In a business world that moves faster than ever before, decision-makers are constantly under pressure to size up challenges, weigh their options and execute a plan that best guides the organizations toward its objectives. This can apply to situations ranging from customer service to operations, sales to marketing and everything in between. In short, speed is of the essence in the modern business environment, and leaders must be sure to not sacrifice precision as they accelerate their decision-making processes.

Of course, even the most talented and experienced managers cannot feasibly boost the speed and accuracy of their decisions on their own. They, therefore, must deploy technologies and coordinate processes that support them in their efforts to achieve this lofty standard of fast-paced and precise decision-making.

Luckily, real-time analytics systems are now more prevalent than ever, and countless options are available on the market to deploy in specialized, strategic contexts. Here’s a closer look at the power of real-time analytics and how to take full advantage of its potential.

Expectations at an all-time high
While stakeholder pressure is often a primary motivator for momentum in business, the modern consumer is really driving the demand for speed and certainty in the boardroom and throughout operations. As revealed in a recent article for InformationWeek, factors such as time-sensitive service, multi-channel support and stiffer overall competition has pushed real-time analytics to the point of necessity for industries of all types.

“Demand for speed and certainty is high for modern decision-makers.”

In a call center scenario, this means quickly crunching numbers on call accounting, workforce utilization, first call resolution and other metrics.

“Because end users have come to expect short load times, personalization, and updates in real time, it is vital to replace legacy architectures with a real-time data pipeline to capture, process, analyze, and serve massive amounts of data to millions of users,” explained Ankur Goyal, vice president of engineering at MemSQL, according to the news source.

Superior protection against risk
Aside from the need for stronger, faster service, decision-makers must also combat risk in a more tactical and dynamic manner. Real-time analytics systems enable this through the faster identification of risk and improved recommendations for recourse when issues can no longer be prevented proactively. InformationWeek noted that while every industry has its own set of risks, the power of real-time analytics remains intact across verticals, providing leaders with the ability to address risk in a timely and informed capacity.

“When we think about

[our] major pillars – self-service, productivity, customer retention, fraud and cross-sell – they’re all based on this near-real-time/real-time capability,” said Jon Nordhausen, vice president of product strategy at financial services technology solutions provider Fiserv, as quoted by the source.

The age of analytics may have just begun, but expectations for faster, more accurate solutions are already well-established. It’s time for decision-makers in every corner of the corporate environment to determine how they can benefit from the use of real-time analysis platforms and deploy these systems with confidence and expert support.