Information silos can be said to be information management systems that are unable to communicate with other information management systems freely. In the case of Colony Nursery and Landscape, the new store being unable to share customer information with the mother store as far as customer purchasing data are concerned is considered an information silo since these two systems of information management are not able to freely communicate this data between themselves. In most cases, information silos exist when the administration does not believe that there is enough benefit from sharing information, in which case the management directly barres the sharing of data. Information silo can be very destructive to the progress of an organization, or organizations within a given network. For Colony Nursery and Landscape, the information silo would result in problems such as duplication of effort and redundant jobs. This is because lack of information sharing could lead to the double awarding of a client by the two branches since there would not be adequate communication to mark which client has been awarded for their loyalty by which store to ensure a standard system of awards (Shahrokni & Söderberg, 2015) . Additionally, information silo creates a bottleneck of information which in the results in inefficiency ads the different departments would most probably be working with a series of alternate understandings for the award system.
Moving into the cloud system not only helps in counterattacking information silos, but the move also plays a role in boosting cost efficiency. This is because cloud computing reduces, or altogether eliminates the need for an organization to purchase equipment to build out and operate data centers. This, in turn, presents a significant saving on hardware, utilities, and facilities since all information is gathered on one software platform. The cloud also provides flexible pay options since most of the cloud computing programs, like ERP use a subscription-based model to allow the organization to scale up or down according to its needs and budgets (Chang, Kuo & Ramachandran, 2016) . This being said, it is correct to point out that using cloud services would solve the ERP information silo problem at Colony Nursery and Landscaping since the organization would be better placed to promote collaboration between the two branches. Cloud-based workflow and file-sharing would give the organization's dispersed teams of people the ability to work together more efficiently on one platform to ensure uniformity of the reward system. In the end, Colony Nursery and Landscaping will be able to avoid the possibilities of double-reward systems for the consumers.
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Using the ERP systems and awards programs would be an excellent avenue to provide Colony Nursery and Landscaping with a competitive advantage over its rivals in the market. This is because the organization would be better placed to optimize on its business processes, in addition to having accurate and timely access to reliable customer information. The goal of any business is to make a profit, and for this to be realized there is the need to offer products and services that are consumer friendly to win their trust. The award program goes a long way in gaining the confidence and loyalty of the clients hence building a solid clientele base. Of the ERP systems to be effectively implemented, there would be the need to re-engineer the business processes for Colony Nursery and Landscaping. This is because the networks would require the alignment of client data and information from the two stores into one streamlined information server for easy retrieval. This would mean that some business processes would have to be altered to reflect this smooth information sharing and storage, such as the awards systems. There would be the need to feed in the award system into the central server as opposed to having each store run its own awards system to minimize on such cases as double awarding.
References
Chang, V., Kuo, Y. H., & Ramachandran, M. (2016). Cloud computing adoption framework: A security framework for business clouds. Future Generation Computer Systems , 57 , 24-41.
Shahrokni, A., & Söderberg, J. (2015, July). Beyond Information Silos Challenges in Integrating Industrial Model-based Data. In BigMDE@ STAF (pp. 63-72).
