Latest Study From Kasina Reveals That Less Than Half Of Firms View Digital Initiatives To Be Essential Activities

NEW YORK - March 4, 2015 - Kasina, a DST company providing consulting and forward-looking research to the asset management industry, today released the results of its research on the use of digital engagement to influence the customer journey and measure business impact in asset management .

The kasina study - Managing Modern Digital Teams - indicates that while leading companies are building digital competencies across their organizations to compete effectively in today's business environment, 46.7% of firms consider digital initiatives "nice to have" but not essential.

The report, which includes detailed data on staffing, recruiting, compensation, budgeting, and measuring and communicating business impact metrics, is based on a survey of 30 asset management firms and interviews with selected marketing and e-business executives.

"One of the greatest challenges facing digital strategists is gaining the support and advocacy of their business partners in sales, finance, IT and compliance," says Julia Binder, director of e-business research for kasina. "Only by being firmly entrenched in key parts of the business, will digital teams be valued as critical leaders and team members."

The report's key findings indicate asset managers are in the early stages of implementing comprehensive digital engagement strategies:

• Less than 1 in 10 have provided employees with an integrated view of advisor touch points across traditional and digital channels

• Only 1 in 5 empowers employees to foster active engagement on social networks

• Only 1 in 4 has partly implemented personalized experiences across digital and traditional channels for advisors based on their history and behavior

"Digital teams at leading firms are just starting to pursue the differentiating initiatives and measure the indicators that are characteristic of competitive, client-focused digital strategies that support corporate objectives," says Binder.

In addition to its observations, the kasina report also includes practical recommendations for integrating digital objectives and strategies at various levels of strategic and operational planning, increasing digital ownership across the organization, building digital competency across organization, and measuring and communicating digital impact to their firms' leadership.

"With the accelerated pace of technological innovation, heightened user expectations, and increasing pressure to demonstrate ROI, digital strategists at asset managers and insurers need to lead their firms in understanding and adopting the digital strategies that differentiate the best from the rest," says  Binder. 

For more information on kasina's Managing Modern Digital Teams report, contact Myra Bartalos, Marketing Director, at mbartalos@kasina.com.

About kasina

As a respected consultant to the asset management and insurance industries with unique industry focus and knowledge, kasina is a leading thought partner for issues in distribution, marketing, e-business and product. Kasina, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DST Systems, works with a wide variety of clients from five continents. The company's family of clients, which includes global leaders of the industry, represents over $8 trillion in assets under management.https://kasina.com.

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