, along with the increasing maturity of the technology and price erosion.

On Monday, Gartner said that it expects worldwide growth rates for 2007 -- when the final numbers are tabulated in the next few months -- to be slightly lower than the previous year's 12.5% growth rate, and that worldwide growth rates will tumble into the single digits by 2011.

Analysts suggested that users whose technology has recently been acquired postpone making strategic BI investments until a product road map comes from the new owner. Core products like Hyperion Essbase, now owned by Oracle; Cognos 8, which IBM has agreed to buy; and SAP's Business Objects XI will remain highly strategic and supported by research and development funding. However, Gartner noted that product overlap may cause some secondary products to lose internal support.

"Consolidation activities by SAP, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft should help accelerate the value derived from BI," said Gartner analyst Dan Sommer, in a statement. "Large vendors will drive increased usage, while new BI vendors will emerge introducing innovative technology and products to demonstrate differentiation and fill the gaps in 'mega-vendor' product lines." 

But this increased innovation also means that query, reporting and online analytical processing features can be considered commodities that no longer deliver a competitive edge to users, Sommer added. Most vendors now include basic BI capabilities in their product stacks, he added.

Gartner advises companies to broadly extend the use of BI tools in their companies by making them user-friendly, collaborative and process-driven, the firm advises.

The remaining independent BI vendors have gained an advantage over their acquired rivals in getting other firms to resell their tools, Gartner noted. Successful pure-play BI players will continue targeting emerging BI areas like dashboards, predictive modeling, enterprise search and interactive visualization techniques, it said.

The acquisitions and planned purchases of Hyperion, Business Objects and Cognos mean that two-thirds of the BI market has been snapped up by the enterprise software companies, according to Gartner. Thus, the remaining independent BI vendors like SAS Institute, MicroStrategy and Information Builders must ramp up their marketing efforts to maintain their visibility, Gartner said.

North America, Western Europe and Japan are the most significant regions in terms of BI spending and will still account for five-sixths of software revenue by 2011, Gartner noted.

Print this Story

Send Us Feedback

E-mail this Story

Digg this Story

Slashdot this Story

"Over the festive break there were quite a few announcements related to..." Read more... "Yahoo's owners have spoken and Jerry Yang is out as Yahoo CEO. Does this mean that Microsoft is in?..." Read more... Read more Business Intelligence posts or See all Blogs

Windows 7 public beta to be available Friday Hack forces Twitter into 'full security review' 10 must-have free BlackBerry apps More top stories...

Ballmer sets loose Windows 7 public beta Fake LinkedIn profiles promise prurient pics, send patsies malware instead Cisco down to business with gear for digital home

The 9 hottest skills for '09 The downturn has softened the IT talent market but done little to weaken demand for SAP, .Net and other technical skills. Fast fixes for common PC problems Every computer user hits a speed bump now and then. Here are some speedy, simple solutions to hardware, software, network, Internet and mobile-device crises. Apple's 5 biggest moments in 2008 From the iPhone 3G to 'unibody' MacBooks, 2008 was a standout year for Apple. Hands-on Linux: New distro versions push the envelope We've got reviews and videos of the new Ubuntu 8.10, Fedora 10 and openSUSE 11.1. Windows 7 Get the latest news, reviews and more about Microsoft's newest desktop operating system More Continuing Coverage Windows 7 Voting Technology Google's Chrome browser Economy in turmoil: Latest news and tips iPhone 3G Bill Gates moves on Windows Vista A to Z Mac A to Z 2008 Salary Survey Find wage data for 50 IT job titles. More Special Reports 2009 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2007 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2008 Best Places to Work in IT 2007 Best Places to Work in IT 2008 Salary Survey 2007 Salary Survey 2006 Salary Survey 2008 IT Forecast 2007 IT Forecast 40 Years of Computerworld Top 12 Green-IT Users The FAQs About Going Green IT Schools to Watch iPhone: One Year Later Global Mobile Your Next Data Center Management: Reinventing IT Stop Data Leaks Web 2.0 Security Surviving Disasters Managing Storage Virtualization The Lean Storage Machine Storage on Trial Can Web 2.0 Save BI? Bypass These BI Potholes All Zones Business Continuity Zone The File Data Management Zone Security Management Zone The SAS Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone The Enterprise Search Zone Software as a Service Zone The Security Zone See your link here

Computerworld Technology Briefing: Intelligent Users Use Business Intelligence Download this Technology Briefing for a limited time! (Source: Computerworld) Would you like to extend the use of Business Intelligence (BI) to more of your business functions? Would you also like to enhance your BI systems to provide both analysis and recommendations? Download this executive briefing  Google Search Appliance - New Features Google Search Appliance - New Features Download this video, courtesy of Google, for a limited time! Go to the webcast  Creating a green data center to help reduce energy costs and gain a competitive advantage Download this new white paper today! (Source: VMware) With today's rapid IT growth, companies are looking to consolidate datacenter operations to achieve space and cost savings. And as energy costs continue to rise, datacenter efficiency becomes even more important. This IBM report details how companies are reducing energy usage and costs to gain a completive advantage. Download this white paper  White Papers Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. Extend Your VPN Smart Security Choices for Mobile Workers Leverage Web-based Remote Access to Boost Productivity View more whitepapers

• Windows 7 public beta to be available Friday
• Ballmer sets loose Windows 7 public beta
• Hack forces Twitter into 'full security review'
• More top stories 

SAS Business and Analytics Zone No matter where your organization is on the path toward evolving your IT infrastructure, SAS can adapt to your situation to meet your long-term enterprise intelligence needs. We can help you drive intelligence evolution to the next level, while leveraging and extending the value of your existing IT investments. Learn more in the Business and Analytics Zone See All Zones

Intercept Spam & Viruses With MessageLabs MessageLabs is offering a complimentary 30 day trial of its managed Anti-virus and Anti-spam security solutions. MessageLabs guarantees complete protection against all know and unknown email threats. By providing 24 hour support, your business can increase productivity and decrease risk. Register for a complimentary trial and receive a free datasheet. Download this white paper now!

"Turning information into a Competitive Advantage" Companies today are realizing that competitive advantage is harder to sustain when based solely on gains in productivity and cost efficiency. The focus is shifting to invest more in business optimization initiatives which rely on trusted information to develop new insights that deliver better business results. But how can this be done efficiently in a business environment across multiple applications and processes. The answer is an Information Agenda - an innovative approach to transforming business information into a strategic asset for competitive advantage. View this webcast now!  See more Webcasts

• Hackers hijack Obama's, Britney's Twitter accounts

• Apple unveils new MacBook Pro, iLife/iWork suites at Macworld

• Report: Microsoft to do free Windows 7 upgrades

Read more news 

• Does it have to be on?

• BlackBerries don't bounce

Read more Shark Bait