|
Jobs
Athena IT Solutions is interviewing candidates
for the following local (New England) positions.
Forward to anyone you know who might be qualified.
- Crystal
Reports developers
- DW/BI architects
- ETL
developers
See
our job descriptions for details.
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 IDC’s 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,
IDC’s Business Analytics research director
and the report’s 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 can’t 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 BI’s business
breadth and depth. In addition, these tools have
become cost- and resource-effective to start penetrating
the SMB (small-to-medium) marketplace.
“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’s 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.
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 company’s 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
Microsoft’s 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 “Microsoft’s 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.
But
remember, it’s
all about the data!
Summer
Training Schedule
What
better way to finish off a day of data warehouse
or business
intelligence training than going to a Red
Sox game at Fenway Park?
If
you're in the Boston area or want to make the
trip, see our training schedule below. Don't want
to travel? (Or just don't like the Sox?) All
these courses and more are offered at your site,
and we'll even customize them for you.
These
courses are offered at the classrooms
of our partner DataSense Solutions.
|
Public Business Intelligence and Data
Warehousing Training Schedule |
|
|
I
hope you have enjoyed this issue and will let
me know what you think.
And if you have suggestions for future topics
for this newsletter or the Data
Doghouse blog, don't hesitate to share them.
Rick
Sherman, Athena IT Solutions
|
