Data is crucial and thus the business has to decide who in the organization has access to such data – not all people may have access to all data, except of course the owner of the company. In really big companies there are groups of people who might have access to the data while such information is passed on to the subordinates by the group head. This is why the data needs to be secured and administered properly so that it can be retrieved quickly by the person who needs it and kept away from those who should not have access to it. Yes, the issue of data security goes hand in hand with data maintenance and administration.
In computing science, data maintenance and administration refers to the management and running of the organization’s data that is generally stored in the database under a chosen database management system or alternative systems like electronic spreadsheets. In smaller outfits, if one is running a single-user system, this is done by the person who owns the organization while in bigger organizations; administrators (who are often specialists and are responsible for various functions of the business including data analysis) are deputed to do the job.
Alternatively, data administration may be split between the end-users who are made responsible for maintaining their client accounts with a person designated as data administrator who is answerable to security specific information as this is shared by all the users. The ideal way for determining how to split responsibilities between the end-users however lies in finding out the data maintenance task that need to be performed through downloading certain tools. These tools become extremely handy for those who are responsible for doing the job.
Security price quote and financial information quotes are performed using the net’s scheduled automatic download feature where the data administrator becomes the person responsible for configuring the download parameters. This includes the time of the download, securities to be downloaded, etc. The data administrator is also responsible for reviewing the download logs for key data changes.
In order to gain account portfolio information like account record updates and transaction and position reconciliation data will be available (with the help of the tool) in the form of data files received from the custodian or the clearing firm. These files, however, will be introduced via the tool/net’s institutional import interface. Nevertheless, whether these introductions are best performed by the data administrator or by each end-user depends on several factors. When all or most of the advisor/ rep accounts are kept within a single file, then the introduction is best performed by the data administrator. New accounts usually do not require manual intervention by the data administrator for assigning the proper Rep ID.
When the custodian or clearing firm provides break up data files for each adviser or rep, then it becomes comparatively easier for each of them introducing their own data files. Nevertheless, an organization may still insist on assigning the task to a data administrator jus to relieve the advisor or the rep. No matter who performs this task, or whether it has been configured to crop up on its own, someone should review the data for accuracy. Under normal circumstances, this should be the duty of each adviser or rep as each of them are best placed to know what trades or transactions were placed for their clients. Often a Data Reconciliation tool comes handy in this reviewing process.
For users who do not have access to custodian or clearing firm data for some or all of their accounts and must manually enter the data from usually available sources, the decision of whether this job comes under the administrator’s task or to be performed by each adviser or rep is best left to the user.
So far as analyzing and administration of data is concerned, there are quite a good many net based solutions that not only evaluate but also indicates the various possibilities for data administration. Some of their data administration services include…
- Generation of addressing
- Separation and correction of fields
- First name review
- Existence check
- Dead list/ negative comparison
- Credit assessment
- Risk index relationship
- Splitting of consumer and business address
- Relocation address comparison
- Tracking of returns