Patrick Reames, Managing Director

Service providers and system integrators are a vital part of the CTRM landscape, providing unique skills or supplementing resources for companies that are working to improve their CTRM system capabilities. In fact, a recent CommodityPoint study, Consultants and Systems Integrators in Trading and Risk Management, notes that about 80% of the companies utilizing commercial CTRM systems have employed the services of one or more of these consulting organizations.

The companies that provide these services around CTRM software can be generally described as one of four types of providers:

1. Global well-known firms (including what is known as “The Big 4″) for which E/CTRM is but a component of their overall business
2. Relatively large firms that employ one hundred or more consultants and specialize in few markets, such as E/CTRM and Financials
3. Firms who service a local market only, employing a few dozen or less consultants and who specialize in a particular industry (in this case E/CTRM)
4. Boutique specialist firms, who employ few consultants, but have specific capabilities in some aspect of E/CTRM, such as risk management.

Additionally, not all of the larger Service Provider firms have capabilities (practices) around CTRM software in all geographies or locations, or they may focus in on particular aspects of Trading & Risk Management such as business consulting, strategy consulting or software selection.

capSpire, founded in early 2009 and with clients in the US and Europe, is blazing a bit of a different trail in this industry. While they had been essentially a boutique consulting firm, they have recently begun pursuing a growth strategy that leverages their deep domain knowledge around specific CTRM solutions, such as Solarc’s RightAngle product, and coupling those skills with leading edge technical resources in order to create an organization that is capable of providing unique solutions to difficult business issues. As Lance Laubach, capSpires CEO notes, “We’re always looking ways to improve our value proposition to our customers and differentiate ourselves from the competition. You can’t do that by merely providing an hour’s effort for an hour’s wage – you have to look for ways to utilize technology as a lever with which to create multiples of return for that hour’s effort.”

Having seen solid success with this model, the company has been filling their growing staffing need through the recruitment of highly experienced industry veterans and new university graduates that possess unique technical skills. The combination of resources enables capSpire to:

• Deliver expert level consulting support for industry standard CTRM applications
• Mentor and train new resources in the company’s methodologies
• Create high value, blended teams capable of consulting around industry specific issues, yet also able to deliver leading edge technical solutions at a cost below the industry average.

As Jeff Hardcastle, capSpire co-founder puts it, “We invest considerable time and resources in the area of recruiting and employee development. We have a very strict discipline on the skillsets we recruit and have grown very effective at identifying those traits, especially in college hires. All of our new hires, including those from the universities, undergo a comprehensive three month program of education in our methodologies, the CTRM market as a whole, and our unique technical “toolbox” that we’ve developed around our CTRM practice that allows us to provide holistic “engineering quality” solutions that contrast stereotypical consulting methodologies.”

The “toolbox” that Mr. Hardcastle references is being leveraged as the company has also been purposefully evolving from a “pure” consulting business to one that is more of a full service CTRM company – that is an organization that provides both services and products that support, but are essentially agnostic, to the underlying CTRM product(s). capSpire has taken a few of the technical solutions within that “toolbox” and are evolving those into products that can create significant value and accelerate the delivery of solutions to complex business issues.

Their first such product offering, Gravitate, is a CTRM “portal” and is currently in use by wholesale petroleum marketers, providing a valued added service to their customers. This newly delivered product enables a marketer’s customers to access their information contained within the marketer’s CTRM system, such as prices, trade performance, and invoices. The system, via the use of its own data structures, is independent of the underlying CTRM software, yet has been designed to easily integrate with all leading products, providing a highly configurable platform for web-enabling those products.

According to Mike Scharf, the other capSpire co-founder, “We recognize traditional consulting is all about reinventing the wheel on each project. Our approach is recognition that for most clients, they don’t need a new wheel; they need a services partner who can quickly provide them with the solutions they need coupled with the reassurance of an “always available” partnership. The Gravitate CTRM Portal is just another example of our own innovation and investment in creating solutions that don’t require our clients to reinvent the wheel.”

capSpire has been able to create a bit of a unique animal in this market. Their deep domain knowledge and roster of talented people and specialized technical solutions has enabled them to grow quickly and has provided a solid base of referential customers. Their challenge will be in maintaining what for some has proven a difficult balance between growing rapidly and maintaining a consistently high quality of service on the consulting side. capSpire’s recruiting and training model, combined with their ability to leverage proprietary technical solutions would seem to position them well for meeting that challenge.

