Eliminating data errors, improving data processing turnaround times and providing accurate data for making good investment decisions were some survey answers.

In a survey of 375 respondents (decision makers) from asset management firms with US$30bn to US$500bn of assets under management across the US, the UK, Austria, Brazil, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, and Switzerland on the topic of their data management challenges and trends, the top data management challenge cited was “eliminating errors”.

Other challenges cited included “improving responses to regulators”, enhancing risk management and client engagement, lowering data management costs, “providing the front office with accurate data for decisions”, moving data to the cloud, offering timely reporting data, and responding to business requests more promptly.

The survey included 51 respondents from firms in Singapore and in Malaysia.    

Key findings

The following five findings were based on the data provided by the respondents:

    • 54% of respondents cited that eliminating data errors was their top challenge; 44% cited obtaining accurate data as their top business driver for data management.
    • Other business drivers for improving data management included:
      • 41% citing “responding to requests from the business in a timelier manner”
      • 37% citing “providing the front office with accurate data for making investment decisions”
      • 35% citing “providing more timely reporting data for internal and external stakeholders”
    • 21% of respondents from Singapore and Malaysia cited that one of their main challenges in risk management was consolidating disparate data, while 26% cited struggling with managing data volumes; 29% cited having problems incorporating current data.
    • 3% of respondents used data that was less than five hours old for reporting; 46% cited that the data they used to make business decisions was more than 24 hours old, and 17% cited using data that was more than one week old.
    • 66% of respondents required six to nine people to process data to meet the needs of business stakeholders; 41% of respondents cited that their IT personnel spent between 26% and 50% of their time servicing data requests.

According to Joe Lichtenberg, Global Head of Product and Industry Marketing, InterSystems, which commissioned the survey: “Firms must minimize labor-intensive and error-prone manual processes that erode efficiency and create delays” and speed and simplify access to accurate and timely data.