First, Commodity Trading and Risk Management (CTRM) is quite a small area to specialize in, so you end up tending to know almost everyone involved. It’s a community and as a friend of mine told me at a trade show recently, you don’t check name badges for names, but just to make sure who they are working for this month! But what do I actually do? Essentially, I try my very best to keep up with what is going on in the industry& particularly as it relates to CTRM and associated software and technologies. This doesn’t make me a technology geek, however, as I also have to understand the business context in which this all occurs.

In the final, I end up doing a lot of writing. IssueAlert articles, CommodityAlert articles, White Papers, Technical Briefing Notes, blog entries, research reports, etc. I am almost a paid writer in many respects. I gather my knowledge by researching, discussing and talking to people in the industry, I filter it, analyze it and come to conclusions regarding trends, issues, problems and solutions. Then I write about it.

But what I actually do can range from consulting assignments to helping vendors with marketing efforts, designing and marketing research topics, providing hopefully useful third party independent advice to many in and outside of the industry, and of course, as I mentioned, writing.

Being based in central Europe and also being responsible for the day-to-day management of a Czech entity UtiliPoint, s.r.o.; also provides a number of other tasks and activities to do. These range from hiring staff, administering the company, accounting, and even vacuuming the office. I have learned more than I care to know about VAT and Czech employment law, and I must admit, a spot of occasional vacuuming is a stress buster!

We recently moved offices here to the quite nice International Business Center. The first two floors have all kinds of shops and cafes and sometimes you might find Mark Tredway and myself discussing business over latte downstairs. The strange thing is that it is apparently quite normal for people to bring their pet dogs to work here. