How to start breaking down data silos

Having access to a broader variety of data provides opportunities for more effective and targeted insight. An example is a strategic KPI that uses metrics sourced from two different departments to create an informative and actionable ratio.

Depending on various factors, the existence of data silos could be one of the key hurdles you face in achieving these sorts of insights, and becoming a more data driven enterprise.

This guide provides a few steps you can take to start chipping away at these silos, and pave the way to more impactful analyses in your organisation.

Tackle a small-scale cross-department analytics project

There is perhaps no greater way to highlight the key challenges of breaking down data silos than by attempting a cross-department project with these still in place.

Rather than thinking first about your own departments challenges, have a look at other departments in your organisation, and see where your data could add value to them.

Going to someone with an offer of assistance is more likely to be met with a positive reaction than simply asking for another departments data.

How to identify a cross-department analytics project opportunity

  1. Identify a department in your organisation that you have an affinity with
  2. Identify what their key current challenges are
  3. If available, have a look over one of their recent performance reports to see what metrics they are using
  4. Identify where some of your own departments data could add value to how they measure their key challenges

Brainstorming in cross department meetings

If you are regularly in meetings with different departments, you can lead the charge towards data collaboration by proposing a brainstorming session for how your teams could use data together.

This is a great way to come up with the small-scale cross-department analytics projects suggested above.

Having five minutes for data collaboration as a recurring segment of your regular meetings will get everyone thinking more about some of the opportunities that are hidden in these collaborations.

3 questions to get started with data collaboration brainstorming

  1. Are there any metrics from other departments analyses that sparked thoughts about your own deparment?
  2. What are some KPI's that rely on the performance of multiple departments that we are not sufficently tracking?
  3. Which activities from one department do we expect to have an impact on another departments performance metrics?

Uniform data dictionaries

A data dictionary is a structured form of documentation for your data. It helps people to identify the various fields in a dataset, and other information that will make it easier to use in an analysis.

Having an organisation-wide data dictionary will reduce the problem of data silos in your organisation. However, if you have a lot of data sources, and numerous departments with different approaches to documenting this data, then creating a single, cohesive data dictionary could seem a long way off.

A way to bridge the gap, and have departments speaking the same language when it comes to data, is to have various departments use a common format in creating their data dictionaries.

Unifying data dictionaries

  1. Identify the various ways that data is documented with data dictionaries in your organisation
  2. Create a guide to creating data dictionaries that combines the best of each of these
  3. Have suitable members from each team adjust their data dictionaries to bring them in line with this

Conclusion

Breaking down data silos is not something that happens overnight, nor something that a single activity will achieve by itself. You can build early momentum in the fight against data silos by starting out with small projects that come up against the problems they present.

Tackling these projects and having conversations that highlight the benefits of data collaboration will build momentum and motivation to overcome the problem of data silos in your organisation.