The U.S. monitors terrorist activities and other threats to the nation through the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA. They hire highly specialized investigators, spies and analysts to gather information or more popularly known as "intel". In the business world, there is what we call business intelligence and it is responsible for researching and analyzing customer purchases. This sector is responsible for gathering important intel for companies.

Business Intelligence and Analytics is part of the IT sector, one of the fastest growing sectors today. The IDC has researched that the IT sector will earn over $50 billion by 2016. This is due to consumers and companies willing to spend more than $200 billion in total from 2013 to 2016. But, what does BI have to do with the increase in spending in the IT sector?

Chief Intelligence Officers (CIO) are really not baffled with this information. Business intelligence and analytics is not cheap. To fund the resources needed, a good deal of money will be involved. CIOs know that to gather business data as well as consumer data, companies must be prepared to spend a lot. However, what's surprising here is that companies will overspend for business intelligence and analytics.

How much will companies be overspending on business intelligence this year? The figure points to 20 percent which equates to $40 billion. To give you an idea on what companies will be overspending on, here are the areas of focus:

* Vendor pricing on software licenses will inflate. Hence, companies will pay for the software at a value higher than the fair market price.

* Companies will overspend on business intelligence implementation projects. In the coming years, implementations will be more complex and expensive.

* Companies will overspend on annual costs such as maintenance, support and subscription renewal costs. Every year, these rates go higher and higher.

* There will be overspending on enhancing the functionality of the business intelligence system. Companies will always want to upgrade it.

This begs the question, will companies be willing to overspend on business intelligence and analytics? Most likely, they are. BI and analytics are very powerful tools for any company and it's a worthwhile investment. However, to optimize its benefits, companies must be prepared to pay or shall I say, overpay.

However, companies can do some research to possibly lower down the costs. They should also be wise about whom to purchase from. Usually, these companies will be locked in with the vendor for years and there is always a possibility that cheaper offers will come out in a year or two.