Streaming data has become an essential cornerstone on which the growth and development of modern business are built. While, in the recent past, the focus had been ton Big Data storage and processing, this paradigm has shifted into realizing that insights are only useful if they are timely. Big Data still has its place, of course. Business intelligence is still a significant factor in determining how a company can improve its operations. However, for real-time insights and faster response times, nothing comes close to the implementation of streaming data analytics.
Real-Time Data Streaming On the Rise
Competition usually drives innovation. Businesses that can display a competitive advantage typically outpace their peers. The Tech Republic notes that more companies are looking into the viability of streaming data analytics because of the edge it offers them. Streaming data analytics is the cutting edge of technology, although the skill level needed to implement the technology properly remains high. As more developers realize the demand for this skill is skyrocketing, they are leaning towards learning how to best adapt to the market to provide that skill. As time goes on, the cost of implementing and maintaining analytics processing in this way will become more affordable.
Why Does a Business Need Real-Time Data?
From faster response times to adapt to market changes to better customer experience, a company can see several benefits in all of its departments from merely switching their analytics from a backward-facing model to a forward-facing one. If a company wants to be competitive in the modern marketplace, it needs to adapt to the changing technological landscape or be lost to obsolescence. Among the benefits that companies that implement streaming data analytics can hope to achieve are:
Performance Tracking: From the manufacturing floor to the marketing teams, incoming information has the power to motivate employees. By using real-time analytics, workers can get a more accurate representation of their contributions and can be better informed of how far off they are from their personal goals.
Efficient Operations: Real-time analytics has the benefit of allowing a business to monitor its manufacturing process in great detail. In the unlikely event of a problem within the system, immediate alerts mean that the department can suspend the manufacturing process so that repairs can take place. The result is less downtime for the manufacturing department and less lost income for the company.
Better Insights: Adapting a business to the needs of the market depends upon the ability of the company’s executive to understand insights and apply timely responses. Real-time analytics lowers the amount of time between the collection of data and the production of insights. With less lag-time between collection and processing, companies can be more agile in their responses to market shifts.
Enhanced Customer Service: Companies are only as good as their customers think they are. Real-time analytics enables a business to respond to consumers quickly and enable them to offer up-to-date insights into the company’s production. My Customer mentions that as much as 44% of consumers expect a response to an email query within four hours, something that businesses that are on top of their game can provide.
Real-Time Data Covers More than Analytics
Companies that are implementing real-time data streams aren’t just using it to figure out analytics to benefit the company, however. As Forbes notes, as much as 75% of the real-time data streams that businesses use aren’t even related to analytics but are used for system integration instead. System integration sees companies take their existing data streams and divert them to other departments where that data will be useful to make decisions. In combination with other emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, businesses can train their systems to process incoming data streams and automatically adjust factors like production and distribution.
Developing Real-Time Business Intelligence
At the heart of all the real-time streaming data that a business uses, lies the idea of making the company more competitive. Business intelligence has traditionally been concerned with taking existing data and turning it into actionable insight. Real-time business intelligence offers several benefits over traditional approaches, including making the business aware of its current situation and its near-future prospects. Companies such as Imply have designed training tools for companies to understand how to utilize real-time data stream analysis to aid their organizations’ decisions.
What Does the Future of Data Look Like?
Five years ago, most experts believed that Big Data was the future of data. Today, many of them think it’s streaming data. Big Data still has a place in business analytics, but it suffers from a lot of the same problems that the systems it replaced did. Real-time data processing using streams is where businesses want to be. The stumbling block is usually finding expertise in the field to leverage for the company’s benefit. Investing in this methodology for business analytics is likely to hold a lot of promise, and businesses should seek to do so if they want to future-proof their operations.
16 total views, 16 views today
