There’s often a mismatch between customer expectations and actual service delivery, and organisations that don’t address it are now at real risk of material impacts.
One of the challenges facing organisations is that as real-time becomes even more the default expectation for operations and service delivery, those that don’t meet this standard will stick out.
For these organisations, there is nowhere to hide.
Regardless of how well-designed or slick a customer-facing frontend such as a website or app is, it is unable to maintain a facade of being seamless and real-time if the backend supporting it is not built for real-time as well.
A customer accustomed to transacting in real-time is quickly able to detect experiences that present as, but are not actually, real-time.
Some of the giveaways might be points of friction in the experience where manual intervention is required, or when it’s clear that what is perceived to be or gives off the appearance of being automated at the frontend is anything but behind the scenes.
We see this already in the delivery of digital government or private sector services, such as lodging forms or applying for home loans; we see it in retail ecommerce and last mile delivery; and we see it when supply chains get disrupted – particularly where an exception occurs and it fails to be handled smoothly or taken into stride.
Retail is a particularly acute example. The real-time expectations of online shoppers in 2025 are on full display. In one recent survey, 60% of respondents said they want to know if inventory is available at a store or online “immediately”. They also want faster delivery times (42%), and 24×7 support (36%). They could not be clearer about their real-time expectation.
The question is: how many Australian retailers have the technology in place to meet this level of expectation? In my experience, on the real-time inventory expectation alone, some do but many don’t.
This uneven distribution of organisations that are and are not yet equipped for real-time experience delivery transcends retail, and applies to every customer service-oriented industry where real-time is becoming the default.
In today’s fast-moving business world, the ability to react in real-time is more important than ever. Markets can change overnight. As a result, companies can’t afford rigid systems and slow responses.
Built-in flexibility to future-proof experiences
Organisations know that technology is the answer – the retail survey confirms as much – but it may not be immediately apparent which technology investment is the most effective.
For example, we see a lot of talk this year about AI and automation being applied to optimise end-to-end transactions, or to quicken the ‘time to yes’, or the time to respond to service issues. This is a clear recognition both of the potential for technology to assist, but also of the need to do more.
But for any of this to work effectively, it needs to be supported by real-time flexible infrastructure: infrastructure that is technically capable of this kind of straight-through processing, that can be scaled up and down, and that can be flexibly paid for as well. Partnerships are also key to enabling this instant flexibility and scalability, providing a broad range of services that are easily accessible and can be quickly launched.
Traditionally, organisations bought fixed, static resources, purchasing storage, servers or other infrastructure in advance. However, this could entail buying more than needed, leading to waste, or under-purchasing, leading to delays or outages.
By contrast, with real-time infrastructure, organisations can change their allocation of resources instantly to meet changing demands. Tools such as automation, orchestration and predictive scaling enable instant responses, coordinated workflows across components and proactive anticipation of demand.
Systems with built-in flexibility are the key to making this real-time infrastructure a reality.
Organisations should look for vendors that provide subscription models for accessing infrastructure and ensure that they offer modularity, and the ability to start small and later quickly and easily scale. Subscription and pay-as-you-go business models are essential to a flexible, real-time infrastructure. These business models enable organisations to pay only for what they need and dynamically adjust as needed. This is part of a broader move to the consumerization of infrastructure. IT professionals want the same technology innovation and business models seen in consumer apps like Netflix or Spotify.
Additionally, when selecting a vendor, organisations should not just look for the best price. While price is important, a vendor’s full offering can affect the cost of its infrastructure and the return on investment. For example, if a company chooses a cheaper product that is more difficult to manage and maintain, it could cost more staff time devoted to running its infrastructure, which can easily cost more than the cost of simply choosing a better product with a higher price. In addition, if a vendor offers true real-time flexibility, that can translate into tremendous savings on costs as well as gains in revenue from the ability to quickly scale critical projects.
Real-time systems are also much more modular and interoperable, enabling quick and seamless integration of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, internet of things or 5G networks. As a result, organisations don’t have to completely overhaul their systems as they once did, but can instantly adapt and take advantage of these emerging technologies and the positive impact they can have on real-time experience delivery.
This article was written by George Dragatsis, ANZ Chief Technology Officer at Hitachi Vantara.