In the new normal economy, data underpins nearly every aspect of business operations, from supply chains to marketing strategies to risk management. To succeed under these new dynamics, in which speed to market is critical, global companies must move closer to operating in real time. As such, the ability to analyze information rapidly to inform decision-making will be essential. Emerging
developments such as in-memory analytics, in which summary data is stored in RAM rather than databases, may help in this effort.