Is the BI Software Market Maturing?

IDC just published its latest report Worldwide Business Intelligence Tools 2005 Vendor Shares on the
state of the business intelligence industry . According to IDCs research, worldwide software revenue
grew 11.5% in 2005 to $5.7 billion.
IDC expects the market to maintain this level of growth for the foreseeable
future," said Dan Vesset, IDCs Business Analytics research director and the
reports author. "Although there are signs of a shift in the competitive landscape,
BI tools remain an attractive market for software vendors and one of the top
investment priorities for end-user organizations."
The two subjects of interests are the growing business demand for business intelligence and the
competitive marketplace for software vendors.
The report states that business intelligence is something without which organizations cant succeed.
However...(it) still has a long way to go in reaching all the necessary people and processes in
companies, government agencies, hospitals, and universities.
Therein lies the exciting promise of BI that is building upon its own successes. BI has enabled great
business value at many companies, but its impact is really just beginning to be felt. Up until now
business implementations have targeted analysts, managers and power users within enterprises, but
broader adoption is starting to take hold in the remaining 80% of enterprises employees.
Compliance, competitive pressures and intercompany connectivity between customers, suppliers and
partners are all business drivers for wider BI adoption. In the short term, performance measurement
and operational BI projects are expanding BIs business breadth and depth. In addition, these tools
have become cost- and resource-effective to start penetrating the SMB (small-to-medium)
marketplace.
The reports message on the software vendor landscape is
that the market is maturing and consolidating (just ask
Larry Ellison). It states that the top 10 software vendors
control approximately 62% of the market. Although that
may sound high, it appears to me that it does not approach
other mature industries where the top few companies
control 90% of market. In fact, it surprises people that so
many companies are still selling business intelligence
software today despite the fact that it is such a mature
industry. Many of these smaller software vendors are relatively unknown despite the fact that they
have quality products that offer tremendous benefits to their customers,. Smaller software firms are
the source of many innovations in the BI market, and are also where some of the best software talent
can be found.
But speaking of the 800-pound gorillas, the top five business intelligence software vendors, according
to IDC, are:
1. Business Objects (13.9% market share)
2. SAS Institute (10.2%)
3. Cognos (9.9%)
4. Microsoft (6.2%)
5. Hyperion Solutions (5.0%)
Consolidation has already occurred from top to bottom of this industry, but more is likely.
Has business intelligence
reached the tipping point where
it will finally become pervasive
for enterprises both internally
and externally with their
customers, suppliers and
partners?
The report refers to the battle between standalone BI (BI pure play vendors) and database-embedded
BI from Microsoft, Oracle (#6, 4/3% market share) and IBM (#11, 2.4%). IDC states that the
database companies have expanded their BI offerings and are growing at almost double the rate of BI
pure-plays.
I think this trend is happening because the database vendors are expanding the BI functionality they
offer, BI is a natural extension of their database (and data warehousing) functionality, and the
offerings are a cost- and resource-effective solution. Remember pure-play BI vendors starting pushing
aggressively BI consolidation a few years ago, now database vendors are extending the sales pitch to
suggest the advantages if that consolidation originates from a companys database vendor.
An interesting observation is that the number one BI tool in the marketplace, Microsoft Excel, is NOT
counted as a BI tool, thus understating Microsofts impact on the marketplace. My take? Microsoft is a
force to be watched because of:
Microsoft SQL Server 2005, including Analysis and Reporting Services
The acquisition of ProClarity, which will grow its enterprise applications business and
expanding the role of Excel as a BI interface,
The report states Microsofts impact on the BI tools market cannot be overemphasized.it will
reshape the BI tools market over the next 15 years.
The business intelligence market is certainly healthy and growing. Has business intelligence reached
the tipping point where it will finally become pervasive for enterprises both internally and externally
with their customers, suppliers and partners? Will it become pervasive in enterprises of all sizes and
not just the Fortune 500? It is an exciting time to be a business intelligence practitioner.