The product provides real-time news and information focusing on the increasingly competitive North American power industry. Reuters Inform is a framework for delivering real-time financial news and data via the public Internet, allowing a customer to signup, pay for and receive the product through a regular Internet connection and standard web browser, eliminating the need for the installation of a dedicated communications line or special software. The new product is the first in a series of planned e-commerce information solutions being developed by Reuters as part of a larger initiative Reuters has undertaken to bring financial information products to its customers via the public Internet. Reuters Inform North American Power has been extensively tested with major energy trading firms and utilities. Additional variants of the product for the commodities and energies markets will be available later this year, with modules for other markets being launched in 2000.
Markets covered include electricity, natural gas, coal and emissions.
News coverage for the product is provided by Reuters Power Desk, a team of reporters focusing on the energy markets. Inform allows Reuters to harness the power of the Internet to deliver our rich energy content to an even broader base of users. By delivering Inform over the public Internet to a standard web browser, we're able to offer users interactive chat capabilities and innovative weather maps in addition to the standard features of real-time news and prices. This will be the first salvo in our planned campaign to bring more of our information products onto the Internet, meeting our clients' needs for cost effective delivery and targeted applications, and creating communities of users with common needs and interests. Reuters designs and installs enterprise-wide information management and risk management systems for the financial markets as well as providing equity and foreign exchange transaction systems.