On February 16, a select group of CIOs, CTOs, and heads of architecture at community banks and credit unions assembled for Aite-Novarica Group’s sixth quarterly Community Banking Research Council meeting. These senior IT executives discussed their usage of data visualization tools as well as associated goals and challenges. During the conversation, IT executives shared insights from their own experiences leveraging data visualization in the context of data infrastructure, governance, and regulatory requirements.
Institutional Best Practices Impact the Effectiveness of Data Visualization Tools
Small financial institutions must ensure that they have infrastructure and governance practices in place to reap the benefits of the tools they plan to install. Even if you’ve adequately assessed your requirements, don’t neglect to lay the necessary groundwork. Choosing a tool that meets business and IT needs is important, but the latest technology won’t make up for a lack of institutional best practices. In our premeeting survey, one member shared a cautionary tale: Their tools were fit for purpose, yet issues with implementation and connectivity to data stores meant that they were not producing the necessary insights.
Data Governance and Zero-Trust Is a Must in the Age of Big Data
There is no shortage of ancillary factors for CIOs and CTOs to consider. Even more important than the tools themselves are the data sources those tools are pointed to. Council members were in consensus that cleaning and organizing data is necessary to obtain high-quality insights, but doing so effectively is easier said than done in the age of big data. One Council member summarized the situation as follows: “Ten years ago, we struggled because there was too little data. Now, the challenge is that we are inundated with too much data.”
Establishing an enterprise data governance model can help tremendously with reducing the time, resources, and headaches associated with data management. Any organization using data visualization tools should also include a zero-trust policy in its governance initiatives. Some institutions have learned the hard way about the ever-present threat of ransomware attacks. In addition to other undesirable effects of security breaches, maintaining regulatory compliance is a key consideration for community financial institutions. Privacy and regulatory policies that may apply must be considered before stored data is used in reporting and analytics.
How You Can Get Involved
The agenda of each quarterly meeting is driven by Research Council members’ interests and priorities. On May 11, we’ll meet for our second quarterly meeting of 2023. Click here to learn more about our Q2 meeting.
We are always happy to meet with prospective members, including senior IT executives at community banks and credit unions. Have further questions about or thoughts on the Research Council or data visualization tools? Email me at [email protected], and I’ll reach out to schedule an introductory conversation about the Research Council and the Community Banking practice.
