The worldwide business intelligence (BI) tools market generated more than $4 billion in revenues in the second half of 2010 (2H10), according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Business Intelligence Tools Tracker. This marks the first time the market has surpassed the $4 billion mark in a semiannual period. For the full year 2010, the BI tools market grew 12.7% year over year, adding $893 million in global revenues over the previous year.

“2010 was a solid year for the BI tools market and our models indicate that growth will continue throughout the five-year forecast period,” said Dan Vesset, program vice president, Business Analytics. “Business analytics remains one of the top priorities for most organizations and BI tools are one of the key enabling technologies for more pervasive business analytics. To continue growing in the BI tools market, vendors need to align their technology packaging and pricing with the growing preference among end-users for departmental and incremental projects and subscription pricing. Although the latter still represents only a small portion of the BI tools market, SaaS or cloud BI offerings are growing three times faster than the rest of the market.”

The End-User Query, Reporting, and Analysis functional market enjoyed a stronger growth rate for the year, up 13.7% over 2009. Russia delivered an outstanding performance in this functional market, with annual growth of more than 200%. Australia, Canada, India, Korea, and PRC also had growth rates above the global average. In addition, Brazil and Russia broke through the $100 million revenue mark in 2010, joining eight other major countries with annual revenues over $100 million.

Goldman Sachs analyst Sarah Friar this morning upped her rating on the Salesforce.com (CRM) to Buy from Neutral, with a target price of $102.

“We have held a bullish stance on SaaS [software as a service] but have stayed to the sidelines on Salesforce.com over a few specific concerns,” she writes in a research note. “However, the evolution of the company and the environment over the past 12 months has changed out view.” Friar says she sees estimates moving higher.

The next material catalyst for the stock, she says, should be April quarter earnings, which are likely to be reported in mid-May. She sees upside to estimates. Friar today upped her EPS forecast ex-employee stock options to $1.28 from $1.23 for FY 2011, to $1.65 from $1.49 for FY 2012, and to $2.09 from $1.77 for FY 2013.

A Sandhill Group survey shows enterprise interest in -- and IT spending on -- cloud computing accelerating over the next three years.

Market research for the venture capital firm, the Sand Hill Group, has concluded that cloud computing represents one of the largest new investment opportunities on the horizon.

In a 90-page report, M.R. Rangaswami and Kamesh Pemmaraju cite a CIO who said that spending on cloud computing will reach 40% of his IT budget in the next three years and 70% in five years.

In an interview, Rangaswami said the comment came from "the CIO of a major software company that we interviewed, not prone to making exaggerated comments." He defended it as in line with other less dramatic but assertive comments from the survey. Rangaswami conceded that IT spending today "is not a whole lot. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said 0%-3%."

But the survey also shows that in three years, 16% expect to spend 30% or more of the budget on cloud computing; 8% will spend 21-30% of the IT budget; 22% will spend 11-20% of the budget; and 24% will spend 7-10% of the budget. Those expecting to spend 7% or more make up 80% of the sample, he said.