Business intelligence (BI) and analytics software in the Middle East and Africa (MENA) totaled $217 million in 2013, an 11 percent increase from 2012 revenue of $196 million, according to Gartner, Inc. The BI and analytics market consists of consisting of BI platforms, corporate performance management (CPM) suites, analytic applications and advanced analytics.
"Overall, the market is shifting gears, which is keeping growth from its full potential. At the same time, paradoxically, we're at the cusp of a series of tipping points which will facilitate unprecedented interest and adoption of analytics," said Dan Sommer, research director at Gartner.
The BI market in MENA slowed from a growth of 23 percent in 2012. There were a number of factors slowing the market in 2013. First the challenging macro had an effect. The Middle East and Africa grew only marginally faster than the worldwide growth rate of 8 percent, which breaks the strategic assumption that many of the large vendors have held for years - that emerging markets are growing at a much faster rate. Secondly, confusion still reigns around how to best leverage analytics on big data. Much big data investment happened outside traditional BI in experimental silos, infrastructure and services. Thirdly, growth in IT budgets is flat and IT-led traditional BI tools are over-bought. Therefore, some market share leaders targeting those constituents showed sub-market growth.
In the top spot, SAP continued to have significantly higher revenue than any other vendor at $ 59 million with 27.2 percent of the market, up 16.7 percent from 2012. SAS Institute experienced the highest growth among the top five vendors in 2013, with revenue rising 17.8 percent compared with 2012, to reach $27.1 million.
"Globally, the top 5 vendors lost share to smaller, nimbler players. But the situation was the opposite in the Middle East and Africa," said Mr. Sommer. "This shows how important feet on the street, critical mass of skills, references and long-term commitment is to the region."
"Right now we're in a trend of proliferating information sources, applications and buying. Analytics is moving beyond just being a singular tool to become more omnipresent, embedded in various other applications and infrastructures. These trends, paradoxically to the single-digit growth, cement analytics as a top priority and will eventually tip it to touch a much broader base," said Mr. Sommer.
On a segment level, BI platforms are showing a slow but steady shift in emphasis from reporting centric to analysis centric tools (see Table 2). Advanced analytics is also growing quickly, showing the increasing focus organizations give to predictive and prescriptive analytics.
xxx
www.gartner.com
