Blakely went on to mention that the software allows users to easily analyze large data sets. The interface gives you the ability to manipulate data on the fly, letting you draw from both structured and unstructured sources including data warehouses, enterprise applications, spreadsheets and flat files. For financial advisory firms and even larger broker-dealers, this uncovers an opportunity to harness huge amounts of data typically found in Excel spreadsheets and similar formats.
“The major opportunities for data analysis/business intelligence in investment management is for enterprisewide integration of customer, product and operational data. After all, the asset management industry is largely about information,” Blakely says.
He adds, “With the right set of tools, actionable information in the form of data that was either tucked away or unobtainable (think social media) becomes available.”
One of the challenges facing broker-dealers and financial advisors alike is the use (or misuse) of social media. If this software can be used as a tool to collect and monitor social media use on an enterprise level, it harnesses a huge amount of data and solves a potential headache for those organizations.
The more data that gets collected, the more challenging it will be to efficiently handle that data. Using available choices such as those mentioned in this article, financial advisory firms can perform more efficient data integrations and report-building with less duplication of data entry and, hopefully, with less frustration.
David L. Lawrence, Ph.D., is founder and president of Efficient Practice, a consulting firm that provides financial practices, broker-dealers and independent firms with comprehensive, profit-driven efficiency consulting and resources. For details, visit www.efficientpractice.com.