How an Asset Manager Slashed Analytics Workflow Time by 80%
A client story about the hidden costs of manual analytics and the ROI of modern technology.
Sarah had been with a global Asset Management firm for eight years, working her way up from junior analyst to head of portfolio operations. She knew every spreadsheet in the department, every data source, and every workaround that kept their $45 billion in assets under management running smoothly.
She also knew they were incredibly inefficient, but hadn’t realized the scale of the problem until she started calculating it herself.
The 80-Minute Reality
“I began tracking my time after our CEO asked us to quantify our operational costs,” Sarah recalls. “What I discovered was that our team spent 80 minutes per person, per day, pulling together analytics for client reports and internal reviews.”
The math was brutal but revealing:
- 10 different analytics processes throughout the day
- 4 minutes per process (downloading, formatting, calculating)
- 50 people across operations, client service, and investment teams performing these tasks daily
“We had analysts—smart, capable people earning six-figure salaries—spending over an hour each day doing what amounted to data entry. And that was just the successful processes. When things went wrong, it could take 15 or 20 minutes to resolve a single calculation.”
The hidden costs extended beyond just time. Version control issues meant teams often worked with different numbers. Manual processes meant errors crept in regularly, requiring time-consuming reconciliation. And when key team members were unavailable, critical reports were delayed.
The Transformation
The firm’s partnership with FinMason began as a pilot program for its equity analytics. The initial goal was modest: reduce the time spent on their most common calculations and improve data consistency.
The results were immediate and dramatic.
“What used to take us 4 minutes per process now takes 45 seconds,” Sarah explains. “We’re not just talking about faster calculations—we’re talking about eliminating entire steps in our workflow. No more downloading, no more formatting, no more manual cross-checking. The data comes through clean, consistent, and ready to use.“
The transformation went beyond individual efficiency gains:
- 20 analytics processes per day (they could do twice as much work)
- 45 seconds per process
- Just 15 minutes per person per day on analytics tasks
The daily time savings were amazing: 65 minutes per person, per day.
The Numbers That Changed Everything
For the firm’s 50-person team working 250 days per year, the annual impact was extraordinary:
- 13,542 hours saved annually
- Equivalent to 6.5 full-time employees
- $648,140 in direct labor savings (based on average fully loaded costs)
But the ROI went far beyond direct time savings.
“We redirect that time towards client-facing activities and genuine analysis,” Sarah notes. “Our client service team now spends 90 minutes more per day having strategic conversations with clients instead of chasing down data discrepancies. Our investment team can run scenario analyses that would have been impossible before.“
The ripple effects were significant:
- Client satisfaction scores improved by 23% due to faster, more accurate reporting
- New business development increased as teams could respond to RFPs more quickly
- Employee satisfaction rose as talented professionals could focus on meaningful work
- Operational risk decreased through automated, auditable processes
Beyond Time: The Strategic Value
Perhaps most importantly, the efficiency gains enabled the firm to take on new business without adding headcount.
“We won a $300 million mandate last quarter partly because we could demonstrate our operational sophistication to the pension fund,” Sarah explains. “They specifically mentioned our ability to provide real-time risk analytics and consistent reporting across all their holdings. That mandate alone will generate more revenue in the first year than our technology investment over five years.“
The transformation also positioned the firm for future growth. With automated analytics infrastructure, they can scale their operations without proportionally increasing their operational overhead.
The Lesson for Asset Managers
Sarah’s advice for other operational leaders is straightforward: “Start timing your processes. Most executives think they understand their operational costs, but they’re usually underestimating by a factor of three or four.”
She’s particularly passionate about helping peers understand that the choice isn’t between manual processes and technology, it’s between controlled change and being disrupted by competitors who’ve already made the transition.
“Every minute your team spends on manual analytics is a minute they’re not adding strategic value. In our industry, that’s unsustainable.“
The transformation at the firm represents more than operational improvement—it’s a fundamental shift in how asset managers can deploy their human capital. By automating routine analytics, firms can redirect their most valuable resource—talented people—towards activities that genuinely differentiate their business.
For Sarah and her team, the change has been transformational. “We’re not just more efficient,” she reflects. “We’re more valuable to our clients, more strategic in our thinking, and more competitive in our market. That’s the real ROI of getting analytics right.”
This client’s experience represents the tangible benefits available to asset managers who modernize their analytics infrastructure. If you’d like to discuss how FinMason can help your firm improve efficiency, let’s set up a call.
