Smaller firms suffer from “silo working”, survey says

New technology is creating a worrying form of “silo working” at small firms, where information is not freely available to the whole organisation. A survey of 100 small firms employing up to 250 people has found that “do it yourself” IT is causing the problem.

The survey, commissioned by Apple database firm FileMaker, says the increasing IT skills of the office worker, coupled with the ease of use of modern technology, is creating new and worrying “micro-silos” of data at UK SME businesses.

This is putting productivity, compliance and profits at risk. Although the technology available to UK businesses has never been better, end-users are taking IT policies into their own hands.

In doing so, they are creating dangerous micro-silos of data within their organisations, typified by crucial documents being locked away on individual PCs and in e-mail accounts, creating “a wilderness of data outside existing policies and processes”, comments Derrick Cameron.

The survey found that 64% of IT managers questioned believed their business suffered from a micro-silo mentality when it came to company information, with almost half (45%) believing this is a result of poor IT management.

“IT free-styling” is now much more prevalent, with 77% thinking it is easier to create/customise critical business applications than three years ago, resulting in essential data residing with single users. “Whilst it is important that staff have a level of freedom over what they use and introduce” comment Derrick Cameron from Eximium “it is important that central data is stored centrally. Otherwise confusion will reign and important work will be replicated or at worst lost forever”.

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CIOs must ‘reassess role of IT function’

IT directors and CIOs need to reassess the role of the IT department as tech-savvy end-user departments buy their own systems and make use of web collaboration tools.

The respected analyst group Gartner said at its Symposium conference last week in Orlando that since users can now buy what they need via the web, businesses must re-evaluate the IT function.

Gartner said that the IT department should define what it is really good at, and for other activities play the role of advisor and facilitator. Derrick Cameron from Eximium comments that “It used to be the case that the IT team would assume all responsibility for such matters within the organization. Now they should no longer assume responsibility for supporting and managing all IT systems that workers use. Instead, users must take personal responsibility for experimenting with new software and communities”.

Whilst this would have seemed unthinkable a few years ago, because of the pace of change it has now become inevitable “Technologies such as Web 2.0 and software as a service will give business units and selected users more independence to set their own IT direction” added Cameron.

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Small Firms unaware of Data Protection issues

Small businesses have a much lower awareness of the principles of the Data Protection Act than larger organisations, according to a new research commissioned by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Whilst over half of small businesses recognise the importance of keeping customers’ personal information secure, only 22 per cent are aware that the Data Protection Act requires them to keep all customer information accurate and up to date.

In an age when the risk of identity fraud is increasing, these findings are a worry and a potential risk to smaller firms. Derrick Cameron of Eximium comments “Whilst individuals are regularly urged to protect their personal information, companies of all sizes also have a responsibility to be certain that customer data is secure and accurate. This is a serious issue that can easily come back to haunt companies - ignorance is no defence in law”.

Full information on the law is provided in the Good Practice Notes published by The Information Commissioner’s Office.

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