Ed Maguire of Merrill Lynch (ML) very kindly sent me his comments about the recent Gartner BI conference. In his summary he noted:

“Interest is stronger than ever, with BI ranking number (above security) in Gartner's latest CIO survey (which corresponds with ML's latest CIO software survey). Pure-play BI vendors are expected to grow slower than the expected 7.4% 5 year CAGR for software licenses as database and application vendors grow faster from lower price points and integrated capabilities.”

“The biggest takeaway from the conference was the surge of enterprise interest in Microsoft's BI capabilities, which encompass the SQL database, Business Scorecard Manager and pending integrated Excel capabilities. We sensed broad-based surprise at the pace at which Microsoft is generating interest in its offerings - and as a result the pure-play vendors must raise switching costs to protect their turf. While the pure-play BI vendors enjoy near-term tactical advantage in terms of having field sales efforts attuned to customer needs, it is only a matter of time before Microsoft's partner ecosystem becomes more broadly engaged in the market. For now, robust demand in the overall market should dampen Microsoft's impact for the near term.”