Bloomberg is in the process of rolling over Australian subscribers of its research terminal to Bloomberg NEXT.
Major clients of Bloomberg’s news and information service are institutional money managers, but other clients include the big four banks, research houses and corporate advisory firms.
Subscribers to the terminal will be given a site visit to take them through the upgrades, although the process of switching over to the new functionality is automatic, according to head of sales and account management at Bloomberg LP, Australia and New Zealand, Amanda Dobbie.
Bloomberg said the NEXT terminal will be easier to use, search and navigate following what Dobbie described as the biggest overhaul of the system since its inception in 1981.
The upgrade was based on client feedback, with some clients also volunteering to have keystrokes logged to help Bloomberg research how the terminal was used.
Currently at least 165,000 of Bloomberg’s 310,000 clients have been upgraded, including at least 3,500 in Australia and all of New Zealand, according to Dobbie.
The main changes are around “discoverability”, “uniformity” and “intuitive workflow”, according to Bloomberg.
It said data is easier to search now, with users able to simply type in search terms on the home screen.
For example companies can be searched by name or description, without having to look up the ASX code. Similarly, a user can now look up “China GDP” without having to know how to navigate to that country’s economic data.
The various information and news items screened have been reconfigured for a more uniform appearance, which aids navigation by making the process more intuitive through a more consistent look and feel, according to Dobbie.
