The exponential benefits that knowledge in the form of data brings has propelled us into the data age. All organizations, big and small, understand that today, in order to stay ahead of the curve, they have to leverage data. However, as competition in the marketplace intensifies, the need for instant and more accurate data analysis climbs up the priority lists of organizations across the globe. Given that the flow of data is increasing at high speed, it becomes imperative that organizations are able to process and analyze this data faster so that they can identify and capitalize on opportunities that would otherwise miss. This need had led to the rise of real-time analytics that allows organizations to process and analyze data at a much faster speed and allows them to tailor business decisions according to the need of the hour.
Take the retail sector for example. This holiday season, over USD $24.5 billion is expected to come through the door. Considering that the retailers are flooded with volumes of consumer purchasing data, they can employ real-time analytics to glean intelligent insights and make valuable business decisions. It enables them to provide hyper-personalized buying experiences, make their advertising initiatives more targeted, and also optimize the in-store experience.
Clearly, real-time analytics is a quantum leap in the realm of data analytics as it allows instantaneous information generation by processing and analyzing data that was loaded on the system, not more than a minute ago. In this blog, we take a look at some of the reasons behind the growing importance of real-time analytics.
Current and Relevant Information
In real-time analytics, the data processing system, instead of storing, retrieving and then processing the data at a later stage, captures, integrates, analyzes and reports the data in real-time. Real-time analytics, thus, provides business information that is more current and on-demand which makes it easier for decision makers to keep their finger on the pulse of every aspect of the business to take it to the next level.
Immediate Error Identification
Since the information provided by real-time analytics is based on current data, it helps organizations identify process loopholes that impact the organization negatively. These real-time insights help organizations identify, tap, mitigate, and resolve operational errors immediately. Given the competitive marketplace of today, the inability to resolve these errors can lead to operational failures and customer dissatisfaction. For example, logistics companies can leverage real-time analytics to optimize routes, ensure faster delivery, implement safe driving skills, and economize fuel consumption and in the end, improve on-time performance by evaluating patterns of errant and normal behavior.
Better Sales Insights
Real-time analytics presents organizations with better sales insights and helps customer service executives with greater customer insights. Real-time sales analytics can show how product pricing can be best optimized, make sales prospecting more targeted and give sales leaders clearer and immediate visibility of all prospecting activities. Instead of relying on the subjective ‘gut feeling’, with real-time analytics, sales leaders can perfect their processes and performance based on objective and current data.
Better Campaign Monitoring
One of the greatest benefits of real-time analytics lies in campaign monitoring. With the help of real-time data, marketers can determine the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and measure not only how the audience is reacting to their campaign but also see where their visitors are coming from, how they are interacting with the campaign and assess if they need to change the campaign parameters based on the data at hand. As the data at hand is recent and, thus, more relevant, it can help marketers make the campaigns more personalized by providing micro-personalized offers that can be delivered via the web or mobile apps and thus strengthen customer relationships which ultimately help in driving sales.
Clearer Financial Analysis
Real-time analytics also enables organizations to improve the accuracy and speed of their financial analysis. Online analytical processing tools help in reducing the time to generate reports that would normally take days to a couple of hours as these tools link directly to the database and do not require data staging. Real-time analytics enables the presentation of up-to-the-minute reporting of the key financial transactions and prevents disruptions through timely financial reporting.
Better Network Diagnostics
Real-time analytics also aids competitive advantage by providing network diagnostics by producing predictive reports that identify dangerous and malware ridden websites. With the help of these diagnostic toolsets, organizations gain 360 degrees, real-time visibility of their network traffic and thus prevent network security breaches.
Improved Predictive Maintenance
Oil and gas, manufacturing, production and exploration industries that depend on capital intensive assets can leverage real-time analytics for predictive maintenance. These organizations can correlate current real-time analytics with historical data to study trends and build predictive models to reduce machine downtime and identify when machine maintenance should be performed. By providing the right information at the correct time, predictive maintenance prevents unpredicted machine failures, reduce unnecessary field service calls, optimize spare part management and replacement and ultimately improve machine performance and customer satisfaction.
Analytics is all about expanding insights and gaining greater visibility into passive touchpoints that can make a difference in the organizational bottom line. With real-time analytics, organizations can make faster, more precise and effective decisions that can make a competitive difference and help them achieve greater efficiency.