The Total Economic Impact™ Of Nasdaq eVestment™

Distribution Team Productivity

Evidence and data. Interviewees explained that their distribution teams were responsible for supporting consultant relations, institutional sales, RFP responses, and database reporting activities. Before Nasdaq eVestment, these teams spent considerable effort collecting, validating, and distributing firm data and accessing market and competitive analytics. With Nasdaq eVestment, these professionals automated much of the database management processes and gained streamlined access to institutional market intelligence to support more targeted business development efforts.

• The head of marketing operations at an asset management firm shared examples of productivity across several areas:

  • Data uploads. “At the end of the quarter, before, we were still tidying up our data sets at the tail, but now at the end of the first month, everything is done. That’s a big difference for us, particularly for our core products. That’s a huge difference in end-to-end time.”
  • Database maintenance. “We used to have the equivalent of a full-time team member before that owned the consultant databases. They were completing their tasks later in the lifecycle. But now, all that is consolidated into the Omni team handling the output and a portion of our data services person just feeding them data. We’ve gone from two plus resources to less than one follow-up resource.”
  • Reconciliations and tolerance checks. “It has also been really helpful for Nasdaq eVestment to do reconciliations and tolerance checks. They definitely have caught things that we may not have caught until much later when someone questioned them. That has saved us a lot of time. It is impactful now that screens are so much more a part of the early RFP process.”
  • Aggregating client analytics. “We do competitive analysis reports now that we post internally. Each team goes into the database to research opportunities if they have a meeting coming up. They’re also looking at competitor reports without having to individually fish for information. That’s been very valuable.”

• The director of content and data at an asset management firm said: “From a quarterly perspective, I save around two weeks a quarter on data uploading and inputting performance information [compared to doing it manually]. It’s a tremendous amount of time saved.”

• The vice president at an asset management firm shared productivity gains across four areas:

  • Data uploads. “Nasdaq uploads our 225 products to whatever databases we want. That is a huge time saver. It should be a 10-person team effort. Anecdotally, I’ve heard from other managers that their RFP teams are between five and 20 people. I have two that support 225 products every quarter.”
  • Aggregating client analytics. “[For example], if there’s a high-yield opportunity, you can check Nasdaq eVestment and see that our strategy ranks bottom quartile for across all return periods and decide to not use social capital with this client to try and sell them. We also look at different risk and efficiency metrics, flows, and fees.”
  • Updating sales pitchbooks. “I will say it’s a lot more effective to put an Nasdaq eVestment graph in your pitchbook to an institutional client than it is a [competitor] graph or an internal graph showing our performance and benchmark because now we can show our performance benchmark and the universe as peers.”
  • API use. “For the most part, the API has been used by my team on an ad hoc basis to do marketwide analysis or client-specific analysis on request. … The API gave us a lot better access to the data. Instead of taking 3 hours to export from the portal and then aggregate, manipulate, and distribute, it now takes 30 minutes for the same task because we can just query it in our systems. We mapped these Nasdaq eVestment client names to our internal client names and now anything we pull from Nasdaq eVestment, we can tie to our CRM right away.”

• The director of business intelligence at an asset management firm reported productivity improvements in:

  • Reporting. “I’ve maximized the workflow processor where I can batch reports. I can build a script to run a batch, schedule it, and have the system email me an alert when my reports are ready at whatever cadence I choose. I would say the custom scripting probably saves me 5 hours’ worth of work a quarter.”
  • Aggregating client analytics. “It’s all about making sure that our lean distribution team is equipped with relevant data so that we can maximize where we spend our time. Nasdaq eVestment helps us sort through that by serving it to us effectively.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Five distribution team members dedicate 75% of their time to RFP and database maintenance activities. With Nasdaq eVestment, they gain workflow efficiencies on these tasks: 50% in Year 1, 55% in Year 2, and 60% in Year 3.

• Fifteen distribution team members dedicate 40% of their time to data sourcing and aggregation activities. With Nasdaq eVestment, they gain workflow efficiencies on these tasks: 20% in Year 1, 25% in Year 2, and 30% in Year 3.

• One hundred distribution team members receive off-platform alerts via Nasdaq eVestment. These alerts save each team member 52 hours per year on data sourcing activities.

• The average fully burdened annual salary for a distribution team member is $125,000.

• Fifty percent of the recaptured time is spent on productive activities. This assumption accounts for the fact that employees do not cover every minute saved into measurable business outcomes.

Risks. The scale of this benefit may vary by organization based on:

• The number of distribution team members who use Nasdaq eVestment and the percentage of time allocated to RFP, database maintenance, and data sourcing activities.

• The number of distribution team members who are impacted by off-platform alerts.

• The annual salaries for distribution team members.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $844,000.

