The Importance of Implementing Effective Data Management  

It is estimated that there are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data produced daily. Banks, credit unions and financial services are a significant contributor to that volume with customer data, regulatory data, transaction data and digital data producing massive amounts of information.

Simultaneously, consumers and businesses are increasing their expectations about how financial firms interact with them, and they require banks and credit unions to know more about how they want to be served. There is a balance required between using data to enhance the customer experience and overstepping the trust a client has for you to protect their personal information.

These dynamics magnify the need for banks and credit unions to find solutions for real-time fraud analysis, increased regulatory analysis, more efficient and effective processes, and customized marketing messages all resulting in differentiated customer service.

This puts pressure on leaders at banks and credit unions to find ways to automate and analyze massive amounts of data while maintaining security and confidentiality.

The data is both the dilemma and the opportunity.

Your data is one of your most valuable assets. How you leverage that asset separates you from your competitors. You have an advantage because you already have the customer. Analyzing the data gives banks and credit unions the ability to see what their current customers are thinking and purchasing. This data can then be extrapolated into what customers are planning, doing and value most, helping define what products need to be offered and processes improved to retain the customers, grow wallet share and acquire new customers.

This sounds simple, but it is complex. In most cases, your customer data will be dispersed through multiple databases and systems. Also, this data will likely not be joined with other data and may represent a very disjointed view of the information. Poor data quality may lead to inaccurate or incomplete observations.

This scenario, along with the rapid advancements in AI, has made data management and analysis vitally important.

Knowing where to start can feel overwhelming.

Tying your strategy together with proper governance and roadmaps to prioritize your activity is the key to success. The proper team of data management experts can gather the information you need in a format that makes sense.

Building a single source of truth for the organization is key to ensuring stakeholders are all using the same information. Data cleaning improves the quality of your data and, hence, the value it provides. In addition, data management experts can provide valuable insights into customer trends that you may not be looking for or could not discern on your own.

Once data is collected, consolidated and cleaned, it is ready for consumption. From there, you can work to increase data literacy by driving a culture of data-driven decisions.