The Importance of Solid Data Posture for Investment Firms

Today, data is equal in value to real estate, gold, or cash. Therefore, solid data governance is necessary for your company as much as a stock or bond trading strategy. Data posture is anything but a way to manage, use, and protect the information collected throughout a company’s operations.

When implementing data posture in your investment company, you must be mindful of how and where you collect information, who has access to it, and how they use it. All the procedures for managing data sets may seem overwhelming. But the better you design them, the easier they will be for people to handle and security professionals to fend off potential attacks.

A World Economic Forum report states that in 2025, the amount of data processed by companies will reach a dizzying 463 exabytes (one with eighteen zeros) in various data types. The more information, the more problems it brings. The exponentially growing amounts of data anticipate your company’s management procedures and international regulations that leave the door open to abuse.

The more data, the harder it is to control. Often, the same data assets appear several times in different places, making it challenging to secure them properly. On the other hand, you are not always aware of new data sets that may be valuable for analytics. Problems in merging diverse data sources will negatively affect operational efficiency and distort business decisions.

Implementing effective data governance in your investment company may seem tricky, but the benefits outweigh the initial challenges. Discover what you’ll gain by organizing unstructured activities into clear and proven procedures.

Want to gain a competitive advantage? Data analytics is your ally, and it’s been like this for years now. According to the McKinsey report, 59% of managers from high-performing organizations say their R&D departments use analytics to forecast the company’s direction.

54% of businesses indicate tracking the impact of analytics activities on revenue. Recognizing the links between analytics and a company’s successes helps to correct an unfavorable course faster and reinforce the most profitable activities.

Organized and efficiently managed data simplifies compliance with international regulations. Europe’s mandatory GDPR forces companies to report customer data leaks within a maximum of 72 hours of detecting a breach.

If your company’s data posture management works flawlessly, potential data breaches will be detected instantly. This will minimize your company’s risk of fines running into hundreds of thousands of euros.

Chaos is not welcome in any business aspect. Imagine the lack of structured processes in customer service, managing investments, or onboarding new employees. Disorganized activities waste time your personnel could spend acquiring more customers and expanding new markets.

The same goes for managing data within your organization. Automated transformation of data into actionable insights will empower you to quickly draw conclusions and make instant decisions critical to your company’s growth. Your organization will be able to achieve more without spending extra money.

According to IBM, the average time to discover a data leak is 212 days. This exposes clients to risky situations involving unsecured access to personal, payment, property, and other data for over half a year. Affected customers will lose trust in your services and warn others to avoid doing business with your company.

Once you control sensitive data in your business and implement transparent processes to manage it, you will protect your company’s reputation. Clients will appreciate your efforts in managing vast amounts of data and feel safe entrusting you with their assets.

Data posture consists of several elements that give you control over the information collected in your company. What can’t be missing from an advanced data protection and use approach? Find out in the following paragraphs.

A clear data management system allows you to discover the gigantic money you can make with it. Transparent data operations support the daily tasks of all departments and let them understand their role in shaping the business.

In an industry as specific as investment, you must rely primarily on data to stay one step ahead of changes in the market and your competitors’ plans. The more guaranteed investment opportunities you offer your clients, the better position you will achieve.

Why shouldn’t every data be used to make critical decisions? Because of their poor quality. When managing data in your organization, you must consider its accuracy and context. Using mismatched data to build your company’s business strategy could cost you customers and lower your reputation.

You need to ensure data confidentiality and limit unauthorized access. That’s why financial institutions should rely on solutions such as data encryption, which reduces the likelihood of data breaches by external criminals and unauthorized in-house staff members.

Users working on the data should use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to prevent logging into the system if their password is stolen.

Consolidating different data types provides a homogenous picture of the company’s performance. Data shown in a broader context conveys relevant information continuously and facilitates accurate decision-making under time pressure. Integrated data and analytics performed in real-time save time for those responsible for processing it and let you involve your team in more advanced tasks.

How should you start introducing data governance to be sure your efforts are not in vain? Follow the steps below to implement an advanced data management strategy successfully.

Set specific goals that address current data challenges, such as managing data silos or increasing data availability. Don’t forget to align your vision with your business goals.

Identify present data management practices that are used in your company. Find out which areas are well managed and which need improvement.

Designate a person or team to supervise data management activities. You can choose individuals within the company or hire an external Chief Data Officer.

With the governance team, set data standards and develop procedures for data security, privacy, and access. Ensure that they are consistent across the organization.

Implement data encryption, user authentication, and access control. Ensure compliance with regulations, such as GDPR or CCPA.

Choose technology solutions for your company to streamline data management processes. Monitor data flow to identify potential problems quickly.

Select the indicators to monitor for data quality reporting. Create mechanisms to evaluate the metrics clearly.

Encourage employees to work responsibly with data and follow security policies. Organize training sessions to refresh their knowledge of data procedures.

Review data management policies and practices regularly. Update them according to new directives and refine the strategy, especially after data leaks.

The role of structured data governance is bound to expand. What can we expect in the future? What impact will the explosive growth of AI have on data management? Let’s allow our imagination to run wild together.

A timeless trend in data management is advanced security. As the value of data increases, so does the number of attempts to steal valuable information. Therefore, security must be one of the cornerstones regardless of data acquisition and processing methods. It also applies to maintaining compliance with regulations created by international organizations.

The increasing amount of data collected is forcing the exploration of alternative ways of storing it that won’t eat up all the company’s profits. A cost-effective solution is cloud infrastructure managed through the FinOps approach. FinOps monitors cloud spending, enabling a company to allocate resources efficiently without compromising data quality and availability.

AI is an excellent tool for processing gigantic data sets. Automating data management will be helpful wherever unstructured information of various types is found. AI tools extract valuable information from areas overlooked by many companies, such as transaction data, store visits, web searches, and social media behaviors.

Alternative business data perfectly complement the traditional sources that are the foundation of business operations. As many as 72% of those surveyed by the CFA Institute pointed to them as significant in future investment decisions. AI tools based on unconventional data will help you win customers and increase profits in areas your competitors haven’t reached yet.

Managing big data can be overwhelming. But, with the data, investment companies can discover new opportunities to make money for their clients and profits for themselves. With the right structured strategy, you can respond better to your client’s needs and bring new products to market faster than your competitors.

If your company lacks the necessary experience in investment industry-specific data management, contact Scalo specialists and take care of your company’s data posture right now!