In the quest for new capabilities the business information industry invested in platforms / analytics – AI / fraud prevention services accounting for 40% of the external and internal development transactions monitored by BIIA.  Acquisitions and partnerships continues to be a fast track route to boost growth.

BIIA monitors strategic developments in the business information industry.  Specifically BIIA is covering acquisitions (type of services acquired), partnerships (using partners capabilities to create new ones), new product development (internal development) and international expansion.  Here is our latest review of developments in 2017 as compared with 2016:

In 2017 BIIA covered approximately 900 announcement published by members and other key industry players.  Approximately 214 (24%) of these announcements covered the announcement of the four categories mentioned above.  Our industry members continue to use acquisitions (19%) and partnerships (32%) as a method of acquiring new capabilities.  It is interesting to note that these two methods accounted for 51% of the total as compared to internal product development of 31%.  

Industry members invested largely in platforms/analytics/fraud prevention services which accounted for 40%.  Identity services ranked second with 9% together with compliance services, also %.  Consumer data 4%, B2B data 7% and other services 31%.  Other services were:  Mobile and cloud applications, marketing & CRM services, e-commerce, Fintech, Blockchain etc.  See details in the illustrations below:

The chart on the left provides a comparison of our finding for 2017 as compared with 2016.  Acquisitions and partnerships combined were 51% as compared to 65% in 2016.  In 2017 we identified 85 announcements relating to platforms / analytics – AI / fraud prevention services (40%) versus 80 announcements in 2016 (39%).  Thus the industry continues to focus on this product segment at the same pace.

Please note:  We are striving to be as consistent as possible in capturing all relevant announcements for this analysis.  It is a combined effort by several staff members.  Please bear in mind that not every company releases data concerning development matters.

Source:  BIIA Analysis