Investment Team Productivity

Evidence and data. Interviewees explained that their investment teams used Nasdaq eVestment to conduct market research, evaluate competitors, and monitor trends across institutional investment strategies. Before Nasdaq eVestment, gathering and analyzing this information required navigating multiple sources. Nasdaq eVestment provided tailored research market conditions, trends, and outlooks to ensure their investment teams could spend more time conducting investment analyses and fulfilling their investment mandate objectives.

• The director of content and data at an asset manager said: “We use analytics heavily across our investment teams. We have a strategist role whose primary responsibility is to use analytics regularly to look at our competitors.”

• The vice president at an asset management firm said: “Portfolio managers want to know how our product compares to the market. Where do we find that data? It’s Nasdaq eVestment.”

• The vice president at an asset management firm said: “Analytics are used for performance rankings first and foremost. Previously they would have to get it from a few different sources and do their own calculations and they’d be behind. It’s knowing where your product stands against competitors. Previously they’d have to talk to a client to understand how products performed relative to other products.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Ten investment team members dedicate 25% of their time to data analysis activities. With Nasdaq eVestment, they gain workflow efficiencies on these tasks: 5% in Year 1, 7% in Year 2, and 10% in Year 3.

• The average fully burdened annual salary for an investment FTE is $200,000. A fully burdened salary includes all costs of an employee in addition to salary, such as benefits.

• Fifty percent of the recaptured time is spent on productive activities.

Risks. The scale of this benefit may vary by organization based on:

• The number of investment team members who use Nasdaq eVestment and the percentage of time dedicated to data analysis activities.

• The annual salaries for investment team members.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $40,000.

Expanded Search Visibility

Evidence and data. Interviewees explained that Nasdaq eVestment helped their firms uncover and pursue new mandate opportunities by providing timely visibility into institutional searches and consultant activity. Enhanced firm profiles and comprehensive database coverage increased the likelihood that consultant and investor screening processes would identify firms, while market intelligence tools enabled teams to proactively target prospects with relevant investment solutions. Interviewees reported that Nasdaq eVestment-generated opportunities translated into qualified leads, accelerated RFP processes, and ultimately contributed to new assets under management.

• The director of content and data at an asset management firm said: “In October, Nasdaq eVestment alerted us of a mandate search for a German client. Because they use our existing profile, this led to a shortened RFP enablement process. This usually takes two to three weeks but was sliced down to two days. We ended up winning that mandate for $200 million.”

• The head of marketing operations at an asset management firm said: “We are starting to see RFPs coming in just off profile screens. That never used to happen. This means just having to do a due diligence questionnaire just for follow-up questions. That put us in a much better stead than we ever would have been.”

• The vice president explained their asset management firm directly sourced 13 leads from Nasdaq eVestment in one year. They said: “Now if we find something from Nasdaq eVestment saying, ‘Okay, this client that you haven’t talked to in 10 years, who probably doesn’t know you exist, has a poor-performing emerging market equity allocation.’ But we have a great emerging market equity fund. So, if we call them up and pitch them emerging market economies, they’re going to say, ‘Oh, great. How did you know?’”

• The director of business intelligence at an asset management firm said: “Yes, we are using Nasdaq eVestment to uncover opportunities. Over the last six to eight months, we’ve sourced approximately five to seven warm leads a month [through Nasdaq eVestment].”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Before Nasdaq eVestment, it receives 300 leads per year. With Nasdaq eVestment, it gains an increase in leads: 10% in Year 1, 11% in Year 2, and 12% in Year 3.

• Fifteen percent of leads turn into opportunities.

• Thirty percent of opportunities turn into mandates sourced.

• Twenty percent of mandates are won.

• The average mandate value is $250,000,000.

• The management fee is 2% of the won mandate value.

Risks. The scale of this benefit may vary by organization based on:

• The number of leads.

• The average mandate value.

• The management fee earned.

• Funnel conversion metrics: lead to opportunity, opportunity to mandate sourced, and mandate win rate.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $2.9 million.

Prior Solutions Retirement

Evidence and data. Interviewees shared two ways of saving costs related to their Nasdaq eVestment investment: retiring prior database software and gaining more competitive pricing on existing database solutions.

• The director of business intelligence at an asset management firm said: “Nasdaq eVestment was competitively priced at the right time, and we saved money when retiring [our prior solution], which was an established product at the time.”

• The vice president at an asset management firm said: “We were paying for another database initially [that had overlapping data with Nasdaq eVestment]. We got that vendor to cut their price down by 60%. We saved a lot of money. We got better economics because we used Nasdaq eVestment.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes that the composite organization retires $50,000 worth of costs related to prior databases.

Risks. The scale of this benefit may vary by organization based on whether or not they retire prior databases and the associated costs of those databases.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $118,000.