“We continually monitor the energy market for emerging trends where we can invest in practice expansion. During late 2010, after considerable due diligence, we purposefully set out to build a leading Allegro implementation practice, alongside our considerable existing ETRM implementation capabilities. Allegro has established itself as a ‘short list’ player for energy companies considering new or replacement ETRM solutions, significantly leveraging its Microsoft .NET technology architecture to provide extensible and scalable solutions that meet the needs of the market,” commented Don Jefferis, partner in Opportune’s Process and Technology practice.

In 2011, Opportune provided Allegro consulting services to eight clients across North America and Europe. Opportune brings not only the strong technical skills of its Allegro-certified teams, but just as importantly, its broader management and process consulting capabilities, and a deep understanding of the subtleties and nuances of the physical energy markets.

“Allegro is pleased that Opportune has achieved status as a ‘Gold’ System Integrator partner. The investment Opportune is making in Allegro’s partner program will continue to provide our joint customers with the high quality implementation expertise that they need for a rapid and successful deployment of the Allegro platform,” said Michael Hinton, Allegro’s Chief Customer Officer.

SunGard has extended its SaaS*- based, Valdi market connectivity service with the addition of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE). SunGard’s Valdi Market Access Service helps exchange members and their direct market access (DMA) clients access and trade on global exchanges from any Valdi workstation or FIX application. SunGard’s Valdi will help Slovenian institutions and remote exchange member firms access and trade LJSE-listed products simply and more cost-effectively.

SunGard’s Valdi Market Access service helps exchange members outsource the activities involved in procuring and managing the hardware, software and telecommunication links required for market connectivity. Users also benefit from 24/7 access to local and international markets. It relieves customers of the cost involved in infrastructure ownership and maintenance.

Andrej Šketa, president of the management board of the LJSE, said, “The Ljubljana Stock Exchange is always looking to attract European and global investors. Having joined the Central Eastern Europe Stock Exchange Group (CEESEG), the LJSE and the Slovene capital markets have taken a stronger position in the regional Central & Eastern Europe market and have gained new prospects for growth and development. SunGard’s SaaS-based market connectivity service will facilitate greater access to our equities, bonds and other instruments.”

Philippe Carré, global head of connectivity for SunGard’s capital markets business, said, “European firms and global brokers are looking for new sources of revenue, especially in emerging markets. These include countries in Central & Eastern Europe and around the Mediterranean. SunGard remains committed to delivering connectivity solutions that provide simplicity, cost efficiency and rapid time-to-market for investors and brokers. SunGard’s Valdi Market Access Service helps customers reduce the total cost of ownership associated with their connections to these new markets.”

* SunGard Financial Systems is transforming the way its software solutions are created and delivered to its customers. With the introduction of a new visionary, integrated technology blueprint, new delivery models are created and additional functionality embedded. Underlying technologies include a service-oriented architecture (SOA) development framework, a business process management platform (Infinity Process Platform) and a delivery platform to enable Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based solutions.

About the Ljubljana Stock Exchange
The Ljubljana Stock Exchange is a subsidiary of the CEE Stock Exchange Group (CEESEG), which also holds majority stakes in the stock exchanges of Vienna, Budapest and Prague. The Ljubljana Stock Exchange provides efficient operation of the regulated segment of the Slovene capital market, which is part of the Central and East European regional market. The Ljubljana Stock Exchange aims to improve liquidity of the domestic market, achieve international comparability and recognition of the market, increase the presence of international investors and investment firms, maintain the high level of quality, organisation and regulation of the market.

About SunGard’s Valdi
SunGard’s Valdi provides equities, futures, fixed income and options traders with multi-asset trading solutions on 170+ markets worldwide. Valdi global trading solutions support the entire trade lifecycle, including integrated trade and order management systems, execution services, market data, risk management, compliance, and clearing and settlement services. Also offering global connectivity via the SunGard Global Network (SGN), SunGard’s Valdi helps customers achieve increased performance and low latency execution across multiple platforms, instruments and geographies. For more information, please visit www.sungard.com/valdi.

About SunGard
SunGard is one of the world’s leading software and technology services companies. SunGard has more than 17,000 employees and serves approximately 25,000 customers in more than 70 countries. SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, education and the public sector. SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software. With annual revenue of about $4.5 billion, SunGard is the largest privately held software and services company and was ranked 434 on the Fortune 500 in 2011. Look for us wherever the mission is critical. For more information, please visit www.sungard.com.

Trademark Information: SunGard, the SunGard logo and Valdi are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

DALLAS, TX, February 1, 2012 -  Allegro Development Corporation,  a leading provider of energy trading and risk management (ETRM) software, announced today that EPIC Aviation (EPIC) has selected the  Allegro 8 platform to support its jet fuel and avgas supply, commercial sales, risk management, and hedging activities. The single integrated system provides EPIC with position visibility, logistics optimization, streamlined business processes, and the scalability to effectively support the company’s growth plan.

EPIC is an aviation fuel supplier with primary operations throughout the U.S. and Canada.  The company’s supply network of nearly 400 locations utilizes major refineries, pipelines, railcars and terminals to serve over 4,000 diverse customers, including airlines, cargo operators, business aviation flight departments, fixed base operators and resellers.

“Allegro 8 offers EPIC the flexible technology architecture and ability to customize the software to fit our business, as well as the scalability to support system requirements as we develop new product offerings,” said EPIC Aviation COO, Max Narro.  “The solution will streamline our business processes, enable efficiency across our supply network, and provide the market insight for better decision making in sales orders, risk management, and logistics to better serve our customers.”

Replacing a number of legacy systems with a single, streamlined solution will provide EPIC numerous business benefits, including:

• Enhanced productivity with the elimination of cumbersome order input and the addition of tools to quickly and efficiently capture orders in real-time with templates and automated transaction processes
• Superior market decision making with real-time transparency into physical and financial positions
• Timely, accurate counterparty credit analysis with flexible credit scoring and collateral management
• Tools to better manage commodity price risk and hedging activities associated with jet fuel purchases
• Optimized logistics management with the ability to effectively schedule and track the transport and storage of jet fuel
• Greater accuracy in the valuation of inventory, inclusive of all third party costs 

About Allegro

Allegro is a global leader in energy trading & risk management solutions for power and gas utilities, refiners, producers, traders, and commodity consumers. With more than 27 years of deep industry expertise, Allegro’s enterprise platform drives profitability and efficiency across front, middle, and back offices, while managing the complex logistics associated with physical commodities.  Allegro provides customers with agile solutions to manage risk across natural gas, power, coal, crude oil, petroleum products, emissions, and other commodity markets, allowing decision makers to hedge and execute with confidence. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Allegro has offices in Calgary, Houston, London, Singapore, Sydney, and Zurich, along with a global network of partners. www.allegrodev.com

For further information please contact Christie Lindstrom at media@allegrodev.com or +1.214.237.8117.

BBM Investimentos (BBM), an asset management firm located in Rio de Janeiro, has chosen SunGard’s Asset Arena Investment Accounting solution to help it automate its fund accounting process. BBM is the first customer for SunGard’s Asset Arena in Brazil. Asset Arena provides investment operations processing and accounting support for a wide range of assets, countries and investment activities.

BBM chose Asset Arena for the flexibility of its back-office functionality and its ability to support global and Brazil-specific requirements through a single platform. Asset Arena will help BBM transition to a more automated environment, providing controls to help improve accuracy and risk management while eliminating manual processes and work duplication.

Miguel Flaksman, chief operating officer of BBM, said, “We chose Asset Arena because of SunGard’s local presence, the scope of instruments covered, and the company’s capabilities in implementation, maintenance and support. Asset Arena can help support the globalization of the Brazilian market by handling both Brazilian and offshore instruments.”

Doug Morgan, president of SunGard’s institutional asset management business, said, “Brazil is becoming an important global financial centre that is experiencing growth because of companies like BBM. We are pleased that BBM has selected Asset Arena to help it transform its back-office investment accounting operation, and gain efficiencies, improve controls, and be better positioned to capitalize on the growth of Brazil’s financial sector.”

About BBM Investimentos
BBM Investimentos manages third-party assets and acts specifically in the Investment Fund markets. The institution offers fund management services supported by the strength and tradition of BBM, Brazil’s oldest private financial group, founded in 1858.

