BI market to reach £1.7bn by 2009

Gartner says rising quantities of data fueling demand

The business intelligence (BI) software market will grow to $3bn (£1.7bn) by 2009, according to analyst firm Gartner.

Demand for the technology is being pushed higher by the rapidly growing amounts of data generated from customer and enterprise resource systems, Gartner analyst Colleen Graham says.

'By investing in BI, companies can further leverage their enterprise application investments and turn the torrent of data into meaningful insight to better measure performance,' she said.

But Gartner also warns that perceived high costs of ownership, limited BI skills among employees and a lack of understanding of its value, could all limit growth.

There are no quick fixes for companies looking to take on BI, analyst Frank Buytendijk says.

'Choices need to be made on the road to making BI effective in any organisation. These decisions must be considered in the wider context of the business,' he said.

'The key decision is to move beyond a BI vision that focuses almost exclusively on information dissemination and start integrating BI into an organisation’s strategic planning activities.'