Real-Time Business Needs Smarter, Faster Data

Real-time business is a critical design point for corporate IT and network strategies. In general, companies at all revenue levels in the last 12 months have laid some type of foundation to support streaming information.

Board members and steering committees at three in four of the nearly 200 small and midsize companies in InformationWeek Research's recent Real-Time Business study have asked their IT teams to improve the quality and speed of company data reaching their desks. And nine in 10 executives at billion-dollar companies in our study have made these requests to IT executives.

Smaller companies have focused chiefly on building out networks and E-mail systems as well as investing in network administrative software. Larger companies have concentrated on improving data warehousing and implementing data-analysis tools to improve the flow of information.

Concern about financial reporting and the need to analyze economic data for better decision-making have made financial reporting tools a priority for companies of all sizes. Web services are another critical element.

How are you making real-time business a reality? Let us know.

Rusty Weston,
Editor, Research
([email protected])

Inventory Know-How
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Just as excessive inventory can cripple business profitability, so, too, can the lack of components. Inventory-management tools are the key investment made to compress the time it takes to push operational data to managers' desks, some companies say. About one in four of the 467 IT professionals surveyed report that inventory-management tools were purchased in the past 12 months to aid this business process.