A UtiliPoint IssueAlert

Gary M. Vasey, Ph.D., General Manager, Europe and
Patrick Reames, Vice President, Trading & Risk Management

UtiliPoint International, Inc. has amassed a variety of research, data and knowledge regarding Trading & Risk Management (TRM) through proprietary research, extensive industry contacts, on-going analysis and our own analyst’s expertise and experience. But what does this all add up to? How can a company participating in the energy and commodity markets leverage this expertise?

The UtiliPoint TRM Executive Service
UtiliPoint is launching its TRM Executive Service precisely to answer those questions. The TRM Executive Service is designed to provide on call research, analysis and advice to executives of companies engaged in trading & risk management as well as to provide a forum in which industry peer groups can gain knowledge and experience form one another on a variety of issues.

The UtiliPoint TRM Executive Service is a Program designed to maximize the delivery of UtiliPoint’s analysis expertise, proprietary research and consulting services to industry clients in the area of Trading & Risk Management best practices both from a business and a technology perspective. The Program is explicitly designed to provide industry executives with access to proprietary research, analysis and consulting as well as opportunities to discuss and tackle industry issues with peers and UtiliPoint analysts and consultants.

The new UtiliPoint TRM Executive Service is focused on the following areas:

o Trading & Risk Management business process and I.T. best practice and benchmarking.
o Trading & Risk Management software solutions - best practice selection and implementation, vendor and solution comparisons, technology developments, integration, support and landscapes.
o The continued evolution of commodity markets, trading practices and growth and its impacts on Energy Trading & Risk Management practices and processes.
o Ancillary products and services that support the Trading & Risk Management function including weather services, peripheral software applications, electronic trading, deal discovery and more;
o Access to, and the opportunity to participate in semi-annual TRM focused workshops and meetings organized exclusively by UtiliPoint for TRM Executive Service subscribers. The events are held in both North America and Europe and provide participants the opportunity to remain abreast of the latest market and technology trends from a combination of presentations by UtiliPoint and industry experts, and peer level networking.

In short, this program is designed to provide on-going help and assistance around all things trading & risk management.

Benefits
Most often, UtiliPoint are utilized by end user companies on an ad hoc consulting basis. The types of roles that we have delivered have included:

o Half-day pre-selection seminars focused on the vendor and product landscape, the selection process and implementation issues. Often this service is providing an education in the TRM software arena for companies who will soon be investing deeply in a selection program. UtiliPoint helps the end user client by helping them hone in on likely solution and service providers as well ensure an understanding of what is really available in the market. It helps sets expectations correctly and it ensures that the selection team is prepared for many of the common issues associated with TRM selection and implementation projects.
o TRM selection audits that involve UtiliPoint playing an on-going role during the selection process acting as a vendor and service provider independent auditor and adviser. Here the benefit is in having an experienced and knowledgeable extra set of eyes and ears tuned in to the project looking for omissions, errors, best practice and so on. Quite often this role is extended through the actual implementation project itself.
- Current system reviews in which UtiliPoint examines the existing TRM solution against the business requirements today and into the future and makes recommendations regarding likelihood of replacement. Generally, the choice to be made is to find ways to extend the life of the current investment or to undertake a costly replacement effort.
- Business process reviews in which UtiliPoint reviews current business practice against industry best practice and offers alternative ways to conducting the trading and risk management business.
- Point solution reviews and market analysis in which UtiliPoint looks at specific business functions in the trading & risk management area providing advice on possible solution alternatives and issues.

These are just a few examples of where UtiliPoint analysts and consultants get involved with TRM end users. However, the problem is that quite often UtiliPoint is brought in late, after something has gone wrong and our assistance is required in “righting the ship.” While this is undoubtedly good business for UtiliPoint, but it doesn’t exactly leverage our expertise, data and research in the most effective manner for the client.

The TRM Executive Service is designed to provide a more comprehensive, proactive, and on-going link with the firms that rely on having a good insight into the latest trends, developments and issues around TRM in order to ensure that they maximizing their investment in, and use of, their TRM infrastructure . It provides UtiliPoint an ability to stay focused on the needs of each client over a longer period of time, allowing our analysts to anticipate issues and to provide timely briefings, updates and intervention on the client’s behalf. Perhaps more importantly, it allows UtiliPoint to facilitate discussion and peer-to-peer communication around TRM issues.

The process in fact works both ways since the continuous and consistent interaction means UtiliPoint can also stay abreast of emergent industry concerns in the TRM area, catalyzing additional research, and helping establish leading-edge best practices. These results can then be communicated back to the TRM Executive Service client group.

The ETRM Community website and blog will also provide an interactive forum for knowledge management and discussion between UtiliPoint and TRM Executive Service clients. The ETRM website is already a widely popular tool and resource in the industry. Through this website, TRM Executive Service subscriber will have access to the entirety of UtiliPoint’s TRM related reports which as of writing include the following;

o North American Market for ETRM Software - Market Analysis and Sizing, 2008
o Energy and Natural Resource Blog Snapshot Survey Results, 2008
o Results of a Snapshot Survey on Energy & Natural Resources ETF’s, 2008
o European ETRM Integration Survey Results, 2007
o The Use of Weather Data by Energy Companies - Snapshot Survey Results, 2007
o European Markets for Energy Trading, Transaction and Risk Management - Market Sizig and Assessment, 2007
o ETRM Software Implementation Projects - Snapshot Survey Results, 2007
o Cross Border Gas Trading in Europe, 2007
o Benchmarking of European ETRM Software Markets, 2007
o ETRM Vendor Perception Study - North America, 2006
o North American Market for ETRM Software - Market Sizing and Assessment, 2006
o Evaluation and Benchmarking of Natural Gas Software Application Usage in North American Energy Companies, 2005
o Green Trading Markets: How Environmental Financial Markets Work, 2005
o Energy as an Asset Class for Hedge Fund Diversification, 2006
o Evaluation and Benchmarking of Information Technology at North American

Leveraging UtiliPoint
The new TRM Executive Service is designed to ensure technology and business executives at companies engaged in energy commodity trading have the tools and knowledge to remain a pace of a rapidly evolving industry. Given the market’s volatile nature, in terms of prices, supplies, and technology, UtiliPoint has designed this service to ensure that these executives can better anticipate new developments and trends, allowing them to be proactive, and spend less time trying to catch up with the markets.

If you would like to learn more, you can contact Dr. Gary Vasey in Europe at gvasey@utilipoint.com or via phone at +420533433822, or in North America, please contact Patrick Reames at preames@utilipoint.com or via phone at713-917-6731.

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