Global BI software growth to slow to single digits

The worldwide business intelligence (BI) software revenue will rise 7 per cent to $13.8 billion in 2013, from last year, and is estimated to reach $17.1 billion by 2016.

However, compared with 2011 growth of 16 per cent, growth in 2013 and the coming years is expected to be slow to single digits, forecasts technology researcher Gartner Inc.

"BI and analytics have grown to become the fourth-largest application software segment as end users continue to prioritise BI and information-centric projects and spending to improve decision making and analysis. As more and more information is generated, business models need reinvention, and it's increasingly clear that mastering analytics on big data will be a key driver for the next economic cycle,'' says Dan Sommer, principal research analyst at Gartner.

The chief information officers' requirement for BI is complemented by more-tactical buying in business units for departmental and workgroup analysis, as well as for personal BI, enabled by the 'nexus of forces' (cloud, mobile, social and information).

In the near term, growth will be hampered by sluggish macro indicators, as well as by slowing sales cycles of multimillion-dollar end-to-end BI deals. Compared with 2011 growth of 16 per cent, 2013 and the coming years are expected to be slower, with growth in the high single digits.

"Although this is a mature market and has been a top CIO priority for years, there is still a lot of unmet demand. Every company has numerous subject areas - such as human resources, marketing, social and so on - that have yet to even start with BI and analytics," said Kurt Schlegel, research vice president at Gartner.