The real-time enterprise

Chirag Kasbekar
25 December 2002

Think about it for a moment. How fast would the message — the poke — reach the decision-makers, the ‘brain’ of the organisation (wherever that might be), and how fast would they react? Chances are, not very fast. Days or weeks, perhaps, maybe months.

While this was fine in the past when you could be reasonably assured that your competitors also worked the same way, you might have to worry about the future.

Applying technology to business processesThis issue was dealt with at length at a conference (IBM Forum 2002 held in Mumbai on 26 November 2002) on e-business solutions for enterprises in India organised by IBM. One of the main themes was the ‘real-time enterprise’ that works on up-to-the-minute information from customers, suppliers, employees and others to make real-time analyses for immediate responses to situations.

As organisations the world over are moving fast to apply technology to business processes, they are moving ever closer to such a real-time enterprise. Indian companies might do well to understand this trend and try to follow it to the extent they can.

The gains are clear. In an environment where change happens by the minute, taking decisions based on days-old information leaves an organisation vulnerable to attack by nimbler rivals. You also need to replace intuitive guesses about the present with hard data. This can be achieved if all parts of the enterprise are connected well enough for them to get immediate access to what they need.

All participants in the ‘extended enterprise’ stand to gain from the greater connectedness and richer information environment that technology can provide. That includes customer and suppliers as well as managers and other employees. All of them can have their needs addressed much more quickly.