Data quality vital in investing

Software industry insider Brian Sentance, writing for Advanced Trading, recently drew attention to the importance of data quality among traders and investors. The source maintained that cleansing and storing data carefully has never been given enough emphasis in investing, though it has been an acknowledged issue for a decade.

Sentance stated that data governance and compliance regulations are sometimes presented as answers to the data management problem in investing. He remained skeptical, however, stating that governance is a "stick," and traders need to see the "carrot" of data quality's positive effects before firms will activity pursue the issue.

One of the solutions Sentance offered was the extension of data management programs to office staff outside of the IT department. He stated that involving business users in the data management process could add additional checks on the data from users with an awareness of what constitutes "high-quality information."

A TechTarget feature on the problems of data quality echoed Sentance's sentiments. The source stated that users at all levels of a company should be made aware of their effect on company data and given the ability and responsibility to help.