General statistics place business intelligence (BI) use at 15 to 20 percent of potential decision-makers within the organization. Even so, there is still the sense that the enterprise market is saturated, creating a shift toward the development of midmarket offerings. To meet this need, vendors are developing targeted solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to increase market share and revenue. For SMBs evaluating BI solutions this is a positive step because the market will continue to diversify over time. This, coupled with options such as on demand and niche solutions, enables SMBs more flexibility in their solution choice.
What the Changing Market Means for SMBs
Oracle, SAP, IBM, and Microsoft are examples of vendors trying to provide a full breadth of solutions to organizations. End users with Oracle and IBM shops will be able to benefit from add-ons to their current solutions. But many SMBs do not have these solutions or want to implement a large-scale solution or a subset of a mega vendor offering. In addition, perceived vendor instability while acquisitions occur and the inability to know vendor directions, in the interim may leave some organizations wondering where to turn.
Newer Entrants to the Market
With market consolidations taking center stage, newer entrants to the market are taking advantage of the changing landscape to bring their products to market. Certain trends emerging within the world of BI and one includes the addition of new vendors targeting one or two areas within the realm of BI - such as on demand or operational BI. The purpose of more targeted solutions is to be able to embed BI into an organization’s business processes without a high-impact on IT infrastructure. By putting applications in the hands of the business and removing the associated heavy IT costs and input required by IT, the world of BI opens up to the business user and can expand towards deployments that may not have been considered in the past.
The link to the midmarket is this. With the increase in flexibility of BI solutions and the expansion of use to support applications backed and supported by business without the control from IT, SMBs that do not have strong IT infrastructures can take advantage. Many smaller organizations do not have large IT departments. This form of expansion enables SMBs to take advantage of BI and implement solutions that are suited to their unique business requirements. With newer entrants that cater to SMBs based on price and functionality, organizations can now take advantage of BI without exorbitant implementation costs.
On-Demand BI
The benefits of software as a service (SaaS) for BI for midmarket organizations are expansive and the fact of its popularity is proof that its benefits are compelling. Paid by subscription and hosted by the provider, with in-house upkeep minimal, organizations can deploy BI through a portal, grant wider access to more users and be supported by the service provider. For SMB organizations entering into BI for the first time or for solution expansion across business units, on demand solutions offer organizations a way to see benefits quickly. In addition, organizations that want to take advantage of the expertise of leading BI vendors but that don’t have the budget can use a Cognos or Business Objects solution without the high implementation costs.
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