---
title: Data Silos are bad… right?
description: There’s a lot of buzz out there that eliminating data silos will bring efficiencies to your organization. But is that always the case?
image: https://pedallucid.com/hubfs/gaetano-cessati-I5w91S5uY-A-unsplash.jpg
---

[Skip to content](https://pedallucid.com/blog/silos#main-content)

[![PL\_White\_logo\_0](https://pedallucid.com/hs-fs/hubfs/PL_White_logo_0.png?width=1366&height=416&name=PL_White_logo_0.png "PL_White_logo_0")](https://44374518.hs-sites.com/home)

- [Services](https://pedallucid.com/services)
- [Our Work](https://pedallucid.com/work)
- [Blog](https://pedallucid.com/blog)
- [About](https://pedallucid.com/about)
- [Get in Touch](https://pedallucid.com/get-in-touch)

- [Governance](https://pedallucid.com/blog/tag/governance),
- [Data Management](https://pedallucid.com/blog/tag/data-management)

# Data Silos are bad… right?

![](https://pedallucid.com/hubfs/gaetano-cessati-I5w91S5uY-A-unsplash.jpg)

- November 29, 2021

![Nicholas Rusty Rustigian](https://pedallucid.com/hubfs/IMG_6021.jpg)

[Nicholas Rusty Rustigian](https://pedallucid.com/blog/author/nicholas-rusty-rustigian)

We hear all the time that having data silos is a bad thing. But are they?

The concept of having data silos means that you have data at your organization that live in a number of different places. An example of that would be: using Salesforce to track fundraising data, using another program to host all your program data, another for applications, email communications, finance… the list goes on. Sometimes the same data is duplicated in more than one place: an employee who’s a donor and also a former program participant.

There’s a lot of buzz out there that eliminating silos will bring efficiencies to your organization. Why not have all your data in one place? Without a lot of context, eliminating data silos is a great idea—you can log into one place and see the full picture of your constituents and how they engage with your organization. Sounds great!

But what about when eliminating a silo requires so many resources that your return on investment never comes around? We deal with this a lot at Pedal Lucid and as consultants at large. Software and databases are different for a reason. They’re built to handle specific processes really well. While Salesforce can be customized to accommodate lots of different processes, the lift to recreate another database in Salesforce takes a lot of resources to get up and running, nevermind maintaining a custom solution.

Therefore, we have to ask, are silos really silos if they’re connected to each other via a simple process—even if that process is manual? What if connecting two of your databases only takes 15 minutes each week to upload some data from one to another? That simple effort ties the two together and might be able to provide 95% of the benefit with a fraction of the effort. That same action as a true automated integration might take 50 hours to build and when there’s a change in either system, the integration needs to be updated or it may stop working or create bad data.

In order to get value out of an integration, it’s critical to have a strategy for how you plan to use that centralized data to create useful, actionable information. Otherwise, you’ve simply gone from two databases to one where the cost is greater than the sum of its parts.

We think there are two good reasons for removing siloed data: one is operational (staff time on duplicate data entry) and one is strategic (knowing X about someone can help you guide them to Y). Ask questions like: “What do I hope to accomplish by combining these systems? What’s the minimum needed to meet that goal? What happens if our requirements change?” The answer to these will help you determine the minimum level of integration you need to build (and maintain).

We see data integration in a few different levels:

1. Totally disparate data.
2. Looking at data holistically, but outside of both systems. This can be a full [data hub](https://pedallucid.com/blog/rethinking-our-data-hub) optimized for storing data, or as simple as a reporting tool like Tableau or PowerBI that can combine data from different sources
3. Limited transfer of data, spreadsheets or 'light' integration; this can include pushing select unified data (level 2) back into source systems
4. Direct, full integration and/or combining separate systems into one

We know from experience that integrations and custom Salesforce solutions can greatly benefit an organization. We also know the resources to build and maintain those solutions are not to be taken lightly. System integration is the mechanism for implementing a strategy, not the strategy in and of itself. Next time you’re considering an integration, make sure you have a clear picture of why the integration is important to your organization and why bringing the data together will help you achieve something you currently cannot.

