Buy-side firms challenged by the need to manage more data, increase data quality, address margin pressures and identify new business opportunities are investing in transformational data management programmes that will catapult their capabilities ahead of those of comparable sell-side firms.
Buy-side approaches to data management and their progress were discussed during a recent A-Team Group webinar that was moderated by A-Team editor Sarah Underwood and joined by Marla Dans, director at Alvarez & Marsal Corporate Performance Improvement; Naomi Clarke, head of data at GAM; Claire Frankel, former executive director at JPMorgan Chase; and John Randles, CEO at Bloomberg PolarLake.
The speakers set the scene noting the buy-side need for improved operational efficiency to ease pressure on margins. To achieve this, they said Tier 1 and Tier 2 asset managers are investing in transformational data management programmes that will put them ahead of sell-side firms as data management is less complex on the buy-side, fewer mergers and acquisitions have added to the complexity, and many firms are contracting data management as a service.
For those implementing data management in house, a poll of the webinar audience showed respondents struggling with too many data silos, poor quality data, lack of understanding of the data, and building a data management framework. Dans added the problems of manual processes, identifying data ownership and achieving golden source data.
Acknowledging these problems, Clarke said that if asset managers address data silos, they could leapfrog the sell-side. She also mentioned the need for more data standardisation and application programming interfaces (APIs) or integration layers to support development. Randles described the benefits of working with data management utilities to ease the data management burden and improve data quality, while Frankel said data quality can be achieved by setting policy before implementing tools.
The webinar went on to discuss the potential benefits of investment in data management, while an audience poll showed over 60% of respondents expecting to gain significant business and operational benefits. Final advice to buy-side data management practitioners included winning senior management buy-in for strategic data management programmes, setting clear objectives, bringing in the best personnel, and executing on strategy.
Listen to the webinar to find out more about:
- Buy-side progress on data management
- Transformational and tactical approaches
- Data management challenges and solutions
- Business and operational benefits
- Expert advice for practitioners
