Increased BI take-up forecast in tough business environment

Peter Dinham
Sunday, 31 May 2009 17:33

IT Industry - Market

“The recent turbulent times and uncertainties have intensified the need for timely, accurate and relevant information to make sound business decisions.”

According to Tan, following the economic crisis, many decision makers and information workers felt the pain of insufficient, inaccurate or contradictory information as they tried hard to grow their business, and she says IDC expects this need to fuel interest in BI solutions and “pave the way for future BI growth once business sentiments improve."

"Preliminary analysis of the recent IDC-sponsored end-user research conducted in March-April 2009 also shows encouraging signs. Despite tough times, a significant percentage of organisations surveyed are already planning to equip users, such as managers and customer-facing employees, with timely information over the next 18 months by having BI more pervasively available in their organisation."

Overall, says Tan, the short-term outlook of BI solutions has slowed-down for all countries due to the economic uncertainties.

In addition, according to Tan the five-year CAGRs for a number of APEJ countries have been unfavourably impacted by weaker currencies in 2008, particularly for Australia, Korea, and New Zealand.
 
“Nonetheless, countries such as the PRC, India, and Thailand are expected to remain as the BI growth generators due to regulatory/compliance related issues, increasing maturity in application deployments and heightened competitive pressures.”

Tan says that, in most APEJ countries, increased competitiveness, coupled with highly cost-conscious businesses, have raised interest in BI and other business analytics solutions that can "help address customer retention and customer wallet expansion goals."