Our main objective is to maximize performance through positions that involve market risk and strategies that are strongly supported by fundamental equity and macroeconomic analysis.

Managed funds are allocated to fixed income, macro and equity funds, offering clients a wide array of specialized products to attend to the needs of the private, institutional and distribution segments. For more information, visit www.bbminvestimentos.com.br.

About SunGard’s Asset Arena
Asset Arena is SunGard’s global suite of products and services for asset managers, institutional investors, and traditional and alternative fund administrators. Asset Arena supports the entire investment process, from portfolio management, risk management and compliance to investment accounting, transfer agency and client reporting.  Combining deep functionality with broad business process management capabilities, Asset Arena helps investment firms manage complexity, increase efficiency, and respond quickly to changing business and regulatory requirements. For more information, visit www.sungard.com/assetarena.

About SunGard
SunGard is one of the world’s leading software and technology services companies. SunGard has more than 17,000 employees and serves approximately 25,000 customers in more than 70 countries. SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, education and the public sector. SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software. With annual revenue of about $4.5 billion, SunGard is the largest privately held software and services company and was ranked 434 on the Fortune 500 in 2011. Look for us wherever the mission is critical. For more information, please visit www.sungard.com.

Trademark Information: SunGard, the SunGard logo, and Asset Arena are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries.  All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Oman International Bank (OIB), a leading retail and commercial bank in Oman, has selected SunGard’s Ambit Treasury Management, Ambit ALM and Ambit Credit Risk Management solution suites to help integrate treasury operations, reduce operational costs and better manage its cash, liquidity and balance sheet risk. SunGard’s Ambit solutions will also give OIB an improved view of its commercial credit risk and the ability to perform real-time regulatory reporting.

Ambit Treasury Management will help the bank establish a centralized front-to-back-office treasury operation providing support for multiple asset classes, which will help the bank easily extend services to clients as its business expands. With Ambit ALM, OIB can perform funds transfer pricing and multi-dimensional analyses of the balance sheet by modeling customer behavior, economic valuation, interest rate scenarios, and a wide range of other variables.

Douglas Emmett, general manager at Oman International Bank, said, “SunGard’s Ambit integrated treasury and risk solution will help us consolidate onto a single platform for treasury and asset liability management. Ambit will help OIB more accurately identify, manage and minimize risks within our business.  We selected SunGard because of the strength of the Ambit solution suite, its deep industry expertise and its strong support infrastructure in the Middle East.”

Wissam Khoury, managing director for the Middle East at SunGard Financial Systems, said, “Banks are undergoing rapid expansion in the Middle East and SunGard’s integrated approach to treasury management and asset liability management is helping our customers capitalize on this change.  SunGard’s Ambit solution suite is helping banks across the region develop a complete and accurate view of risk while delivering improved visibility and control through a single view of their cash and liquidity.”

About Oman International Bank S.A.O.G
Oman International Bank SAOG is an Oman-based bank that provides banking and financial services through a network of branches in Oman, India and Pakistan. The Bank offers its services primarily through four business units: Individual Banking, Corporate Banking, Institutional Banking and Treasury. Its Individual Banking unit offers deposit and card products, loans and remittances. Its Corporate Banking segment offers deposit products, syndicated loans, term loans, project financing and bill discounting through two subdivisions, namely Small & Medium and Corporate Business. The Institutional Banking segment offers products and services through two subdivisions: Institutional Banking, which includes vostro accounts, demand draft and telex transfers, and Foreign Trade, which offers letters of credit, bills for collection, merchant services and bank guarantees. Its Treasury unit offers foreign exchange, money market, interest rate market and structured solutions. For further details, please visit: http://www.oib.co.om

About SunGard’s Ambit
SunGard’s Ambit is a banking solution suite for retail, commercial and private banks. It provides banking professionals with solutions that support front-, middle- and back-office operations, as well as solutions for financial management, risk and compliance. Ambit helps banks retain and acquire customers, achieve dynamic staff efficiency and measure and allocate their capital. For more information, visit www.sungard.com/ambit.

About SunGard
SunGard is one of the world’s leading software and technology services companies. SunGard has more than 17,000 employees and serves approximately 25,000 customers in more than 70 countries. SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, education and the public sector. SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software. With annual revenue of about $4.5 billion, SunGard is the largest privately held software and services company and was ranked 434 on the Fortune 500 in 2011. Look for us wherever the mission is critical. For more information, please visit www.sungard.com.

