BI Grows Despite Economic Woes

Business intelligence (BI), analytics applications and performance management (PM) software revenues increased 4.3% in 2009, according to a new report from market research firm Gartner, Inc.

BI, analytics and PM were front and center in mega vendor messaging throughout the year, boosting revenue beyond $9.3 billion compared to $8.9 billion in 2008, according to Dan Sommer, Gartner senior research analyst.

The top five vendors maintained a majority percentage of market share last year with 71%. In combined worldwide BI, analytics and PM software revenue, SAP was the No. 1 vendor, accounting for 22% of the market, followed by Oracle, SAS Institute, IBM and Microsoft.

Among segment leaders, SAP was strongest in BI platform sales, SAS led in analytic applications and performance management, and Oracle’s Hyperion software led in corporate performance management. IBM showed above-market growth with service-based offerings and Microsoft neared 8 percent market share with embedded BI applications increasingly built into legacy products.

“Even though growth was nowhere near the levels of 2008, and by no means immune to the recession, BI showed that it is not as cyclical as many other software areas, recording healthy growth in one of the toughest years recorded in software history,” Sommer was quoted to say.

Slower growth in 2009 could be attributed to a challenging economy, but BI mega vendors were instrumental in increasing use across the board despite decreasing overall revenues, according to a Gartner study early last year. By bundling BI into their product stacks usage was increasing at a faster rate the growth in 2009.

2010 may bring some relief to the economic decline, and indications show that companies are starting to shift their focus from survival to revival. Julie Langenkamp highlighted the “Top 10 Trends in Business Intelligence for 2010.” Click here to read it.

This story has been reprinted with permission from Information Management.