Business Analytics

With the amount of data growing by leaps and bounds in enterprises, it

becomes imperative to have a business analytics solution. No wonder then that

this space saw a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the recent past. More than

50% of the respondents to our survey said that they're likely to choose some BA

software in the near future. Slightly less than 50% of them already owned a BA

software, which shows the tremendous growth that this segment is witnessing.

Let's see what the users think about the leading brands in this space.

Like last year, none of the known brands in this segment like Cognos, SAS, or

Hyperion had sufficient votes to be analyzed. This year, some of them have been

acquired by IBM and Oracle, and are therefore in the club indirectly.

The good news overall in this segment is that most players have picked up

momentum. Unlike last year, wherein most of them were loosing pull, this year is

exactly the reverse. They're all gaining pull. They're also becoming more

persuasive, but a little more improvement is needed there. Possibly as more

users start feeling the need for business analytics and start adopting them,

we'll see even more improvement.

Out of the four brands that made it to the club, the most future ready brand

is Oracle, making it this year's winner of Users' Choice awards. Not only that,

but it's also the second most persuasive brand of the lot, and has the third

highest brand pull. Oracle enjoys 62% brand loyalty, and only 15% of its

existing users likely to switch to competing brands.

SAP is the second most future ready brand, and if Oracle is moving at a speed

of 100, it's moving at 72. It tops the charts on both brand persuasion and pull

relative indices, which is a big improvement over last year. Its brand loyalty

is just below Oracle's at 60%, with a mere 7% of its existing users likely to

switch to another brand. There's a large 33% of its existing user base who're

not sure which brand to switch to.

Third in line is Microsoft's SQL Server, which is moving at a speed of 59 if

Oracle is moving at 100. It's the third most persuasive brand, but needs to

improve its brand pull situation as compared to others. The brand enjoys 58%

brand loyalty, which is a concern because it's dropped from 69% last year. 15%

of its existing users are likely to switch to another brand.

Last in the future readiness index is IBM's Intelligent Miner, moving at a

speed of 28. IBM has improved considering it didn't even have sufficient votes

to be analyzed last year. Its second on the brand pull relative index, but needs

to become more persuasive than other brands. Its brand loyalty is similar to

Microsoft's SQL Server. Maybe after the Cognos acquisition, things will change

for it next year.