More data or better data – which is the best for fund operators?

Rob Weber, Global Head of Solution Sales, Rimes Technologies, and Bob Cataldo, Chief Investment & Strategy Officer, at UFG Insurance discusses what is the best route for data efficiency.

Fund Operator Editor POSTED ON 10/3/2024 12:00:00 PM

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Do you need all the data in the world or instead more ways to sift through what data you do have?

That was the question posed in a recent Clear Path Analysis webinar, “Utilising data volumes: driving profitability, efficiency and risk management”, which has now been published as a report in conjunction with Rimes Technologies.

Rob Weber, Global Head of Solution Sales, Rimes Technologies, and Robert ‘Bob’ Cataldo, Chief Investment & Strategy Officer, at UFG Insurance, looks at whether good data management means capturing, retaining, and utilising the widest set of data or focusing on the best and most meaningful quality?

Which gives the question - how do you discern this data effectively and efficiently?

Read their thoughts on this issue below.

Andrew Putwain: When it comes to data, how do you find out what fund operators need in the first place and then how do you achieve that?

Rob Weber: [This] is consistently being evaluated and reviewed.

You do have to pay for data, it isn’t cheap, and you also have different usages for those datasets as well as different consumers. Systems change so it is a continually evolving discussion and it isn’t about fixing it today and then three years from now it will be good because it was fixed. As the world changes, this continual involvement is important.

The topic of this question is timing and quality. These both vacillate. If you are talking to a performance professional, they would like quality over timeliness as they are OK waiting a couple of hours as long as the quality of data sets that come into their performance engine and all of their calculations and performance returns are calculated on quality data sets.

"Where the industry needs to help improve is understanding the tags on the datasets, i.e., are they preliminary datasets? Is it part of a self-service?"

From a timing perspective, some people just want the data even if it is preliminary. It may not be quality checked, etc., but they just want the data sets.

Where the industry needs to help improve is understanding the tags on the datasets, i.e., are they preliminary datasets? Is it part of a self-service? Because you may have access to it with self-service but there may not be governance on it because it is coming directly from a vendor so you can use it but be cautious as we haven’t put our enterprise-wide, strategic, foundational oversight on top of it.

These nuances and appreciation of organisations to understand what they are describing when they are talking about solving it is quite critical. Between quality and timeliness is a never-ending conversation but it is important to identify what is needed for both.

Bob Cataldo: There is an insatiable thirst for data. More data is better, but I would agree that quality supersedes anything, particularly in the investment management side where you are making decisions with client capital as you want to know that you are working with the cleanest data with the most integrity that you can possibly get.

"Companies that have democratised data and made it accessible to their people are more successful, growing more profitably, and having better decision-making overall."

The secret sauce is in how well you democratise this data. You want everyone to be able to access it for whatever their needs are i.e. on the trade desk, compliance office, portfolio management, etc.

Companies that have democratised data and made it accessible to their people are more successful, growing more profitably, and having better decision-making overall.

You have data silos and different compartments within the organisation where data might be hidden or kept at arm’s length, and it is an effort to do a full inventory of what you have and have access to as an organisation and how you get that quickly into the hands of your people to make the best decisions.

You can read more of Weber and Cataldo’s thoughts and the report in full, by clicking here

 

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