Redburn: Providing a new equities research portal

“Everyone at Softwire is refreshingly transparent, both technically and commercially. They were really good at working with us, sharing what they were doing and making sure everything they suggested genuinely met Redburn’s needs.”  – Georgina Wright, Research Business Manager, Redburn

The Challenge

A new website to share equity research analysts’ work and encourage customer engagement.

Redburn is a premium equities research and execution business. It helps institutional investors – including some of the biggest global pension and hedge fund managers – make informed decisions about which equities to buy and sell and can then make the trades.

At the heart of Redburn’s success is its analysts’ in-depth research, available to subscribers through a website. Since the original research portal was built, Redburn’s business has grown, customer needs have evolved and financial services regulations have tightened.

One of the aims of the project was to enable clients to find and collate relevant information as quickly as possible, anywhere, at any time, on all devices.

The website had to be fast and offer an exceptional user experience that encouraged investors to engage with Redburn directly, as opposed to accessing its research via an aggregator.

Our Solution

We created a research portal, optimised to provide the best possible user experience.

We designed both the front- and back-ends of the website, optimising all parts to deliver an engaging user experience on desktop, tablet and mobile.

Our approach minimised project risk by starting with the areas that posed the greatest technical difficulties. This included building the engine to bring in data from third-party APIs, Redburn databases and even human-written emails. This engine was critical to the success of the portal because it would enable Redburn to offer the richness of data required to differentiate itself from its competition and encourage customer engagement.

We evaluated a range of search technologies to help Redburn’s clients. We then selected and implemented the most cost-effective and suitable solution.

The Result

Global investors are now able to gather the research they need to make well-informed investment decisions as well as be compliant with the new financial regulations.

Redburn’s clients received the new site positively following the live launch. We are extending the research platform for Redburn’s internal users, and it will be rolled out globally to additional clients in the near future.

Our in-house UX and design team delivered a platform with a smart look and feel. Our automatic testing worked first time and the requirements were met as a result of our consultancy expertise.