It can be said that enterprise software systems are a channel through which corporate communication occurs. The adoption and utilization of this channel depend in substantial part on how easy the channel is to use by a group of humans who want to interact a particular way. Configuration of software systems or extensions thereof are adaptations to reflect a desired method or approach. It is NOT easy to alter a communication system.
When the upstream energy industry refers to "silos" it is generally referring to the methods for interacting between functions; the means by which one function's output becomes another function's input. The recurring question today is "How do we get these functions to work together?" Software vendors point to the simplicity of "finding things" in the system where one thinks they should be and making this so for each function involved. This is seen as "key" to adoption and world domination. It is investment thesis at a level. But what should be looked at closely is not only the "easy of use of the communication medium (i.e. paper, audio, software)" but also the basic language (i.e. the words).
When we speak of digitalization of the oilfield, we need to recognize that we are positing new channels and new diction. The notion of new diction compounds degree of complexity of "digitization" substantially, however, those systems that facilitate the creation and management of "vocabulary" will become extremely powerful. In other words, control the data modeling and the data model because this is the vocabulary. This is the game in play right now for energy. This is what is really going on: first get in position to control the words and then get in position to sell process improvement.