Thomson Reuters Starts Integration Drive, Equips Redi Users with Eikon Messenger

Described by Thomson Reuters as the first stage of the integration process between its Redi and Eikon platforms, the firm has made its messaging functionality available to its buy-side community, and by so doing, has created a wider network of financial professionals collaborating under one roof.  

Brennan Carley, head of Enterprise Solutions at Thomson Reuters, tells WatersTechnology that prior to this development, Redi users did not have a standard messaging capability and were forced to use a mixture of different services – hence why the firm decided to prioritize this functionality over others. 

“Eikon Messenger is available in two forms; we provide it as part of Eikon, but we also provide it as a standalone messaging capability,” he says. “We took the second one and put it into the Redi application.” 
 
Sell-Side Capabilities 

What Redi users get from Thomson Reuters’ messaging system are a number of compliance features, essentially accessing the full benefits that the 30,000 sell-side Eikon users already enjoy. Carley says that buy-side users will now have access to a fully compliant messaging tool. “There are controls on multiparty chat, so if you want to have some traders from different banks you have to set that up through a compliance officer who gives them control and prevents issues,” he explains. “It also has the ability to do surveillance – users can set keywords to trigger alerts when someone uses inappropriate language in a chat.” 

Carley adds that Redi users will also have the ability to log and store all the messages so that later they can run any surveillance software they want.  “We also have an archive solution so that if you want to you can have a historical archive of all the messages in Eikon,” Carley says. 

Collaboration 

By providing Redi users with access to Eikon’s messaging system, Thomson Reuters aspires to create one of the most extensive communities of financial professionals, where everyone in the network can potentially collaborate with each other. 

“Any buy-side user on Redi can use Eikon Messenger to collaborate with research analysts, sell-side traders and with the brokers they do business with,” Carley says. “It breaks down the barriers of communication and improves the workflow between the buy side and the sell side.”

Chinese Menu

With this development, Thomson Reuters kicks off what is likely to be a lengthy integration process just months after its acquisition of Redi Technologies.

Carley explains that the process will take some time and will be completed in several stages. “We will be adding more of the Eikon functionality to Redi, eventually getting to a point where it’s complete mix and match,” he says. “Think of it like a Chinese menu where a user is able to customize their desktop by taking components from both the Eikon and Redi platforms and combine the different pieces that they need,” he adds.