How Investment Firms Unify Alternative Data Management

Most investment firms have no single source of truth for alternative data. They track information across email, spreadsheets, JIRA, and wikis. Each team operates in isolation, unaware of what others are doing.

This fragmentation creates serious problems. Knowledge learned by one person never reaches another. Data teams move slowly. Portfolio managers and analysts can't fully leverage valuable data.

We created the Nomad Data Relationship Manager (DRM) to solve these challenges. Let's walk through how investment firms implement and scale this system to transform their alternative data management.

Simple Implementation Process

At Nomad, we make it very simple to get started with the DRM. The implementation path depends on how structured a firm's existing data knowledge is already.

For many firms, it starts with a spreadsheet. They send us a list of vendors and fields, and we populate the DRM through an import process.

When information isn't structured, our DocChat AI tool extracts data from emails, PDF contracts, and other unstructured sources.

Many firms want connections to vendor catalogs. We build integrations within a day or two to pull information from third-party marketplaces, creating a “catalog of catalogs” that automatically updates feeds of all available data products.

After populating the system, we train all relevant teams. From data sourcing to vendor management, compliance, legal, InfoSec, analysts, and portfolio managers.

Role-Specific Workflows

Email plugins form a core part of the day-to-day workflow. Available for both Office 365 and Google Workspace, these plugins automatically detect and log communications with data vendors.

The system builds a comprehensive record of vendor interactions, negotiations, and relationships without manual effort.

For licensing teams, the DRM provides tools to log purchases and track contracts. This creates visibility into what data the firm already owns and a holistic view of renewals.

Analysts and portfolio managers benefit from Data Concierge. Instead of searching through hundreds of vendor entries, they simply ask questions about datasets they need. They can also submit data requests through Enterprise Data Discovery, a ticketing system like JIRA or ServiceNow but fully integrated into the DRM. These requests can tap into a network of nearly 5,000 vendors worldwide in Connect, dramatically speeding up sourcing of new datasets.

For data, compliance, and legal teams, the DRM offers customizable workflows. These structured processes coordinate activities across multiple departments, automatically creating and tracking tasks for legal reviews, compliance checks, and technical testing.

Breaking Down Silos

Investment firms typically operate in silos. Data sourcing, procurement, legal, compliance, InfoSec, data engineers, analysts, and portfolio managers all touch data for different reasons. Each group learns something about the data during their process. Without a unified system, these insights remain isolated.

Consider what happens during legal or compliance review. Teams might discover important information about data biases or limitations. If analysts never see these insights, they might draw incorrect conclusions.

The largest hedge funds struggle most with this problem. Research shows 75% of large managers (>$5bn AUM) have difficulty unifying data from multiple sources. With the DRM, everything lives in one place. All teams can see what others have learned, creating full visibility across the organization, with the data team always in control of who can see what if walls need to be maintained.

Measurable Improvements

After implementing the DRM, friction disappears for our clients. They gain a single place to learn about vendor interactions, contract status, review processes, terms, expiration dates, and importantly, how data is being used across the fund.

Data discovery accelerates dramatically. Processes that once took weeks now take a day or less to find datasets meeting specific criteria.

Firms see significant spend reduction. Many weren't aware that other teams were testing or had already purchased certain datasets, creating expensive duplicative work and data budget waste. This matters because building an alternative data team isn't cheap. The starting cost ranges from $1.5-$2.5 million, making efficient management crucial for ROI.

With the DRM, firms gain visibility across all vendor relationships and data activities, eliminating redundant efforts.

Best Practices for Implementation

The most successful firms focus on consolidation. They move from multiple retrofitted systems to a single platform where all tools communicate. Anyone can quickly find the data they need, irrespective of where it’s stored or may be available.

Customization proves essential for success. The DRM should reflect your existing processes, not force new ones upon you. Add custom fields, tabs, and tracking stages that match your workflow. Make the system represent how your business actually works.

For tracking ROI, create fields to monitor who uses each dataset and for what purpose. Some firms even tag specific investments to datasets, providing clear visibility into what produces returns.

Security and Scaling

Nomad Data ensures all information in the DRM remains secure. Data stays encrypted at rest and during transfer, with comprehensive firewall protection.

We've completed SOC2 Type 1 and Type 2 certifications, with third-party audits of our security policies, network infrastructure, and penetration testing.

Scaling happens seamlessly. Adding new users and data sources requires just a few clicks. Users receive appropriate permissions controlling what they can see, edit, and delete.

Larger firms typically integrate with single sign-on systems, allowing users to access the DRM without the burden of additional credentials.

The Power of Data Concierge

Data Concierge transforms how teams interact with alternative data. Portfolio managers and analysts simply ask questions about datasets rather than searching through complex systems.

They might ask which vendors can show sales volumes for specific companies, installation rates for equipment, or resale costs for certain vehicles.

The system draws on both your firm's knowledge and Nomad's marketplace of over 5,000 vendors. It continuously learns from thousands of requests across the globe, improving and staying up to date on its understanding of available data and use cases.

Your internal knowledge grows automatically as Nomad learns more about datasets, making the system increasingly valuable over time.

Moving Forward

Investment firms ready for transformation recognize that homegrown systems have limited lifespans. They're easy to build but difficult to maintain as talent moves and requirements evolve. They also realize patchwork solutions cobbling together systems not built for the purpose of data leaves holes in their process.

The DRM provides a sustainable solution that grows with your organization. It incorporates your existing structured and unstructured data while adding powerful new capabilities.

By unifying alternative data management in a single system, firms eliminate redundancy, accelerate discovery, improve collaboration, and maximize their return on data investments.

The result is a more agile organization where insights flow freely and data-driven decisions happen faster, creating competitive advantage in an increasingly data-dependent investment landscape.