2013 will likely see worldwide spend on business analytics technologies of around $40 billion. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is around 10%, but is expected to accelerate – IBM just upped its forecast for 2015 to $20 billion sales of business analytics technology, making them the largest player in this market. It seems likely that CAGR will increase to around 12% giving worldwide estimate of $52 billion by 2015.
This is still a small amount compared with global sales of IT products of around $2 trillion, and indicates considerable room for growth. In our opinion analytics will become a prime preoccupation of many businesses as they seek to gain some form of advantage. This is quite different from the traditional use of IT to deliver administrative support, which is simply a cost associated with the business. This different dynamic should see analytics markets grow at an accelerated pace, and many of the smaller players with niche technologies will be acquired by the half dozen or so major providers (IBM, Oracle, SAP, SAS, Microsoft). There is also an opportunity for disruptive technologies to make an appearance and for new large players to develop.