Strong growth seen for information access tools

December 8, 2000 —

Data-access tools of all kinds are primed for significant growth, with the
enterprise decision support segment most ready to expand, according to research group
IDC.

Revenue for the entire information-access (IA) software market climbed almost 21
percent last year, approaching $8 billion. Market revenue is expected to exceed $20.6
billion by 2004, IDC said.

End-user query and reporting, data mining, and online analytical processing will be
fast gainers, while executive-information systems, spreadsheets, and statistical and
technical data analysis will grow more slowly, said Dan Vesset, a senior analyst in
IDC's data warehousing and information access research program.

Vesset estimates that the enterprise decision support segment made up 38 percent of
the overall IA tool market, with more than $3 billion in revenues for 1999.

IDC said that Microsoft's OLAP services for SQL Server will help generate IA market
growth. After a year on the market, Microsoft's product is at the number six spot in
the online analytical processing division, and in tenth place in the enterprise
decision support segment.

Intranet and extranet adoption will bring enterprise decision support to a larger
class of users both within and outside the enterprise, said Henry Morris, vice
president of IDC's data warehousing and information access research program. He also
said that so-called e-marketplaces will help the market grow.

The research group also said that North America will remain the largest market for
information-access software, and will account for more than half of that market's
revenue through 2004.

ITworld.com