Is Siloed Data killing your business?

Siloed Data occurs when a department or an employee is the only one with access to certain data. This creates Siloed data and can harm your organization’s growth. Here are a few ways it can affect your business.

How Is Siloed Data Effecting Me?

The first is technology. If departments use different software then you will not be able to view all the data in one location. More often than not, software is not compatible with its competitors. So, using multiple software hinders your ability to share data throughout your organization and stops you from seeing your entire business easily.

The second is cultural. Having internal competitions can affect this as well. This may create a data barrier where one department keeps data because of competition.

Last is structural. This happens when a business has many layers of management. The floor workers may have data that the executive employees need, however, it will not reach them because it gets lost in middle management.

Why Is Siloed Data Bad?

The Siloed Data problem is one of the most popular issues that arise in companies with no connectivity in their data operations. This results in leaving end-users with useless insights or no insights at all and an operation that seems as if there’s no point to it. Companies typically end up with something we like to call a “data burnout.”

A data burnout is when the company has been looking for a solution for a problem and are not getting anywhere. Then all of the data problems start to stack up and make everything seem impossible, and later a data overload/ burnout occurs. The company is lost and drowning in an overload and segmented data.

Having multiple places where data is kept is a problem because you are paying for more storage than you should. Different companies store data differently, so you pay for the setup of the database or the place to store the data. You might even have several accounts with the same company because you use different software in your business.

Most importantly Data Siloes restrict production and waste resources. Production is restricted by not having the data readily available for all your departments or levels of management. This also wastes your resources, time, when your employees are chasing down where the data came from or the software that houses the data. The overarching issue here is Siloed Data is bad. If you must have all the software you use now then look for software that will truly integrate with all your needs. Finally, remember to never stop improving and looking for that next big thing that will change your business.