Business Intelligence and Analytics Software - Options 2026

Business Intelligence & Analytics Software – Options for 2026

Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics software plays a central role in helping organisations turn raw data into meaningful insight. As businesses rely increasingly on data-driven decision-making, the ability to model, visualise, and analyse information has become essential for operational performance, customer understanding, forecasting, and strategic planning.

If your organisation is exploring new Business Intelligence or Analytics software in 2026, this guide outlines the major solutions available and provides a clear overview of the leading platforms to support your early-market scan.

Viewpoint Analysis is a technology matchmaker. We help Data, Finance, Operations and IT leaders to find and select the right technology partners. The following BI and Analytics platforms are taken from our Business Intelligence vendor content area and more information about the key vendors can be found there.

Most data and business teams are focused on delivering insights, not surveying the full analytics technology landscape. Viewpoint Analysis runs super-fast selection processes to quickly narrow the field and make vendor evaluation dramatically easier.

What is Business Intelligence & Analytics Software?

Business Intelligence and Analytics software helps organisations model, visualise, explore, and understand data. It enables reporting, dashboarding, forecasting, ad-hoc analysis, and advanced analytics across structured and semi-structured data sources.

Modern BI platforms support data modelling, self-service analytics, semantic layers, augmented analytics, and AI-driven insights to help users interpret data faster and more accurately.

What does Business Intelligence & Analytics Software do?

BI and Analytics platforms connect to multiple systems, model data into usable structures, and allow users to explore information through dashboards, reports, visualisations, and insights. They support interactive exploration, KPI monitoring, drill-downs, natural language querying, predictive models, and automated insights.

Modern platforms also include AI-assisted analysis, automated anomaly detection, mobile reporting, collaboration tools, embedded analytics, and strong governance to maintain accuracy and consistency across the organisation.

Some platforms specialise in self-service analysis, while others focus on enterprise reporting, financial intelligence, or advanced predictive modelling.

How does Business Intelligence & Analytics Software work with other company applications?

BI and Analytics software sits above operational systems and connects directly to data warehouses, data lakes, ERP platforms, CRM systems, finance systems, and cloud applications.

It often links to ETL/ELT pipelines, data integration tools, semantic layers, governance tools, and machine learning platforms to ensure accurate, trusted, and timely data delivery.

These integrations allow organisations to bring together finance, operations, customer, sales, supply chain, and marketing data into a central analytics environment - enabling unified reporting and insight generation across departments.

Key BI & Analytics Providers in 2026

Below is a curated list of the major and emerging Business Intelligence and Analytics platforms used in the UK and globally. This list aims to help organisations quickly identify the systems most relevant to their requirements.

Microsoft Power BI remains one of the most widely adopted BI platforms globally. It offers strong data modelling, visualisation, AI-assisted insights, and deep integration with Microsoft 365, Azure, and enterprise data warehouses. It is used by organisations of all sizes.

Tableau (Salesforce) is a leading visual analytics platform known for its interactive dashboards, strong visual design capabilities, and deep analytical functionality. Widely adopted across industries, it is often used for self-service analytics and exploratory analysis.

Qlik Sense provides powerful associative analytics, strong governance, and the ability to explore relationships between data points dynamically. It is widely chosen by organisations seeking flexible self-service analysis and enterprise scalability.

Looker (Google Cloud) provides a semantic model (LookML) that centralises data logic and offers governed metrics across the organisation. Integrated tightly with BigQuery, it enables modern, scalable business intelligence and embedded analytics.

ThoughtSpot offers search-driven analytics with strong AI-powered insights, natural language querying, automated analysis, and interactive visual discovery. It is popular in organisations seeking fast, self-service intelligence.

Sisense is a modern analytics platform offering strong embedding capabilities, developer tools, and flexible architecture. It is often used for productised analytics, OEM cases, and complex embedded requirements.

Domo provides a cloud-based analytics platform with strong data integration, visualisation, and real-time dashboards. It is often used for operational visibility and executive reporting.

SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) offers integrated business intelligence, planning, and predictive capabilities, with strong alignment to SAP S/4HANA and SAP business applications.

Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) provides a broad suite of analytics, visualisation, and augmented insights capabilities, tightly integrated with Oracle’s data and application ecosystem.

IBM Cognos Analytics continues to be used widely for enterprise reporting, governed BI, and operational analytics, especially in large organisations with structured reporting needs.

MicroStrategy offers enterprise-grade analytics, strong governance, and high-performance semantic layers. It is often chosen for large-scale deployments requiring consistency and security.

Zoho Analytics provides cost-effective BI capabilities suitable for small to mid-sized organisations seeking reporting, dashboards, and integrated analytics without enterprise complexity.

Mode Analytics is popular with data teams for SQL-based exploration, collaborative analysis, and integration with Python/R notebooks alongside BI dashboards.

GoodData offers a cloud-native analytics platform often used for embedded analytics and scalable, multi-tenant reporting environments.

Yellowfin provides BI, dashboards, collaboration, and automated insights tools and continues to be adopted across mid-market and enterprise environments.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it represents the major and most active BI and Analytics solutions selected by UK and global organisations today.

How to Select the Right Business Intelligence & Analytics Software

Selecting the right BI and Analytics platform depends on data architecture, analytics maturity, user skill levels, governance requirements, visualisation needs, and cloud strategy.

Organisations should consider whether they require self-service analytics, enterprise reporting, predictive insights, embedded analytics, or a combination of all. The choice often depends on the size and skillset of the data team, the importance of governance, the complexity of the data model, and the need for integration with the organisation’s data warehouse, data lake, or semantic layer.

Large organisations often focus on governance, enterprise semantic models, scalability, row-level security, and integration with existing systems. Mid-market organisations may prioritise visualisation, ease of use, and speed of deployment. Smaller teams often value simplicity, intuitive design, and automation.

However, most organisations do not have the time to explore the full analytics market or understand the strengths and weaknesses of each platform - which is where an independent matchmaker can help.

Viewpoint Analysis Can Help

Viewpoint Analysis helps organisations find and select the right technology partners quickly and confidently.

Our Technology Matchmaker Service helps organisations explore new ideas, discover potential partners, and understand the BI and analytics landscape long before a formal project begins. It sees us:

• Interview your team to understand your challenge.

• Write-up a 'Challenge Statement' - issued to vendors you'd like to hear from.

• Matchmaker Presentations from the vendor community to present how they can help you.

Our Rapid Vendor Selection approach provides an accelerated, independent comparison of relevant analytics vendors - enabling teams to make well-informed decisions with minimal disruption to data operations.

Our 30-Day Technology Selection service is ideal for organisations wanting to rapidly shortlist and select a Business Intelligence or Analytics platform. We combine structured selection methods with market insight to cut months of work into a focused 30-day process.

If you'd like help selecting the right BI or analytics platform, choosing between shortlisted vendors, or exploring the Data & Analytics Technology market, Viewpoint Analysis can support you throughout.

Have we missed anything?

This list focuses on the major Business Intelligence and Analytics platforms used in the UK and internationally. If there is a vendor you think should be added, or if you would like help assessing whether a particular analytics tool is right for your organisation, please let us know - we’ll keep this list updated each year.

Want help exploring BI & Analytics options?

Visit www.viewpointanalysis.com or contact Viewpoint Analysis to begin your BI and analytics selection with clarity and confidence.