2010 Readers' Choice: Business Intelligence

According to John Hagerty, vice president and research fellow at AMR Research, while there has been some movement amongst the top four companies, the addition of Silvon to the list indicates that buyers value companies that deliver products tailored to industry content.

CGT: How has the economic downturn impacted BI initiatives?

Hagerty: It was encouraging that organizations did not sit on their hands in 2009. After years of investment to capture the right data, they knew it was time to leverage that information to make more informed business decisions. In a spending study conducted in Q309, participants reported they expanded business intelligence (BI) programs that delivered a host of analytics capabilities to significantly more people in the enterprise. While they didn't necessarily spend at the same clip as in prior years, they didn't stop buying either. The same will hold true for 2010.

CGT: What trends will impact BI in the CG industry?

Hagerty: Two trends that will have significant impact for consumer goods firms:

Advanced analytics: providers are dialing up the volume on analytics that couple technology and consulting to expand beyond backward facing reporting and metrics. 

Cloud computing and collaboration: CG companies have been at the forefront of integrating internal and external demand data. Deployment models in the cloud will expand available data and opportunities for collaboration across the extended value chain. 

CGT: Given the vendor movement over the last two years, has the market settled down?

Hagerty: First of all, market consolidation is inevitable. While high profile BI and performance management acquisitions were made over two years ago by the mega vendors, there will certainly be more.

Secondly, if I read the tea leaves correctly, demand for industry-driven and content-specific analytics are accelerating. Business buyers are more involved than ever in BI and analytics evaluations and selections, often providing the funding for these programs. So, their satisfaction is critical. Most of the leading software providers have only begun to scratch the surface on focused analytic applications because they have historically come at this market demand from a do-it-yourself tools angle. Acquisitions in these spaces will accelerate and alter the landscape.

"Since we deployed IBM business analytics solutions, we have consistently exceeded our customer expectations in all critical aspects--from operational to customer service--resulting in better relationships and increased sales."
-- Jim Mulholland, VP of Information Technology, Creativity Inc.

SMB MARKET: MICROSOFT

"In Microsoft, we saw a [BI] solution that met all our requirements, that was a better fit with our current investments and skill sets, and that would deliver a lower total cost of ownership."
-- Tom Cesario, director of IT, Radio Flyer