Do you know where 80% of the BI jobs are?
It's probably obvious, but these openings are consolidated into some mega-vendors--SAS, SAP, IBM, and Microsoft. Here are my unofficial, unscientific counts:
- SAS -- 25.7% of the BI jobs that I tracked for major vendors (non-open source)
- SAP BusinessObjects -- 17.38% (does not include Crystal Reports)
- IBM Cognos -- 15.67%
- Crystal Reports -- 12.86%
- Microsoft Reporting Services -- 9.79%
SAP BusinessObjects and Crystal Reports
Okay, here's the problem. I may be counting SAP BusinessObjects Crystal Reports jobs in two different categories. If the jobs for BusinessObjects and Crystal Reports were mutually exclusive, then SAP would be the clear winner with over 30% of the BI jobs. But I suspect that many Crystal Reports job postings have BO.
Personally, I'm shocked that Crystal Reports demand is so high. It's slightly down from when I started tracking it in January 2009, but showing a nice increase from January 2010. Hmm, here is a legacy Windows-based desktop reporting tool that is generating job growth. This comes at a time when some companies tell me they are getting rid of Crystal Reports.
But one of my healthcare clients clued me in on something else happening. He is hiring three Crystal Reports developers despite owning a web-based enterprise BI product. Why? Because his organization is implementing a new EPIC healthcare system that comes with...drum-roll...Crystal Reports.
Getting your software product embedded inside other vendors' packaged applications is a winning business approach. Just ask Oracle. But wait, where is mega-vendor Oracle on the BI job list?
Oracle
Perhaps I'm not fair to Oracle in how I search for BI jobs. I want to filter out the gazillion Oracle database and application jobs out there and only count the business intelligence ones. To do that, I just look for "OBIEE." Right or wrong, those only add up to about 2% of the total BI jobs, but the figure has doubled since I started watching.
MicroStrategy
I should also mention that demand for MicroStrategy skills is right there above Oracle OBIEE.
IBM Cognos
IBM wants to be your one-stop business shop for all things computer related. Before IBM acquired the company, Cognos had already transitioned into a billion dollar BI success. It is no wonder that job demand is high for IBM Cognos products.
SAS
Should we be awed by the tremendous demand for SAS BI professionals? There are almost 1800 postings in Monster for SAS jobs, accounting for a quarter of all the BI jobs for all the vendor products. Parents, send your kid to a statistics course!
Other BI Vendors
I don't want to embarrass the BI vendors at the bottom of the list. But why is that -- how can a leading BI vendor have such little demand for its product in the job market? I imagine they would tell me that their product is so easy to use that companies can use existing employees (LOL).
Legacy Reporting Tools and Open Source
Surprisingly, some old legacy reporting tools are still out there in slight demand but obviously declining--Brio and SQR are examples. For the open-source technologies (for example, BIRT and Pentaho), those just don't seem to be going anywhere quickly.
Emerging: QlikTech's QlikView
One BI product toward the bottom of the job list deserves attention. Watch out for QlikTech's QlikView. Demand for that at the beginning of 2010 was pretty much non-existent (but in January 2009 I might have looked only for company and not product name), but not so today. Companies are buying it and QlikTech is moving into the hot mobile BI tablet marketspace with an Apple iPad application.
Mobile BI
Speaking of which, at the beginning of 2010 I also started tracking job postings for iPhone. The number of openings has since then almost doubled. The same thing has happened with iPad jobs (and I didn't look until mid-2010). If you are looking for a fun job in a hot software arena, consider the mobile space.
I will keep an eye on Monster for BI jobs for you. I am interested in your thoughts so please post comments.
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