Why Data Silos are Still the Biggest Problem in 2022? How to Solve it?

What are data silos and why they're problematic in 2022? How to get rid of it?

Data silos remain an issue for many organizations today. It is a collection of data held by one group that is not easily or fully accessible by other groups in the same organization. Data silos can have technical, organizational, or cultural roots. While new technologies to dissolve them are emerging, it's important to develop strategies to deal with them long-term. The failure of data silos to exchange information has unfortunately drawn a negative connotation

A data silo is when valuable business data gets stuck somewhere in a network, where it's less useful than it could otherwise be. Data silos may seem harmless, but siloed data creates barriers to information sharing and collaboration across departments. Data silos are a problem because they decrease the efficacy of compiled information. Data silos prevent that data from moving to where it can do the best for a business. Data that is siloed makes data governance impossible to manage on an organization-wide scale, impending regulatory compliance and opening the door to misuse of sensitive data quality.

Why are data silos bad?

Data silos have long been critiqued for their negative impact on data integrity and productivity. Having data silos prevent you from having a consolidated view of company data and from performing holistic data analysis. Raw data by itself isn't useful. When information such as sales data, stock levels, and customer details all live on separate platforms, it's much harder to make sense of all the information. Data silos cause wasted resources and inhibited productivity. Furthermore, in certain situations, the contents of those data silos will likely differ slightly.

Data Silo Solutions:

There's no one best way to fix data silos, as the right course of action depends on the retailer. A data lake is formed when companies deposit all their structured and unstructured data into a centralized depository, where it remains for easy retrieval. Also communicate the problems with silos, including data quality problems and the need to stay competitive. Culture change is a big undertaking, so management must show commitment. Management should encourage cross-team collaboration and reduce unnecessary interdepartmental competition.

A real solution to the silo problem comes when companies sought out to plan and develop a data analytics strategy. Cloud-based ETL (extract, transform, load) tools help you transfer your siloed data into a common repository easily, and the creation of efficient data pipelines with lossless data replication. Integrating data silos with other systems is the most straightforward way to break them down, which is the process of replicating data from databases, SaaS platforms, and other sources into a single centralized repository.

Fobi is used by several multi-store retailers that have transformed how they handle their data. Jedox empowers decision makers and business users across all departments and helps them work smarter, streamline business collaboration, and make insight-based decisions with confidence. Data silos are an enemy of organizations in the retail industry, as they bring many disadvantages and drawbacks. As such, developing new tools and strategies to deal with them is paramount.