Indian BI technology market to grow by 16% in 2011: Gartner

International IT research and advisory company Gartner, Inc. has forecast the Indian business intelligence (BI) technology market to generate revenues of $65.4 million in 2011, up 15.7% over 2010. The global BI technology market turnover is projected to grow by 9.7% to reach $10.8 billion in 2011.

These are the findings from Gartner’s latest annual global CIO survey. In terms of market trends, BI technology was ranked fifth in the top 10 list of technology priorities for 2011.

Gartner believes that the BI technology market will remain one of the fastest growing software segments despite poor economic growth in most geographies. Organizations see BI technology as promoting agility and efficiency, and are discovering new ways of using BI technology in their business activities.

Traditionally in India, decision making tended to be based on managers’ past experience and business instincts. BI technology can help organizations make more fact-based decisions, promoting sales growth and rapid innovation with shorter product and service life cycles, and by pinpointing value generators more efficiently.

Gartner has identified three major drivers for the increased demand in BI technology:

1. Rise of mobile technologies

With mobile computing becoming a common trend, there is a demand for a new breed of BI technologies that can be accessed using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The trend to mobile computing has opened up a new niche in the BI technology market.

2. New performance demands

New data paradigms such as Big Data require faster, more intensive data processing tools and techniques. The BI technology market is seeing a demand for BI tools that can process large, volatile pools of data from diverse sources. BI technology vendors are cashing in on the new trend with BI tools that can handle these increased performance demands.

3. Decision making

BI technology has traditional been only an information delivery system. The emergence of new BI tools has allowed BI technology to contribute to decision making and planning. This trend is set to grow further in 2011 and contribute to the growth in BI technology revenues forecast for 2011.