Stripe is not alone. In today’s digital world, data analysis is increasingly delivered directly to business customers and individual users, allowing real-time, continuous insights to shape user experiences. Ride-hailing apps calculate prices and estimate times of arrival (ETAs) in near-real time. Financial platforms deliver real-time cash-flow analysis. Customers expect and reward data-driven services that reflect what is happening now.
In fact, having the capability to collect and analyze data in real time correlates with companies’ ability to grow. Business leaders that scored company in the top quartile for real-time operations saw 50% higher revenue growth and net margins, compared to companies placed in the bottom quartile, according to a survey conducted by the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) and Insight Partners. The top companies focused on automated processes and fast decision-making at all levels, relying on easily accessible data services updated in real time.
Companies that wait on data are putting themselves in a bind, says Kishore Gopalakrishna, co-founder and CEO of StarTree, a real-time data-analytics technology provider. “The basis of real-time analytics is—when the value of the data is very high—we want to capitalize on it instead of waiting and doing batch analytics,” he says. “Getting access to the data a day, or even hours, later is sometimes actually too late.”
This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff. It was researched, designed, and written entirely by human writers, editors, analysts, and illustrators. This includes the writing of surveys and collection of data for surveys. AI tools that may have been used were limited to secondary production processes that passed thorough human review.