The “democratization” of analytics illustrated by the transition to self-service business intelligence and foolproof BI platforms promises to boost to global analytics market to new heights in 2016 and beyond, market researcher forecast.

Gartner Inc. (NYSE: IT) predicted the worldwide BI and analytics market would reach $16.9 billion this year, up 5.2 percent over 2015. Last month, it projected the “advanced analytics” market would grow at a 14-percent clip this year to $1.5 billion as more data is shared on secure platforms.

In 2016, a wave of self-service analytics swept across the enterprise. Governments began embracing the modern approach to business analytics, with IT and public sector leadership partnering to derive maximum value from their data.

Here’s a preview of our predictions for 2017:

Big Data’s Impact on Social Services
By Lindsey Getz
Social Work Today
Vol. 14 No. 2 P. 28

The amount of data being produced and used on a daily basis has exploded, and that increasing volume has required new solutions for processing and managing it. Nicknamed “Big Data,” the generation of all this information and how to analyze it have implications that affect the social work profession.