The Forecast For Business Intelligence Is Partially Cloudy

Business intelligence is the top priority in terms of companies' implementation plans across all software segments. Companies need to speed up their BI capabilities in order to succeed in the age of the customer and outpace their competition with more timely and finely tuned decisions. Whether it's the attraction of speedy implementation and immediate access to new features or the desire to avoid large upfront investments in software — for a majority of enterprises, the benefits of obtaining business intelligence capabilities through signing up for an offering based on software-as-a-service (SaaS) now outweigh the risks. That's not to say that the risks have disappeared; and indeed there is still a considerable proportion of companies which say that they have no plans to avail themselves of cloud-based services for their BI needs. But it's clear that while risks are taken into account, they're not the insurmountable stumbling block that's often painted. Drawing upon the results of the Forrsights Software Survey, Q4 2013, this report provides insight into the adoption rate of BI among enterprises, as well as the benefits and concerns which influence a move into the cloud. It also includes recommendations on when to consider BI in the cloud, and what to take into account to gain maximum benefit.