Overcoming data silos in a data-driven age
In association with Dell Technologies
Despite data being the lifeblood of every organisation, data-driven businesses don’t just spring up – it takes careful planning and care to grow into a data-driven enterprise. This commonly requires businesses to take stock of their data, so they can later access, analyse and utilise it to make better, faster decisions. In the process, they’ll inevitably identify and resolve the many different data silos within their organisation.
At this point, businesses will realise they’ve only just scratched the surface, as they unearth even more data, hemmed in by single applications or ecosystems, stored in silos and marooned in outlier locations. As these businesses grow, they may enter mergers and acquisitions or buy data from marketplaces. While this is critical to move the organisation forward, it typically comes with new data silos to work into the fold.
These data silos will upset a business’ best efforts to become a data-ready, data-driven organisation. According to the Data Paradox study, based on a January 2021 commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell Technologies, 60% of business leaders globally with a responsibility for data in their organisation describe data silos as a top barrier to better capturing, analysing, and acting on data. This leads to the paradox whereby 66% of businesses regard their business as ‘data driven’ but only 21% of them are actually treating data as capital and prioritising its use across the business.
To minimise the damage, Irish businesses need to be prepared for new data silos and ready to unify their data when the need arises.
Mergers & acquisitions
Big companies, particularly in highly regulated sectors such as finance and insurance, spend time and money creating a central data source to comply with regulations. This requires an exceptional level of discipline. However, this diligent work can unravel when businesses enter a merger or acquisition and, in the process, acquire new and overlapping data sets across business entities.
In the Forrester study, 70% of senior leaders that name data silos as a barrier to data excellence cite mergers and acquisitions as the reason for the proliferation of data silos. In part, this is the result of different data formats and structures. Each business may operate in the same industry, but their data is discretely theirs and organised accordingly.
Unfortunately, bringing silos together after a merger is not a straightforward task and requires a large investment.
If the acquired organisation does not have a practice of data lineage, bringing data silos together may include challenges beyond just format. They run into an issue of trust. How can they depend on the information and use the data in new projects if they don’t know its origins, particularly as the data may differ according to where and why it was created? Trust in data relies on recognising and implementing tooling for measuring the lineage of the data, the purpose or context of how the data was generated and why and the purpose and context of how it will be utilised.
Data marketplaces
Some companies use data marketplaces to rent information to test models, build algorithms and make informed decisions. This is similar to advertising and marketing companies that purchase information to enrich their understanding of customer behavior.
However, buying data from marketplaces comes with downsides. For a start, these are often discrete assets – data origin is typically implied but proving lineage can be challenging. Second, businesses that sell information may provide data in different formats. Companies may have to transform and cleanse marketplace data before it’s used to aid the decision-making process.
For business leaders in Ireland, the key issue is – once again – trust. They must understand where the data came from, its creation and why it ended up in their organisation. They need to create standards for interaction, lineage and governance. They should know where information has been and who’s touched it. Without this information, they could be exposing themselves to undue risk. At present, 40% of business leaders say they become laden with more data silos when they trade with data marketplaces.
Progress in this area can be seen in the technology industry which is trying to create an immutable understanding of data. One example is the Data Confidence Fabric and its standardised way of tracing, quantifying and measuring data. By establishing the lineage of information, users have a deep understanding of everywhere data has been and whether it’s trustworthy.
As data grows in volume and speed, and as companies continue to transact, Irish businesses will realise their data work is never done. However, they can embed best practices upfront to overcome data silos in a data-driven age.
Dell Technologies Forum
The Dell Technologies Forum taking place on Wednesday 3 November will explore some of key data challenges facing Irish business leaders, as highlighted in the Forrester study, and outline how business leaders can overcome these challenges and keep pace with data while unlocking growth opportunities from it.
This will include looking at how businesses can modernise their IT infrastructure so they can meet data where it lives, making sure that data can flow freely and securely within organisations, and developing software to deliver the personalized, integrated experiences customers crave. Battling data silos and unlocking value from increasing amounts of data is not an easy task, but through this year’s Forum, we hope to equip Irish business leaders with the knowledge and tools to thrive in the data-driven era.
Register for your place for this free virtual event here and join the #DellTechForum conversation.
Linda O’Leary is enterprise account manager with Dell Technologies Ireland
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