Data Management Special Report

Click here to download this report

A Product of Participation

It's difficult to fully articulate and appreciate the critical role data plays in the financial services industry. It's been written before in the pages of Waters, but it's worth noting again that data is analogous to blood flowing through the human body: Remove it and the body dies. Additional illustrations of data's pivotal role in the capital markets can be gleaned from Waters' sibling publications, Inside Market Data and Inside Reference Data, which, over the years, have helped inform, shape, and educate their respective communities.

Continuing the data-as-blood analogy, like the body and its myriad complexities that rely on blood for nourishment and the most fundamental requirement to support life-oxygen-every conceivable business process across the buy side and the sell side is contingent on data to some degree. And, like blood, the "purer" the data, the better. Technology also plays an important role when it comes to firms' data management practices, although its part is more that of a supporting actor than the starring role. But make no mistake, without technology, automation of every aspect of the capital markets would be impossible. Data management in our industry is a multi-faceted phenomenon, illustrated by the variety of responses from our seven sources who took part in the virtual roundtable on page five. One issue that did yield something of a consensus, however, is the notion that efficient and effective data management disciplines are not driven by technology projects. In this respect, data management is more of a process, a continuum for which no discernible start or end points exist, and which, in an ideal scenario, combines firm-wide objectives, clear data governance policies, a chief data officer responsible for driving the entire initiative, and of course, the technology underpinning the firm-wide program.

Data management schemes, especially those multi-year, all-encompassing data warehouse projects, have come under scrutiny by executive committees over recent years. And rightly so: Far too often, those initiatives, conceived at the outset to be the panacea for a firm's data-related maladies, failed to deliver anything resembling a half-decent return on the substantial time and financial investments for a variety of reasons ranging from constantly changing sponsors and non-accountability, to scope creep, poor coordination and loosely defined objectives. Now, however, such initiatives tend to be more focused and better disciplined, demanding buy-in and genuine participation from right across the business.

Click here to download this report