Best Mobile Initiative: Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters launched Eikon Messenger on its mobile app on Blackberry 10 and Blackberry Native in January 2015—and had extended support to iOS, Windows and Android devices by June. Currently, Eikon Messenger has more than 300,000 users across 184 countries who can connect with innumerable others via different messaging systems such as AOL and Skype, thanks to Eikon Messenger’s federation with these services. 

Mobile access is available to professionals using Eikon Messenger as part of a Thomson Reuters Eikon subscription and to those using a stand-alone, free-of-charge Eikon Messenger account. Lesli Fairchild, head of collaboration services at Thomson Reuters, says Eikon Mobile’s ramp-up is significant as financial services professionals need to be able to access information at any time, from anywhere. “The industry we service doesn’t operate from nine to five,” she says.

The mobile version offers the same functionality as the desktop version, including one-to-one messaging, chat rooms and bilateral chats. “We like to think of it as a desktop in the pocket… We’ve pulled all the value together in one place,” says Fairchild. 

 The value-adding services have not gone unnoticed. Judges called the Eikon mobile app “impressive”, praising Thomson Reuters for investing heavily in the consolidation of content and enriched features on the Eikon platform.

“Even though the service is free, it is underpinned by a lot of compliance capabilities,” says Fairchild, explaining that regulated users always need to be recorded, for example. One of the key features in the product is the ability for companies to configure rules for their employees using Eikon’s free policy management console. Considering the tremendous market focus on compliance, it is not surprising that Thomson Reuters has seen increased interest in access to this console, which allows companies to block communication between certain users, for example, or prevent the use of certain phrases or keywords.