Olmstead Blog

Olmstead recently conducted a study on the state of Distribution Intelligence (DI) across asset managers.  A key takeaway:  while DI has established itself as a mainstream function, ROI is largely anecdotal, and the best-in-class only recently, after significant investments (in data, tools, and talent), have positioned themselves to increase sales adoption andimpact.

Asset managers spent decades implementing portfolio accounting systems, making them the center of their systems architecture by integrating numerous other applications into it. We call this an app-centric architecture. Fast forward, the industry has been unwinding this and moving towards a data-centric architecture. Why the shift? To engineer in essential business agility required to respond to opportunities and threats, allowing for timely insights, innovation, and transformation. Such nimbleness simply wasn’t possible with the monolithic accounting platform as the beating heart in the middle and data trapped in various pockets throughout the architecture.

Accelerated by the pandemic, the way your clients and intermediaries wish to interact, partner, and buy has digitally changed.  Asset Managers have responded by re-imagining their organizational selling models.  The evolving external, internal, hybrid wholesaler strategy is a prime example.  It is imperative that the Asset Manager’s distribution architecture – the underlying technology, data, and analytics – helps to fuel that change.  To do so, our industry needs to overcome its historical ROI challenges when it comes to its distribution architecture spend.  

Not too long ago, a typical operational outsourcing project went something like this:

As COVID-19 accelerates the move to virtual and digital, this trend becomes more concerning and must change. A positive ROI on client communications solutions is no longer a nice to have but a strategic imperative. 

So why haven’t most organizations seen the success that they originally anticipated?

When Sergio Romo was converted from a lifelong relief pitcher to an "opener" in 2018, this forever changed the face of baseball, and this change was fueled by data. In Part 1 we covered why your Distribution Intelligence (DI) team needs a seat at the distribution strategy table and why getting buy-in from the implementors who will exercise new approaches in the field is as important as deriving the idea itself.  As DI continues to evolve, we dive deeper into how DI can play a vital role in bending your cost curve, and how to effectively implement it across your organization.

In today’s highly competitive market, Fund Treasury departments are being asked to execute the seemingly impossible task of meaningfully bending the cost curve of their operations, while balancing ever-increasing regulatory requirements, business risks, and product complexities. To meet these challenges, Olmstead believes that fund oversight must transform from a traditional process-based operating environment to a data-centric, risk oriented control model.