The business analytics market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% over the 2009-2014 period with even greater growth expected over the next ten years, according to report by International Data Corporation (IDC).
IDC said that its research showed that end users are hearing more about the benefits of business analytics from widely publicised cases about large retailers, social networking sites, search engines, intelligence agencies, and other organisations that generate and analyse vast amounts of data.
IDC Business Analytics Solutions research program vice president Dan Vesset said that after three decades of existence, the business analytics market was finally reaching the mainstream market and gaining status as a formal management discipline.
"As the benefits of business analytics become better known, especially among executives, the demand for a wider range of solutions and services will create new opportunities and drive the market to new heights," Vesset said.
IDC believes that both vendors and end users should shift away from the discussion of data (or content) and toward discussions about decision making, as business analytics becomes better understood.
Understanding decision processes will, however, enable a closer collaborative relationship between IT and business and enable the development of more flexible systems that take into account ways in which end users make decisions, IDC said.
