Real-time data analytics 'fire up sales and slash costs'

UK businesses are being urged to adopt real-time data analytics, with a new study revealing not only does the technology boost revenues and customer experience, British firms could ultimately save up to £25bn in costs.

The Speed to Business Value report from data analysis software specialist KX and business management consultancy the Centre for Economics & Business Research (Cebr) quizzed over 1,200 business decision-makers in four industry sectors across across the UK, US, France, Germany, Singapore, and Australia.

The top line is that 80% of companies have seen revenues soar, 98% have seen customer satisfaction rise and 60% have witnessed major efficiency and productivity gains since implementing the technology.

The study goes on to claim that real-time data analytics offers a potential revenue uplift of $2.6 trillion (£2.1tn) across the regions and sectors surveyed; a further $1.6tn (£1.3tn) of future additional revenue is also possible.

For customer experience, every sector and region reported positive gains in terms of customer satisfaction, such as faster service delivery; increased sales; better product quality; and reduced costs.

When it comes to costs, the study maintains that $321bn (£260bn) in non-staff-related operating costs have been saved thanks to real-time data analytics. Moreover, this number could rise to $379bn (£307bn) if real-time data analytics were fully implemented across all firms in the key industry sectors surveyed, the research claims.

Furthermore, the overall reduction in costs is a significant value outcome for every industry in almost every country. In the UK alone, the impact of real-time data was $25bn.

An estimated $321bn in cost is saved across all assessed industries, while full adoption of real-time data analytics for all firms across these industries could see this rise to almost $379bn.

Across most surveyed regions, organisations in manufacturing, finance, and telecoms all reported more efficient rollout processes when developing and launching new applications, products, and services after implementing real-time data systems.

The most positive impact was recorded in the telecoms sector, where 39% of all respondents stated a significant growth of positive feedback after implementing real-time data, and 52% stated moderate.

This includes the telecoms sector in the UK, where 86% of businesses reported more efficient rollout processes for new products and services after implementing real-time data systems.

Cebr head of economic advisory Owen Good said: “Our research sets out both the scale and breadth of the economic benefits supported by real-time data. We estimated significant company-level and macroeconomic benefits associated with both the current and potential utilisation of the technologies.

“Notably, we estimate that business-level gains from using real-time data – driven by productivity gains from more efficient processing and managing of data – resulted in an uplift of $7.4bn in gross value added across all six countries, with a further potential increase of $3.6bn if the benefits of real-time data were fully exploited.”

KX chief marketing officer Kathy Schneider added: “As the headline findings of this report show, by implementing real-time data analytics technologies, businesses globally can realise significant measurable business value.

“From process improvements to cost reductions and tangible impact on business revenues, the benefits are wide-reaching. This study provides a call to action for businesses not yet leveraging real-time streaming data to modernise their approach and not get left behind.”