Confusion on emerging technologies and tough macro-conditions led to a muted growth in business intelligence, corporate performance management and analytics applications software revenues globally, which rose by just 6.8 per cent to $13.1 billion in 2012, Gartner said today.

Global business intelligence (BI), corporate performance management (CPM) and analytics applications/performance management software revenue totalled $12.3 billion in 2011, the global research agency added.

Tough macro-conditions and confusion related to emerging technology terms led to more muted market growth than in previous years, Gartner said.

“After a few historic banner years of spend in the BI software market, which culminated in more than 17 per cent growth in 2011, growth was more subdued in 2012, at seven per cent,” Gartner Principal Research Analyst Dan Sommer said.

While this seems like a dramatic drop, it was in line with Gartner’s forecasts published during 2012, he added.

The firm identified 5 key market dynamics that affected BI software spend and growth in 2012.

First two — challenging macro-economics and term confusion around analytics, big data and BI — had a negative impact on market growth, while the third, BI spending moving outside of IT, had a neutral effect, it said.

However, the fourth and fifth dynamics — data discovery becoming a mainstream architecture and software as a service (SaaS), while still emerging, being the preferred option for granular analytics — were drivers of market growth, it added.

“The business intelligence space managed to grow by a reasonable seven percent in 2012, despite difficult macro—conditions, being on the tail end of a spending cycle, and confusion related to emerging technology terms causing a hold on purse strings,” Sommer said.

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