Global revenue in the business intelligence (BI) and analytics software market is forecast to reach $18.3 billion in 2017, an increase of 7.3% from 2016, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) By the end of 2020, the market is forecast to grow to $22.8 billion.

According to the research group, modern BI and analytics continues to expand more rapidly than the overall market, which is offsetting declines in traditional BI spending. The modern BI and analytics platform emerged in the last few years to meet new organizational requirements for accessibility, agility and deeper analytical insight, shifting the market from IT-led, system-of-record reporting to business-led, agile analytics including self-service.

The modern BI and analytics market is expected to decelerate, however, from 63.6% growth in 2015 to a projected 19 % by 2020. Gartner believes this reflects data and analytics becoming mainstream. The market is growing in terms of seat expansion, but revenue will be dampened by pricing pressure.

"Purchasing decisions continue to be influenced heavily by business executives and users who want more agility and the option for small personal and departmental deployments to prove success," said Rita Sallam, research vice president at Gartner. "Enterprise-friendly buying models have become more critical to successful deployments."