SaaS Business Intelligence Solves the Data Silo Problem

Business Intelligence is recognized for its business value. But according to a recent survey from Deloitte Consulting, about 30 percent of executives say either their companies don’t have data analytics capabilities or they don’t use what they already have.

Bureaucracy Still Rules
The survey, originally reported by Ericka Chickowski in this article, points to distributed data as the lead problem in either no solution or no use of a BI product. Fifty-two percent of the survey respondents said they couldn’t get the data needed to make information-backed decisions because the data is trapped in siloed departments and these groups have limited interaction. 

Bureaucracy No Longer Has to Matter
It goes back to that traditional business objection to many large IT functions “we just don’t have the resources to get onboard.”  We can point fingers at this age-old problem, but as Chickowski reports, technology providers may be the solution to the silo problem.

When a BI solution can reach across the organization and either pull the data from multiple systems or give data handlers the power to simplify data collection, this excuse for not instituting BI-driven decisions falls short.

Let Technology Providers Do Their Jobs
Forty percent of the survey respondents want to improve operational efficiency, while another 17 want to segment customers and create targeted marketing programs.  John Lucker, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, tells Chickowski that the demand is there for business analytics to make a huge splash in these organizations. However, it’s going to take partnering with the tech experts to overcome the silo issues.

How One Company Overcame the Silo Problem
Our previous blog told how ZipCar went with a flexible SaaS BI solution to overcome the data silo problem. Their business growth depended on it. The tool they implemented offered them the solution they needed to overcome the data hurdles – flexibility in data sources and analysis. That’s the secret. If your BI solution has the capability to pull from multiple sources and all users can analyze and present data in multiple visual formats, operational efficiency and targeted decisions are possible. Check out how ZipCar streamlined business processes and pulled the silos into a single solution to give users in marketing, finance and operations access to critical data.

Amanda Brandon
Spotfire Blogging Team

Image Credit:Flickr by jm3