Power to the Business

The relationship between IT and the business is often far from ideal. But are things about to change?

IT staff have become used to taking responsibility for data—often due to the indifference and ignorance of colleagues on the business side. However, as the pressure on data management increases, the shortcomings of this approach are becoming more apparent.

IT people realize they need to gain the interest and cooperation of colleagues on the business side if they are to improve data quality, ensure good data governance and secure the funding they urgently need for regulatory projects.

At this month's Frankfurt Financial Information Summit, Frank Neumann, head trader at Derivative Partners, explained the close working relationship that exists between IT and the business at the Swiss firm. Neumann said that rather than simply requesting additional data, traders often invite their colleagues in IT to sit beside them as they trade so that they can fully understand what traders are doing and why they need more data.

Such proximity between IT and the business may seem a long way off the model used at the largest global firms today, but at the same conference, representatives from UBS and Deutsche Bank revealed they have similar ambitions to empower data consumers in the business.

Sandeep Mehta, managing director, head of enterprise services at UBS, explained the bank has begun to introduce a ‘self-service' model of data usage. This has involved eliminating a layer of staff who acted as a broker between IT people who build data warehouses and business staff who consume data. The new approach gives business consumers greater power to visualize, model and manipulate data in the way they need to achieve their business goals.

Mehta explained that if business staff are given more control over the data they need, they will drive the changes that are necessary in IT.

Vaibhav Bhanot, director, enterprise architecture and strategy at Deutsche Bank, said his firm also hopes to introduce a self-service model for data usage, pointing out that it is not sustainable for IT to continue producing the thousands of reports required by the business.

With two of the largest banks showing interest in self-service data, change is clearly in the air and business staff can look forward to learning more about the joys of data in the years to come.