Trends of development of the world market of BI

Main trends of 2013

Development of data warehouses

In 2013 finally it became clear that the organizations face a large number of different data which it is not possible to organize storage by the uniform principle almost. Storages like Teradata or Hadoop are necessary for Big Data. To standard tranzaktsionalny data Oracle or SQL Server suffices. So the choice of suitable data warehouses for each company becomes task number one today.

Unstructured data

In 2008-2009 Hadoop was the scientific project. To 2010-2011 there were first pilot commercial projects in this area. And in 2012 we saw a significant amount of implementations of Hadoop so in 2013 unstructured data and their processing finally become an analytics mainstream. And processing of such data even more often takes place in real time.

Self-service of the analyst

The idea of Self-service BI consists that any business user can analyze data necessary for it for adoption of routine solutions. However, it also means that such user has an opportunity to be based on the correct data, and these data are available to him, and the format of their use is rather simple for everyone. Besides, the user should have a solution allowing to create analytical requests to the specified data array. When all these conditions are complied, the companies receive in fact the working tool of the analysis and decision making. According to Forrester, up to 80% of analytical requests it has to be processed using such solutions of independent analytics.

Work with new data types

Growth of attention of specialists and business to unstructured data became one of consequences of development of Hadoop and adjacent technologies. The given e-mail messages, visual data, user feedback and so forth, for example, concern like those. All these categories of data existed for years, but nobody paid attention to them, being engaged mainly in analytics of the structured information. In 2011 and 2012 there was a set of tools for work with unstructured data so the analysis of such information will become one of the main priorities in 2013.

Growth of the Cloud BI market

In the market there is a set of cloud BI solutions, but so far most of them remain niche and are not capable to replace with itself the main analytical application used by the company. Nevertheless, this segment of the market continues to grow quickly, and the cloud BI systems will be used by the increasing number of the enterprises, becoming the same normal tool as other means of joint work.

Development of visual analytics

The visual analytics not news on world roar of BI, but for long years it was a component of difficult productive analytical platforms, but not the tool of the mass analysis. Gradually both vendors, and users were realized that data visualization can help any to represent and understand data in the best way. So now visual tools are available to mass users, and not just a narrow circle of business managers and experts.

Predicative analysis

The predictive analytics and the predicative analysis also lose a raid of exotic and are even more often used by business for the solution of routine tasks. Such tools allow the companies to assess better a situation in the market and to create strategy and tactics of promotion on it. Gradually solutions of predictive analytics will be received the increasing penetration.

Universal use of mobile BI

The Segment of mobile analytics endures rapid development, such solutions in 2013 will become a mainstream in the field of the business analysis. Already today the considerable number of ordinary employees, whether it be insurance agents or sales area managers use tablets for quick access to data in the direct work. Interaction of users with mobile data more and more is drawn towards analytics and becomes more and more interactive.

Joint work with data

Joint work with data it even not future, but already this business analysts. In 2013 instruments of joint work with information will become a part of bigger number of BI projects. Business is interested in involving as the bigger number of specialists within the organization in work with information and the solution of pressing problems is possible.

Development of analytical tools

In general in 2013 hard work of vendors and other market participants over development of analytical tools as available and simple solutions for mass users, and difficult platforms for processing of Big and difficult unstructured Data, the set of scientific projects in the field will be implemented will be continued. It is possible to tell surely that from the technology point of view the world market of BI will reach blossoming of the opportunities.

Main trends of 2012

Big Data (big data)

See Also: Big Data

See Also: Big Data world market

Big Data are called one of 10 key technology trends according to Gartner for 2012. Influence of such phenomenon as "Big Data" on business and information management is incredibly broad, experts of Gartner believe. The enterprises are forced to make efforts for change of the IT infrastructure it could cope with processing of data bulks effectively. 25 years ago the ideal corporate data warehouse represented the centralized repository, but time for change of this approach came now. The new type of corporate storages Gartner describes as "the logical data warehouse" where practicians and approaches considerably differ from traditional, and the architecture and services of storage are hybrid.

Calculations in RAM (in-memory)

See Also: In-Memory Computing

In-memory of calculation is one more technology from TOP-10 technology trends of Gartner for 2012. Emergence of in-memory technologies became the reply of vendors on growth of the amounts of data processed by BI platforms and other corporate applications. At the moment in-memory of technology provided most mega-vendors (SAP, Oracle) and others so in the future these solutions will have a considerable impact on performance of the analytical systems and a possibility of their application.

The increasing relevance of data discovery

See Also: Data discovery

Data discovery is considered Gartner as alternative approach to creation of analytical solutions in comparison with the traditional industrial systems of the business analysis. Data discovery solutions are proposed to users the interactive graphical user interface which is based on architecture of in-memory that corresponds to a business request for the simple and fast BI systems in work. Broad market penetration of this sort of solutions was for the first time called by analysts a trend in 2010, and since then it did not lose the relevance.

