Large to medium companies are always looking for working strategies to outshine competitors and increase customer retention and profitability. One of the proven strategies is data-driven decision-making. This involves collecting quantitative and qualitative research data and transforming it into actionable insights that benefit the company’s goals and objectives.
Beyond making the right decisions backed by data, companies must also create a working strategy around how their values will be delivered. The associated data must be delivered in real-time to ensure a good user experience.
In this article, we will explore what real-time data is and how companies can leverage it to avoid the cost of data delays.
What is real-time data?
Data is said to be in real-time when delivered or presented as soon as it is acquired. Ideally, there should be no delays or other bottlenecks in the timing of the information provided between the source and the consuming application.
The basic principle of real-time data is to deliver data directly to end users instead of storing it in a repository. However, end users are not always guaranteed instant data delivery. The data infrastructure and differences in bandwidth, among other factors, can affect real-time data delivery.
Below are some of the common use cases of real-time data:
- Stock trading applications use real-time analytics to give users better insights and help them react swiftly to changes;
- Ride-hailing applications use real-time data to analyze and understand traffic situations;
- Supply chain operations use real-time data feeds to reduce operational risk through better management and planning for demand and supply;
- The finance industry uses real-time data to detect stock manipulation and prevent money laundering.
Why real-time data is important
The modernization of businesses and ever-changing customer demands have necessitated the integration of real-time functionality into a company’s product. Below, we will explore some of the reasons why:
Better decision making
With real-time data in place, companies can go a step further to integrate analytic tools that give timely insights that companies can use to optimize their business faster than competitors. Team members can also create and share insights through dashboards, reports, and notification triggers.
Cost savings
The return on investment (ROI) in real-time data is quick as companies can easily monitor system performance, proactively troubleshoot, and reduce operational costs.
Improved security and outage management
With real-time data in place, companies can proactively monitor every aspect of their businesses and better manage issues like security breaches and outages.
User satisfaction
With real-time data, companies can improve product experience through personalization and instantly offering users the required information. The overall experience is greatly improved.
Overall improvement
With real-time data, companies can quickly adapt and adopt data-based practices to drive revenue and increase income.
Limitations of implementing real-time data
Like any other technology, real-time data has limitations that companies must consider when building and maintaining such an infrastructure. Below are some of the limitations to implementing and maintaining real-time data:
Tolerance
Real-time data is designed to flow continuously to where it’s needed. Achieving and maintaining such a system with data streaming from multiple sources and in different formats without barriers or disruptions can be daunting.
Scalability
Applications using real-time data can see a tremendous increase in data volume. Such a system must have a proper mechanism for peak and off-peak periods.
Latency
Since real-time data are volatile and change rapidly, a proper mechanism must be implemented to cater for latency with a grace period of seconds or milliseconds.
Beyond the points mentioned above, the cost of infrastructure, maintenance, and human resources still plays a major role in implementing real-time data. Companies ranging from medium to large enterprises must carefully consider their real-time data requirement by either building from scratch and handling all the technology overhead or outsourcing to a third-party provider.
Companies don’t have to break the bank to meet their real-time data need. Mia-Platform Fast Data makes real-time data accessible via a secure and accessible API or Event.
Saving costs with Mia-Platform Fast Data
One of the most important technology-related decisions companies have to make is to either build a solution from scratch or outsource via a third-party service. This section will explore how Mia-Platform Fast Data can help companies make better decisions.
What is Mia-Platform Fast Data?
Mia-Platform Fast Data is a set of microservices that provides performant and around-the-clock data. It aggregates business data from multiple sources into a single source of truth accessible via a user-friendly interface.
