Top 10 Takeaways: EDM Council New York

The EDM Council (EDMC) hosted its annual event in New York in November, gathering data leaders together to share best practices. I took some time throughout the event to capture quotes and quips that I felt our Kingland community might appreciate. It's a good reflection of what people are talking about right now in data...

"We are a network of data management professionals."
"Data is data and data is hot."
"If you’re not having fun this year, you’re in the wrong place."

Since 2005, the EDMC has been one of the leading organizations providing thought leadership and forums for practical knowledge sharing about the best practices of data management. In the last three years the EDMC has doubled in size to more than 200 member companies and organizations. Some of that recent growth is coming from automotive, technology companies, electric companies, and other non-financial firms. Why? Many non-financial firms are hiring experienced Chief Data Officers, many of whom started in financial services. It's predicted that 90% of large global companies will have a CDO by 2019. Many of these organizations are looking for leaders to identify and communicate the business value of data and find a balance among the benefits and risks. At Kingland, we're seeing strong interest in managing enterprise data from not just financial services, but insurance, public accounting, and retail clients. If you're not familiar with the council and data is important to you, check them out.
"New initiatives need to start on a solid data foundation otherwise you carry forward the problems of the past."
"Data governance is top down. Data quality is bottom up."
"Origination systems always have different data points and rules. New systems do too."

10 years ago golden copies and centralized "master data management" were the consensus answer to how we all thought about best practices in data management. Since then, technology has evolved from relational databases to graphs, lakes, no sql, cloud, and micro services. Leaders also have the "scars" from implementations that took too long, didn't get adopted, or were simply too complex to take beyond the first couple of use cases. The consensus now? Learn from the past, but embrace the right technology for the application, data program, or business unit. Governance standards will always improve across the organization, but the goal really must be to get the right data in the hands of the right systems, processes, and people, and improve from there.
"There are only two full scale requirements for the use of LEI in the U.S. There are more than 80 different ways to report an entity to a U.S. regulator today."

We've been part of the LEI solution for the industry since the beginning so I'm always compelled to provide a bit of an update on LEI. There have been more than 1.3 million LEIs issued globally, which is great, but unfortunately the mandate and usage in the US markets has not been strong. The US government is the largest organization in the history of the world (interesting, right?) so perhaps adoption should be a little more difficult, but that doesn't mean LEI data can't be used throughout the rest of the companies that participate in the markets. Globally, the GLEIF reports that more than 140 regulatory activities include the use of LEIs. The consensus from data leaders is more and more "open" data will become available each and every year and the key is injecting it into enterprise data strategies.
"When’s the last time you wrote a check? For many folks it's 8+ years."

This is just interesting. It came from an individual that was at an event in the last month that polled the audience. I personally still write checks and many of our clients do as well, but the point is that a growing group of the population continues to adopt different ways of buying, selling, and paying. Estimates reveal that consumers and businesses will make 841 billion non-cash transactions worldwide in 2023. This "fintech" revolution is here and requires all of us to rethink the data that is required and must be managed to promote these evolving business models and technologies.
"Executives need to drive data and AI investment. Many times mid-level management may resist or fear the efficiency it could deliver."
I've started to wonder this in the last six months and found it interesting to hear multiple leaders say the same thing. There is tremendous promise with Artificial Intelligence solutions and we've been actively working with many clients on how they can use AI, text analytics, and machine learning to rethink processes and extract and use new types of data. However, there may be an underlying resistance in many large organizations. People fear change; they always do. Every company should be looking to AI but the consensus from EDM leaders is to make sure education comes alongside to show how these new capabilities can help people do their jobs better...not lose them.
"Data for Operations vs. Data for Insights"
The credit for this one goes to the original leader of the EDM Council, Mike Atkin. The thinking is this - that as data management has grown up to now be a 'must have' for most organizations, there is a difference in how the governance, standards, technologies, and quality must be considered when data is used operationally vs. data that can be used for insights. While we intuitively know this, many times we'll see organizations swing a one-size-fits-all hammer at every data problem. Operational data tends to have higher quality expectations and will lead to business and efficiency problems if not well managed. Data for insights, or sometimes analytics, is more about patterns, breadth, and accessibility of data for individuals to make real business decisions. Both have to be managed and the point is this - CDOs, data leaders, and technologists can ask a simple question about the primary use of the data - is it operational or analytical - and have a much more targeted and fit for purpose plan going forward.