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What is Data Silo?
When each department stores its data in its own separate system with no connection to the rest of the business – so finance, sales, and operations each have their own version of the truth.
What it is
A data silo is a collection of data held by one department that is inaccessible or invisible to other parts of the business. Sales has its numbers in the CRM. Finance has its numbers in the accounting system. Marketing has its numbers in the campaign platform. None of them talk to each other. Think of it like departments in a large building that have locked their doors and disconnected their phones. Each department functions internally, but cross-department communication requires someone to physically walk over, knock on the door, and ask for a printout. In data terms, that "printout" is a CSV export or a copied-and-pasted spreadsheet – slow, error-prone, and immediately out of date.
Why it matters for your business
Silos are the single most common data problem in mid-market companies. They are also the most expensive. When your sales and finance data do not connect, basic questions like "what is our most profitable product?" require manually joining data from two systems – and the answer is different depending on who you ask. Forrester found that 73% of company data goes unused because it is trapped in silos. A $40M services company we worked with had their project management data in one system, timesheets in another, and billing in a third. They could not answer "are we profitable on this client?" without three days of spreadsheet work. After connecting those silos, the answer was available in real time – and it turned out two of their largest clients were unprofitable, which nobody had known.
How we approach it
We break down silos by building a shared data layer – usually a warehouse – that all departments contribute to and draw from. This does not mean replacing department-specific tools; your sales team keeps Salesforce, finance keeps Xero, operations keep their ERP. But the key data from each tool flows into one central place where cross-functional questions can be answered. We prioritise the highest-value connections first: usually sales-to-finance (profitability) and operations-to-finance (cost visibility).
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Key Takeaways
- •Silos are the most common data problem in mid-market companies – each department holds data that is invisible to the rest.
- •73% of company data goes unused because it is trapped in silos that nobody can query across.
- •Breaking silos does not mean replacing tools. It means connecting them through a shared data layer.
- •The highest-value silo to break is usually the one between sales and finance – that is where profitability visibility lives.