Business intelligence market to grow in 2011

According to Gartner the worldwide market for business intelligence software is forecast to grow 9.7% to reach US$10.8 billion in 2011.

Gartner believes that the market for BI platforms will remain one of the fastest growing software markets despite sluggish economic growth in most regions.

This is because organisations will continue to turn to business intelligence software as a vital tool for smarter, more agile and efficient business.

Gartner's annual global CIO survey ranked BI number five on the list of the top 10 technology priorities for CIOs in 2011.

"It's a sign of the strategic importance of BI that investment remains strong,” said Ian Bertram, managing vice president at Gartner. "This market segment has remained strong because the dominant vendors continued to put BI, analytics and performance management at the centre of their messaging, while end-user organisations largely continued their BI projects, hoping that resulting transparency and insight will enable them to cut costs and improve productivity and agility down the line.”

Gartner has identified three ‘demand factors’ that will continue to drive BI revenue:

Consumerisation of BIBI tools must be simple, mobile and "fun" in order to expand use and value. Business users are demanding the same experience from their BI tools that they have come to enjoy with their personal tools. The need for more intuitive and interactive BI tools and applications extends to users on the go, but the vast majority of organisations have yet to embrace mobile BI. This is set to change very quickly with the proliferation of Apple's iPhone and iPad products.

Support for Extreme Data Performance; Emerging Data SourcesCapabilities that enable the analysis of large, volatile and diverse data will open up possibilities for a broad range of new, high-value BI applications and will be another driver of BI growth. This includes in-memory technology and social and content analytics. Combining these capabilities with support for extreme data volumes and consumer-oriented tools opens up possibilities for a broad range of new, high-value BI applications and will be another driver of growth.

BI as a Decision PlatformGartner's user surveys show that "improved decision making" is the top driver of BI purchases. Capabilities that will evolve BI from an information delivery system to a decision platform will increase the value of BI and drive its growth.