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Bloomberg’s Launchpad offers cutting-edge data sharing

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the folks at Bloomberg LP should be prepared for copycats.

The data giant has upgraded its Launchpad application, and given the appeal of the new analytics and presentation formats, chances are good that Launchpad’s features are going to be imitated by providers of more affordable advisory technology.

The new application’s enhanced collaboration techniques are what really may spark look-alikes.

“It tells me they’re opening up the capability to share better within a firm,” said Peter Giza, chief of technology and business development at RedBlack Software LLC, which sells Rebalance Express, a portfolio re-balancing and trade order management application. “It is a really positive move — the guy analyzing the data in a firm is going to have a different perspective than the sales guy working with customers.”

Being able to take data and quickly shape it into a chart that immediately tells a story in a way that all parties can understand is a powerful concept, he explained.

Mr. Giza said that coming up with features similar to what is being delivered in Launchpad has already received some thought in his shop in the form of real-time dashboards.

Introduced in 2002, Launchpad was designed to solve a problem resulting from Bloomberg’s cornucopia of information: While data on a Bloomberg terminal was being constantly refreshed, the interface layout appeared static and overwhelming in its profusion of numbers.

Launchpad allowed users to begin organizing and arranging terminal data in a way that made more sense for them.

The latest upgrade, Launchpad 2010, allows for far greater customization of a user’s desktop and provides much more granularity and flexibility in terms of sharing information and sections of the desktop with fellow Bloomberg users.

In a nutshell, the company wants to give legs to the rich data set available on the Bloomberg terminal — or at least legs that allow the data to move around a screen and flow easily into new types of charts.

This is accomplished by sending components of the screen, or even an entire screen, via Instant Bloomberg (an instant-messaging program) to other users. The components can include live data, as well as charts and lists of securities.

What is being shared is far more than just a simple screen capture, which equates to a non-interactive image of what appears on a screen. Rather, the message is embedded with links to Bloomberg’s back-end data warehouse, allowing the receiver to replicate the original data immediately on the receiver’s screen, along with the ability to update the data.

Among the other new features I saw during a live demonstration at the company’s New York office last week were improved analytical tools, including a securities monitor that integrates pricing and news alerts. Within that are new types of graphics and a single-click ability to drill down into a security for additional analysis.

Searching also has been made faster and more intuitive. Simple keywords guide users to relevant data, analytical tools or the securities themselves, Bloomberg said.

The application also has a personalized news feature that allows users to create a custom online newspaper based on their own areas of interest and most frequent usage within their personal profile. This feature falls under the Bloomberg categorization of intelligent work flow, whereby Launchpad automatically selects and consolidates a customized listing of headlines and news, as well as areas of interest.

If Bloomberg is the Mercedes of data providers, look for the Fords and Hondas to follow the leader.

(To see the slide show on Launchpad, go to InvestmentNews.com/launchpad.)

E-mail Davis D. Janowski at [email protected].