For CFOs

Did our data cost cut actually save money?

Only if the cost did not come back somewhere else. A cut is a real saving when nothing you added since replaces what you removed.

Cancelling a tool or a team removes a line from the data budget. The need behind it stays. It returns as a new tool, new hires, contractors, or hours in spreadsheets, often under a different name and often smaller at first.

1. What did you cut?

A tool, a subscription or people. Use the yearly cost. For people, the fully loaded yearly cost.

2. What did it let people do?

Optional. Tick everything that applies.

People could get to the data themselves, without asking an engineerOne-off questions could be answered quicklyRegular reports were produced for usWe could watch something as it happenedSomething else

3. What have you added or expanded since?

New tools, subscriptions, hires or contractors, and anything that grew. Use the yearly cost.

We added nothing

Still growing

Two minutes. Your figures stay in your browser. Nothing is sent or stored.

What to look at first

What you added since

Name every tool, subscription, hire and contractor added after the cut, with the yearly cost of each. Include anything that grows with usage.

Who absorbed the demand

Cutting reports does not cut the questions. Find out who answers them now, and how many hours it takes.

Whether people trust the new numbers

People who do not trust a number export it and rebuild it. That work never shows as a data cost.

The longer version: What should we stop paying for in our data spend?

Not your question?