Gartner Report Highlights Importance of Business Intelligence

As time goes on, more and more companies are realising the importance of effective data management and business intelligence solutions.
Business intelligence (BI) is a way to turn raw data into useful information for your company.
In other words, it allows you to make sense of the data coming in and use the information you gain to make decisions moving forward.
BI is therefore particularly useful for larger companies who have a lot of data.
According to forecasting company Gartner, worldwide BI software revenue is expected to grow by seven per cent in 2013.
Research vice president at Gartner Kurt Schlegel said that the challenge for businesspeople and CIOs will be to make the most of all the data they have coming in to their companies. After all, there is a lot of it.
"Although this is a mature market and has been a top CIO priority for years, there is still a lot of unmet demand. Every company has numerous subject areas - such as HR, marketing, social and so on - that have yet to even start with BI and analytics," Mr Schlegel explained in a statement.
He went on to add that analytics have - for the most part - been implemented in "traditional subject areas", for example finances and sales.
"Since many midsize enterprises have yet to even start their BI and analytics initiatives, we expect the market for BI and analytics platforms will remain one of the fastest-growing software markets," Mr Schlegel said.
Meanwhile principal research analyst at Gartner Dan Sommer added to these statements, by suggesting that "business models need reinvention".
He believes that the next economic cycle will be dominated by businesses trying to master analytics and get familiar with big data.