Unquantified Benefits

Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:

• Uniform firm brand presentation. Interviewees reported that Nasdaq eVestment helped refine their firms’ brand storytelling through transparent data and competitive benchmarking, which enabled them to strengthen their market positioning and communicate their differentiation more effectively.
  The director of content and data at an asset management firm said: “[With Outreach], we have the ability to present our firm efficiently and uniformly and have a transparent understanding of where the data is coming from.”
  The head of marketing operations at an asset management firm said: “As part of the Omni service, we’re getting the brand survey results. This has constantly challenged us to have the conversation internally about how much data we want to share in order to show up broadly and position our products.”
  The director of business intelligence at an asset management firm said: “There can be instances where we’ll run some set of data against our competitors and Nasdaq eVestment can help us customize our storytelling. It showcases our strengths and how we’re different compared to our peers.”
  For the composite organization, presenting its brand more uniformly and competitively may improve its visibility with consultants and institutional investors and increase inclusion in screening processes. To quantify this benefit, organizations would need to measure lead generation, search inclusion rates, or mandate opportunities attributed to brand positioning.

• Executive decision-making support. Interviewees said that their firms’ executives and boards frequently used Nasdaq eVestment reports to guide strategy for product and firm decisions. The director of business intelligence at an asset management firm said: “If there’s a new product going to market or a specific initiative for the firm, the research is absolutely going to leadership to help make decisions. Our president and CEO even pokes around in Nasdaq eVestment. I would say 20% of the Nasdaq eVestment usage is going up the value chain to leadership and the board.”
  The head of marketing operations at an asset management firm said: “We use the reporting from Nasdaq eVestment all the way to the executive board. The CEO routinely has questions about those competitive analysis reports.”
  For the composite organization, executive decision-making support may improve the quality and speed of strategic decisions related to product development or competitive positioning. To quantify this benefit, organizations would need to measure accelerated time-to-market or increased investment outcomes.

• Go-to-market strategy guidance. Interviewees explained that Nasdaq eVestment analytics helped their firms’ marketing teams determine which products to promote and where to invest in campaigns and thought leadership efforts. The head of marketing operations at an asset management firm said: “Nasdaq eVestment data has helped us think about where we should proactively market our own products. For example, whether we should spin up new thought leadership or campaigns.”
  For the composite organization, go-to-market guidance may improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. To quantify this benefit, organizations would need to measure increase in campaign-generated leads or marketing attributed revenue.

• Proactive, strategic partnership. Interviewees said that Nasdaq support provided value beyond the technology by proactively highlighting insights on consultant searches, investor interest, and emerging opportunities. The head of marketing operations at an asset management firm said: “We’re engaging a client relationship with Nasdaq like never before. They share proactive insights around people screening early on RFPs and the mandates or field that they care about.”
  For the composite organization, a proactive, strategic partnership may help teams identify and pursue high-value prospects earlier in the sales cycle. To quantify this, organizations would need to measure incremental leads generated from opportunities identified or accelerated through Nasdaq’s guidance.

• Greater data transparency. Interviewees noted that visibility into competitors’ profiles within the platform helped their firms become comfortable sharing data externally to support their market positioning. The head of marketing operations at an asset management firm said: “We are a smaller academic firm. Nasdaq eVestment has helped us internally tell a story more effectively and get people to loosen the reins on what they’re willing to share freely in our databases. Being able to see very clearly and quickly what our peers are providing versus what we’re providing really helps to legitimize our internal marketing story.”
  For the composite organization, greater data transparency may improve the completeness and quality of information shared with consultants and investors, strengthening market visibility. To quantify this benefit, organizations would need to measure profile completeness or mandate opportunities associated with increased data disclosure.

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Nasdaq eVestment and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Exploring additional platform and AI features. Interviewees shared plans to continue testing new platform capabilities that would impact existing and new workflows for distribution and investment teams. The director of business intelligence at an asset management firm said: “We are considering their Omni Narratives product. We could send them up-to-date RFP Q/A pair content for the firm and each one of our strategies. For example, philosophy, process, construction, buy-sell disciplines, etc. It’s my understanding that the new product can help — on our behalf with our approval and oversight — customize, store, track, and deploy out all the narratives to all these databases for us. The tool will retain the core message but will aid in stylizing, writing the proper tone/person, and managing character limits for us so we don’t have to have separate responses for every single database from a content perspective.”
  The head of marketing operations at an asset manager said: “We’re staying close to AI capabilities. We’ve been talking to the sales team recently about new ways to automate market data and advance report building.”

• Furthering integrations. Interviewees shared anticipation for integrating additional platforms into Nasdaq eVestment to drive further efficiencies. The vice president at an asset management firm said: “Now we’re trying to get Nasdaq eVestment implemented into our CRM so we can notify client advisors upfront if there’s a search in their territory and also identify if there’s any other signals that we want to put in there that meet client needs.”
  The head of marketing operations at an asset management firm said: “We are looking at more and more integrations. We are considering moving from one RFP vendor to another because of the integration with Nasdaq eVestment. It would be a benefit to us to pull narratives out of the RFP vendor database and populate them directly into the Narratives module and propagate them out. The other piece is that you can pick up data from Nasdaq eVestment and put it into RFPs instead of having to run those reports separately. It’s pretty impressive.”

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).