Mobile technologies

Rapid growth of the market of smartphones and mobile computers (tablets) had the most serious impact on the world market of BI platforms. According to forecasts of Gartner, in 2013 to 33% of functions of BI systems will "be already "consumed" using portable devices. For this reason in 2012 Gartner included mobile opportunities as new, 14th functional unit in the description of the obligatory BI tools of platforms.

The researches Gartner show that at the moment already 20% of users use mobile opportunities of BI. Another 33% are going to involve them in 2012. Thus, by the end of the year more than a half of the organizations will locate any mobile analytical tools. At the same time in the market there is the increasing number of mobile BI solutions, the majority of which are expansions of traditional industrial platforms, but is among them as well independent.

Free report: 2012 Strategies: Putting the Intelligence in Mobile BI to Work (English)

Failure from difficult solutions

See Also: [[Self-Service BI]

The BI environment is often characterized as difficult for development, implementation and use. The complexity is one of the main reasons why the systems of the business analysis still are not used by a large number of firms. In the field of data discovery the set of innovations is concentrated exactly around that, to how simply normal users to interact with data. But still exist enough areas, such, for example, as predicative modeling which need significant simplification. Gartner notes that this trend has only an effect, but it will surely prove out in the years ahead. Also growing adaptation of cloud services will affect this process. In 2011 30% of users noted that they use or to be going to use "analytics in a cloud", but their quantity slowly grows.

Analysts of IDC point that vendors should work over simplicity not only in respect of architecture and a usability of systems, but also processes of purchase, deployment and use of BI platforms. So, reduction of time of deployment of software and introduction of a possibility of acquisition of software with "a smaller step" can become the reply of vendors to calls of the market.

Flexible BI systems

Implementation of BI became really "hot" subject for many companies in recent years. So, according to the report of Forrester Research for 2011 (Trends 2011 And Beyond: Business Intelligence), more than 49% of the companies which participated in poll designated the plans to begin use or to expand the available functionality of BI systems in the next 24 months.

At the same time, expenses on BI automatically do not mean achievement of success, analysts note. So, the maturity of the BI systems of the enterprises still does not exceed the average level: this indicator was 2.75 points from 5 possible that is only 6% more, than in 2009.

According to Forrester, this phenomenon has an explanation, to be exact even three reasons. First, implementation of BI requires use of the best practices, with emphasis on the bottlenecks which are already revealed during projects that not always manages to be implemented. Secondly, many BI technologies and processes do not walk in step with realities of modern business any more, their relevance remained at the level of the 1990th. And, in the third, the centralized approach to implementation of BI did not lead to anything good: it did not provide transparency of processes, on the contrary, led to duplication of processes and data, and process of formation of analytics became "bureaucratic". The last feature was noticed also by the companies so the number of persons interested to consolidate the BI environments was reduced from 40% in 2009 to 38% in 2010, according to Forrester. The flexibility should become the main BI property of systems in the future, analysts of Forrester Research believe.

Variety of products

Expansion of BI platforms led to the fact that categories of users of the analytical systems significantly were differentiated and extended: today the systems of the business analysis are used by both non-management employees, and analysts, top managers, partners, regulators and IT specialists. It has a direct impact on variety of BI products and also on their key functionality. Not surprisingly, note in Gartner that in relation to the analytical systems the interests of these various user groups often do not match.

The user conflict in 2011 remained invariable: business users would like to have simple in use, flexible analytical products to concentrate all power of analytical opportunities in the hands. At the same time IT specialists aimed at creation of BI of an environment, standardized and simple in terms of support, with predictable submission and quality of data. This trend was confirmed during the annual research Gartner Magic Quadrant 2012 during which 52% of business users called usability criterion No. 1 when choosing a BI system whereas IT specialists delivered "functionality" on the first place, and only on the second and third – simplicity for end users and ability to integrate data and access to them.

Focus on support of solutions

The BI level of the platform throughout long time was defined by "how" it works. Doing so intensive focus on mechanics BI, many organizations lost sight of the most important for what all this was started – acceptance of the right decisions. "Solutions is blood from flesh of any organization. Therefore decision making is fundamental action on the way to success for each company whether it is commercial, non-commercial or governmental that does need of decision making by driver No. 1 for investments into analytics and BI. At the same time daily and despite big investments in the BI organization make thousands of decisions which have almost zero effect", said in the report of Gartner.

At the same time the majority of BI platforms "are ground" under performance measurement, but not decision support. However today more and more companies aim to make analytics a component of this process, and further this trend will accrue.

