From complex to simple: Data security

Investors face a market of near-infinite detail while targeting one simple outcome: returns. However, the unnecessarily complex nature of managing data can both compromise critical information and take time away from nurturing key assets.

Investment managers possess the expertise to process these millions of data points and craft strategies that drive returns for investors. But while the tools and processes used by fund managers to monitor, report and manage investments may have stood the test of time, these approaches could also benefit from a reduction in complexity.

By streamlining and simplifying data management, investment managers can generate significant competitive advantage by reducing risk, improving operational efficiency and ultimately, improving ROI.

One predictable component of the fund manager’s toolkit is the humble spreadsheet. 

There’s a reason that investment management, like many other industries, is addicted to the spreadsheet despite dedicated software solutions competing for market share. It may be cumbersome, it may require manual inputs, but the spreadsheet works. 

 

A number of AlphaCert customers have relied on Excel workbooks as a critical component of investment data management – an approach that presents significant business risk.

This approach saw one customer connect multiple spreadsheets to their primary database, effectively operating numerous unmanaged access points to critical information. 

As various members of the team could write new data queries and edit existing queries with no audit trail, data integrity was under constant threat from user error. 

Even where errors were avoided, the business struggled with data silos throughout the organisation, with different teams relying on different reports, and inconsistent reporting due to conflicts in source data. 

Moving to AlphaCert helped this customer vastly reduce operational risk by implementing one single, comprehensive source of truth, enabling consistent reporting and comparisons across the entire organisation. 

Illustrating the improvement is the drop in Excel workbooks in operation from 400 down to 75. The shift also enabled robust data governance, with thorough user management tools and detailed audit trails to ensure data integrity.

With clients to service, investments to manage, and regulatory bodies to report to, it’s easy to take the “if it ain’t broke…” approach to systems improvement. However, ensuring the security of investment data should be a top priority for any fund manager.

The AlphaCert solution offers a series of role-based permissions which grants access to different levels of data based on the user’s position – ensuring secure data handling that eliminates risky offline processes. 

There are significant competitive advantages to be gained from having one comprehensive and secure source of data, not limited to ensuring data integrity and driving operational efficiency.

We believe elite systems and processes will be essential to maintaining competitiveness in today’s ever-changing market. To learn more about how your business could drive ROI, improve efficiency, and reduce risk, get in touch with one of our team today for a customised demo.

Your single source of clean, validated investment data. AlphaCert’s data management platform has extensive verification and data dissemination capabilities, enabling everyone from analysts to CIOs to make better investment decisions. Find out more about what makes AlphaCert different.