The Value of Nstream’s Real-Time UIs vs. Traditional UIs 

Imagine a tool that empowers businesses to harness the full potential of streaming data by showing real-time updates at the granular level of real-world objects; the possibilities would be endless.

Real-time UIs present a paradigm shift –– both from a technology standpoint and business users’ expectations once they interact with real-time UIs.

Nstream’s real-time UIs employ tech innovations that empower users to make full use of their streaming data to better see, understand, and react to the real-time state of their business.

Nstream’s real-time UI vs. traditional UIs

Real-time UIs allow you to see the state of your business in real real-time, as it changes at network-level latency (often in milliseconds), rather than an echo of what your business looked like 1, 10, 60 minutes, or a few hours ago.

Standard web apps may give the impression of real-time responsiveness but often have delays when connecting to backend services as they query or poll whenever they need the UI updated with the latest data.

A true real-time UI updates instantly, pushing data at network-level latency (often in milliseconds) with backend application states. In a real-time UI, data streams dynamically to present the desired view, and the interface responds immediately to any user actions.

When UIs are real-time, the connection between user-facing interfaces and backend systems is instantaneous, enabling significantly improved business outcomes across different use cases. For example, this would enable an online retailer to maintain a live view of items’ status to ensure the supply chain is running smoothly, as well as give customers the ability to track delivery progress with second-by-second accuracy.

What are the benefits of a real-time UI?

The benefits of a real-time UI are many and significant; employing a real-time UI is more than a ‘nice-to-have’ feature. In fact, real-time UIs are critical to making the best use of your streaming data. Here are a few business benefits that real-time UIs enable:

Real-time business visibility: Gain real-time visibility into the entire business – from functional operations down to the real-world object (such as a truck, customer, prospect, financial transaction, point-of-sale record, IoT device, or other assets). Real-time visibility and situational awareness help businesses increase agility, enhance operations, and deliver a stronger customer experience.

Improved decision-making: Make better data-driven decisions rooted in the current state of the business rather than on stale data or predictions of current state. This is vital in a business landscape where things change quickly and thousands of events happen every second.

Increased efficiency and productivity: Identify areas to add sophisticated automation (like automated workflows and/or triggers) to streamline processes. For example, a bank could automate text and email notifications if fraudulent activity is detected. This automation informs the customer immediately so they can act, building trust and loyalty by demonstrating a commitment to their security.

Competitive advantage: Real-time business logic leads to real-time business decisions. To remain competitive with behemoth companies that boast vast amounts of resources, enterprises must employ applications with real-time business logic that enable visibility, analysis, and automation on top of real-time streaming data. Falling behind in real-time capabilities leaves your business vulnerable to disruption and customer churn.

While some large tech companies have successfully leveraged the benefits of real-time UIs, many enterprises have faced challenges and failed to capitalize on them fully. Falling behind in real-time capabilities leaves your business vulnerable to disruption and customer churn because competitors with real-time capabilities will attract these customers away from you.