Is Mobility the Next Big Thing in ETRM?
My recent blog posts concerning the use of mobile technology have prompted a number of conversations in recent days, including a couple with ETRM/CTRM vendors. One of the more interesting conversations was with Alan Gunn, Managing Director at Solarc, who, even though somewhat guarded about what he could tell, did describe a interesting take on the use of mobile devices in trading, and potentially even provided some insights into what may be next for Solarc.
According to Mr. Gunn, Solarc has for sometime been thinking about what he described as the best and highest use of mobile communications for energy trading – essentially moving past what most people think of when considering mobile devices in ETRM, that being deal execution, and into a true interchange of data and information between the mobile device and the enterprise scale ETRM system. As Mr. Gunn points out, in this space, it’s not just about a trader playing golf and filling an order on his iPhone, it’s about that trader, or scheduler, or risk manager using the device to exchange, in real-time or as near as possible, the information an individual needs to make the right decisions prior to taking an action, whether that’s executing a trade as a trader, confirming a nom for scheduler, or allowing an over the limit transaction for a risk controller. As he stressed, this data exchange has to occur in a push mode to the device and has got to be an intelligent, two way “conversation”, meaning the right (and relevant) data is pushed to each individual user and the user then makes the appropriate action and executes that action back to the enterprise system through the device.
Mr. Gunn also noted that he feels it’s important to be agnostic to the mobile device, whether that device is the iPhone, BlackBerry, iPad or whatever. As he points out, while the iPhone is popular in this space, devices such the BlackBerry is probably equally popular if not more so in this market. Additionally the arrival of the iPad and other tablet type devices may create additional communication channels for use by trading floor personnel. He notes that for a mobile strategy to work, the ETRM technology vendors must be willing and able to support the various devices that are, or will be, used in this market.
So, what’s driving the interest in this topic on the part of Mr. Gunn and Solarc? He wouldn’t say explicitly; however, he did intimate that we could be seeing an announcement very soon from Solarc that would explain all…
We’ll keep you posted if that happens.