Many treasury and finance teams that relied on Bloombergâs Disaster Recovery (DR) services to share access to the companyâs powerful Terminals are adapting to the end of their access. - Itâs a challenge for some teams, given that many employees will continue to work from home part of the week and wonât have access to Terminals in offices.
- Thatâs leading more companies to consider replacing physical Terminals with the Bloomberg Anywhere service.
- Assistant treasurers at a recent NeuGroup meeting discussed Terminal access in the age of hybrid work (home and office).
Aggravation and appreciation. One member took his teamâs shared Terminal home when the pandemic began and the office closed in early 2020. Other employees got access through Bloombergâs DR services. - But the employeeâs offices have reopened using a so-called hoteling model (reserve a desk when youâre in the office; someone else uses it when you work from home). So now the other employees donât have the DR access.
- The member said it would be disconcerting if he left the Terminal at a shared desk. For now, heâs taking it back and forth between his home and the office.
- By contrast, another AT who works for a company using a hybrid model said he appreciated that the physical Terminal serves as an âanchorâ for employees when theyâre back in the office.
Bloomberg everywhere? For some teams, Bloomberg Anywhere, which provides remote access to Terminal services through a personal computer or a mobile app, offers a clear solution.
- The drawback: a company needs to pay full price for each user, as opposed to the single price of a shared, in-office Terminal.
- One member at a company using a hybrid model who has a Terminal in the office said, âWeâre trying to figure out, do we get rid of it? Do we just spend the money for Bloomberg Anywhere?â
- Thatâs exactly the plan adopted by another member whose company has gone fully remote, hiring employees from across the US.
- He said the transition has forced him âto go to Bloomberg Anywhere, because my people are going to be everywhere.
- âThereâs no need to have any central Terminal, thatâs not going to be a viable solution,â he said. âWeâre definitely going to be moving toward Bloomberg Anywhere.â
- One assistant treasurer said he was hired during the pandemic as the treasury teamâs first step into a remote-only model. âThey forked over the cash for Bloomberg Anywhere for me,â he said, joking that there was âno wayâ heâd cross the country to use the Terminal.
Bloombergâs responses. A Bloomberg spokesperson, in response to questions from NeuGroup Insights about access to the Terminal using DR services, emailed the following statements:
- âAll firms with current subscriptions to the Disaster Recovery service continue to have access to it. Some companies may have opted not to renew, or to switch from Open Terminals to Bloomberg Anywhere, which provides each user with consistent remote access.â
- âStarting in March 2020, we have extended use of the service for longer-term remote working scenarios. This extension has been available to all active DR services subscribers.â
- âIf clients need additional information, we recommend they contact their Bloomberg representative.â
