Business Intelligence Trends for 2009

By Mark Brousseau

Even in a weak economy, demand continues for enterprise business intelligence, Vickie Farrell (vickie.farrell@hp.com), manager, Neoview market strategy & development, software division, at HP said today during a presentation at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009 in Washington, D.C.

“IT spending has dropped precipitously in this economy,” Farrell noted. “But studies show business intelligence should grow by 7 percent this year, off from 8.6 percent growth in 2008. Business intelligence remains strong.”

Farrell thinks businesses will be well served by their business intelligence investments. “Businesses that maintain and build analytic capability will survive and thrive when the economy improves,” she said.

Farrell made her comments during an afternoon presentation in the HP Solutions Theater on the emerging macro and business intelligence trends for 2009. Among the trends she presented:

… The consumerization of IT. IT technology innovation is shifting from the enterprise and the military to consumer technology, spawning a new wave of IT adoption, Farrell said. The impact on business intelligence is increased visualization, greater collaboration, and new sources of data. Farrell believes that social networking will increasingly dictate information delivery and use.

… Business intelligence is increasing in importance. Farrell cited a Computerworld survey finding that 42 percent of respondents expected overall expenditures for business intelligence tools and solutions to increase from 2008 to 2009. And the economic crisis may actually drive some of this growth as more organizations realize that analyzing data can help them better deal with new government regulations, understand and manage their business, decrease their risks, and enhance their ability to compete.

… Business intelligence buyers are much more scrutinizing. Farrell said organizations are dealing with stricter requirements for clearly-defined business objectives and quantified value. Farrell also is seeing requirements for shorter payback periods and self-funding business intelligence initiatives.

… The market is demanding lower business intelligence complexity.

… Analytics are moving to the front office. Advanced analytics are top initiatives at many companies, Farrell said, noting that organizations with a culture and infrastructure for analytics and fact-based decision-making are better poised to compete and grow.

… Data integration is gaining momentum. Surveys show this to be a top business intelligence project challenge and key IT initiative, Farrell said. “As enterprises recognize data as a corporate asset, data management becomes a strategy corporate capability,” she explained.

… Structured and unstructured data are converging. “Integration of unstructured data increases the accuracy of business intelligence analysis,” Farrell said, noting that recent technology advances enable text mining and queries.

What do you think? Post your comments below.