New research suggests that the vast majority fundsters aren't formally tracking how valuable their data analytics efforts are ... and most senior leaders are not yet pushing for it, either, at least according to new research from the folks at an industry consulting firm near Boston.

Lisa Travaglini Fuse Research Network Director of Editorial

On Tuesday (July 1), Lisa Travaglini, director of editorial at Fuse Research Network, revealed that, per new Fuse research, 77 percent of asset managers say that don't currently estimate a return on investment (ROI) for their data analytics or their business intelligence/enablement (though more than half say they plan to within the next year and a half), while only the remaining 23 percent say they're estimating ROI for one or both of those things. And those numbers haven't improved much since 2019, either (though the percentage who say they plan to start calculating such ROIs soon has risen from 32 percent in 2019 to 42 percent now).

The aforementioned findings come from the results of a March and April 2025 survey conducted by the folks at Fuse and the SME Forum (Sales and Marketing Enablement Forum, fka the CRM Forum), Travaglini confirms. 26 asset managers with more than $5.5 trillion in combined intermediary AUM participated, and the findings are part of a two-part June 2025 issue brief for Fuse's clients.

"Despite advances in data utilization, measuring the ROI of data analytics remains elusive," Travaglini states. "Even among larger firms (>$200B), only about one-third claim to do so."

"Major hurdles include attribution complexity and organizational prioritization," Travaglini adds. "FUSE sees the next evolution as tying data initiatives to tangible business outcomes — blending qualitative insights with quantitative metrics to resonate across stakeholders."

Perhaps this continuing data analytics ROI blindspot can be partly explained by looking to the top, to fundster chiefs and their bosses.

"Only 27% of firms report increased urgency from senior leaders to validate the impact of data analytics in distribution. Even among firms that already estimate ROI, only 17% have seen heightened executive demand for this validation," Travaglini tells MFWire via email. "That said, all firms track various kinds of impacts stemming from distribution intelligence, such as gross sales, new customers acquired, advisor activity, and increased cross-selling."

"While precise ROI measurement remains challenging, demonstrating a positive impact of data-driven sales and marketing is often sufficient to maintain senior management support," Travaglini adds. 

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