Client: Thomson Reuters, a leading global provider of financial information and software, serves over 20 million professionals daily. One of its flagship solutions is its Quantitative Research suite—a set of financial software and data tools tailored to quantitative researchers, portfolio managers, and technical analysts. These tools help users uncover insights to accelerate portfolio growth. For many years, SSI collaborated closely with Thomson Reuters and its precursor, Quantitative Analytics, to drive innovation. Together, they successfully redesigned and re-launched MarketQA, a solution integrating functional programming with comprehensive, real-time financial data for retrieval and analysis.
Challenge: The MarketQA platform was hampered by outdated technology and a poor user interface, relying on a non-relational database and legacy C++ development software. This led to sluggish performance and a lack of user-friendly design, while competitors outpaced Thomson Reuters with more advanced features and modern interfaces. Despite recognizing the need for modernization, Thomson Reuters struggled with internal limitations, lacking the resources and expertise to execute a full-scale overhaul and reclaim its competitive edge.
Solution: To overcome the limitations of the existing MarketQA platform, Thomson Reuters partnered with SSI to spearhead a complete overhaul. Leveraging SSI’s strong partnership with Microsoft and deep expertise in advanced technologies, the team developed a cutting-edge, intuitive .NET user interface that greatly enhanced user experience while preserving the core functionality of the legacy system. Built on .NET Framework 2.0 and C# 2005, the new interface offered improved performance and ease of use. SSI led the project from start to finish, completing the transformation within a year and positioning MarketQA as a competitive solution in the industry.
Result: SSI’s revamp of MarketQA resulted in a modern, high-performing application that was well-received in the market. The new drag-and-drop interface and enhanced query language, which highlights variables, constants, functions, and parameters, significantly improved user experience and functionality. The product received positive feedback from users and remains Thomson Reuters’ flagship solution for Quantitative Analytics more than five years after its launch, solidifying its competitive edge in the market.
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