Concept card

BARC — Data, BI & Analytics Trend Monitor 2026

As of 2026-07-24T14:00:00Z

Edited by Cédric-Olivier Mâry, sole editor and publication director — 27 years in the SAP ecosystem. How these pages are produced, and where automation is used.

What is BARC — Data, BI & Analytics Trend Monitor 2026?

BARC's 2026 practitioner survey ranks data quality and governance above AI features even amid the AI wave — a self-reported, vendor-neutral signal that's more defensible in a boardroom than any single vendor's roadmap.

What it is

BARC's Data, BI & Analytics Trend Monitor is the broadest of BARC's annual practitioner surveys, covering the full data, BI, and analytics landscape rather than the narrower CPM or data-management domains that BARC also tracks separately. The 2026 edition synthesises responses from several thousand data professionals worldwide, ranking topics by perceived importance and tracking how each one has moved year over year.

Why it exists and why it matters

Organisations need a vendor-neutral signal on where peer companies are actually investing attention and budget, and the Trend Monitor fills that gap with self-reported practitioner priorities rather than analyst opinion or vendor roadmap slides. That distinction is what makes it defensible in a boardroom: a client can dismiss a single vendor's pitch deck, but "several thousand of your peers ranked this the same way" is a harder claim to wave off. For an SAP analytics consultant building a business case, the Trend Monitor is a credibility instrument as much as a research artefact — it lets a proposal open with external validation instead of starting from the consultant's own assertion.

What the 2026 edition consistently surfaces

Why it matters

The headline finding is specific and useful in objection-handling: data quality/governance rank highest despite the AI wave, and AI-assisted analytics/NL querying entered the top-10 for the first time.
It's self-reported practitioner data, not analyst opinion — which is explicitly why it's more defensible in a boardroom than a single-vendor roadmap presentation.
The usage rule is explicit: use it to align discovery questions to 2026's dominant concerns, not as a substitute for a client-specific diagnostic, and not as ROI evidence (Gartner peer insights or client references serve that better).

Key points

Annual BARC practitioner survey, several thousand respondents globally — the broadest BARC research covering data + BI + analytics.
Scope: data + BI + analytics combined (distinct from CPM-only Monitor C279 and Data Management Monitor).
2026 edition data collected late 2025 / early 2026; headline findings publicly available, full ranking paywalled (BARC+).
Consistently top-ranked foundations: data quality, data governance, data-driven culture — above any specific AI feature.
2026 new entrants in top 10: AI-assisted analytics and natural-language querying — reflecting the post-LLM enterprise shift.
Ranks trends by perceived importance AND tracks year-over-year movement — the delta is as valuable as the absolute rank.
Strategic use: cite as peer-validation anchor in discovery and proposals; label as directional signal, not client-specific evidence.
In an SAP proposal, pair Trend Monitor governance/quality rankings with SAP Datasphere and BDC capability maps to show alignment.
Do not use as the primary ROI evidence — Gartner peer insights or verified client benchmarks serve that purpose.
Full peer-group rankings and vendor-specific scores require BARC+ subscription; public summaries name 2–3 headline themes only.

Terms used on this page

Trend Monitor: BARC's annual practitioner survey methodology — ranks topics by perceived importance among data professionals, tracking year-over-year movement across data, BI and analytics disciplines.
BARC+: BARC's subscription research tier giving access to full ranked reports, vendor scores, and peer-group breakdowns beyond the public teaser summaries.
Directional signal: A data point that indicates the direction of a trend without providing verified client-specific proof; useful for framing but must be labelled as such in proposals.
Data-driven culture: An organisational state in which decisions at all levels are habitually informed by data rather than intuition alone — consistently ranked as a top CPM and BI challenge in BARC surveys.
Data quality: The degree to which data is accurate, complete, timely, consistent, and fit for its intended analytical purpose — the perennial top concern in practitioner surveys including BARC.
Natural-language querying: The ability to interrogate a data model using conversational language rather than structured query syntax; a 2026 rising theme in BARC driven by LLM-embedded analytics tools.
Peer-validation anchor: A third-party, vendor-neutral data point used to reassure a client that their priorities are shared by similar organisations — reducing the perceived risk of a recommended approach.
Decision owner: The accountable person who accepts the trade-off and funds the next action.

Sources

Full card available to members. What the full card adds: the full decision framework · the SAP vs Snowflake / Databricks / Fabric comparison · the common pitfalls and their fix · the cheat sheet · the architecture schemas · the code blocks · the facts worth quoting.

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