A Model of Data Currency in Multi-Channel Financial Architectures

Abstract: Data quality is a critical factor for financial institutions where information is a primary and critical resource. Financial services are offered through multiple channels, such as branches, ATMs, telephone, and Internet channels, and may be supported by multi-functional software systems, to provide services such as, for instance, customer management, account management, credit management, which are characterized by complex software architectures. Different functional modules share data, which are stored in multiple source databases. Functional modules are usually not integrated across channels, as channels are implemented at different times, since they are realized in independent software projects, and are subject to stringent requirements of availability and performance. This lack of channel and functional integration raises quality problems in information products. In particular, in complex systems in which data are managed in multiple databases, timeliness is critical. In the paper, we focus on currency and we present a mathematical model to evaluate currency of data in software architectures with different degrees of integration across channels and functionalities.