Today’s Market

The number of BI solutions implemented in Russia is growing fast. Almost all major BI software vendors have a presence in Russia. There are also several local BI software solutions. It is difficult to identify the leaders of the Russian BI market. The main reason for this is the availability of pirate software. The two most widely used BI software solutions are probably Microsoft Analysis Services and Crystal Decisions. But a very significant share of users obtained the software of these two companies illegally, having paid only 2-3 USD for pirate CD. Fortunately, there are positive tendencies in Russia in this area, and one of the priorities of the government is to minimize the scale of the pirate market.

Comparison

If we compare the small Russian BI market with the large markets of North America and Western Europe it is necessary to take into account several aspects. First, the average salary level of Russian IT specialists is relatively low, especially outside the big cities such as Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. Secondly, the average number of users of BI solutions in a typical Russian company is relatively small as is the size of its databases. As a result, the most popular tools for BI projects are Windows-versions of BI products, because it is cheaper to hire an IT specialist for supporting the end users than to buy expensive Web-versions of BI products. In most cases, BI tools are used for creation of standard reports, and only a small number of Russian companies use them for sophisticated analysis and ad-hoc querying and reporting. Taking into account that the economic climate in Russia is favorable, in relative terms, the Russian BI market is probably growing faster than the BI markets of America and Europe.