Information / Process Silos
“The Bane of the Enterprise…”
Ø Profit or Policy Centric Motives Beget the Need for New or Changed Process…
Ø Process is created or changed through Project(s)...
Ø Project(s) view Information from the perspective of the Process Need…
Ø Project(s) cause Information to be structured to satisfy Process Need…
Ø The result… MORE INFORMATION/PROCESS SILOS!
Information/Process Silos are outcomes of defining and structuring Information as a Necessity for Process rather than as a Value Enabler for the Enterprise.
In any business, there are literally thousands of Information/Process Silos.
From the information perspective; Silos prevent seamless, cohesive use of information across the business.
Today, finding the linkages, relationships and implications within and between Information Silos, thereby enabling informed decision making, is extremely time consuming, prone to error and full of real as well as implied risk.
As the number of Silos increases, so do the problems of being able to gather information from multiple, disparate sources.
The business cannot effectively access, gather, layer, filter, consolidate and analyze information from multiple sources, in varying formats.
Silo proliferation causes the enterprise to be data rich and information poor.
Silos also create barriers to timely, effective dissemination of information to external stakeholders.
In today’s virtual world, the expectation is that external requests for information will be addressed in a timely, effective manner – when the expectation is not met due to the issues of legacy Information / Process Silos slowing down or necessitating multiple requests to different areas of the enterprise; that is a black mark for the enterprise.
From the Process perspective, Silos are built-in impediments that limit what the enterprise can do to quickly improve the business.
When one is looking to streamline, consolidate or reengineer the business, Silo induced gaps and disconnects are not immediately apparent.
The time, cost and frustration of having to deal with Silo ‘surprises’ quickly renders what looked to be a quick, relatively inexpensive way to improve the business into a Pandora’s Box of costly surprises.
Given the vast number of Information/Process Silos that are in operation today and the likelihood of many more being created in the future; addressing these issues requires a different approach, one that adroitly constrains future Information/Process Silo proliferation while enabling the enterprise to deftly cut through current Information/Process Silo barriers to extract and use valuable information...
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