Gartner: Microsoft leader in BI market in India

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. has announced that as per Gartner’s Asia Pacific software revenue estimates, it has emerged as the leading vendor of Business Intelligence solutions in India. The Gartner “Market Share: Business Intelligence Platform Software, Asia Pacific and Japan, 2007” report<1> estimates that with a growth rate of 40.5 percent, the Business Intelligence software revenues in India were  US$19.4 million during 2006 – 2007.

As per the Gartner study, Microsoft is also ahead of the competition in the overall APAC Business Intelligence (BI) platform market for a second consecutive year. The study highlights that in APAC, Business Intelligence software revenues grew a healthy rate of 26.1 percent and in value terms the market stood at US$339.7 million during 2006 – 2007. Microsoft has maintained its last year’s position as the market leader with a current 20.13 percent market share, growing by 25.5 percent to reach software revenues worth US$68.4 million in the Asia Pacific BI market. 

“This is a strong testament to our commitment to providing customers with the end-to-end BI platform and software solutions they need to excel in an increasingly dynamic IT environment. We expect 2008 to be another exciting and productive year for Microsoft BI and our customers. We have seen tremendous momentum around our server software solutions since the Wave Launch in Asia Pacific in general, and in the area of BI in particular, and are confident about further driving our leadership position with the launch of Microsoft SQL Server 2008,” said Pallavi Kathuria, director, Server Business Group, Microsoft India.

This announcement follows the positioning of Microsoft in the Leaders quadrant in Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms for 2008 report which positions vendors according to their ability to execute and completeness of vision.

“The BI platform market in Asia Pacific grew a healthy 26.1 percent in 2007. While the region represents just more than 6 percent of the market opportunity, it is growing at nearly twice the pace of the global market”, said Bhavish Sood, principal analyst, Software Markets, Gartner Inc.

In its report, Gartner defines Business Intelligence as an umbrella term that includes the applications, infrastructure and tools, and best practices that enable access to and analysis of information to improve and optimize decisions and performance. A BI platform is further defined as a software platform that delivers most of the following capabilities under three overarching categories of functionality: integration, information delivery and analysis.

Microsoft’s BI offering includes SQL Server, Business Scorecard Manager, ProClarity, and Scorecarding from PerformancePoint – all the major components to deliver performance management capabilities across all departments of an organization using the familiar Microsoft Office environment to significantly increase the reach of the application. With significant advancements in key areas, SQL Server 2008, planned for release in the second half of 2008, is a productive and intelligent data platform that delivers on Microsoft’s data platform vision by enabling organizations to run their most mission-critical applications while lowering the cost of managing the data infrastructure and delivering insights and information to all users.