The good old days of a slow-paced world are long gone. The world is rapidly changing, and so are customer preferences.
The product life cycles are shrinking. It will shrink even further, with rapid strides in technological advancements and changing economic conditions. Deloitte has come up with the term that “Uber others or run the risk of being kodaked.” This couldn’t have been truer.
It’s no more about just doling out the best product and customer service. Faster time to market and adapting the products or services to the ever-changing customer demands are also of paramount importance.
In such a scenario, it’s not only about collecting and analyzing data, but also generating actionable insights – in real time – to be always ahead of the customer.
Here we try to outline some of the benefits that businesses can derive through real-time data analytics across various industries-
Manufacturing: Predictive maintenance to reduce the downtime
Let us look at the most prevalent type of data analytics in real time which is being widely used in the manufacturing industry.
Under their smart manufacturing initiatives, manufacturing companies embed sensors with various products as well as the assets on the shop floor. These sensors continuously send across data to the control system. This stream of data is captured and monitored in real time to gauge the asset health and detect an anomaly.
Companies like Otis elevators and organizations like L&T construction are leveraging such capabilities in predictive maintenance and subsequently for reducing asset downtime. This optimizes the operations, increases customer satisfaction, and loyalty.
Banking and Tech Industry: Arresting attrition for customers as well as employees
Needless to say, attrition of customers and employees adversely affects the bottom-line of organizations. There are quite a few KPIs which need to be analyzed in real time to predict the chances of this churn.
Banks are already putting several algorithms in place to predict and prevent customer churn. Citibank is a leader in this space. It is extremely necessary that such KPIs be measured real-time for actionable insights, or otherwise, it is too late.
On similar lines, HR analytics to arrest employee turnover is already a big thing in the tech industry. KPIs are monitored in real time to predict and analyze employee engagement. Employees who earlier showed greater participation and now showing reduced interest in company activities are flagged and necessary steps are taken re-ignite the interest.
Disaster Management
Just imagine, how much of disaster can be minimized if we have a real time update about the cyclones and earthquakes occurring globally. Today, several parameters are monitored from the satellites and any anomaly in seismic movement or change in wind patterns is immediately identified.
Based on this, disasters are predicted and appropriate steps like evacuation are taken to minimize loss of lives and property. In one such example, real-time analytics was implemented by the US government to predict the spread of swine flu and they ensured the availability of medicines beforehand. These are just some of the use cases exemplifying the benefits of real-time analytics.
Supply Chain: Fleet management
Real-time analytics is paramount for logistics companies.
Most of the eCommerce companies are highly dependent on this aspect. When the buyers can track their package in real-time, it has a tremendous positive impact on customer satisfaction.
The concept of real-time analytics is also being implemented to optimize the last-mile delivery. By tracking customer demand and by implementing Monte Carlo simulation, routes are modified to maximize fulfillment. The upside is also that any traffic-related delays can also be avoided.
Financial: Fraud detection
Fifty percent of the organizations globally have been a victim of financial frauds.
To avoid financial frauds, many governments around the world are setting up independent institutions to do a real-time network analysis to monitor transactions and flag the suspicious ones.
By getting a 360-degree view of various customers and their transaction histories, the government agencies can gauge the intent of cash flows and see whether any financial crime is taking place or if any blacklisted organizations are the beneficiaries or not. By principle, it has to be done real time, as the primary goal is to prevent the crime from happening. Similarly, many banks are also monitoring transactions in real time to avoid financial frauds.
Competitive Advantage
When properly implemented, real-time data analytics can provide a competitive advantage to enterprises. It is no wonder that various industries such as banking, retail, security, and manufacturing are showing a strong interest in real-time analytics. By accurately understanding what the customers want, they are able to provide the right services at the right time.
After all, in this era of data-driven decision-making, how quickly an organization is able to infer actionable insights is going to determine whether an organization will perform or perish!