Trademark Information: SunGard, the SunGard logo and Ambit are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

MINNEAPOLIS — January 30, 2012 — The North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) and Open Access Technology International, Inc. (OATI) announce 90 minute INFO SESSIONS to introduce webRegistry to industry participants.

OATI webRegistry is the system NAESB selected to replace the TSIN Registry. It will include many capabilities, as defined by NAESB. INFO SESSIONS are scheduled for the following dates and times (all times are Central):

• February 02, 2012    9:00 to 10:30 AM; 2:30 to 4:00 PM
• February 07, 2012    8:30 to 10:00 AM; Noon to 1:30 PM; 3:00 to 4:30 PM
• February 09, 2012    9:00 to 10:30 AM; 2:30 to 4:00 PM
• February 10, 2012    9:00 to 10:30 AM
• February 13, 2012    8:30 to 10:00 AM; Noon to 1:30 PM
• February 15, 2012    8:30 to 10:00 AM; Noon to 1:30 PM; 3:00 to 4:30 PM
• February 16, 2012    2:30 PM to 4:00 PM

Please RSVP to naesb@naesb.org and include name, company affiliation, and the date and time of the INFO SESSION attending. Parties will then be provided with the conference call and webcast information. Please refer to the NAESB website for additional information: www.naesb.org/weq/weq_eir.asp.

For more information, contact support@oati.net or call 763.201.2020.

NAESB, formed in January 2002, is an independent and voluntary North American organization that develops and promotes the use of business practice and electronic communications standards for the wholesale and retail natural gas and electricity industries. NAESB’s members include over 300 companies and organizations that participate actively in the retail and wholesale natural gas and electricity markets.

OATI (www.oati.com) is the leading provider of Smart Grid, Energy Trading and Risk Management, Transmission Scheduling, Congestion Management, and Market Management products and services, with headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota and an office in Redwood City, California. OATI provides innovative software solutions that simplify, streamline, and empower the operational tasks of customers in North America. OATI successfully deploys large, complicated, and diverse mission-critical applications committed to industry standards and stringent NERC CIP guidelines.

31 Jan 2012, Houston, TX

EnergySolutions® International is pleased to announce the latest release of Synthesis®.

New in Release 10.2

• Orders & Planning

Minor Fixes on PTO and RECON with Deleted Status.

• Scheduling & Forecasting

New and enhanced Connecting Carrier and Forecasted Rack Demand UI. Additional algorithm to calculate and populate forecast number.

• Measurements & Operations

Ability to capture Truck Driver as a Business Entity. New Rack Allocations Interface with Top Tech.

• Inventory

Minor Changes and Fixes to Physical Inventory. Book Inventory Summary can now be viewed by both Accounting Period and Transaction Period (PPA). Changes to Linefill screen.

• Invoicing

New Charge Options with Tender Loss Configurations. Export function on Quality Bank screen is extended to Shipper’s access. Rate Change after the fact can be reprocessed automatically.

• Master and Reference Data

Effective Date is applied to Tender Loss, Gravity Deduction & Location-to-Location Association. New UI for Rule Admin. New UI for System Detail.
General Items, Platform & Architecture
Mirror Ticket Capability. Caching to Improve Performance. APS Changes to Enhance Usability. Fixes for Back and Reresh Button on Browser. BOL Performance Enhancements

• Minor Bug Fixes

20 minor bug fixes reported by customers

For customers who wish to take advantage of the new features, they will need to contact the Customer Care Group, the Project Manager or an Account Executive at Energy Solutions for information.

About Energy Solutions International 

Energy Solutions International is the leading global supplier of pipeline management software. The company’s broad range of products drives excellence in operational efficiency, transaction management, throughput management, and pipeline safety. Founded in 1976, EnergySolutions serves more than 500 clients in 70 countries through its offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Dubai, India, China and Canada. EnergySolutions is committed to providing integrated solutions to address the unique challenges of our industry. Our products support essential workflows by integration with each other and third party applications. Our products integrate with systems from all major SCADA Vendors including; Invensys, Siemens, Honeywell, ABB, SAIC, Yokogawa and Telvent, and major ERP vendors including SAP and JD Edwards