The Enterprise Data Management (EDM) Council and Headstrong, an IT consulting company for financial services, today announced results of their 2010 industry benchmarking survey on the current state of data management among global financial institutions. Sponsored by Headstrong and with analysis completed by the EDM Council, the survey demonstrates the rising importance of EDM as an essential component of business operations. More than 75 percent of firms report having data management programs underway, with 52 percent moving towards a global centralised EDM structure. In addition, regulatory compliance and risk management are the top drivers for EDM in almost half of the firms.
The survey polled a representative sample of more than 60 financial institutions representing a cross-section of the global industry. According to the results, data management has emerged as one of the top priorities for most financial institutions, driven by a combination of regulatory requirements, systemic risk concerns and business demand for timely and trusted data. Financial institutions are in the formative stages of implementing their EDM strategies, but have not yet achieved their long-term objectives on either data centralisation or integration into downstream applications. “Headstrong recognises the new data management mandate within the financial industry and the importance of accurately benchmarking the state of maturity,” states President and CEO for Headstrong, Sandeep Sahai. “Our collaboration with the EDM Council on the delivery of this industry survey reflects our commitment towards the establishment of mature data management practices.”
The financial industry is making significant investment in data management and budgets are rising across the industry. “The challenge is less about obtaining funding for EDM initiatives and more about using the money wisely for implementation,” said Predrag Dizdarevic, co-author of the report and managing partner, element22. “Spending for integration-related activities is growing rapidly and now accounts for a rising portion of total EDM budgets.”
The demand for industry-wide standardisation was cited as a high priority among most data management professionals across the industry. The overall level of standardisation is low, but a majority of firms are in the process of addressing this gap. “Firms recognise the essential nature of data content standards for internal alignment and data comparability,” said Michael Atkin, managing director, EDM Council. “Without exception, firms with experience in EDM integration understand the value of both architectural and semantic standards and want them implemented as soon as possible.”
The EDM Council/Headstrong survey covered core areas associated with data management strategy, data operations, IT and data quality. It represents the first time that quantitative numbers have been collected at this level. Overall, the survey reinforces that the financial industry collectively recognises the importance of data management from a business, operational and compliance perspective and is working to address the results of years of fragmented data management operations.
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