Over the past 18 months, superannuation funds and asset servicers have come to understand the importance of investment data management. Definitions as to what constitutes investment data management have varied and are frequently seen as being synonymous with reference data management. Significant effort and investment has been concentrated on reference data solutions but it is increasingly clear that it is far from being the whole story when we consider investment data management. The focus is shifting to managing and making sense out of operational data – position data, accounting data, performance analytics and risk analytics – to make more informed investment and business decisions, and deliver against regulatory and investor needs for transparency.