It’s between the silos that we see almost all of the really large opportunities now. Within silos, I think there isn’t much more to do. There just isn’t much more we can do on supply chain management until we get to RFID [radio frequency identification]. There isn’t much more we can do on CRM [customer relationship management] until we get everything connected. We do have all these governance issues to overcome that are between silos, not within silos.

— Gary Bridge, Vice President, Internet Solutions Group, Cisco Systems.  Source:  personal communication on the imperatives of cross-functional integration.