Continued acquisitions by large business intelligence (BI) vendors and activity among SME-sized BI technology vendors saw the market grow 11.5pc in 2006 to reach US$6.2bn.
According to IDC, the BI software market is maturing and the top 10 BI tools vendors continue to increase market share, with Business Objects, SAS, Cognos, Microsoft and Hyperion making up the top five industry players.
IDC says it expects to see acceleration in the BI tools market start in 2009. But it remains to be seen if it will be manifested in revenue or simply through the broader reach of BI.
“In 2006, business intelligence tools remained an attractive market for software vendors and one of the top investment priorities for end-user organizations,” said Dan Vesset, vice president in charge of business analytics at IDC.
“The market grew 11.5pc to reach US$6.25bn in worldwide software revenue,” Vesset added.
IDC says that interest in advanced analytics for forecasting, optimisation and other decision-support techniques is growing, as organisations look to move beyond using BI tools only for query and reporting.
The North American market continues to dominate the sector with a 52.8pc share of sales, followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Asia/Pacific region.
By John Kennedy
