Analysts are used to results of their data analysis varying from the actual situation, and the delta (the variation of the variable or from mean) being more than zero. This is because of the lag between data collection and data analysis. However, advancements in computing have made real time business intelligence (BI)** and real time alerts possible, and delivers the hitherto unprecedented state of a perfect zero delta!
** The methodology involved in real time BI is broadly known as CDC (Change Data Capture) where the tool conducts a polling on the live systems at a very short interval (can be even 5-10 seconds) and if it comes across any changes (or anomalies), it just reflects and updates the changes only, does not take the whole snapshot into consideration.
In today’s fast-paced world where changes happen by the minute, historic data is becoming increasingly inadequate to make informed decisions. Insightful decisions now require real-time analysis of high-volume streaming data and correlating the same with historic data.
More and more businesses are now using sensors, GPS, and other devices to undertake the constant analysis of streaming big data from business processes and events as they happen, so they can get complete business insight in milliseconds and take informed decisions instantly. The resultant delta of zero opens up a world of possibilities for the enterprise.
1. Improved Sales Management
Real time BI with a delta of zero facilitates evaluation and management of sales and operations in real time. Marketers may correlate inventory data with truck manifest data and truck location data to direct the nearest truck to a store running out of inventory of a fast moving item, or even deliver the product to a customer who has purchased online, in record time.
2. Understand Business Situations
Real time BI, based on both real-time and latent data, offers a complete view of the business situations. Consider the case of a product recurring in abandoned shopping carts. This could unearth potential issues with the abandoned product, which may be erroneous product price or positioning, or a competing site offering something better. The insight offered by real time BI helps the marketer run a promotion and close more sale of the product, thereby converting a crisis into an opportunity.
3. Identify Trends
Real time alerts help marketers and business managers identify trends as they emerge, gain full visibility into the situation on hand and make fast and informed decisions. For instance, it helps marketers discern a social media sentiment or pattern, and correct it as it evolves. A disgruntled customer may upload a video on a defective product, which is going viral. Historical analytics is useless to contain the fall-out. With real time alerts, the marketing team could reach out to the dissatisfied customer proactively, to assuage him, or unleash an effective counter-campaign that addresses the criticism raised in the video.
4. Improved Customer Satisfaction
Real time BI, with a delta of zero to boot, is of incalculable help to offer a premium customer experience. It sheds light on customer behavior as it happens, across all channels – web, mobile, and social. The stakes are high, considering that even a few seconds of additional time to access content on a mobile device can lead to serious customer satisfaction issues and big churn. Applying real time BI help business managers not just identify such issues, but also unearth potential causes of such issues, to make real-time improvements. In such situations, any delay making amends, even by a few hours, could cause irreversible damage in reputation and patronage.
5. Gain New Insights
At times, real time alerts that throw up a delta of perfect zero become useful to unearth useful insights in its own right. For example, conventional analytics that analyze sales data may show the profitability of most customers as high. However, when filtered through the lens of real time BI, incorporating non-sales customer touch points and channels, web logs, GPS coordinates, and more, many customers who demand excessive phone support, require field service for broken products, and are located in an isolated area that drives up shipping and service costs, may actually be unprofitable.
Speedy decisions based on the latest and most accurate information are a key driver of competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced world. Conneqt Business Solutions offers robust and flexible BI-Analytics solutions across domains and industry verticals that further this end. Our comprehensive offering covers the entire gamut of BI activities including maturity assessment, data model designs, streamlined reports, what-if analyses, data mining and more, all geared at allowing your organization to unleash the potential of latent data.