What is a real-time business?

real-time business (noun)

An enterprise intentionally organized to be able to respond immediately to opportunities and challenges.

Enterprises perform better when they automate and digitize key business processes and enable faster decisions by employees. These so-called real-time businesses are able to create and consolidate data in real time to provide answers to customers and employees faster and help product teams iterate more quickly to gain market share.

In a study of nearly 260 companies by Insight Partners and the MIT Center for Information Systems Research, firms that ranked in the top quartile for their real-time business operations were 22% better at operational efficiency, 20% better at innovation, and 17% better at risk management than those in the bottom quartile.

Researchers from the center identified four capabilities that drive real-time business operations:

1. The use of real-time data for decision-making, for automated systems and employees alike.
2. An integrated customer experience that helps buyers navigate their journey, complete with product recommendations, self-service support, and real-time fulfillment.
3. Business agility that helps leadership react to opportunities or threats without the need for layers of approvals or bureaucratic change management processes.
4. A high-quality employee experience that automates repetitive tasks, leaving workers with more time to focus on process improvements and make individual contributions to company performance.

4 capabilities of a real-time business | MIT Sloan