Bloomberg has unveiled the latest version of its market data terminal, which it says has been reengineered to offer simplified and more uniform access to market information.
The new product, Bloomberg NEXT, consolidates and integrates the firm’s data, news and analytics functions and is already in use by over 100,000 clients worldwide. The company wants all 310,000 clients to switch from the existing Bloomberg Professional terminal to Bloomberg NEXT by the end of this year.
“The complexity and interconnectedness of the global financial marketplace has grown significantly. Business and financial professionals need to synthesise astounding amounts of information to make intelligent investment decisions,” said Tom Secunda, Bloomberg’s co-founder, vice chairman and head of the company’s financial products and services division. “We have redesigned the terminal to ensure that our clients get the best, fastest and most insightful answers.”
Features of Bloomberg NEXT include: better discoverability, which the firm says allows users to obtain get quick, direct answers to their queries as well as pull together a wide variety of related details such as companies, research and charts; consistency of interfaces across different asset classes; and easier navigation of information through a more streamlined workflow process, which Bloomberg says will also allow expert users to drill deeper and occasional users to discover new functions.
In fixed income, for example, buy-side traders can use NEXT to look at consolidated pricing information and analysis, such as post-trade data, Bloomberg evaluated pricing and indicative quotes on one screen. Previously, traders were required to view each source of fixed income pricing information in isolation and conduct analysis themselves.
NEXT also combines related information for company earnings, again consolidating multiple sources of information, such as historical earnings, consensus estimates and analyst recommendations, onto one screen to allow for easier analysis.
“NEXT is much more intuitive. You can see multiple pieces of information on one screen, which lets you see new interrelationships,” said Lars Hansen, senior portfolio manager at DIP, the Danish pension fund for engineers.
According to Bloomberg, the re-design of its terminal involved a team of 3,000 technologists and a select group of clients that allowed the firm to monitor their use of the system.
“These advancements come from strong partnerships with our clients. We stop, listen and try to understand what our customers want. We have taken the industry’s most powerful and comprehensive platform and made it even better,” said Jean-Paul Zammitt, global head of product strategy and development for the Bloomberg Professional service.