Gartner sees business intelligence spending rising

FRANKFURT, April 1 (Reuters) - Spending on business intelligence software, designed to help executives make better decisions, is seen rising 11 percent to $5.8 billion this year despite a U.S. economic slowdown, research firm Gartner said.

"Gartner analysts expect BI platform revenue to be less affected by an economic downturn than some other technologies because of the high priority BI platforms hold with CIOs," Gartner said on Tuesday.

The research firm said business intelligence had beaten all other technologies in a survey it had carried out of priorities of 1,500 chief information officers worldwide.

The market for business intelligence software, which gathers views of business operations through statistical data mining and analysis, consolidated radically in 2007, with all the major specialists being bought by software and services giants.

Oracle (ORCL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) bought Hyperion for $3.3 billion, SAP (SAPG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) bought Business Objects for 4.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) and IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) bought Cognos for $5 billion, while Microsoft (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) worked on improving its own capabilities.

Gartner said it expected business intelligence software sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Asia-Pacific region to outgrow those in North America this year, as they did last year.

BY 2012, the global business intelligence market should be worth $7.7 billion, Gartner said. (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by David Cowell)