Bridge Information Systems has launched MessageWare, a secure private network to support both Bridge and third party transaction-based services and applications, including real-time chat facilities.
Kirk Thomas, Bridge's head of software development, says the new facility offers the added functionality of standard point-to-point and point-to-mulitple point transaction capability. "BMW offers communications between two or more users in addition to encrypted and secure messaging; speed; quality of service based on varying levels of importance of message delivery" he adds. "Instead of IP addresses, BMW recognizes and routes according to user-defined destination names."
BridgeChat, an internal real-time chat application that allows employees to have public or fully private conversations with other employees, is the first applications to be made available over the network. The service, which mirrors a similar popular application available over Bloomberg terminals, will be commercially available from the fourth quarter.
Other applications in the pipeline include order entry, bulettin board services, manual hit/take systems, and fully automated dealer/trader systems.
Client connection into the BMW is managed by Bridge Transaction Servers (BTS) located at client sites. BTS's reside on the periphery of the network and can be co-located with BridgeFeed servers at a client site.
In a seperate initiative Bridge has also announced the availability of Data Level Contracts (DLC) which enables customers to subscribe to a modified level of service from the Bridge network that better suits their needs and simultaneously minimises bandwidth. Early DLC adopters include National Bank Financial and RBC Investments, a division of Royal Bank of Canada.
"Data Level Contracts, enable Bridge to offer a modified level of service to customers that desire access to the Bridge premium service but who's data requirements do not fit the original high end institutional mold," says Joe Ratterman, Bridge's chief information and technology officer.
The contracts are designed to adjust to the growth in market data message rates and provide customers a choice to receive and process all the messages that are possible for their users and systems or request a limited volume according to their precise needs says Ratterman.