Extending the Radar Considerations

Candidate processes for real-time initiatives include those that can be streamlined to provide better service for customers and business partners, those that can take advantage of time-dependent opportunities for revenue generation, and those that provide opportunities for cost-avoidance by meeting regulatory deadlines or minimizing fines and penalties. Processes that can minimize downtime in operations are also strong candidates.

Return on investment for real-time computing generally comes from increased productivity and potentially from penalty avoidance, increased revenue generation capabilities, and minimized downtime.

Return on investment (real-time computing) = (Cost savings from increased productivity + Cost savings from penalty avoidance + Increased revenues + Cost savings from minimized downtime) / Cost of real-time initiative

Soft benefits related to real-time computing can include increased competitive advantage, improved responsiveness, and customer satisfaction. With real-time analysis and rules engines added to the real-time infrastructure, the business can also increase its business agility by enabling a variety of potential responses to business exceptions.

The real-time enterprise undoubtedly requires considerable intelligence and flexibility to become embedded into its computing systems in order to extract the most value from real-time initiatives. When this is accomplished, the sizable investments in upgrading infrastructure to become capable of real-time computing can yield sizable returns for the business. For the most part, real-time computing is a high-cost, high-reward value proposition.