Data management
Financial and Energy firms are hungry for reference data. Business demand requires that firms take data from many sources, which in many cases charge for supplying the data. Reference data comes in many shapes such as benchmarks, historical prices and time series data, indices, fundamental data and corporate actions data. Each element needs to be routed correctly to applications and systems which support processes such as performance measurement, risk management, modelling and pricing.
Practically any industry professional is convinced that channeling static data streams to a central or enterprise data warehouse is preferred over a silo-approach. The central approach allows firms to streamline and centralize essential data management sub-processes, such as availability and quality checks, including accuracy and consistency checks. A silo-approach results in separated data management solutions, which lead to duplicated efforts, data inconsistency, higher costs and the incapacity to cross-reference the silos. The truth however is that still many firms deploy a silo-approach rather than a central data management approach, which prevents them from creating the so-called “Golden Copy” or “Single Version Of the Truth”.
To improve the availability and the quality of data, “Data” and “Data management” need to be addressed at the right level in the firm. Data is a strategic asset and therefore needs to be governed; the data will not govern itself. The organization needs to adopt certain rules or laws to manage market data and someone in the organization, preferably at the highest level, should be the owner of this. If a company fails to address this (well) the chances of a successful (market) data management program become small. The industry shows some examples of companies who have recognized the importance of data to their business; a small number of firms have created the role of Chief Data Officer (CDO).
