Oracle, SAP set to decline

[admin]

Cross post from the Oracle forum.

[admin]

SAP holds 24% market share in Business Intelligence: Gartner
15 Jun 2009

From Inside SAP by: Nathan Dukes

SAP maintained a strong hold on the worldwide business intelligence market in 2008, according to a report released by I.T. research firm Gartner last week.

The report indicates total growth in the business intelligence industry reached 22% in 2008, with revenue totaling US$8.8 billion worldwide.

SAP held the largest stake, with 24% market share in 2008, followed by SAS Institute and Oracle, who both hold 14.6% of the global market.

Dan Sommer, a senior research analyst at Gartner, said growth was geared towards the top end of the market.

“Most, but not all, of the mid-tier independent BI [Business Intelligence] vendors targeting businesses struggled more, which indicates that there is bifurcation in buying to either more stack-centric behaviour, or smaller tactical departmental projects,” Mr Sommer said.

In 2008, 75% of the market was held by the six leading companies – SAP, SAS Institute, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and MicroStrategy.

The four largest vendors only made up one-fifth of the market in 2007. Those four companies held two-thirds in 2008.

In February, Gartner analysts said the business intelligence industry would be more resilient to a recession compared with other software areas, but Mr. Sommer doesn’t expect to see 2008 growth levels again in 2009.

“In tough times, the first step is to increase transparency which helps identify cost-centres, and then to more tightly align strategy with execution,” Mr Sommer said.
“This is why demand for BI, analytics and performance management is relatively strong even in a bearish economy.”

Earlier this year Gartner predicted the Australian market for BI Software would reach A$174.8 million in 2009, up 16.8 percent from A$149.6 million in 2008.

For the fourth year in a row, business intelligence applications have been ranked the top technology priority in the 2009 Gartner Executive Programs survey of more than 1,500 CIOs around the world.