What Is Market Data Administration?

Market data administration is the operational backbone of a financial firm’s data usage. It spans procurement, inventory management, entitlement tracking, invoice validation, and vendor coordination—all aimed at ensuring firms only pay for what they use, have accurate visibility over services, and maintain smooth, uninterrupted access to essential data.

While compliance and audit readiness remain important, the day-to-day reality of market data admin is deeply tied to spend control, clean inventories, correct invoices, and optimised workflows. From managing hundreds of entitlements to reconciling multi-currency invoices, this function enables business continuity and cost efficiency.

Here’s a closer look at what market data admin typically involves:

Key Market Data Admin Responsibilities:

• Invoice Reconciliation: Matching invoices to contracted rates and actual usage to prevent overcharges, identify discrepancies, and streamline cost allocations.
• Inventory and Contract Management: Maintaining an accurate inventory of services, users, and contracts across departments, regions, and systems—eliminating orphaned services and unused entitlements.
• Entitlement Management: Ensuring users have appropriate, compliant access to market data—avoiding over-provisioning and reducing cost creep.
• Procurement Support: Managing vendor onboarding, renewals, service requests, and quote evaluations to drive efficiency and transparency in procurement cycles.
• Vendor Relationship Management: Acting as the operational link to data vendors—handling contract queries, service escalations, and pricing negotiations.
• Finance Reporting and Cost Allocation: Producing granular reporting for finance teams to track consumption, allocate spend, and support budgeting efforts.
• Usage Optimisation: Identifying redundancy, right-sizing services, and streamlining delivery mechanisms.
• Compliance and Licensing Oversight: Ensuring that usage aligns with licenses—minimising risk of audit findings or penalties.
• Audit Support: Preparing documentation and evidence for internal or vendor audits.
• Policy Governance: Defining rules around procurement, usage, and cost management.

While it doesn’t directly generate revenue, market data administration underpins accuracy, integrity, and compliance across all data-driven processes. When done well, it safeguards against financial leakage, audit risks, and operational disruption to deliver significant strategic value.

What Does It Mean to Outsource Market Data Admin?

Outsourcing involves delegating market data administration tasks to an external specialist provider like CJC Ltd. This reduces overhead, cuts in-house costs, and provides access to specialist expertise amid a growing shortage. It also enables scalable operations as data complexity and regulatory requirements increase.

What About Managed Services?

Managed services take outsourcing further by offering proactive support, operational continuity, and a strategic partnership to stay on top of fast-moving procurement, clean up disjointed inventories, and bring clarity to invoice and entitlement workflows. In one example, CJC’s CM managed service model delivered over $1.8 million in cost savings, highlighting the impact of outsourcing with the right partner.

CJC’s CM Managed Services offer a structured, scalable approach to market data administration, delivering specialist expertise without the overhead of permanent staffing. By removing the need to cover holiday leave, sick days, training, and HR admin, firms only pay for the expertise and time they actually use—unlocking cost efficiencies over traditional resourcing models. This streamlines BAU operations via:

• Inventory and Entitlement Management.
• Usage Monitoring and Vendor Coordination.
• Procurement and Data Licensing.

With this support, internal teams no longer waste time chasing vendors, updating spreadsheets, or trying to understand fragmented entitlements—they can focus on higher-value projects like regulatory changes and business engagement. The managed service complements in-house expertise, ensuring operational stability, continuity, and scalability.

Another advantage is global coverage: CJC’s managed services provide 24/7 support across regions and time zones, reducing the need for firms to manage complex global staffing internally.

Managing Market Data In-House vs. Outsourced - Pros and Cons

The choice between in-house and outsourcing market data administration to a specialised partner like CJC, depends on your firm’s priorities and resources.

Outsourcing offers quick access to specialist knowledge without the overhead costs of internal hiring. Providers with vendor-neutral expertise like CJC help firms maintain licensing compliance, support audits, and reduce risk. Predictable pricing, scalable support, and robust entitlement tools also help free up internal capacity.

In-house management offers granular control, tailored workflows, and closer vendor relationships. However, it comes with higher staffing and infrastructure costs and can be less scalable. Staff turnover with specialised skills adds risk.

When to Choose Outsourcing or In-House Market Data Admin

Choosing between outsourcing and keeping market data administration in-house depends on factors that have an impact on long-term risk, cost, compliance, and scalability.

• Data Volume and Complexity: Large, complex market data estates with multiple vendors often benefit from outsourcing to providers like CJC, who bring proven tools, workflows, and expertise to reduce errors and improve efficiency. Smaller and simpler market data estates may be manageable internally.
• Expertise and Capacity: Internal teams with limited bandwidth or expertise—especially during busy periods like audits or expansions—can gain valuable support externally, avoiding costly hiring or training delays.
• Regulatory and Compliance Needs: High regulatory exposure and evolving controls make an outsourced managed service attractive for firms seeking audit-ready, compliant solutions. Mature internal compliance teams might prefer to keep full oversight in-house, despite the associated risks.
• Cost and ROI: While outsourcing can lower overhead and provide specialist expertise, ROI depends on alignment with your needs—eliminating redundancies and preventing audit risks.
• Scalability and Flexibility: An outsourced service offers scalable support that adapts to changing business demands, whereas in-house teams can be limited by hiring and budget constraints.
• Security Considerations: Firms with strict data sensitivity requirements may prefer in-house control, but ISO 27001 certified providers like CJC ensure strong security and compliance standards.

Choosing The Right Fit

Sometimes a firm may also find a hybrid model, which augments in-house staff with external CJC expertise, delivering the best balance of flexibility, compliance, and cost-efficiency.

Why Choose CJC to Support Your Market Data?

At CJC, we become an extension of your team, whether working remotely or on-site. Our specialists collaborate closely with your internal stakeholders to ensure seamless communication, swift issue resolution, and consistent value beyond standard service providers.

CJC only employs full-time, permanent staff (never contractors) because we believe in long-term commitment and team cohesion. Our people are selected not just for their technical skill, but for their ability to work collaboratively and put the client's best interests first. Even when working offsite, our team operates together with your in-house staff, embedding themselves into your workflows and culture to act as true partners instead of an external resource. They're not just here to perform administrative tasks; they genuinely strive to understand your goals, challenges, and strategic priorities.

Our CM managed services are proactive, scalable, and evolve with your needs. By managing entitlement, usage, and vendor coordination, we free your in-house teams to focus on strategic initiatives, eliminating the overhead tied to hiring, training, and backfilling. This delivers clear operational and financial advantages.

What sets CJC apart is our depth of expertise. We optimise your entire market data operation. From building clean entitlement structures and reconciling complex invoices to rationalising inventories and managing vendor communications, we help firms eliminate waste, reduce manual workload, and improve accountability across their data services. A level of collective knowledge most firms cannot build internally.

With access to vendor-agnostic specialists in inventory management, procurement workflows, and vendor negotiations, our clients stay aligned with regulations like MiFID II and Dodd-Frank. They also benefit from centralised real-time cost control and operational visibility—not just compliance support.

Final Thoughts: Make the Right Choice For You

While in-house market data administration offers control and familiarity, managed services bring scalability, cost efficiency, and specialist expertise—critical in an increasingly complex, regulated environment. Partnering with CJC streamlines operations, reduces audit risks, and frees your internal teams to focus on higher-value work without sacrificing oversight or flexibility.

To explore whether managed services are the right fit for your team, contact CJC for a tailored assessment.