Despite major consolidation among business intelligence (BI) vendors in 2007 and growing fears of an upcoming economic slowdown, BI platforms are expected to continue to grow at a strong rate, according to Gartner.

The worldwide market for BI platforms is forecast to reach $US5.8 billon in 2008, an 11.2 per cent increase from 2007. Worldwide BI platform revenue is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.1 per cent through 2012, to reach $7.7 billion in 2012.

Gartner analysts expect BI platform revenue to be less affected by an economic downturn than some other technologies because of the high priority BI platforms hold with CIOs. BI was the No 1 technology priority in 2008 in a worldwide survey of 1500 CIOs by Gartner Executive Programs.

"The fact that BI has held the top spot with CIOs in this survey for three years running makes us believe that BI will be more resilient against the effects of a possible downturn in IT spending than some other technologies," said Dan Sommer, senior research analyst for Gartner. "Furthermore, the survey indicates that CIOs are looking to increase their budgets for BI by about 11 per cent this year."

"Despite BI being a top priority for 2009 and beyond, we expect a downward-sloping growth projection because of product and vendor consolidation, which will be offset somewhat by larger sales forces behind some of the products," Mr. Sommer said. "Commoditisation of BI across the board, but in particular for query, online analytical processing, and reporting, will drive price points down. This will be partially offset by newer, innovative BI capabilities, as well as the general proliferation of BI, allowing it to reach more users within organisations."

Given the recent weakness of the US economy, the technology market in North America is expected to see low growth for the first half of 2008.

Len Rust is publisher of The Rust Report