Blockchain technology and fintech firms are high on the hype list, but their practical contribution to data management is beginning to materialise and is expected to be the subject of robust discussion at this week’s A-Team Data Management Summit in New York.

Adam Bryan, an independent consultant, will moderate a panel session at the summit dedicated to Emerging Technologies for Data Management – Do Fintech and Blockchain Have a Role?. Bryan notes financial firms’ focus on driving up the efficiency of data management and driving down costs, particularly in terms of improving data quality and reducing the cost of sales and reprocessing broken trades, and says: “These drivers mean the status quo doesn’t cut it any more. The industry needs new technologies and fintechs to help companies solve their problems and achieve their goals.”

Bryan names blockchain as a technology that is beginning to find a use case for data management, a point picked up by panel member Marc Alvarez, chief data officer of Mizuho, which is already using blockchain in Tokyo to support cross-border transactions. Like Bryan, Alvarez suggests traditional enterprise software is no longer a good fit for data management. Instead, he notes blockchain, new Microsoft tools and external cloud platforms as the technologies that will redefine economic models in the market.

On blockchain, Alvarez says: “Everyone is excited about blockchain and it will evolve into something useful, but these are early days and it is not yet clear exactly how cost savings and efficiency improvements will be realised. The technology is not a problem, but it places a premium on having data management under control.”

Bryan and Alvarez will be joined on the Data Management Summit emerging technologies panel by Joseph Sarubbi, senior vice president and head of EDM Technology at BBH; Lowell Putnam, co-founder and CEO at Quovo; and Chris Betz, consultant and senior advisor to the EDM Council.

To join the discussion at this week’s Data Management Summit register here.