But even more important, applications should not make users wait. When a client workstation waits for a process running on another node in the network to complete, not only is the workstation being used inefficiently, but the user is wasting valuable time. Poor performance lowers productivity. The ideal business information system is designed to be a real-time system for the business process. Similarly, a business process shouldn't be expected to wait for a computer process that is supposed to support it.
Computers supply shared information by reading and updating databases.
A responsive computer system should keep several copies of the most useful information in different locations, so that there is a copy handy whenever a user needs one. In such cases, every component on the path from client to remote server should be designed and monitored to ensure that it supports the workload, and all interference from lower priority work should be eliminated. For most business purposes, however, information supplied to users does not always have to be current. Some information can be seconds, minutes, or hours out of date. Other information can be delivered as dated summaries.