Calero Blog

Market Data Management (MDM) for Market Data Vendors | Calero

Written by Alistair Brooker | Mar 11, 2020

Updated January 19, 2022

“The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.” An article in The Economist from 2017 first informed us that “data is the new oil.” A year earlier a post on the IBM Business Analytics blog suggested that “data is the new bacon,” adding, “It sizzles; it’s crispy; it’s essential to the complete buffet.”

As a provider of data to financial services companies you know that data is today’s most valuable resource. Your markets continue expanding meteorically as the appetite for more data in volume and diversity from more sources constantly increases, creating the need for a seamless market data management solution.

You now have many major corporations with thousands of employees licensing data feeds from you, leveraging them to provide their consultative and advisory services to their customers. While it is wonderful to add more recurring revenue from these data feeds every day, the larger it gets the harder it is to keep track of it all. Add to that the ever-increasing complexity of these agreements as they become more and more sophisticated. You need a market data management solution that will create continuity between contract processes and the provision of information required for accurate billing.

How do you keep track of all the banks and other financial services companies using your services?

  • Which of your services are you providing to each?
  • When does each contract come due for renewal?
  • How much do we charge each client for each service?
  • How do we confirm that the number of active users matches the number contracted for?
  • How do we assure that you’re capturing and invoicing for all services from all clients?
  • How do we gather and track utilization data to provide more insight into how clients are using the products, while also identifying those who are not currently using a contracted service so we can engage and proactively intercede prior to renewal to not risk cancellation?

The Answer: Calero Market Data Management (MDM) for Market Data Vendors

Market data services providers like you need to closely track the entitlements and activities of the banks, asset management companies, energy companies and others who use their products and services.

MDM for Market Data Vendors maintains a constantly accurate record of all clients, which agreements they have entered into with you for the use of your data services. Addenda, sub-agreements, master agreements, whatever products and services are in your catalog, MDM keeps you fully and accurately informed. Given the ever-growing size of your catalog, and the tendency of many clients to “cherry-pick” services from many of your segments, this is no simple task.

Manage Market Data In One Central Software System

It is likely that many clients use a variety of disparate systems to manage their market data and related operations.

A Contract Management System from one vendor, Order Entry, CRM, Accounts Payable, and ERP from others. Sales management from yet another provider.

They also obtain your services in various ways. Some they contract directly with you. Others they obtain from data re-distributors and aggregators. Prices for the same services from different sources may vary within an account. The number of instances contracted literally comes to you in pieces. Asking clients for declaration reports puts you at the mercy of the honesty of thousands.

The data tracked can be extremely granular down to the individual user, the licenses assigned to each user, even portal login, contact, CPE serial numbers and more.  You need one central system to interface with all these sources to bring the data together so you can manage it efficiently and effectively. A single source of truth in one centralized platform.

Protect Your Clients and Your Revenue Stream

It is all too easy for your clients to fall out of compliance with their exchange data licensing, acceptable use policies for various data sources, and many other exposures. With MDM for Market Data Vendors, you become their protector, working with them to remain in compliance and avoid fines. You’ll also be able to work with your re-distributors to assure their accuracy as well.

At the same time, knowing the accurate inventory and utilization numbers protects your own revenue stream from inadvertent failure to invoice or inaccurate billing.

Sales Support

Your sales professionals will also appreciate how MDM for Market Data Vendors supports their ability to close more sales of your products and services by providing them with complete histories of all negotiations, current inventory, agreements, and addenda for each client.

Customizable contract workflows within MDM actually automate renewal operations to help your sales team stay ahead of expirations, closing renewals in advance of them. MDM even helps them calculate the probability of success with each sale and each renewal.

Since knowledge is power, MDM provides your representatives with the power to succeed.

Operations Support

With many billing systems, significant manual preparation must be performed before the complex information required for market data services can be entered. MDM for Market Data Vendors interfaces easily with most popular billing and other operational systems data services vendors use. Reduce the time personnel must invest while avoiding human errors by assigning the task to MDM.

Business Analytic Support

Even as you learn more about your clients, you also want to know which of your products and services are your top performers and which are lagging. Who is buying what? What factors impact sales of specific products? How can you increase sales? MDM’s integrated dashboard brings together all the information you require to support superior decision-making.

Depend on MDM to support your analysis of where your business is coming from.

The Center of the Market Data Lifecycle

Calero MDM for Market Data Vendors forms the center of a complete market data product lifecycle tracking system. From working with your CRM in the pursuit stage to closing sales by leveraging the collected data about their current inventory and their stated needs, and finally facilitating accurate and complete invoicing from the original sale, MDM manages it all. With extensive customization capabilities, MDM can even initiate the automated entitlement, provisioning, and onboarding of your products and services. As orders are completed through contract workflows, MDM pushes updates downstream to entitlement platforms. This allows clients to gain faster access in a far more streamlined fashion.

To learn more about Calero MDM for Market Data Vendors, contact us today.