Bloomberg today takes the wraps off a two-year development effort designed to simplify its desktop data service and pile the pressure on dealing terminal rival Thomson Reuters.
Bloomberg's Next redesign of its eponymous Professional desktop terminal marks the culmination of a $100 million investment programme involving more than 3000 programmers. Many of the changes were introduced following extensive research among a select group of clients who volunteered to allow Bloomberg to review keystrokes and commands most commonly used across an array of functions.
The company has already rolled out the refreshed product - which offers a refined intuitive interface and uniformity across asset classes, richer graphics and analytical tools, better search tools, and 15,000 fewer functions - to about a third of its installed 313,000 desktop user base at dealing rooms around the world. The company is now embarking on a global marketing effort with the aim of moving all subscribers to the new screens by the end of the year. The upgrade is free to all users.
Rival Thomson Reuters has undergone a similar upheaval to simplify its own desktop services under the Eikon brand. A slow start to Eikon sales among users contributed to a clear out at the top of the company's Markets division and the departure of group CEO Tom Glocer. The vendor, which reported a fourth quarter operating loss thanks to a $3 billion goodwill impairment charge related to its struggling financial services business, says sales of Eikon nearly doubled from 8000 installations to 15,000 in the past three months.