Inside the BI Market – What 1,000 Users Say About Their Tools
The new BI & Analytics Survey 26 by BARC, the world’s largest end-user survey of BI and analytics software, based on feedback from more than 1,000 professionals worldwide, highlights a business intelligence market that is rethinking its priorities.
The results paint a clear picture of a market that continues to deliver measurable business benefits but is also facing growing cost pressure, persistent adoption challenges, and the need for better evaluation and usability practices.
“The BI & Analytics Survey is one of the few studies that shows what really happens after the software purchase,” says Robert Tischler, Senior Analyst at BARC. “A key finding this year is that BI success depends more on the right tool for each need than on one platform for everything.”
This is the 24th edition of The BI & Analytics Survey. The study offers an unsurpassed level of user feedback on 18 leading BI & analytics products.
Cost Pressure and Buying Behavior
The survey also finds a clear shift toward cost and efficiency during tool evaluations: Organizations increasingly emphasize financial criteria when selecting new products, sometimes at the expense of deeper analytical innovation. Once a solution proves effective, however, its cost quickly becomes less relevant. This suggests that price sensitivity peaks during evaluation rather than during daily use – especially when you are satisfied with the software you are using.
Cloud deployment did not change this perception. According to user feedback, cloud BI solutions performed almost identically to on-premises setups in cost-effectiveness and benefit ratings. Even widely adopted products show slightly declining satisfaction with their price-to-value ratio, reflecting growing scrutiny of ongoing license and service costs.
Evaluation Rigor Pays Off
How organizations select their BI software strongly influences success: Among top-performing companies (“leaders”), 77% conduct a formal, competitive evaluation before purchase, compared to only 43% among the weakest (“laggards”). These leaders also report smoother implementations and faster time-to-insight.
“Structured evaluations force teams to define their needs clearly and we always recommend to test usability and performance early and thoroughly,” explains Tischler. “That discipline consistently translates into higher satisfaction, stronger adoption, and measurable business benefits.”
The study also highlights that bigger is not always better. While large vendors continue to dominate awareness and market share, smaller vendors consistently achieve well above-average ratings for support quality and implementation success.
Their more flexible project approaches and closer customer relationships often result in faster rollouts and higher satisfaction compared to their larger competitors.
BI Delivers Results – But Adoption Remains Low
The benefits of BI and analytics are well established: 97% faster reporting or planning, 96% improved data quality, and 94% of respondents report better decisions.
Still, user adoption remains a major challenge. On average, only 25% of employees use BI software in their daily work. Smaller companies reach adoption rates of 44%, but in large enterprises, only 16% of staff regularly use BI.
BARC concludes that technology alone cannot drive data culture – organizations must make analytics part of daily decision-making to realize its full potential.
The results make one thing clear: organizations that focus on evaluation discipline, usability and user enablement will lead the next phase of data-driven business.
Related Links
Overview: The BI & Analytics Survey 26
