specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
schema: https://www.finops.org/framework/
provider: Circana
providerId: circana
created: '2026-05-04'
# Provenance stamped 2026-08-11: this artifact was written by the API Evangelist
# bulk sweep dated 2026-05-04, not harvested from the provider. See roadmap#35.
method: generated
modified: '2026-05-05'
reconciled: false
tags:
  - Analytics
  - Business Intelligence
  - Consumer Data
  - CPG
  - Market Research
  - Retail
  - FinOps
  - FOCUS
description: 'FOCUS-aligned FinOps for Circana: enterprise subscription with custom contract
  economics — fee is shaped by data scope (categories, geographies, panels), seat count, refresh
  cadence, and integration channel (point API vs Snowflake / BigQuery / Databricks data share).
  There is no per-API-call price.'
notes: Circana does not expose a metered usage billing surface. The FinOps shape below describes
  the enterprise subscription cost surface.
sources:
  - https://www.circana.com/
  - https://www.circana.com/solutions
  - https://www.circana.com/company/technology
alignedWith:
  framework: FinOps Foundation Framework
  frameworkUrl: https://www.finops.org/framework/
  dataSpec: FOCUS
  dataSpecVersion: '1.3'
  dataSpecUrl: https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
publisherName: Circana, LLC
serviceCategory: Market Intelligence / Consumer Data
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Enterprise Subscription
  billingFrequency: Annual
  billingCurrency: USD
  chargeCategories:
    - Purchase
    - Adjustment
    - Tax
focusColumns:
  ServiceName: Circana Liquid Data / Unify+
  ServiceCategory: Market Intelligence / Consumer Data
  ProviderName: Circana
  PublisherName: Circana, LLC
  InvoiceIssuerName: Circana, LLC
  BillingCurrency: USD
  ChargeCategory: Purchase
  PricingCategory: Subscription
meters:
  - name: subscription
    description: Annual platform subscription line(s) by solution family
    unit: year
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - solution
      - region
  - name: data_scope
    description: Contracted categories, geographies, and panels
    unit: scope
    aggregation: count
    dimensions:
      - category
      - geography
      - panel
  - name: seats
    description: User seats provisioned for Unify+ and partner platforms
    unit: seat
    aggregation: max
    dimensions:
      - solution
      - team
  - name: warehouse_compute
    description: Customer-side warehouse compute used to query Circana data shares (when applicable)
    unit: compute-credit
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - warehouse
      - share
principles:
  - name: Visibility
    description: Track Circana spend through annual contract line items, seat utilization in Unify+,
      and warehouse-side query volume for any cloud-share deployments.
  - name: Allocation
    description: Allocate Circana subscription cost to the brand, category, or commercial team that
      drives the analytical demand so insights teams can be P&L'd against decision impact.
  - name: Optimization
    description: Right-size data scope at renewal (drop unused categories / geographies), prefer
      cloud-share consumption over point APIs to control warehouse compute, and consolidate seats on
      shared workspaces where multiple teams co-consume.
  - name: Accountability
    description: Insights / analytics owns the demand signal and renewal scope; data engineering
      owns warehouse cost; finance reconciles annual subscription invoices against utilization
      evidence at renewal.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com