We’ve defined Distribution IUM and explored why you should seek to manage the internal and third-party data. The next step is to look at where all that information is stored. Firms have found errant data in their CRM, expense solutions, website, marketing, sales, and email systems. Some firms find them in Excel! While the data may live in various sources or applications, there is one key question that needs to be answered:
Do any of these data sources talk to each other?
Strong data management practices say that your most important pieces of information need to be centrally managed so you may share it with the other systems and cross-reference it in reports or dashboards. For example, your Seismic and marketing automation systems have data tabulating client interactions with literature and emails. However, your CRM contains your client segment information. If these data sets remain locked in siloes, you cannot effectively determine if your most valuable clients are engaged with your communications.
The good news is that modern information and business intelligence tools make it possible to unify, analyze and find signals in your complete data sets. Centrally managed does not necessitate that your varied data sets need to be physically stored in one place. Once you are effectively managing your information, you may then create some interesting KPI dashboards. A dashboard may be developed from a centralized information store that will inform both strategic and tactical business decisions. More complete information will allow firms to manage their business, redirect resources or alter product messaging. A wise sales manager once taught me that when this type of information is more transparent, it affords him more “coachable moments” with his team; moments that will improve the process, efficiency, and sales results.
Olmstead works with asset management firms to solve these challenges. We discover where your important data is located and pull it together in both logical and physical ways. This will allow you to fully realize the ROI of your information under management and technology solutions; a calculation that may not have been possible when the data remained siloed. This transformation will help you turn your data into usable and ‘coachable’ information.
For more detailed information about Olmstead’s data management concepts, please read about our data virtualization ideas in Top 3 Advantages of Data Virtualization.