IN BRIEF

First Call, a Thomson Financial company, has launched a redesigned information portal for the institutional marketplace. Enhancements to the site, www.firstcall.com, include a more user-friendly interface, a product login that recalls the product a user accessed last, a new Product Wizard for searching First Call products. The site also features new content, including audio clips and text commentaries from First Call's director of research and the director of insider research. The site is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese.

Stockgroup.com Holdings introduced its new and improved smallcapcenter.com site with enhanced investment tools, in-depth editorial features, as well as a simpler navigation structure and faster loading pages. Site functionality also includes a continuously updated portfolio tracking tool, an improved quote and chart tool and a refined search engine with criteria such as trading volume, analyst recommendations and biggest gainers.

Advent software reported a 35% increase in revenue for the second quarter, up from $24.2 million last quarter to $32.7 million. Net income was up 66% to $5.8 million, or 17 cents per share. Advent also announced it is rolling out an Internet-based ASP program for its Advent Office suite in the third quarter. In addition, SunGard has joined Advent TrustedNetwork, a new service that will enable financial institutions to use the Internet to delivery cross-institutional consolidated views of individual investors' portfolios. SunGard plans to link its AutoTrust, Phase3, Trustware Series 7, Trustware 11, Omni ES and Global Plus systems to the network through its SunGard Transaction Network. GreenTrak, a provider of consolidated investment tracking reporting has also joined Advent TrustedNetwork to provide a backbone for the management of multi-institutional data used in The GreenTrak Report.

The Citation Group, a division of Merrill Lynch, will begin offering Bridge's Telerate Plus Institutional product to its clients. The Citation Group offers institutional clients the opportunity to use listed equity trading activity to obtain independent, third-party investment and research-related services. Clients will has access to Telerate's fundamental analysis, Nasdaq Level II, spreadsheet linking and options monitors as well as equities data and analytics.