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title: Peer Intelligence Summer 2024
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Peer Intelligence Summer 2024

| View in browser Summer 2024 Letter from our CEO At CEM, we invest heavily in data integrity and will be beta testing a new data quality score later this year.    As the leader of a data and insights firm, I am frequently asked about the quality of our data. Are we always comfortable with the data we receive? Do we use all the data we receive? Do we automatically discard substandard data? The answer to all these questions, naturally, is no.     Over the past thirty-two years, we have developed a multi-faceted approach to data integrity. It starts with our foundational principles and governance, which are connected to a series of daily actions in conjunction with two-way communication with all parties that provide data.   Let me touch on each of these aspects.    All of our data integrity efforts start with eight foundational principles which are owned by our Data Governance Committee. Our principles are based upon completeness, comparability, accuracy, confidentiality, providence, timeliness, transparency, and security.   In an ideal world, all CEM participants would provide clean, complete data sets. In reality, we often receive incomplete data sets. Where we clearly understand the context, our team is permitted to perform pre-specified, industry-standard data enrichment. However, if in our professional judgement, specific data points are not of sufficient quality, we do not use them.    We bring our data principles to life through a combination of technology, process, and expertise. The most critical steps in our data collection process include: Our analysts review the initial data sets and exclude any material errors or omissions. Once a survey is submitted, our rules engine identifies potential discrepancies. CEM’s internal experts then review the discrepancies and engage the survey respondent to resolve issues. In specific circumstances, our team is permitted to enrich the data. Where we do not have clarity around the context and confidence on the data, it is rejected. Lastly, our Relationship Managers perform a final check before the material is sent to you. Historically, most of our communication on data integrity has happened through the survey cleaning process. This year we’ll be testing a new step. Each of our Investment Benchmarking Subscription clients will receive a data quality score based on: Investment cost data. Investment performance data. Timeliness.  The methodology is based on our Global Reporting Principles with the intention to ‘raise the bar’ every few years. As we all get more comfortable with the scoring, we will roll it out across all CEM subscriptions.    Turning to a few items I’d love to highlight in this month’s issue of Peer Intelligence:  We examine the performance of the U.S. REIT market over the past 2+ decades, showing that is has played an important value-enhancing role in portfolios. We show how to get deeper insights – at an option level – in our D.C. benchmarking subscription. We look back at our 24th Global Pension Administration conference, where much of the conversation focused on the application of AI. We chat with Dave Dupont, a long-time CEM veteran, who, when not analyzing pension data can be found at a local rink in figure skates. Thanks, as always, for reading.   Rashay Rashay Jethalal, CEO Rashay@cembenchmarking.com Bps and Bites Discover 5 strategies to navigate the REIT market Our latest research for NAREIT reveals the surprising performance differences between listed and unlisted real estate investments over a 24-year period. The study shows which strategies deliver the best returns, net of costs. See which key findings and strategies have been shown to enhance returns in the real estate market. Read More "Key Strokes" Get granular with your insights Janjaap takes us on another tour of the Dashboard, this time showing you how CEM makes adjustments to the Cost Benchmark to account for differences in asset mix and investment strategies (active vs passive) between you and your peer group. Voice of the Customer Transform generic member feedback into actionable insights See how measuring client satisfaction with a well executed Voice of the Customer (VoC) program can drive enhanced engagement, retention, and strategic success. Read More Note of PINterest Exploring key takeaways from our Denver conference, co-hosted by Colorado PERA With over 150 attendees, our annual pension administration conference was our largest ever! We hosted 69 funds from around the globe and topics ranged from AI to succession planning to digital transformation. Read More Coffee Chat  Get to know a CEMer David Dupont is a key member of our product team and has been at CEM for 18 years. During this interview, he shares what he is most proud of from his time at CEM and his passion for figure skating.     Read More CEM at Events Seen and heard at industry events around the world 2024 PABS Conference Edsart spoke to making data and insights more accessible at the PABS conference in Denver, Colorado.   Read More 2024 Global Leaders Conference Rashay had a fireside chat with Chris Ailman, CIO of CalSTRS, in Utrecht, Netherlands.   Read More 2024 NEA Pension Forum Palwasha addressed some of the top questions we get asked by pension trustees in Philadelphia.    Read More Invite your colleagues to subscribe to Peer Intelligence. Upcoming Webinars Unlocking Excellence with Data Quality Sep 11, 2024 10AM EST The digital path to an easy retirement Oct 4, 2024 11AM EST Legacy Modernization: Change Management Nov 5, 2024 11AM EST To register please email: tanya@cembenchmarking.com CEM Benchmarking, 372 Bay Street #1000, Toronto, Ontario M5H 2W9 Manage preferences |
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