Business intelligence has enjoyed a boom despite the less than healthy state of the global economy.
According to analyst house Gartner worldwide revenue for technology related to business intelligence, analytics applications and performance management grew by 22 per cent in 2008.
The increase took overall spending to more than US$8.8 billion compared to around US$7.2 billion in 2007.
Senior research analyst at Gartner, Dan Sommer, said this growth is partly down to consolidation in the industry as big vendors have focused on promoting the business intelligence technology they've acquired to their existing customers.
SAP came out as the top business intelligence company in terms of revenue during 2008.
According to Gartner, the company took more than US$2 billion and a 24 per cent market share, following its acquisition of Business Objects last year.
SAP was followed by SAS, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and MicroStrategy respectively.
According to some analysts, business intelligence could come into its own during the recession as the technology can help inform critical business decisions.
However, despite possible downturn-related enthusiasm for business intelligence, Sommer added that the same level of high revenue growth seen last year is not expected to continue in 2009.
Tim Ferguson of Silicon.com reported from London.
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