[![](https://pedallucid.com/hubfs/federico-bottos-LJEsEIzcRRA-unsplash.jpg)](https://pedallucid.com/blog/the-cost-of-clutter)

[Analytics](https://pedallucid.com/blog/tag/analytics), [Governance](https://pedallucid.com/blog/tag/governance), [Data Management](https://pedallucid.com/blog/tag/data-management)

### [The cost of clutter](https://pedallucid.com/blog/the-cost-of-clutter)

 February 14, 2024

 Holding onto extra data we don’t really need seems innocuous enough. The dollar cost of storage for an extra field or...

[Read more](https://pedallucid.com/blog/the-cost-of-clutter)

[![](https://pedallucid.com/hubfs/thomas-kelley-wIYLX_wNQho-unsplash.jpg)](https://pedallucid.com/blog/short-and-simple)

[Governance](https://pedallucid.com/blog/tag/governance), [Data Management](https://pedallucid.com/blog/tag/data-management), [Nonprofit](https://pedallucid.com/blog/tag/nonprofit)

### [Short and simple](https://pedallucid.com/blog/short-and-simple)

 December 21, 2023

 It’s almost the end of 2023, and a busy time for many of us. Wrapping up what we hoped to accomplish this year,...

[Read more](https://pedallucid.com/blog/short-and-simple)

[![](https://pedallucid.com/hubfs/benjamin-elliott-vc9u77c0LO4-unsplash.jpg)](https://pedallucid.com/blog/a-shortcut-to-actionable-analytics)

[Analytics](https://pedallucid.com/blog/tag/analytics), [Governance](https://pedallucid.com/blog/tag/governance), [Data Management](https://pedallucid.com/blog/tag/data-management)

### [A shortcut to actionable analytics](https://pedallucid.com/blog/a-shortcut-to-actionable-analytics)

 February 12, 2025

 Does it feel like technology stands in the way of getting the information you need?

[Read more](https://pedallucid.com/blog/a-shortcut-to-actionable-analytics)

### Get insight in your inbox.

[![PL\_logo\_bright\_0-01](https://pedallucid.com/hs-fs/hubfs/PL_logo_bright_0-01.png?width=1205&height=261&name=PL_logo_bright_0-01.png "PL_logo_bright_0-01")](https://pedallucid.com/home)

### About

- [Our team](https://pedallucid.com/about)
- [Privacy policy](https://pedallucid.com/privacy-policy)

### Connect

- [Get in touch](https://pedallucid.com/get-in-touch)
- [Follow along](https://pedallucid.com/blog)

### Work

- [Our Work](https://pedallucid.com/work)
- [Resources](https://pedallucid.com/additional-resources)

![Salesforce\_Partner\_Badge\_RGB\_Transparent](https://pedallucid.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Salesforce_Partner_Badge_RGB_Transparent.png?width=446&height=474&name=Salesforce_Partner_Badge_RGB_Transparent.png)

![PledgeNoHate\_Logo](https://pedallucid.com/hs-fs/hubfs/PledgeNoHate_Logo.png?width=500&height=500&name=PledgeNoHate_Logo.png)

![The+Human+Stack+Digital+Guidance+Guide+Badge](https://pedallucid.com/hs-fs/hubfs/The+Human+Stack+Digital+Guidance+Guide+Badge.png?width=300&height=316&name=The+Human+Stack+Digital+Guidance+Guide+Badge.png)

```json
{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Nicholas Rusty Rustigian",
    "url" : "https://pedallucid.com/blog/author/nicholas-rusty-rustigian"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2026-09-24T18:33:56.809Z",
  "datePublished" : "2021-11-29T05:00:00.000Z",
  "headline" : "Data Silos are bad… right? ",
  "image" : [ "https://pedallucid.com/hubfs/gaetano-cessati-I5w91S5uY-A-unsplash.jpg" ],
  "mainEntityOfPage" : {
    "@id" : "https://pedallucid.com/blog/silos",
    "@type" : "WebPage"
  },
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "url" : "https://pedallucid.com/hubfs/PedalLucidLogo_Primary_Web.png"
    }
  }
}
```