The market for business intelligence (BI) and analytics software is on the rise. According to Gartner, global revenue for the BI and analytics software market is forecast to reach US$18.3 billion in 2017, up 7.3 percent from 2016. Also, the market is expected at US$22.8 billion by 2020.

The factors which are driving the growth of the market include:

+ Development of modern BI tools which can be used without IT assistance.

+ The emergence of smart data discovery capabilities, machine learning and automation driven software.

+ The ability to rapidly prepare, clean, enrich and find trusted datasets in a more automated way.

+ Generation of real time insights from streaming data sourced from devices and sensors.

+ Easy cloud deployments of BI and analytics platforms to reduce cost of ownership and speed time to deployment.

These factor are significantly influencing the rapid adoption of BI and analytics software worldwide. In a quest to understand the product landscape,we bring you an infographic which includes a list of top 20 most popular business intelligence software sold globally.

While the market is undergoing a significant change, the above list includes the most used BI and analytics tools in the market.  The use of modern BI and analytics software is helping organizations gain deeper analytical insights and serve customers effectively. In India, the market is forecast to reach US$245 million in 2017, a 24.4 percent increase from 2016.  "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.

As organizations are beginning to realise the potential of BI and analytics tools to navigate large amounts of data and quickly generate reports, it will be now interesting to see how these tools emerge and what new development we see in the times ahead.