| At a time of a slow economy, when IT budgets are | | | | include Infor Global Solutions and IFS. |
| being slimmed and trimmed, Business Intelligence (BI) | | | | Another trend worth noticing is that the the user |
| remains a top priority with CIOs and IT management. | | | | experience is getting similar among the leaders. |
| Most organizations are already working with BI in | | | | However, there is no doubt there are great |
| some manner, but most have a vast number of tools | | | | differences behind the curtains, in terms of the |
| and vendors spread around the various departments | | | | different data warehouse solutions that usually is |
| of the organization and are in dire need of product | | | | necessary to stitch the BI solution together. In that |
| consolidation. The demand from small and | | | | mashup segment, Teradata is one of the leaders in |
| medium-sized companies is also increasing, as well as | | | | the Gartner magic quadrant on a global scale, but IBM |
| supply of premium packaged solutions for this SME | | | | Cognos, SAP, Oracle and Microsoft are advancing |
| (small and medium enterprise) space. | | | | their positions as a clear result of their respective |
| With the advent of online banking and mobile devices, It | | | | acquisitions in 2007. |
| is now becoming commonplace for companies to | | | | Another strong trend is availability of appliance |
| invest in IT solutions as an online rented service, or | | | | solutions, where hardware and data warehouse is |
| SaaS (Software as a Service). This type of 'cloud | | | | packaged together in order to optimize performance |
| computing' offering, while accounting for a smaller | | | | and simplify configuration and maintenance. In this |
| marginal piece of the overall pie, will increase in double | | | | segment Netezza holds a strong position, challenged |
| digits as a result of the the mindset of some | | | | by Microsoft's acquisition of Datallegro. Oracle, who |
| companies to reduce some internal IT infrastructure. | | | | recently announced their data warehouse solution |
| Some ERP/CRM vendors are offering built-in BI tools, | | | | bundled with HP hardware, and IBMs bundling of their |
| embedded in the applications themselves. While some | | | | DB2 and Infosphere technologies. |
| ERP vendors (qad, IBS) have relied on solutions like | | | | Gartner predicts that sales of BI platforms will grow an |
| IBM Cognos to provide 'best of breed BI,' vendors like | | | | approximated 8% until 2012. According to Dan |
| Netsuite (ERP) and (CRM) has impressive organic | | | | Sommer, Gartner analyst, BI is a very prioritized |
| embedded BI tools, including dashboards and key | | | | agenda item among top level CIOs. However, the main |
| performance indicators (KPIs). | | | | difference from previous years is that large strategic |
| In the global market, there has been a flurry of vendor | | | | projects are delayed in favor of the small and short |
| consolidations about two years ago, where the | | | | term projects. Therefore the BI market will grow |
| dominators are Oracle, who took over Hyperion in | | | | impressively, but instead of the strategic company- |
| February of 2007; SAP, who swallowed Business | | | | wide integration of BI, you may see some simple |
| Objects in October 2007;and IBM, who acquired | | | | request for more matrix reporting and dashboard |
| Cognos in late November 2007. These companies, in | | | | representation of key divisional data. |
| addition to Microsoft, together account for more than | | | | BI is a strategic application area, starting to explode in |
| two thirds of the total market for BI. Other contendors | | | | everyday acceptance. |