Dennis Baillon

In today’s fast-moving financial world, data has evolved from a byproduct of operations into a powerful competitive advantage. For investment managers, harnessing it effectively can drive efficiencies, deliver timely insights and enhance investment decisions.

However, the true value of data hinges on how well it’s managed and understood – and achieving success requires more than just technology integration – it takes a shift in mindset, strong cross-functional collaboration and a clear vision for how insights support business goals.

Data-driven culture

Traditionally, most data was owned by specific teams that oversaw the corresponding part of the operation. However, the need for faster insights, more granular data views and data-driven decisions started creating data silos.

Individual data points and insights were not hard to validate, but getting a consistent, single view across the business was almost impossible. These silos also limited data sharing and decreased trust from external sources – making data transformation projects difficult.

Building a data-driven culture requires strong technology relationships across business lines, a supportive organizational mindset and executive buy-in to embed data-driven thinking into strategic priorities.

Engaging stakeholders in data transformation journey

To successfully align stakeholders with the data transformation journey, we gathered insights from clients and consultants at the summit:

• Start with a clear business case that solves a real-world problem to demonstrate value and build momentum for broader data adoption
• Educate teams about the value of integrated data
• Collaborate with teams to understand what they need from their data
• Integrate key stakeholders into the process as data source specialists
• Provide comprehensive training and support to your teams on any new platform or system that is being adopted
• Showcase how data sharing drives efficiencies, growth and strategic insights
• Demonstrate how insights support key business goals through real-world examples relevant to stakeholder priorities.

Establishing a dedicated investment and data governance team helps ensure the right stakeholders are involved in managing data throughout its lifecycle.

By leveraging data stewards, you’ll be able to secure direct endorsement from trusted internal data experts – reinforcing data accuracy, streamlining validation and building greater trust in both the process and data outputs.

Creating high-quality insights, analytics

While large volumes of data can be collected, how it’s used and what data is included in the lifecycle is critical. To ensure focus is on meaningful insights only, evaluate data through a four-part lens based on accuracy, relevance, timeliness and actionability.

This approach ensures accurate curation of data insights from the outset – laying the foundation for lasting value by improving timeliness and ensuring the insights are both relevant and actionable.

As investment firms advance their digital transformations, preparing data to be artificial intelligence ( AI )-ready has become critically important.

High-quality, accurate data is the foundation of effective AI implementation:  Without it, even the most advanced models can prove misleading. By investing in data quality and building strong foundations now, firms can accelerate AI adoption and reduce the need for costly future overhauls.

Laying groundwork

Unleashing your data’s potential begins with a clear understanding of what data exists within your organization. Enhancing it with additional sources then builds a unified, consistent, single source of truth.

An approach integrates internal data with third-party inputs – such as benchmark reports and provider analytics – to provide a unified and comprehensive view is critical.  Aligning data to consumption patterns ensures it is presented in the right way, at the right time and in the right format to unlock meaningful insights.

Turning data into strategic advantage

As the investment management industry continues to evolve, firms that treat data as a strategic asset – rather than a technical byproduct – will be best positioned to lead. Building a strong foundation for data-driven decision-making requires more than just advanced tools; it demands a cultural shift, disciplined governance and a commitment to continuous improvement.

By fostering cross-functional collaboration, investing in data quality and aligning insights with business objectives, investment managers can unlock new levels of agility, innovation and performance. The journey may be complex, but the rewards — from enhanced client outcomes to accelerated AI readiness — are well worth the effort.

Dennis Baillon is the head of sales for Asia-Pacific at Charles River Development.