Smaller firms in the region are waking up to the benefits of BI software tools
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE tools have been available for several years, but many end users are unfamiliar with the term, even though they may be using some form of BI application on a regular basis.
Paul Lee, senior director for sales consulting at Oracle Greater China, said the firm saw BI as a way for companies to use data as information to better run their business.
Although many companies have been collecting data for years, ranging from sales reports to customer feedback forms, it is often hard to detect trends in the data because raw data is difficult to interpret. Mr Lee said: 'There are many reasons why enterprises have not used data to their benefit: it's hard to collect data from different sources; they need to correct duplication and contradictions in the data; and they need to analyse it.'
According to technology market research firm International Data Corp, the adoption of BI is on the rise in Asia. The company valued the market for BI tools in Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan, last year at US$233.2 million.
Sharon Tan, an enterprise applications market analyst with IDC Asia-Pacific, said IDC expected the BI tools software market in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan to grow strongly at a compound annual rate of 12.3 per cent to reach US$417.3 million by 2009.