Data silos cost the average mid-market company $2.1M annually. Here's how to integrate your systems without the typical nightmares.
Every company we work with says the same thing: “Our data is everywhere.” Here’s how to fix it without burning $500K.
Scenario: You have Salesforce, NetSuite, Shopify, Google Analytics, and 47 spreadsheets.
Problem: Each team lives in their own data world. Sales doesn’t see what operations sees. Marketing has different customer counts than finance.
Impact: Decisions made on incomplete or conflicting data. We’ve seen companies launch products targeting the wrong customer segments because their data told two different stories.
Direct Costs:
Indirect Costs:
Real Example: Manufacturing client had 34% inventory data mismatch between ERP and warehouse system. Result: $847K in overstock and $320K in emergency expedited orders.
When to use: 2-3 simple systems
Pros: Quick, cheap initially Cons: Becomes spaghetti nightmare at scale
Reality: Works for startups, breaks for growing companies.
When to use: 4+ systems, growing company
Recommended: Snowflake, BigQuery, or Azure Synapse
Pattern:
Cost: $2-5K/month for mid-market, scales with data volume
When to use: Massive data volumes, ML/AI needs
Reality: Overkill for most mid-market companies. Only needed if handling petabytes or doing serious ML.
After 200+ implementations:
For Most Clients (Annual Revenue $10M-500M):
Timeline: 8-12 weeks for typical setup Cost: $50K-120K implementation + $3-8K/month ongoing
Problem: You can only pull from Salesforce API 100 times/day on certain plans.
Solution: Batch requests, cache smartly, upgrade if needed.
Reality: Source systems change their data structure without warning you.
Solution:
Trap: “We need 10 years of history from every system.”
Smart Approach:
Reality Check: “Real-time” costs 5-10x more than nightly batch.
When you actually need it:
When you don’t:
Week 1-2: Discovery
Week 3-4: Architecture Design
Week 5-8: Build Phase
Week 9-10: Testing
Week 11-12: Deploy & Train
Average Mid-Market Company:
Total Annual Benefit: ~$350K Investment: $80K implementation + $60K annual Payback: 7 months
Warning Signs Your Integration Is Failing:
Good data integration is invisible. Bad integration costs millions.
Every week you wait to integrate properly costs your team 15+ hours of manual work and delays critical decisions.
Ready to integrate? Get a free data architecture assessment - we’ll map your sources and recommend the right approach for your business.
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