The CTRM Blog

The acquisition of VIZ Risk Management at the tail end of 2010 by UK-based Brady PLC almost certainly catapulted the company into the top six in E/CTRM software on a global revenue basis creating around about a $30 million annual revenue company operating across almost all commodities. Perhaps even more interesting is that Brady PLC represents the first vendor to enter the top six by revenue globally that actually didn’t get its start in energy commodities. Brady PLC started in the metals commodity trading side of the business and has grown out from there both through acquisition and organically. It has also become the top indigenous European vendor in revenue terms, as well.

I often get asked what I do for a living. Quite frankly, that is a hard question to answer. I am an analyst, I say, covering global commodity markets technologies and business issues. The usual blank look returned to this statement tells me that I may as well have said I was an astrophysicist! In fact, I have been an analyst in this space for almost 15-years now and I still have a difficult time explaining to those outside of the industry exactly what I do. But let me give it a try none the less.

The E/CTRM Conference in Prague on May 23rd was well-attended and had great feedback on its value as an event in the energy/commodity trading and risk management space. For us at CommodityPoint, the positive feedback was gratifying, as it was our first- ever attempt at pulling off a conference.

The conference kicked off with a keynote by Mr. Rob Pringle, Head of Global IT for Gazprom Marketing & Trading on the topic, “CTRM for a Global Trading Business: Does Utopia Exist?”
Mr. Pringle started out by introducing the Gazprom operation before defining his terms including the meaning of “Utopia.” He posed many of the common questions regarding CTRM solutions (Buy versus build? One or many? How to deliver and operate? and so on), drawing on his own expertise and upon on his company’s experiences to qualify and explain his observations and answers. One of his key points was that solutions are about technology, process and people and that CTRM software was just the technology. Another key point was that many view “Go Live” or Day One of a CTRM software implementation project as their ultimate goal whereas in reality, that was just the beginning. The challenge was how to stop the CTRM software from becoming legacy.

CommodityPoint’s assessment of the 2010 market for CTRM software assembled recently as we prepare our 2011 CTRM Market Sizing study report is that it was a year of record revenues and growth. Almost every vendor that we talked to or polled told us that they had had a record year in 2010. The strong level of activity and demand seems to have continued into the first quarter of 2011 as well according to our research.

Expanding the Category
CommodityPoint sees growth in the market occurring in two ways. Firstly, the total market for E/CTRM software has expanded to incorporate new geographies and new industry segments. This can clearly be seen in the vendor’s activities. For example, AES, with its Saas-based solution has opened up new geographies and segments in places such as Africa where it has had success with its solution in the crude oil industry. Offering an affordable solution with sufficient functionality to be an attractive alternative to spreadsheets, it has signed a number of deals there in recent years. By doing so, it helps expose African oil producers and marketers to the broader ETRM software landscape because they still have to perform their due diligence around their software procurement decision.

The CommodityPoint CTRM Technical Conference initial event will take place in Prague on May 23rd followed by the Houston Conference on July 21st. Over the last few years, CommodityPoint has been asked to hold a conference focused on CTRM and/or ETRM software and the issues around selection and implementation—and we listened. The Prague Conference is fully sponsored by Brady PLC, Eka, LIM—A Morningstar Company, Opportune, Sirius Solutions, SolArc, Triple Point and additionally TransGraph, TRADEPAQ:TRM and Pioneer Solutions will be sponsoring the breaks and Cocktail reception on the evening of May 22nd. We thank them for their kind support.