Macroeconomic data and analytics solutions vendor Macrobond has partnered with asset manager Aviva Investors to develop and launch the Macrobond Viewer, a data sharing platform that gives users the ability to share live research across the enterprise. Aviva Investors has already deployed the tool, which allows economists and portfolio managers to share live charts with each other, ensuring all parties are viewing the same data at any given moment in time.
“Aviva’s challenge was that they were producing all this fantastic content for the decision makers in the firm, but it was too static. And data doesn’t stop moving,” says Howard Rees, Chief Commercial Officer at Macrobond. “So they needed a way to make that content more interactive, and more powerful and accessible to others in the team. And that’s how we came up with the idea of the Macrobond Viewer, which is basically a read-only version of the platform that allows PMs to access all of the content that’s been created by economists, strategists and thought leaders within their firm.”
Macrobond Viewer, which is now available to all Macrobond customers, provides live access to a library of dynamic, read-only charts created by internal economic and financial research teams, based upon the company’s extensive core database of macroeconomic and time-series data, as well as other data sources that can be plugged in via API.
“Quants can produce proprietary time series data that can be integrated into Macrobond,” says Rees. “And PMs can overlay performance and position data from their portfolio management system, to see whether the positions they’re holding still make sense in light of the changing macro conditions.”
“What’s really been the game changer for us is the way in which we’ve been able to engage the portfolio management teams,” comments Michael Grady, Head of Investment Strategy and Chief Economist at Aviva Investors. “It has allowed us to get that ‘single source of truth’ and because it’s live, we have the confidence to know that we are looking at the most up-to-date information.”
This is a key benefit, says Rees. “Rather than spending time arguing about who has the right data, users can now talk about what the data actually means, because everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, everyone’s got the same data.”
