Interactive, user-customisable reports – An emerging trend in investment research

Published on May 22, 2014 by Rohan Fernando

Investment research plays a critical role in the capital markets sphere, providing high-quality analysis and investment ideas to help investors make informed investment decisions. Such research is usually in the form of reports, downloadable or obtainable in physical form. Research analysts compile hundreds of thousands of such reports and share them with investors. These reports are often in PDF or other static formats.

However, reports such as these may soon be a thing of the past. Our constant interaction and discussions with quantitative research clients has provided us with considerable exposure to many new concepts and systems developed and adopted by global capital market players. The concept of interactive, user-customisable or responsive reports is one such emerging idea that we see gaining traction within globalInteractive, user-customisable reports – An emerging trend in investment research investment bankers’ research sphere. Interactive reports and visualisation are some key areas that we are researching aggressively to provide our clients a competitive advantage.

Interactive reports have dynamic content and only the layout is predefined; the content is always dynamic and can be generated on the fly. Interactive reports within a responsive framework are compatible with multiple devices thanks to responsive design, which helps create hassle-free viewing on any device with minimum scrolling, panning and resizing.

Today, most investment banks are exploring the option of interactive reports and revamping their existing static reports. Future reports will not just contain static data inputs from the analyst but will be connected via investment banks’ analytical tools to their information back bones. Reports will be more responsive/intuitive, allowing viewers and investors to see more information and do their own in-depth analysis. In the future, reports will be interactive and may even answer questions that investors would normally pose to analysts. Reports will have the ability to calculate and stay up to date as they are connected to main information flows.

Today, everything is about connectivity and investors will be able to connect to investment banks using these reports via any device across any platform. While this may raise questions about information security, that’s a risk banks may be willing to take given the advantage of having clients connected to their system, thereby making them feel closer to the investment bank. In the future, reports will be customisable, interactive and no longer contain static data or only what the analyst wants the clients to see; they will give investors the freedom to see what they wish to see. It will be a paradigm shift in investment banking and early players will have the advantage over others.

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