When does the Silo Trap occur? Silos within organisations occur when teams or departments use separate platforms, systems or technologies that operate independently of one another. This makes collaboration and inter-departmental communication difficult to carry out. It also places extra pressure on employees as it increases their work load and it hinders an organisation’s ability to make data-driven decisions as all the necessary data exists in parts on different platforms.
Case Studies of Failed Integration
1. Company A – Telecoms, IT and consumer electronics provider.
This telecoms organisation’s product offering ranged from telecoms, IT and consumer electronics and was a big player within its industry a couple years ago up until they fell into the silo trap. As smartphones and various technologies surrounding them were developed and introduced into the market, Company A struggled to integrate their various departments into one. This left them with 3 main departments all operating independently of one another, and rather than making decisions in a collaborative fashion, they were left making fragmented decisions that worked against the organisation, rather than for them. This eventually resulted in a major decrease in profits and share value.
2. Company B – Search Engine, finance, advertising and so on
Company B was a once popular internet service provider that acquired a number of different businesses over the years where their focus was solely on acquisition and not integration. Unfortunately, this lack of integration led to a disjoined brand identity and their lack of focus on user experience pushed their customers towards more user-friendly platforms with better integration. This organisation was later acquired by another organisation.
3. Company C – Multinational technology provider
This organisation provided their customers with multiple cloud offerings but fell short when it came to integrating these various cloud offerings. This occurred because various departments within the organisation were developing each offering without cross-department consultation and collaboration. Thus, resulting in a wide range of offerings that unfortunately could not work together.
Key Consequences of the Silo Trap
- Inefficiency and Redundancy: When cross-department consultation and collaboration is poor or non-existent, employees are likely to duplicate work efforts or even work on similar projects. Unknowingly resulting in additional unnecessary costs.
- Poor Decision Making: When a decision maker does not have the full picture or all the necessary data available, they are likely to make a decision that does not align with their organisational strategy or causes them to miss out on potential profitable opportunities.
- Negative Customer Experience: Siloed platforms are likely to cause frustration amongst customers, especially if they are making use of various platforms that are showing conflicting information. This can decrease customers trust and damage the organisations reputation.
Strategies to Break Down Silos
- Move all existing siloed platforms or a large portion of them to a single platform.
- Choose a master platform that has the ability to either replace multiple of your siloed platforms OR has the ability to integrate into your multiple siloed platforms leaving you with a single structured view into all the information available on those siloed platforms by only logging into the 1 master platform.
Contact us to help, we have industry leading platforms that go above and beyond and can be tailored to your organisations’ needs.