Reuters, a global information company, consists of four business areas. It is well known for its international multimedia news agency; however, currently more than 90 percent of revenues derive from financial services provided by three business divisions. Some 357,000 financial market professionals working in the equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, money, commodities and energy markets around the world use Reuters products. Founded in 1851 in London, Reuters is traded on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, and had 2004 revenues of £2.9 billion. The company employs 15,000 staff in more than 90 countries.

The Challenge: Hosted Service for Small Installations

Reuter’s flagship product — Reuters 3000 Xtra — is a high-speed information service for financial professionals that delivers real-time news, data, analytics and transaction services. The application suite includes powerful analysis tools such as Reuters MetaStock Premium for price action, Kobra for manipulating data from several sources, and Reuters PowerPlus Pro analytics tool. Financial professionals, such as investment bankers, portfolio managers, wealth managers, brokers and traders use Reuters 3000 Xtra to analyse financial data and make informed decisions.

Historically, Reuters 3000 Xtra was installed directly at customers’ sites on individual desktop PCs, which required an investment in infrastructure and bandwidth. This offering is ideal for large enterprise installations, which have thousands of desktops spread over the globe, and require customisation or integration with third-party data feeds or in-house derived market data.

However, Reuters wanted to make the solution practical for smaller teams of people, such as a financial group within a large pharmaceutical company or a mid-size financial services firm. Reuters felt that offering a hosted service would allow smaller groups to benefit from Reuters 3000 Xtra, even if their organization lacked the IT capabilities to manage it internally.

Ole Siig, Hosted Solutions Manager, Reuters said: “There were two reasons to offer Reuters 3000 Xtra Hosted Terminal Access. Firstly, a hosted offering could reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for some of our clients. Secondly, it could help us expand our business by tapping a new market for our solution.”

Citrix Access Suite for a Hosted Service

Reuters engaged Citrix to build a secure and scalable solution that would enable remote access to Reuters 3000 Xtra. Reuters implemented Citrix Presentation Server™, which is part of the Citrix Access Suite™, with Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 in Reuters’ key regional technical centres. These centres cover the regions of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the Americas, and Pacific.

Depending on their budget and location, customers have the option to access the lightweight desktop application through BT Radianz, a secure, private networking option for the financial market, or through the Internet. To secure information over both connection types, Secure Gateway for Citrix® Presentation Server encrypts data traffic.

Centralised Application Access Drives TCO Down for Reuters Clients

The centralized deployment of Reuters 3000 Xtra Hosted Terminal Access is a cost-effective way for Reuters customers to take advantage of the new access methods without increasing overheads.

Siig said, “As part of our product offering, Reuters absorbs the additional cost of building and maintaining a hosted infrastructure and can therefore pass the TCO benefits on to our customers. Under this hosted model using Presentation Server, our customers do not have to upgrade desktop hardware or invest in additional software, on-site support and maintenance.”

New Product Offering Grows Customer Base, Increases Satisfaction

Using Presentation Server as a delivery mechanism for the hosted solution, Reuters has been able to differentiate its product in the marketplace. Presentation Server, coupled with a reliable network, levels the playing field for smaller financial institutions by giving them the same fast access to Reuters 3000 Xtra market information and rich functionality as large institutions.

“By centrally deploying and managing Reuters 3000 Xtra Hosted Terminal Access through Citrix Presentation Server, we’re able to introduce a new service to existing customers. Equally important, we have expanded our customer base by offering a solution to a broader range of clients,” said Siig.

With some 10,000 users, the hosted service accounts for around seven percent of all Reuters Premium information desktop users and is one of the company’s fastest-growing revenue streams.

Secure Access to Sensitive Application Data

Reuters customers handle market information that can be commercially sensitive, so data integrity and security are critical. The Citrix solution is secure by design: application processing takes place on the server, and the Secure Gateway feature provides standards-based encryption of data traffic via the Internet to prevent theft or hacking. User access is protected by password authentication. Reuters follows industry best practice with regular penetration testing, tight operational monitoring and administrative processes.

Ease of Maintenance and Speed of Deployment

The centralized server infrastructure enables Reuters support personnel to administer and upgrade the entire Reuters 3000 Xtra service from their technical centres without needing to travel to every customer site. By using the shadowing capability of Presentation Server, Reuters Customer Support staff can assist in resolving queries by being invited by the customer to remotely view their screen. This capability can be used ad hoc to demonstrate and train in new functionalities and features or aid fault resolutions, ensuring that clients are obtaining the maximum benefit from their Reuters product. “This is all thanks to our Citrix environment,” said Siig.

Reuters centrally maintains Reuters 3000 Xtra with the latest versions, patches and display templates, so users can always rely on accessing the most up-to-date application.

“On a strategic level, Presentation Server optimizes maintenance and support costs, because the application suite is deployed, managed, supported and executed on the server,” said Siig.

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