It’s a cliche to say that we live in a data driven-driven world. Our industry understands this better than most. As a result, we are grabbling with the complexity of bringing new and old systems, processes and data together.
It is a truism that the more data a business has, the more complex it becomes, making data management critical. A 2019 Accenture Report found that “66 percent of asset managers say that data management is the area of their business most in need of total disruption.” (Reinventing operations in asset management, Accenture)
As we head into 2022, this statistic appears a bit old, but consider your fund. Do you still have improvements to make? You’d probably agree that improving your data management isn’t a one-and-done process. Instead, enhancing investment data management is a process of evolution.
Good data management depends on having the right people, processes, platforms and partners in place. But, how do you know what is right?
Who can you learn from
It pays to start with the end in mind. Revealing this can lead to discussions with colleagues, peers and industry suppliers. At AlphaCert, we’ve created a Data Management Maturity Model specifically for the investment industry. We believe this will be immensely helpful in your discovery process.
You now have a sense of where you think your fund should get to, so how do you get there?
Systematic evolution
Data management is an evolutionary process, and a model, like our Data Management Maturity Model, can be used to plan this process systematically. A model can also help companies determine what level is appropriate for the business – and how and when to move to the next level.
1. Assess
The first step is to assess the current level of your organisation’s data management maturity. To help, use our maturity model or take our data maturity assessment (more information below).
2. Plan
Don’t expect to be able to jump straight to the end-game. Instead, work out what you want to achieve in the next 12 months. Then, working with the data maturity model, plan the required improvements to reach the level of maturity your organisation needs.
3. Execute
Execute the planned activities. Remember, you have a plan; focus on the agreed roadmap.
4. Repeat
At the end of the period, repeat the assessment to track data management maturity improvements and trends over time.
Where are you currently
To reiterate, the first step is to assess your fund’s current state of data management maturity. We’ve created a quick online assessment to help you in this process.
We’d also suggest talking to subject matter experts and stakeholders to identify and document your current level of maturity against each of the categories in our maturity model. This is your baseline maturity. You can likely be at different maturity levels for each category. This difference shouldn’t concern you; it just indicates an area of focus.
Take AlphaCert’s Data Maturity Assessment
Read AlphaCert’s Data Maturity model
If you’d like to find out how AlphaCert can help you understand your current level of data maturity, get in touch and we’ll start a discussion.