BI tools market generates $4bn

business intelligence (BI) tools market generated more than $4 billion in revenue in the second-half of 2010, reports eWeek

This is the first time the market has passed the $4 billion mark in a six-month period and boding well for growth in 2011.

Moreover, IDC's Worldwide Semi-annual Business Intelligence Tools Tracker showed that for the full year of 2010, the BI tools market grew 12.7% year-over-year, adding $893 million in global revenue over the previous year.

Meanwhile, eChannel Line says although the latter still represents only a small portion of the BI tools market, SaaS or cloud BI offerings are growing three times faster than the rest of the market.

For the full year, SAP and IBM were the top-two BI tools vendors, capturing more than $1 billion each in software revenue during 2010.

SAP enjoyed strong growth in a number of large country markets including Australia, Canada, and Russia. IBM's performance was bolstered by strong results in Australia, Canada, Japan, and the UK.

The top 10 vendors accounted for 72% of the overall market in 2010, with four vendors - MicroStrategy, Oracle, Panorama Software, and QlikTech - outperforming the market in terms of year-over-year growth. A total of 58 vendors were included in the 2010 market results.

According to CBR, IDC program VP of business analytics Dan Vesset said to continue growing in the BI tools market, vendors need to align their technology packaging and pricing with the growing preference among end-users for departmental and incremental projects and subscription pricing.