Reference Data Management in the Modern Era

For too long market data management boiled down, for the most part, to the timely payment of invoices. With data usage (and costs) steadily increasing and the proliferation of data sources, data types and data vendors as well as the diversification of data consumers (hear data scientists), market data management can no longer be restricted to a reactive, administrative role.

Proactive usage tracking

Managing data effectively, is more fundamental than plotting historical cost graphs and allocating costs based on arbitrary, static formulas. Effective data management requires a proactive understanding of:

  1. Who data consumers are
  2. How are data consumers requesting data and from which data source is the request going to
  3. What such data is being used for
  4. Does the data cost justify its use

In addition to the above, market data management is not only about understanding usage and cost, market data management must include the ability to proactively control market data usage by:

  1. Restricting access to data for individual consumers based on their needs
  2. Controlling which data points (securities, fields) are available to consumers and sometimes enforcing data consumption policies
  3. Allocating costs back to consumers based on fair, factual data consumption analytics
  4. Ensuring data usage is compliant to vendor agreements as well as internal and external policies and regulations
  5. Generating market data usage intelligence through Market data usage reporting

Beyond cost efficiencies

Although cost optimisation is a central focus is any market data management policy, it is by far not the only one. As data usage becomes more complex and more commoditised, tracking data within the firm becomes a necessity to respond to ever increasing regulation and compliance considerations. Data tracking, also known as data lineage is one of the most debated topics in modern market data management circles. Data lineage requires a clear understanding of detailed usage and a factual audit trail that can be revisited on-demand, sometimes weeks or months after the fact.

XMon: Market Data Usage: Under Control

XMon is a fully managed reference data usage analysis and business intelligence plaform. XMon centralizes reference data requests into one data management interface where individual consumers are uniquely identified and data requests are tracked and can be controlled. This provides unparalleled levels of detail for market data usage reporting, ensures cost efficiencies are achieved and market data governance is met.

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