It's time for small and midsized businesses to finally move beyond information silos

It's time for small and midsized businesses to finally move beyond information silos

Its 2018, and Information Silos are a still a thing. It doesn’t have to be that way.

The metaphor of the information silo is one of the most widely known in technology, one that elicits perhaps the most groans of recognition from business leaders - and one whose pain is perhaps most acutely felt by small and medium-sized businesses. The information you need is there inside, wanting to be free but trapped in systems that can’t be easily accessed by the right people when they need it, nor shared or combined with other data to truly solve problems or lead to insights. The most basic and common scenarios become unnecessarily time-consuming or complex.

Often with small businesses, the silo problem happens organically as the organization grows, with problems getting more acute over time. Looking to keep costs low, they’ll start with an accounting system to run their finances and perhaps a cheap or free CRM system to help with sales. Systems proliferate as the business grows. An inventory system might be added, creating another silo. A customer service platform. Another silo. Some processes aren’t supported by rigid software so “power users” manage key processes and information on Excel spreadsheets, creating yet more silos. 

Because we humans are a very adaptable bunch we often adjust to the little inefficiencies – some duplicate data keying needed here, a phone call or IM to someone else for information there, we deal with it and move on. But these little inefficiencies add up, and begin to calcify in a way that negatively impacts growth, profits, or competitiveness.

It often takes a “pain trigger” to stop and assess the silos you have, and to recognize that something needs to be done. A time-critical customer proposal that was derailed because finance and sales information can’t be easily shared. A growth trend that pushes the limit of a process, creating a bottleneck in customer support or field service because representatives or technicians can’t get the information they need when they need it.

Of course, you can invest in middle-ware to try to synchronize your information silos, and many small businesses do (middle-ware itself is a $30 billion dollar market). But this approach creates its own issues as system changes and updates cause integration problems, and increased IT costs and complexity start to weigh on a business where resources are often scarce.

Then there is the promise of advanced analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) which have the potential to unlock new and exciting opportunities for growth. Many business leaders don't realize that the biggest obstacle to implementing game-changing data analytics solutions isn’t internal skill-sets or big technology investments; its simply access to data. AI can absolutely transform your business, but your data first needs to be integrated and available. In today’s digital economy, the need to break down your information silos has never been more critical.

When your disparate operational systems are holding you back from where you want or need to go as an organization, the benefits of an all-in-one business management system start to become apparent. This is what Microsoft has delivered with Dynamics 365 Business Central, a SaaS solution designed specifically to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses.

Business Central combines finance, operations, supply chain management, sales, service, project management, and even manufacturing in a single modern, unified, intelligent, and adaptable platform that breaks down silos and sets your information free to do amazing things. Embedded AI and predictive analytics can instantly transform your transactional data into a competitive advantage that can drive new opportunities for growth, profitability, and productivity.

Additionally, Business Central can be embedded within Outlook so deeply that all information relevant to a process can be accessed without switching systems. From quote to cash, entire end-to-end business processes can be accomplished right from Outlook – and the AI capabilities of the system can understand email content and automatically generate invoices, purchase orders, and so on based on that content. The Business Central and Office 365 teams at Microsoft work closely together to enable productivity scenarios that can’t be matched by any other SaaS vendor. This unique value proposition - a simple, yet powerful all-in-one business management solution, leveraging the advanced capabilities of the Azure cloud and tightly coupled with Office 365 - is what draws more new customers to Business Central every day.

Its easy to find out more about how your small or medium-sized business can eliminate data silos and reap the benefits of digital transformation: Visit Business Central on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 website to learn more about the solution. Get in touch with your partner or let us help you find a partner for you to work with. Or, simply sign-up today for a free trial and explore Business Central for yourself.

Pedro Rodriguez

Freelancer - Based in Germany - Dynamics 365 Finance/SCM - Power Platform - Azure - .NET - Investor - Photography - DACH, Spain. Visit d365free.com for more information.

5y

Anyone knows which perfomance difference there is between BC and FO? The price entry is much lower and maybe some companies do not need all the FO functionality but really good perfomance. 

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Ray Passage

Data Integration, OIC Cloud, ETL, DW/BI, Oracle, Architecture

5y

Great article, Bill. Perhaps implementing an integrated meta-data model approach from the very beginning would have prevented many of these issues. Ray

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Bill and Nick, both important points.  In many cases the biggest issue isn't the product and/or technology itself, but cultural.  Breaking down those barriers, changing the concept of "ownership" and organizational roles is the secret sauce.  That starts at the top and it starts by changing how the organization see itself.  That is stop looking at "my job" or "my department", but look at how do we achieve our mission - i.e. solve the customer's business problem.  Once everyone is focused on the correct mission, then the walls can come tumbling down.

Bill is spot-on right. One of the biggest changes to overcome in order to have a successful digital transformation journey are the Information Silos. They pose not only technological but also cultural obstacles to small and medium businesses and large Enterprises alike. Glad to see Microsoft jumping in to tackle that beast.

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