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Real-time Analytics Best
Practices

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Page 2 of 6 Sponsored by
Real-time Analytics
Best Practices
Contents
Real-time analytics
aims to boost
businesses’speedof
thought
Real-time analytics
brings BI data directly
into business
operations
Many organizations are looking to make their
businesssystems“smarter” through the additionof
integrated analyticscapabilities. One of the driving forcesis
a desire to improve decision making by undoing the usual
decoupling of businessintelligence andanalytics systems
from businessapplications. In thisE-Guide, readerscanlearn
tips on gaining a competitive advantage by driving
operationaldecision makingin realor near realtime.
Real-time analytics aims toboost businesses’ speedof
thought
In an interview published on TechTarget's ebizQ website in 2011, Gartner
analyst Roy Schulte discussed efforts by a growing number of the consulting
company's clients to make their business systems "smarter" through the
addition of integrated analytics capabilities. One of the driving forces Schulte
cited was a desire to improve decision making -- on the fly -- by undoing the
usual decoupling of business intelligence and advanced analytics systems
from business applications. "There's a gap between what the business
intelligence department knows and what the people running the business
know," he said in the interview.
Schulte still sees lots of value in closing that gap: Interviewed again for a
recent series of stories on real-time data analytics, he told
SearchBusinessAnalytics.com contributor Beth Stackpole that every
company has operational processes requiring immediate decisions, and that
having access to real-time business intelligence (BI) and analytics data can
help business users make more effective decisions in such situations.
Real-time -- or, more commonly, near-real-time -- analytics is particularly
popular with Wall Street trading firms and managers of corporate call
centers. But it also has uses in transportation, health care and other
industries. If your organization is looking to go down the real-time analysis
road, you'll find practical advice on evaluating, planning and managing

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Page 3 of 6 Sponsored by
Real-time Analytics
Best Practices
Contents
Real-time analytics
aims to boost
businesses’speedof
thought
Real-time analytics
brings BI data directly
into business
operations
deployments in our series. In one story, we examine the business case for
real-time analytics. We also look at the benefits and challenges of combining
big data and real-time BI systems. And we detail real-time data analysis best
practices -- as well as some steps that are best to avoid in real-time rollouts.
Real-time analytics bringsBI datadirectly intobusiness
operations
By Beth Stackpole
Looking to generate immediate improvements in business performance and
gain a competitive edge on rivals, companies increasingly are trying to take
advantage of business intelligence and analytics tools not just to garner
strategic insights, but also to drive operational decision making in real or near
real time.
Real-time analytics -- or operational intelligence, as many prefer to call it --
has been heralded as the next logical progression for BI deployments.
Nevertheless, consultants say real-time tools are still in the early stages of
technology maturity and that implementations are far more prevalent in larger
companies with sizeable IT budgets and deep benches of BI and analytics
professionals.
"Simple kinds of real-time or near-real-time analytics are within the budget of
virtually every company," said Roy Schulte, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in
Stamford, Conn. As an example, he cited a business dashboard that gets
refreshed every five minutes to monitor the volume of incoming customer
calls received at a corporate contact center. But, Schulte added, more
powerful real-time analysis systems "can require hundreds of thousands of
dollars in software license fees and several times that in staff costs to
develop and deploy."
Schulte said real-time BI technology gives business users or automated
systems immediate access to operational data. The goal is to enable
analytics applications to be applied to business processes that have limited
time windows or require rapid reactions to events and changing conditions.

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Page 4 of 6 Sponsored by
Real-time Analytics
Best Practices
Contents
Real-time analytics
aims to boost
businesses’speedof
thought
Real-time analytics
brings BI data directly
into business
operations
Sales offers on the spot with real-time tools
In that scenario, a real-time BI system might help a customer service
representative make a cross-selling or up-selling offer to a customer based
on his recent activity on the company's website or something said during the
phone call. "Any large company has a number of applications in which their
business processes would be smarter and more effective if they were using
real-time analytics," Schulte contended.
In fact, with the cost of processing power coming down and more tools
becoming available, it's going to become easier to make a business case for
real-time analytics beyond the traditional use cases in call centers and
financial and trading applications, said John Myers, senior BI and data
warehousing analyst at Enterprise Management Associates Inc., a research
and consulting company in Boulder, Colo.
"With the barrier to entry lowering, it starts to open up a whole new realm of
things people can do," he said. For example, a retailer could push real-time
data analytics to the cash register level, according to Myers. In such an
application, the analytics system could serve up a simple alert that would
direct the cashier to make specific offers to customers based on what they
were buying as well as their previous purchases and risk scores assessing
their payment and credit histories.
Being able to make BI-driven decisions as events unfold can be especially
important when customer satisfaction is at stake. "Companies used to be
able to look at [key performance indicators] every three months to see how
they were doing," said John Crupi, chief technology officer at JackBe Corp.,
a vendor of real-time analytics software in Chevy Chase, Md. "Now, if there's
a problem impacting customers and you don't find out about it for a few
weeks, you won't have your customers for too long."
Real-time not always the right BI fit
Even with all its potential, real-time business intelligence and analytics is
certainly not a match for every company or every BI business case.
Organizations need to think through whether providing end users access to

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Page 5 of 6 Sponsored by
Real-time Analytics
Best Practices
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Real-time analytics
aims to boost
businesses’speedof
thought
Real-time analytics
brings BI data directly
into business
operations
the most current data will actually change business outcomes and results --
or just flood them with more data to no great effect.
"Not every instance requires real-time data," said Lyndsay Wise, president
and founder of WiseAnalytics, a Toronto-based consultancy that focuses on
BI and data visualization deployments in midmarket companies. "It depends
not on how quickly you need the data, but what are you going to do with the
data and where are the action points."
An online retailer might benefit from using real-time analytics to help it better
service customers or manage product inventories more effectively, Wise
said. But giving business executives updated views of sales data in real or
near real time isn't so useful if that information doesn't precipitate any
immediate actions on their part. To properly assess the need for real-time
capabilities, she added, organizations need to look closely "at the cause and
effect" of proposed deployments.

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Page 6 of 6 Sponsored by
Real-time Analytics
Best Practices
Contents
Real-time analytics
aims to boost
businesses’speedof
thought
Real-time analytics
brings BI data directly
into business
operations
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