[ S U R V E Y
|
E X E C U T I O N
M A N A G E M E N T
S Y S T E M S ]
Bloomberg
H
aving announced it is to exit its SSEOMS (sell-
side execution and order management solutions)
earlier this year, Bloomberg will have been looking for
a strong showing in this year’s survey from its buy-side
users. Research carried out by Greenwich Associates
this year found that the majority of buy-side traders
used the Bloomberg EMSX platform as its EMS of
choice; although the technology giant saw a 20%
decrease in responses to this year’s EMS survey, it re-
tained its position as the largest provider based solely
on the number of responses.
In terms of scoring, Bloomberg recorded relative-
ly similar scores as in last year’s survey, with some
minor fluctuations across the functional categories
under review, and an overall score of 5.29. While this
represents an improvement on its overall performance
last year, it is still well below the 2019 survey-wide
average score of 5.78 and the second-lowest average
score of the EMS providers profiled.
Similarly to last year, Bloomberg’s highest score in
this year’s edition came in the reliability and availabil-
ity category (6.03), while its most improved year-on-
year score was in the client service personnel category,
which increased from 4.51 to 4.87. There were several
other areas of improvement for Bloomberg according
to survey respondents, with the latency (+0.29), han-
dling of new versions/releases (+0.29), FIX capabili-
ties (+0.27) and ease of integration to internal systems
(+0.21) categories all displaying year-on-year score
increases.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg received the lowest scores of
profiled providers in five of the 13 functional catego-
ries under review – latency (5.61), ease of use (5.01),
FIX capabilities (5.75), product development (4.49)
and ease of integration to internal systems (5.07) –
while there were four categories which saw decreased
year-on-year scores. A particular cause of concern for
Bloomberg will be its poor showing in the ease of use
category, as 68% of the vendor’s buy-side users indi-
cated in the survey that this was their most important
feature when using EMSX. Around 15% of buy-side re-
spondents for Bloomberg also indicated that they were
either considering or planning to replace Bloomberg
as their EMS provider in the next 12 months.
BLOOMBERG RATINGS FOR EMS PERFORMANCE
Reliability and
Availability Latency Client Service
Personnel Ease-of-
Use Handling of New
Versions/Releases Breadth of Broker
Algorithms Timeliness of Updates
for Broker Changes FIX Capabilities
6.03 5.61 4.87 5.01 5.24 5.61 5.18 5.75
Breadth of Asset Class
Coverage Breadth of Direct
Connections to Venues Product
Development Ease of Integration to
Internal Systems Overall Cost of Operation Average score
5.38 5.42 4.49 5.07 5.08 5.29
KEY STATS
+0.36 6.03 4.47 68%
Best year-on-year score
(client service
personnel) Highest score
(reliability and
availability) Lowest score
(product
development) Most important
EMS feature: Ease of use
86 // TheTrade // Fall 2019