This concept is not entirely new. For example, manufacturing has been using closely related ideas such as just-in-time ordering and lean inventory for over 20 years. But in an internet driven economy, the RTE is evolving into a broader concept, into one that leverages intelligence.

What this essentially means is that enterprises need to rely increasingly on what the company data is telling them - leveraging the knowledge repository in detecting events early enough and responding to them within a given tolerance window, failing which opportunities may go to competitors and threats hit unnoticed.

Intelligent enterprises require to access, cleanse and transform data quickly, efficiently store this data and effectively and accurately exploit it to provide actionable intelligence leading to better informed decisions. This can only be achieved through the adoption of an end-to-end intelligence architecture, an intelligence value chain (IVC) that supports a multitude of business solutions.

Companies need to derive information from corporate data - be it transactional databases, enterprise resource planning systems, supply chain management software or third party data sources - in order to make informed business decisions.

This process, aptly called business intelligence (BI), is defined as the method of predicting and influencing future corporate performance based on an accurate understanding of the current status.

The only way to ensure data is given the treatment and credit due, is by treating it as a key strategic asset wherein ensuring its quality is essential.

The next generation of BI software would be more than just tools for ad-hoc query and reporting. It is a comprehensive suite of applications, tools and infrastructure to deliver BI across the enterprise.

In the real time intelligent enterprise, intelligence is power and quality data arms the competitive enterprise with the power to know.