Have you ever participated in a meeting where two areas had different results for the same information? The sales rep says he made 30 sales, while the marketing team rep says there were actually 28 sales. Unfortunately, this is a more common scenario than you might imagine, and often this is not because one of the two areas has compiled the information wrongly, but because of the way the data is structured (or not) within the company. These two difference sales are probably stored somewhere that the marketing team does not have access to, such as emails, spreadsheets and other systems: the so-called data silos.
Data silos are independent data sets or systems that are restricted to one area and do not relate to the rest of the organization's data. Most of the time, they are a consequence of the growth of companies, which, by creating more areas and business units without prioritizing full integration between them, end up creating fragmented and limited databases for each area, thus hindering the flow of information between them.
The lack of unification of company data can be very harmful due to the following factors:
- Lack of reliability: In the example we gave above, of meeting results, it is difficult (or impossible) for management to quickly know which of the areas is taking the correct information, and therefore make decisions based on it. If all areas lead to the same result, the time for discussion and data validation is eliminated, and the meeting agenda is no longer “who is right?” to “What actions can we take based on this information?”.
- Loss of integral view of the business: If marketing data is not integrated with sales data, marketing will not have the necessary view to bring in more qualified leads, which in fact result in sales. Or if sales data is not integrated with post-sales data, sales will not have a view of how new customers behave after the sale, and will not know which customer profiles are most profitable for the company. In addition to reducing friction between areas, making all data talk to each other is essential for a deep analysis of the business, where all teams have the same vision and are able to work together around the same goal.
- Wasted resources: If two teams maintain two separate databases containing the same information, the cost of storing that data will be needlessly doubled. Or if these two areas maintain different spreadsheets also containing the same information, two different professionals are spending time compiling this data, time that could be spent on other tasks. Eliminating these silos of data and replacing them with a unified database will end the waste of time and money that it is to maintain repetitive and decentralized data between areas.
How to eliminate data silos?
Even knowing how harmful they can be, many organizations are hesitant to break down their data silos. This is because with so many different and specific systems for each area, making them talk to each other can be costly and time-consuming. Fortunately, there is a much faster and equally effective solution: the centralization of all information in a unified database.
