Future of Operations: Simplifying Operations with Data
Firms are conducting wide-ranging overhauls designed to integrate data and analytics into workflows. The aim? Radically enhance the value of data by reducing the time and resources spent on collection, processing, and validation.
“Data is the new oil for asset managers. Those who manage data most effectively will lead in creating new solutions for clients and drive successful business outcomes,” says Jesse Robinson, Head of Investment & Client Data Services at Lord Abbett & Co.
Hear from the leading asset management firms in the industry as they discuss how data will continue to evolve into the industry’s most valuable asset.
Excerpt
Introduction
The COVID-19 crisis demonstrated how important data has become to asset managers. At the start of the pandemic, managers faced a monumental task in simply maintaining regular business operations and transaction flows amid the disruptions. Once that immediate threat was handled, managers had to make critical strategic decisions about how to position their organizations to weather the crisis. Data management was at the center of both efforts.
“The past 12 months were a tremendous reminder that when volatility and uncertainty rises, the timeframe for significant business decisions compresses, and you have less time than you think,” says Michael Herskovitz, Managing Director of Information Technology at Prudential Financial.
Asset managers that had made early investments in data infrastructure were positioned to make better and faster decisions in this high-pressure environment because they were able to get essential data into the hands of investment teams, client service professionals and other staff.
That experience has not been lost on senior management teams, some of whom were questioning the ROI on data initiatives before the pandemic. Today, many asset management firms are in the midst of wide-ranging overhauls designed to integrate data and data analytics into their workflows and investment processes.
These undertakings are aimed at radically enhancing the value firms extract from data by systemizing and reducing the amount of time and resources spent on its collection, processing and validation. “Reconciling data today requires too many processes and too much complexity,” says Jesse Robinson, Head of Investment & Client Data Services at Lord, Abbett & Co. “The efficiencies from simplification are what’s going to help drive the creation of future solutions and operating models.”
Asset managers engaged in these data management projects have taken important first steps toward an ultimate destination: the Single Source of Truth (SSOT). The Holy Grail of the data industry, the SSOT represents a universal “master record” that ensures all constituencies within an organization have timely access to data that is 100% accurate, up-to-date and consistent. As Lord Abbett’s Robinson describes it, the SSOT delivers data that is “locked in and locked down,” with no need for any additional review or confirmation. That pristine data can be safely fed to powerful artificial intelligence applications to revolutionize operational functions, investment processes and
business decision-making.
The asset management industry is far from this data utopia but has started its long journey toward the SSOT. In this paper, we will trace that journey, recounting the progress made to date, assessing the state of the industry’s data integration as it stands today, and providing a glimpse of how data will continue to evolve into perhaps the industry’s most valuable asset.