IDC: Apac BI market hits US$445 million

The BI tools market in Asia Pacific grew 7.7 percent and was estimated to be worth US$445.30 million in 2008 despite the global economic crisis, said IDC.

However, this still represents a significant fall from previous years' double-digit growth recorded for the region in 2005 to 2007, the research firm noted.

With many businesses knee-jerking into freezing or slashing IT budgets as the global economic crisis unfolded, the BI software market generally contracted in 2H 2008 over 1H 2008 in most Asia Pacific countries, said IDC.

Cost cutting measures and lower IT budgets are expected to contribute to longer sales cycle and more pricing pressure in 1H 2009, said IDC, adding that its end-user studies conducted in 1Q 2009 also confirmed that cost is the main consideration when IT decision makers in the region buy software.

Organizations are likely to be more motivated to try alternative, lower cost BI solutions and delivery models which tend to tamper down revenue based market forecasts, said IDC, adding that BI demand is at the same time expected to expand from within organizations.

“The recent turbulent times and uncertainties have intensified the need for timely, accurate and relevant information to make sound business decisions,” said Sharon Tan, Research Manager of IDC's Asia/Pacific Software Research. “Following the economic crisis, many decision makers and information workers felt the pain of insufficient, inaccurate or contradictory information as they tried hard to grow their business. IDC expects this need to fuel interest in BI solutions and pave the way for future BI growth once business sentiments improve,”

She added that preliminary analysis of the recent IDC-sponsored end-user research conducted in March-April 2009 also shows encouraging signs. “Despite tough times, a significant percentage of organizations surveyed are already planning to equip users, such as managers and customer-facing employees, with timely information over the next 18 months by having BI more pervasively available in their organization,” Tan said.