As IT organizations change their focus from cost cutting to growth, one of the single best things they can do for their businesses is enable effective data sharing. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? The right data sharing can open new markets, win new customers, improve relationships with existing customers, and expedite jobs from materials delivery to inventory management to payment reconciliation.

Yet data sharing, particularly automated systems that give your external business partners access to your data when they want it, are not ubiquitous or easy, and the level of data sharing of any kind is surprisingly low at points before and after the sale, our exclusive research finds. Your colleagues resist data sharing, but they're not the only problem. IT is way too slow at creating such integrations--taking months, not days, to build new links, in many cases.

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