The basic idea of the real time enterprise is to become quicker. A business which wants to become a real time enterprise has to acquire three main abilities:

- Internal and external data is integrated quickly and in real time in a well-organized company data pool,

- Analyses of information in the company data pool can be obtained in real time, across function boundaries and at the touch of a button,

- The number of working steps performed in batch mode is shifting dramatically in favor of immediate completion in real time. The issue of communications - or real time communications - plays a special role here. Studies have shown that processing times sometimes double when necessary communication events are handled in batch mode in the business process and not in real time. In other words, when an activity cannot be completed and lies around for days because an urgently needed partner cannot be contacted.

The necessity of acquiring these three abilities has implications for the process-related, technical and organizational aspects of a business that are dealt with in detail in this book.