Channel set for BI bonanza

Analyst predicts larger slice of BI IT spend for integrators

Gartner predicts larger slice of BI IT spend for integrators

Systems integrators are set to displace vendors as end users' first port of call when procuring business intelligence (BI) tools, claims Gartner.

The analyst house recently set out a list of predictions about the trends set to take the BI market by storm over the coming years.

According to its predictions, one of the biggest changes to the BI market will be how end users procure the technology, with systems integrators set to play an increasingly important role.

The document explained: "Traditionally, organisations bought products almost exclusively from software companies, and systems integrators helped the buyer implement them.

"However, the growth of user-driven initiatives, external information sources and the integration of unstructured content make this approach increasingly risky."

As a result, Gartner predicts that 40 per cent of the money spent on BI tools will go to systems integrators, rather than vendors, by 2014.

The firm is also anticipating that 33 per cent of BI products will be tailored for use on handheld devices by 2013, leading to an increase in the number of mainstream BI users.

Gartner said: "At first, mobile BI will largely consist of existing reports and dashboards ported to the device.

"By 2012, organisations and vendors will develop mobile analytic applications for specific tasks and domains, and will significantly expand the population of BI users," it concluded.