Integration Of Thomson Data Available On Thomsondirect.Com

LONDON--Thomson Financial Securities Data (TFSD) is taking a step toward integrating data from various Thomson Financial divisions for access from one platform with its launch of Thomsondirect.com. The new product, aimed at investment bankers and the consulting and legal markets, offers integrated access to fundamental, descriptive and company research information from 13 different databases.

Its launch in London last week at the Online Information 99 show will be followed with launches in New York, Paris and Frankfurt early next year.

Thomsondirect.com is available via the Internet on a standard web browser setup. Existing TFSD products will still be available separately.

This data is sourced from TFSD units, IFR Securities Data, The Investment Group and CDA Spectrum. It also includes integrated data from other companies within Thomson Financial--a goal that has long eluded the company. These companies are First Call, Thomson Global Markets, Autex, Nelson Information and Gale Group (part of parent company The Thomson Corporation) which provides company and industry news.

Additional third-party information is taken from Financial Insight Systems, who provide company data via a gathering, analysis and retrieval system and from Mergent FIS which holds corporate histories and detailed debt descriptions on US public companies. Tim Sleep, sales director for TFSD in Europe, said at the launch that the company is exploring further content deals but declined to give further details.

Key features from Thomsondirect.com include the 'tear sheet' section, which will enable users to view summaries of data selected by company, region or defined sector data broken down. Users can customize their searches, and usage tracking enables users (or market data managers) to monitor recent retrievals either within their current session or in a previous one. Printing batches of reports at one time and downloading data into Microsoft Excel is also possible.

Thomson Financial Securities Data (TFSD), is made up of three Thomson Financial companies-- The Investext Group, IFR Securities Data, and CDA Spectrum. The companies merged in April of this year.