In an increasingly rocky and uncertain economic landscape, organizations must find ways to gain a competitive edge by any means necessary. For many, this means finding new and innovative uses for their data.

This ultimately requires a solution designed to streamline the collection and distribution of information. The volume of data is only a small component of the equation. The manner in which it’s collected and processed is just as important, because organizations will obtain true value from their information if are able to build efficiency into their data management processes.

SimCorp, an investment solutions provider for the global finance industry, released a report that found data is an increasingly effective competitive tool. Investors who are able to leverage real-time data into making smarter investment decisions ultimately find more success than those who do not. But, as SimCorp assistant VP Jon Irgens explains, it’s more than just finding and having the data.

“High quality, accurate and up-to-the-minute data has become the lifeblood of investment management organizations, equipping them to make well-informed decisions and manage risk,” Irgens says. “Yet many firms lack an effective means of managing data and waste expenditure on maintaining complex and inefficient systems. Companies which take control of this by implementing an integrated modular platform will put themselves at a competitive advantage relative to their peers.”

This concept can be applied to just about any industry. Those in retail or health care will stand out in front of their competitors if they are able to process information efficiently and use it to drive smart decisions. This is one of the benefits of business intelligence. The ability to collect information from a variety of areas and stream it into one processing environment designed to produce the most recent and relevant data is crucial. Custom database development can provide firms with this ability.