BI Spending On The Rise, But Fewer Dollars For Services
Although solution providers will certainly snare a big chunk of that spending, AMR said that companies plan to spend less on outside consulting services for BI and performance management in 2007 and more on internal staffing.
The "vast majority" of companies are expanding their purchases of business intelligence and performance management technology this year, AMR analyst John Hagerty said in a statement. And this year's numbers aren't likely to represent the market's peak.
"We are nowhere near the business intelligence and performance management saturation point," according to Hagerty.
AMR predicted that spending for business intelligence systems will reach $6.6 billion this year, and expenditures for dashboards and business scorecard tools will hit $5.5 billion.
Companies will spend $4.3 billion for analytics infrastructure; $3.4 billion for analytical applications; and $4.1 billion for planning, budgeting and forecasting systems. AMR's numbers include spending for software, hardware, internal and external labor costs, and integration services.
Despite the hefty spending plans, 18 percent of companies said that a lack of resources is the major hurdle they face in working with business intelligence and performance management technology. Companies also said they plan to spend less on external services such as consulting this year in favor of increasing internal hires.