Frost & Sullivan awards Microsoft the Market Leadership Award for Business Intelligence for the year 2006. This award goes to the company that has exhibited market share leadership through the implementation of market strategy. Microsoft has displayed excellence in all areas of the market leadership process, including the identification of market challenges, drivers and restraints, as well as strategy development and methods of addressing market dynamics.

At the occasion, Mr. Vaibhav Phadnis, Director Server Business Group, Microsoft India said "SQL Server 2005, our flagship Business Intelligence offering helps further enhance Microsoft's leadership in Business Intelligence through innovations in scalability, data integration, development tools, and rich analytics. SQL Server 2005 enables scalable business intelligence by putting critical, timely information in the hands of employees across the organization".

Microsoft is the market leader with 21.3 percent market share. Its offerings comprising of SQL Server 2005 and Office Business Applications such as Business Score Card Manager, Duet, & Proclarity have enabled it to lead the market in 2005. Microsoft also exhibited an impressive growth rate of 77 percent over the last year 2004.

While presenting the award, Mr. Alok Shende, Vice President Information & Communication Technologies Practice, Frost and Sullivan, said, "While Microsoft's leadership in Business Intelligence is definitely a significant milestone; it is equally emblematic of the strides that Microsoft is making in the database market."

Indian Business Intelligence market was worth $47.4 million in 2005 with a growth rate of 44 percent over the previous year. Maturity of operational transactional systems such as ERP, OLTP, CRM and so on, which generate high volumes of data and regulatory compliance issues, are among the primary factors driving the BI market in India. Frost & Sullivan expects the Indian BI market to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.7 percent between 2004 and 2012.

To choose the recipient of this award, the analysts track competitor revenues and market share within the industry. Interviews with market participants and extensive secondary research of proprietary data sources help in this. Finally, there is comparing and ranking of competitors for relative positions. Frost & Sullivan then presents the award to the company that received the number one industry rank.