According to recently released figures from analyst firm Gartner, the market for BI (business intelligence) software is expected to hit $13.8 billion in 2013.

While the pace of growth has seemed to slow, Gartner predicts that BI market spending globally will rise by 7 percent this year, compared to 16 percent growth in 2011. Total spending is expected to hit $17.1 billion by 2016 according to Gartner.

"BI and analytics have grown to become the fourth-largest application software segment as end users continue to prioritize BI and information-centric projects and spending to improve decision making and analysis," said Dan Sommer, principal research analyst at Gartner. "As more and more information is generated, business models need reinvention, and it's increasingly clear that mastering analytics on big data will be a key driver for the next economic cycle."