Avalanche growth of new content types

According to data of Gartner Magic Quadrant for 2012, three key scopes of BI platforms which noted more than a half of respondents are areas of finance, sales and operations analysis. Use analytical solutions in the field of marketing, supply chain management and customer service is also widespread. However there is a set of other scopes of BI which are characterized in a research as "interesting": it is risk management, social media, quality management and industry initiatives (it is relevant first of all for health care and retail).

Gartner notes that even more often BI systems are applied in new "foreshortenings" and data domains, and users expect from vendors of support of these, new scopes. As a result, it creates new requirements to opportunities of platforms. To it requirements belong:

• Data access in real time. Delivery of data in real time becomes an important part of information infrastructure in process of growth of use of analytics. Need of storage and transformation of such data by means of specialized storages becomes less critical as now they can be "connected" directly to operational applications, and those, in turn, can analyze data that is called "on the fly".

• Hybrid content. Growth of analytics in relation to social media increases the need for access to volume, semi-structured data, mostly text, and the subsequent their analysis. Bid data it not only the fact that usually associate with Hadoop/NoSQL, but also also sources big the number of separate information which just should learn to be understood.

• Analytical applications. Analytical applications will be a part of an IT landscape in the next decades. However in Gartner note the growing interest of business in purchase of BI-applications on a standard analytical basis in addition to applications of specialized vendors.

• "Intellectual geography". When it is necessary to learn, where exactly it is better to build the new outlet, or to estimate audience using specific geografo-demographic parameters (such, for example, as the mail code), it is usually necessary to combine a set of data on the market from external providers and to involve predicative analytical models to find "the" buyers. Such functions become more and more relevant as they not just plot result, and in fact give complete idea of clients.

Mismatch of BI of strategy of business

By 2014, according to Gartner, less than 30% of BI initiatives will really correspond to the main drivers of business in spite of the fact that the relevance and will become the main call for BI systems. As analysts explain, the problem of application of BI just and consists in correlating with corporate strategy. However often at the enterprises the analytical systems keep in focus of attention only metrics interesting to users, but do not provide operational or strategic control which is necessary for increase in business performance.

Change of organizational approach

Besides, analysts of Gartner consider that by 2013 BI projects will be based on organizational model in which the balance between centralization and decentralization of delivery of analytics to users will be found.

In general, according to experts of Gartner, in process of a konsumerization of BI (for example, distribution of mobile analytics), growth of volumes and data availability and also accelerations of all processes of business, providing the necessary analytical data to the necessary people and in due time can become very difficult task.

All problems in the market of BI in 2012 and further, consider analysts, will lie outside the technical plane. Therefore IT services need to concentrate not only on formal aspects of business data analysis, but also on completion of shortage of analytical skills. Within the BI projects it is recommended to them to use approach "a thought y globally – act locally", i.e., on the one hand, flexibly to avoid bottlenecks of projects, but at the same time to create rather consecutive standards in scales of all enterprise.

Analytics of new generation

According to Gartner "analytics of new generation" (next generation analytics) enters in TOP-10 technology trends for 2012. Gartner also designates this concept by the term "advanced analytics" (advanced analytics). Solutions of this type are characterized by three features: they are intellectual, collaborative and comprehensive. Gives the systems of joint decision making as an example of similar solutions of Gartner (Collaborative Decision Making, CDM). The CDM platforms integrate functionality of BI and social networks and also other technologies to supply users with data for effective decision making.

Cloud solutions

See Also: Cloud/SaaS BI 

Adaptation of the SaaS model in relation to BI which is now at rather low level. According to forecasts of IDC, growth of the SaaS segment of BI on rates three times will exceed growth rate of this market in general so by 2013 it will make 22.4% a year. However, still significantly smaller market share in comparison with traditional applications will fall to the share of SaaS of BI. Meanwhile Gartner predicts that in a year, by 2013, only 3% of revenue of BI vendors will fall on the cloud systems even in spite of the fact that the corresponding functionality is presented by one and all producers of the systems of business data analysis. Nevertheless, the market of BI will not remain beyond the scope of the cloud industry.

Open Source BI

See Also: Open Source BI

Adaptation of Open Source BI - platforms will go more active rates, than their commercial analogs. Though the functionality of BI platforms with the open code not quite reached those which offer vendors, and they are not considered as an industry standard yet, this segment grows enough in high gear. Meanwhile, vendors of commercial BI solutions often use functionality of Open Source BI in the solutions. Meanwhile, system integrators also began to build consulting practice around BI with the open code (mainly reports and panels) as a part of the contract solutions.

Free reports

Trends 2011 and Beyond: Business Intelligence

See Also

Business Intelligence, BI (world market)

Business Intelligence (Russian market)

CPM (world market)

Big Data world market

Self-Service BI

Data visualization

Predicative analytics (predictive, forecast, predictive) Predictive analytics

Cloud/SaaS BI

Open Source BI

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