Author: Paul Wickman, Director of Product Growth, Utilities, VertiGIS
Digitizing without breaking down data silos means you’ve only won half the digital transformation battle
Could you ever imagine a situation where your company’s internal departments were unable to communicate? Where Marketing and Sales teams did not cooperate, or Finance, Operations and Product Development hoarded their collective wisdom, working in silos, unable to collaborate, exchange insights or share knowledge? Such a scenario is hard to imagine because people instinctively understand that information exchange is the bedrock on which almost every organization’s competitive advantage is built.
Enterprise data integration is a proven strategy for success
The same principle applies to a company’s digital tools. Just like inter-departmental communication barriers, digital silos create walls that can hold a business back. Without sharing business intelligence, corporations struggle to adapt to evolving market conditions, potential risks remain obscured and opportunities for growth and innovation can languish unaddressed.
That’s why surveys consistently verify that organizations with a comprehensive data integration strategy operate more efficiently, make smarter decisions and understand their customer base better. Yet, 80 percent of companies responding to a recent McKinsey study acknowledged that segregated IT systems exist within their firms. Furthermore, 62 percent reported that they had no well-defined process for integrating new and existing data sources.
Game changing technologies break barriers to information access
Though data integration challenges appear daunting, proven digital technologies and professional service exist today to help companies connect their systems, eliminate enterprise data siloes and unite information across departments and far-flung facilities. Few offer a greater potential for a quick return on investment than the integration of GIS, (Geographic Information System) and ERP, (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems.
Traditionally, GIS technology has been a niche application, designed to solve specific problems. The result is that most organization’s spatial data is compartmentalized and disconnected, meaning its full potential remains unfulfilled. While many companies have succeeded in breaking down silos for other IT systems, due to special technical considerations, geospatial data integration has lagged.
Fortunately, recent software products, such as VertiGIS Integrator, have addressed synchronization, redundancy and interoperability issues, closed the technology gap and enabled organizations to cost-effectively integrate geospatial data with their core business intelligence systems. Now, whether they’re in the office or field, staff can access the map-centric workflows and location-based analytics tools they need to better manage assets, identify bottlenecks, and automate everyday tasks.
A holistic view of company data offers numerous, quantifiable benefits
As adoption accelerates, the payback for GIS + ERP integration, particularly for asset intensive enterprises such as utilities, manufacturers and petrochemical companies is increasingly validated. But many organizations across a wide range of industries also have much to gain. Here are 7 additional benefits to integration that you need to be aware of:
- A single source of truth = a better digital twin – a digital twin is most valuable when it accurately reflects the real-time conditions of its built counterpart and ideally should be described and defined in a single IT system. GIS + ERP integration ensures your real-world asset data is consistent, accurate and fully integrated in both systems.
- Superior data consistency – in our data-driven world, accurate and reliable information is crucial to making informed business decisions and synchronizing GIS + ERP technology eliminates database duplication requirements, reduces manual data entry, and cuts the probability of human error, while boosting interdepartmental collaboration.
- Streamlined workflows – geospatial data integration reduces manual tasks and helps advance operational efficiency, simplify existing processes, improve organizational outcomes, and assists organizations to rapidly adapt and scale up business processes to meet future demand.
- More effective asset management – with expanded insights into how assets are utilized, plus the real-time data and analytics needed to improve maintenance schedules, increase response time, extend asset life and reduce downtime, decision makers can more easily optimize operations and enhance investment planning.
- Improved field data collection – courtesy of powerful tools that improve the productivity of remote staff, you can say goodbye to manual data collection, paper forms and spreadsheets,plus the errors associated with them.
- Enriched reporting and analytics – generate targeted reports and more precise analytics to identifying underperforming assets and share accurate, data-driven insights across your organization.
- Improved risk management and compliance – leverage integration to centralize and standardize your business-critical data, simplifying compliance with regulatory obligations.
Integration of company data delivers quantifiable benefits
The potential of GIS + ERP integration extends well beyond adding geospatial context to asset management functions. In the real world, companies have leveraged integration in transformative ways, including a utility that streamlined implementation of its residential renewable energy program. Across the Atlantic, an electric utility combined VertiGIS Integrator with VertiGIS support services to help them create a simplified path for setup and maintenance, as they migrated their data to Esri’s ArcGIS® Utility Network.
Click to learn more about how breaking down data silos with VertiGIS Integrator can help your organization.
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