Business Performance Solutions: Clash Of The Titans

Business performance solutions (BPS) — a software category consisting of applications for budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, profitability analysis, and performance measurement — has seen dramatic growth and vendor consolidation over the past two years. The growth prospects for this space remain bright, despite the near-term impact of the recession, driven by strong interest in strategy and performance measurement. Forrester expects BPS software revenues to grow by 12.7% through 2012, growing from its current size of $2 billion to $3.2 billion during this timeframe. Six large vendors — IBM, Infor, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and SAS Institute — dominate this market, while a number of business intelligence (BI), enterprise resource planning (ERP), specialists, and BPS pure plays offer a variety of interesting alternatives.