Our age has been dubbed the age of information. Vast amounts of knowledge are now at the tips of our fingers, and platforms already exist for the transmission of data at the click of a button. For hedge funds, trends involving the improved access to data have become crucial in promoting evidence-based investment decisions – decisions influenced by an analysis of fund growth patterns, interest rates, and risk measures, among other factors.
Below is a list of best practices to adopt, to make the most out of the present crop of data management technologies, and the next ones to come:
Adherence to security protocols. Data is now easily accessed, and shared, across platforms, across continents, in the real-time. Hedge funds need security protocols in place to prevent any breach to the network, which will make a company’s digital infrastructure and business strategy vulnerable to attacks. Protocols should cover such practices as the use of encryption when sending files to other networks, setting up of protection for data storage units and mobile devices, and the installation of advanced antivirus solutions, firewalls, and security patches to the network computers. Staff should be properly briefed – and trained – regarding protection of company information, and strict measures should be in place for any such process of allowed data release.
Automation of select processes. Humans can be prone to errors, especially in tasks marked by repetition and calculations. For these cases, automation features of data management solutions should be duly explored and optimized, because this will ensure accurate and precise outputs. At the same time, this practice reserves the precious time and high-level skills of the staff for core and complicated functions, such as strategizing, building relationships with client-investors, or conducting thorough risk analysis involving the assets under their management.
Use of cloud-based solutions. Data management lends much more benefits when access to information is easy and convenient. A cloud-based data management platform allows this. When data is on the Cloud, multiple parties can simultaneuously view files from wherever they are, make changes that will be reflected in the real-time, and even engage in collaborations. The more advanced solutions are capable of instant data aggregation and validation – functions that only raise the bar in data warehousing.
Among today’s breed of hedge funds, leading asset servicing firms provide the much-needed staff and technology support for adopting these best practices, ushering in a new era in data management among fund managers.
