IMD & IRD Awards 2020: Best Market Data Provider (Vendor)—Bloomberg

After a three-year hiatus, Bloomberg regains its crown, topping the reader survey for Best Market Data Provider (Vendor). The market data giant had previously swept the category for an unmatched 14 years in a row, dominating the award since its launch in 2003.

From the very beginning, Bloomberg has made pioneering strides in market data and technology. Its premium-subscription Bloomberg Professional terminal continues to lead the market, while the breadth and depth of its content and global client support makes the firm a success across the entire spectrum of the industry. Its four other category wins this year are testament to that and have led to the firm being named Best Overall Provider.

Tony McManus, CIO of Bloomberg Enterprise Data, says: “We are delighted that readers recognise the evolution of Bloomberg’s solutions. We have an incredibly customer-focused culture, centered on understanding our clients and ensuring that the quality of support is exemplary.”

McManus feels that Bloomberg’s win can be attributed to the development of its lightweight, modern technology platform, the coverage, quality and speed of its content, and its unique datasets and analytics that augment its market data.

Over the past year, he highlights the addition of real-time data and analytics to the Bloomberg platform, including its Volatility Services: “Providing access to real-time services that were previously only available on the Bloomberg terminal became particularly important with the advent of the coronavirus.”

For a number of years, Bloomberg has been investing in developing cloud-native market data services. After launching in the US last year, it has now deployed globally in collaboration with Amazon Web Services. “Customers recognise that the future of market data distribution and management is in cloud-native platforms like ours,” says McManus. “There is no heavy infrastructure or costly operational burden. Our platform works seamlessly wherever our clients need it, across their datacenters or in the cloud. They can plug in the API [application programming interface] and we provide slick, hosted administration tools, management and reporting.”

Bloomberg’s One Data strategy is also garnering recognition in the industry, with its standardizxed, connected content, common data models and consistent set of technologies, along with aligned contracts and commercials. “Customers are fed up with the cost and complexity associated with acquiring data from sometimes hundreds of different locations and siloed vendors,” McManus explains.

Finally, McManus feels that this readers’ choice award reflects Bloomberg’s quality and trustworthiness. “Customers want a provider they can trust in these critical times. They want to know that when markets go crazy, speed and stability won’t degrade. As we saw this year, customers know they can rely on us when they need us most.”

Read more about the Inside Market Data & Inside Reference Data Awards 2020 winners