INDUSTRY VIEW
HOW CAN ‘ CUSTOMER CENTRIC ’ ORGANIZATIONS ELIMINATE ORGANIZATIONAL AND IT SILOS ?
HILMAR BECKER , COUNTRY MANAGER , F5 BRAZIL
Hilmar Becker , Country Manager , F5 Brazil , says the end of technological silos collaborates with the breaking down of organizational silos .
In 2024 , more and more Brazilian companies are looking to transform themselves into ‘ Customer Centric ’ organizations . This is a pillar of the digital economy that is not always fully achieved . One of the reasons for this is the survival of silo-based organizational models – departments and teams that communicate much more internally than with their peers in other areas . This structure stands out for the difficulty of converging employees from different areas towards a common goal : to delight the customer .
Overcoming silos continues to be a challenge for many companies . A 2018 study by consulting firm McKinsey based on interviews with 2,135 US C-level executives indicates that , for this universe , the fact that silos persist in their companies is the biggest barrier to digital business expansion .
According to PwC ( a 2019 report of 956 U . S . companies ), 61 % of respondents agree that collaboration between diverse teams is essential for business .
Still , only 36 % said they were effectively promoting the integration of information and processes between teams originally organized separately .
The result of this reality is a company that looks backwards and does not reach the speed essential to the digital economy .
A siloed organization is supported by digital systems that are also designed , implemented and managed in a logic of departmental or function-based silos .
Workflow processes are slower , critical information isn ’ t shared with the right timing and repeated tasks are performed by multiple teams without one knowing the other is doing it .
This confusion frustrates the customer / user , who often suffers the effect of information that has to navigate through several silos and systems until it becomes a solution . This picture is the opposite of the ‘ Customer Centric ’ company .
For European Consulting eConsultancy – a study conducted in 2023 with 650 companies – 29 % of the corporations interviewed had already managed to carry out this transformation . These companies were effectively working on new foundations , reaping the profits from accelerating business processes .
Those who live this achievement are , in parallel with cultural changes , actively eliminating digital silos . The goal is to further accelerate the ‘ Customer Centric ’ culture , freeing the consumer / user from having to visit ‘ n ’ Apps or WebSites to perform a task .
It is the era of digital interdisciplinarity . AI , Machine Learning and behavioral analytics create an extremely complex and distributed digital platform . It is pure software running in ‘ n ’ environments and managed from a single point .
For the client / user , however , none of this complexity appears . What arrives for them is the charm of a digital experience without scares and without friction .
Conversational AI environments like ChatGPT , Gemini and Bing Copilot are the most visible face of this transformation . It is now possible to interact with software platforms as if a ‘ human ’ conversation were taking place , through voice or text messages .
Instead of jumping from one site to another or from one app to another , the idea is to ‘ talk to the Internet ’ to get what you are looking for in the digital economy – an experience akin to an unlimited mix of content and services , dynamically created to answer any question or meet any need that specific user may have . •
16 www . intelligenttechchannels . com / latam