COST OPTIMIZATION
$800K Market Data Cost Optimization
Seeing what the firm pays to see. This gave every business unit visibility into what market data actually cost them — and turned that visibility into real savings.
Problem statement
Market data costs were spread across multiple business units with no shared visibility, consistent cost tracking, or clear accountability. That made it impossible to answer a basic question: which business or client was actually driving which portion of the spend — so costs kept rising without anyone able to intervene meaningfully.
The absence of an allocation model didn't just obscure cost; it removed any real incentive to manage consumption, since usage and cost were never connected in a way anyone could act on.
Approach
Five steps, applied in sequence — each one deliberately checked back against the big picture before moving to the next, so the detail work never drifts from the actual business problem.
Discover & diagnose
Inventoried market data consumption and cost across business units to find exactly where spend and actual usage diverged.
Model the domain
Designed a cost allocation model that tied market data usage directly back to the business units and clients generating it.
Validate against the big picture
Checked the allocation model against real vendor contracts and observed usage patterns, to avoid a scheme that looked fair on paper but broke down against actual billing terms.
Build
Established the infrastructure to track, manage, and allocate market data costs on an ongoing, not one-time, basis.
Govern & sustain
Embedded the tracking and allocation model into the standard operating rhythm so savings held rather than eroding once the initial project ended.
What was built
A market data cost tracking and allocation infrastructure spanning multiple business units — giving each business and client real visibility into what they were actually consuming, for the first time tying spend to usage in a way people could act on.
Because the allocation model was validated against actual vendor contracts before roll-out, it held up under real billing cycles rather than needing rework once finance and the business units started relying on it.
Business value
What it delivered
- $800K in annual savings from market data cost optimization.
- Fairer, usage-based cost allocation across business units and clients.
- A repeatable framework for managing vendor cost as data needs continued to grow.
- Increased accountability, since cost was now visibly tied to consumption.