Why " Real-Time" Business Takes Real Time

Equally alluring to Plzak is the prospect of charting how a special promotion is faring hour by hour. That way, if a new item made no impression at 10 stores, even as it sold briskly at 20 other outlets, managers could instantly take steps to figure out whether, say, a shipping glitch was to blame. Right now, it takes about a day for point-of-sale data to get back to headquarters, and even a daylong wait can impose a serious handicap on decision making -- especially during a peak holiday selling season.

But Plzak warns that real-time data mastery probably won't be at hand for his company until sometime after 2002. While he praises the adaptability of the Tibco software, he notes that it functions mainly as an overlay on the Limited's existing systems for monitoring sales, inventory, and so forth. Building seamless connections between old and new software will mean months of work for the Limited's computing department, and a rollout isn't likely to begin until this year's holiday selling season has come and gone.

In other cases, customers are opting for more serious delays in their plans to implement real-time Internet technology. Allegiance Telecom Inc., based in Dallas, had been moving to adopt technology that would help the company track how its repair teams process jobs in the field. Its software vendor -- Vitria Technology Inc., of Sunnyvale, California -- had even posted an Allegiance case study on its Web site. Nice idea; nasty timing. "That project has been put on hold," says Steve Taff, 41, director of operational-systems support at Allegiance. "We've got other priorities right now. We'll probably still do it, but it's likely to be next year before we go ahead."

At companies that have made the transition to real-time Internet technology, leaders report that this move has been well worth any hassles associated with it. Ashok Chandran, for example, has been using Closedloop's Web-based software for nearly a year to handle spending and P&L forecasts for his division at JDS Uniphase, in San Jose. "We used to do all of that on basic spreadsheets," says Chandran, 41, controller for the amplified-components division. "That approach was just barely manageable when we were in 3 buildings and had about 400 people. But now that we're in 10 buildings worldwide and have more than 3,000 people, we need something different."

Real-time data access is already paying off, Chandran says. It's helping his division adjust not only to sudden zigzags in demand but also to fast-changing business requirements. If there's a sudden need to alter spending patterns in R&D, for example, the division can now set a goal and then translate that goal almost instantly into targets for each department.

To Chandran's delight, managers in his division are actually welcoming the new technology. "I've never seen that before," he says. "Usually, they hate new financial systems. They call them bean-counter exercises. But that's not happening here."

Boosters of real-time Internet technology caution that faster data management will not, on its own, ensure better corporate performance. "Just because you can see something doesn't mean that you can manage it," warns Sankaran, of Closedloop Solutions. "If you encounter a sharp hairpin turn at 70 MPH -- which is what's happened to a lot of technology companies -- better visibility may only give you a brief chance to apply the brakes before you crash anyway."

Still, in a business world that moves at such speeds, information today beats information tomorrow. "We think we can give companies an extra 30 days to react to sudden changes," says Sankaran. "At the end of the day, you still need to make managerial judgments. But we can update you as much as possible, so that you can make those judgments without having your own data systems slow you down."

George Anders (ganders@fastcompany.com), a Fast Company senior editor, is based in Silicon Valley.