Reviewing your organisation’s approach to data management

The financial services industry is complex, with rapid product innovation, numerous standards for definition and valuation, tight operating margins, and changing regulatory landscapes. Combinations of processes, systems and people are required to cope with data as the oil that allows processes, systems and procedures to function effectively.The effectiveness of operations and its related supporting systems often comes down to a myriad of details surrounding the underlying information supporting them. Enormous time and effort goes into workflow design and system procurement. Yet it is the lack of complete, consistent and accurate data that leads to suboptimal system implementations and corresponding inefficiencies for the operations that rely on those systems.As firms strive to manage risk and optimise operating models, their focus is turning toward managing operational data and optimising data operations. And, turning data into actionable information remains an ongoing challenge. Firms are overwhelmed by increasing data volumes and the cost of acquiring, storing, mining, distributing and organising data, as duplicate data sources, usage and data silos add to cost and inefficiency.Reviewing an organisation’s data management approach can easily result in a process that gets lost in the details. The impact of poor data can ripple through with unforeseen consequences. However, by breaking the process into manageable components, small changes can result in tremendous benefits to the organisation. Identifying reasonable opportunities to gain advantages and maintaining a reasonable scope are critical factors. By fostering internal communications and defining project scope and goals, organisations can rationalise their data approaches and enhance processes that greatly improve operational efficiencies.