The IDC Competitive Analysis Report lists SAP BusinessObjects as the clear leader of the business intelligence tools market

By Antone Gonsalves
June 19, 2009

SAP BusinessObjects, which led the business intelligence tools market in 2008, is on the forefront of "redefining the functionality of a BI solution," market researcher IDC said in its latest BI vendor evaluation.

The IDC Competitive Analysis Report by analysts Dan Vesset and Brian McDonough also offered the research firm's outlook for the BI market. Among its predictions is the standardization and eventual commoditization of core reporting, dashboard and OLAP functionality.

Among the vendors with more than $10 million in worldwide BI tools revenue, SAP BusinessObjects was number one with a 20.4% share. The remaining top 10 vendors in terms of revenue were SAS, with an 11.3% share; IBM, 10.3%; Oracle, 9%; Microsoft, 8.3%; Microstrategy, 3.6%; SPSS, 3%; Information Builders, 2.3%; Actuate, 1.4%; and QlikTech, 1.3%.

Overall, the BI tools market grew 10.6% to $7.8 billion globally in license and maintenance revenue, IDC said. While the top 10 vendors accounted for 71% of the market in 2008, a multitude of specialty vendors made up 30% of the market.

First was SAP BusinessObjects. Last year marked the first year IDC took into account SAP's BI revenue from its acquisition of BusinessObjects. All the combined revenue was from one segment of the BI market, query, reporting and analysis; and reflected SAP's success in selling BI tools to its business applications customers.

"Although SAP's rationalization of acquired BI tools has not been completed, the company is well positioned to fulfill the future needs of BI technology purchasers," IDC said. "SAP is also on the forefront of redefining the functionality of a BI solution by integrating traditional QRA tools with those for content access and analysis, collaboration, and event monitoring."

IDC sees the BI market as having two product segments, QRA tools and advanced analytics. What's missing from SAP's BI portfolio is a product in the latter segment. SAP has partnered for this functionality with SPSS. "It will remain to be seen if a partnership strategy is enough to address the needs of its customers for more advanced analytics," IDC said.

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