According to technology research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc. the market for Business Intelligence (BI) platform software in Australia is forecast to reach a$174.8 million (US$152 million) in 2009, up 16.8 percent from A$149.6 million (US$130.1 million) in 2008.

Speaking ahead of the Gartner Business Intelligence and Information Management Summit in Sydney next week, Gartner analysts said BI platform purchases should be more resilient to a recession compared with some other software areas, but a tougher economic environment, together with stronger pricing pressures, would still hamper growth during the next five years.

Additionally, many organisations are still trying to get value from their BI investments, according to Gartner. Further investments by these organisations will be constrained until they determine how to get value from the investments they have already made.

For the fourth year in a row, BI applications have been ranked the top technology priority in the 2009 Gartner Executive Programs survey of more than 1,500 chief information officers (CIOs) around the world.

Ian Bertram, Gartner managing vice president and chair of the 2009 Gartner BI Summit, said that because BI has the highest priority for CIOs, it will fare better than many other technologies and management practices in the economic downturn.

“Businesses in this region will continue to prioritise BI because it's transformational,” said Mr. Bertram. “BI is even more important when times are tough. It can help find bottlenecks and inefficiencies or to expose areas that are profitable. We continue to see traction for solutions such as spend analytics, risk and fraud.

“The rapid growth in information generated from enterprise applications, the popularity of metrics-driven business initiatives and the growing need for regulatory compliance will also continue to drive growth in BI,” he said.

While market demand for BI platforms will be favorable, heavy discounting can be expected, according to Gartner. The effect of the market consolidation by SAP, Oracle and IBM is to reduce overall revenue because BI is often sold as an add-on or part of a larger solution bundle. This will keep overall revenue growth lower. BI investments are also likely to be subjected to increased scrutiny from finance, with CFOs doing final negotiations on pricing and maintenance.

Mr. Bertram said skills shortages continue to hamper BI projects in Asia Pacific.

“Mature markets such as Australia and Singapore continue to make investments but struggle with a gap in implementation skills. Limited BI skills in Asia Pacific will inhibit growth in license revenue, but it also represents an opportunity for service providers. Software vendors should work on improving usability, design appropriate learning programs, propose alternative delivery models and form strategic partnerships with local service providers,” he said.

The overall Asia Pacific BI platform software market will continue to grow at a respectable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.3 percent through 2012, reaching more than US$510 million by 2012, according to Gartner.

Australia will remain the biggest BI platforms software market in Asia Pacific through 2012, reaching A$243.8 (US$212 million) in revenue, followed by China. The local BI market will be sustained through maintenance revenue, which will become more pronounced in the slowing economic environment.