The domestic business intelligence sector is fast outgrowing its infancy, thanks to an increase in mergers and acquisitions. The industry expects the sector to grow at around 60-65 per cent, more than double the industry estimates of around 30 per cent year-on-year till 2010.

BI is an umbrella term used for a set of tools and applications that help companies run their everyday operations. These include gathering, organising, distributing and acting on critical business information, in turn, facilitating quick and efficient decision-making.

BI typically uses data collated by applications such as enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and others to make faster business decisions.

At present, companies such as SAS, Hyperion, Business Objects, Microsoft, Oracle and Cognos are among others offering BI applications in the country.

According to a Frost & Sullivan study, the Indian BI market is pegged at $47.4 million, even though it is still in its initial stages in the country. The market size of the segment is expected to record a 31.10 per cent increase and grow to $68.8 million by 2007.

Industry analysts were earlier expecting the sector to maintain a growth rate of around 30 per cent for the next three years. But now they expect the sector to grow at a much faster pace, may be at around 60-65 per cent.  "Indian companies going global and their stress on quality and excellence would result in an increase in installation of BI systems and applications. BI systems would be implemented increasingly by the companies to bring in an integration, as different companies use various suites and these needs to communicate with each other," said Srikant Gokulnatha, senior director, market strategy and product marketing, Hyperion.

The country has been witnessing a spate of M&As that includes Tatas' acquisition of Corus, Hindalco taking over Novellus and Essar snapping up Algoma among others.

According to Hyperion managing director (Asean and India) Suganthi Shivkumar, Indian companies are also growing at a "colossal rate", adding up customers and users, in turn, increasing the level of BI installations.