The 287,500 subscribers of the Bloomberg Professional service will soon have the opportunity to add Launchpad 2010 to the mix of applications on their desktop.
This advanced new interface allows for greater customization of a user's desktop and provides much more granularity and flexibility in terms of collaborating and sharing information and sections of the desktop with fellow users.
The product will be formally announced tomorrow, but
InvestmentNews received a demonstration of the interface today in Bloomberg's New York headquarters.
With this latest iteration of Launchpad, which was introduced in 2002, the company aims to add greater flexibility to the rich dataset available on the Bloomberg terminal. That flexibility will allow that data to move around a screen and flow easily into new types of charts.
What's more, Launchpad 2010 will enable users to collaborate and share that data in real time with other Bloomberg users by sending components of the screen with the Instant Bloomberg feature (basically an instant messaging system that is well known to terminal users). This not only includes live data, but charts and lists of securities as well.
What is being shared is far more than just a simple screen capture. Instead, it is message that contains links to the backend data that can in turn be replicated on the receiver's screen along with the ability to update it.
Over 150,000 Bloomberg subscribers use Launchpad. Of that group, about 70,000 already use the 2010 version, which first become available to some clients in March.
Bloomberg Product manager Eugene Sorenson said that the remainder should have access by the end of this year.
There is no additional charge for current Launchpad subscribers to upgrade to the 2010 version.
“This is much more than a cosmetic re-skinning of the Bloomberg interface,” said Tom Secunda, founding partner of Bloomberg LP and head of Financial Products.
He added that rather than just look and feel, the new iteration is much more about making the data available on the Bloomberg system “context sensitive” for users.
To help put the new features into perspective Mr. Secunda likened the standard Bloomberg terminal to a browser experience. Mr. Sorenson described Launchpad 2010 — specifically the My News feature being rolled out — as: “Sort of your custom online newspaper that is based on your areas of interest and most frequent usage and your profile.”
This feature falls under the category of intelligent workflow, whereby Launchpad automatically selects and consolidates a customized listing of headlines and news as well as subject areas of interest.
He and Mr. Secunda were quick to point out that the new application does not capture a user's position data but simply tracks those areas and categories of the Bloomberg system most utilized.
Among the new features: a securities monitor that includes integrated pricing and news alerts.
Search has been made more intuitive and faster as well. According to Mr. Sorenson, using simple
keywords users will be guided to relevant data, analytical tools or securities themselves.
Launchpad 2010 is available to Bloomberg Professional service users worldwide. For more information or to request an upgrade, clients can type LPAD
on their Bloomberg Terminal.
Non-Bloomberg users can get more information at Launchpad 2010.
