Death To The BI Data Silo? Not So Fast

The infamous data silos used for business intelligence (BI) that isolate different business domains and obstruct innovation often deserve their pariah reputation — but not always. The right framework for deciding which silos go to the gallows requires a focus on business processes, looking at the types of decisions that business users will make with a silo's data, instead of a focus on the systems with which they might be integrated. At a minimum, some silos will have to be restructured or consolidated into fewer silos, and they may well need to be transformed into process-focused cross-domain systems.