Olmstead Blog

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.  

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.

Olmstead and Seismic Collaboration Poised to Consistently Accelerate Client ROI

Olmstead Associates is pleased to announce its data and consulting partnership with Seismic, the market leader for sales enablement platforms. In support of Seismic implementations and growth for asset management clients, Olmstead has developed tools and an approach that optimizes implementation, resulting in increased ROI and scalability. Refined from over 10 years of managing client communication solution evaluations and implementations, Olmstead has created best practices around implementation playbooks, distribution data models, APIs, and Data Readiness assessments.

In a recent conversation with an executive from a leading client reporting provider, the discussion turned to Olmstead's latest blog on the subject "Data Tax." The executive revealed that they frequently experience a drag of at least 25% on their projects due to data issues. The conversation highlighted an interesting tension that every investment manager must face when embarking on client communications and sales enablement projects – how do you identify and address looming data pitfalls and sinkholes without overly delaying the delivery of business benefit? 

In a quest for differentiation, investment managers are now more than ever focusing on sales, marketing and client servicing functions in hopes of enhancing sales results and elevating their clients’ experience. To enable and empower the market facing personnel, internal positions like Head of Distribution Intelligence are becoming commonplace, while the technology spend on solutions across the client engagement spectrum is amped up. 

Stephen Alepa, leader of Olmstead's Client Experience and Engagement center of excellence, chaired the Client Reporting & Communications Forum at the TSAM Boston Conference. Topics included: