Data need to be available before the decision maker needs to take action.  Consider the efforts at The Limited, a specialty store aimed at the young professional woman.  Historically, managers relied solely on intuition or insights gained from studying past data to make business decisions.  Since 2002, however, The Limited has based its decisions on live feeds of data.  For example, managers of some stores re-evaluate the floor plan and product placement prior to opening based on the data.  Stores on the West Coast (of the USA) can react to early daily trends of East Coast sales, and highlight fast-selling items in a real-time environment.