According to Dan Vesset, program vice president for IDC's Business Analytics Solutions, the business analytics software market "has crossed the chasm into the mainstream mass market."

In 2011, Vesset explains, the business analytics market extended its post-2009 recovery with another stellar performance by growing worldwide revenues 14.1% year over year.

International Data Corporation forecasts, in fact, that it will continue to grow at a 9.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2016 to reach $50.7 billion.

Helping to drive this growth is media and conference attention focused on Big Data, putting broader business analytics on the agenda of more senior executives. Additionally, new business analytics software options based on non-relational data management technology are forcing all vendors to accelerate R&D efforts and acquisitions focused on new tools and applications and the integration of new and existing technologies.


The much-visited Big Data Pavilion at 10th Cloud Expo | Cloud Expo New York

"The demand for business analytics solutions is exposing the previously minor issue of the shortage of highly skilled IT and analytics staff," Vesset continued.

Of the three primary segments of the worldwide business analytics software market, the data warehousing platform software segment grew the fastest in 2011 at 15.2% year over year, followed by the analytic applications segment, which grew at 13.3%, and the BI and analytic tools segment, which grew at 13.2%.

Additional key findings from IDC's research include:

• As more organizations with less business analytics experience are becoming interested in this technology, vendors and users will have to devote more resources to business analytics services.
• A growing emphasis on industry and business process–specific analytic applications is going to take hold over the forecast period. This will be a long-term trend that is likely going to accelerate M&A activity in the business analytics market. Recent acquisitions by large business analytics vendors will require these vendors to execute go-to-market strategies that depend on ever finer segmentation of target audiences by industry, region, and organization size.
The growth in appliances, SaaS, and outsourcing deals for business analytics technology will likely mean that end users will pay increasingly less attention to specific technology components, instead focusing on the business value arguments and overall functionality. System performance, availability, security, and manageability will all matter greatly, but how they are achieved will be less of a point for differentiation amongst vendors.

The study, Worldwide Business Analytics Software 2012–2016 Forecast and 2011 Vendor Shares (IDC #235494) examines the business analytics software market for the period from 2007 to 2016, with vendor revenue trends and market growth forecasts. Worldwide market sizing is provided for 2011, with trends from 2007. A five-year growth forecast for this market is shown for 2012–2016. Revenue and market share of the leading vendors are provided for 2011, with trends from 2009. This study also provides a competitive market map and related profiles of leading business analytics software vendors.

IDC also offers a Worldwide Semiannual Business Analytics Software Tracker which monitors vendors' business performance by including an understanding of which vendors are gaining or losing share across mature and emerging countries, which has become business critical for business analytics software vendors, supply chain partners, vendors looking to acquire business analytics companies, and the investment community. This IDC Tracker covers 53 countries and rest of regions and provides semiannual updates to vendor shares and forecasts across the business analytics software market and its twelve sub-segments. Measurement for this tracker is in total software revenue, which includes license plus maintenance plus SaaS and other subscription revenue.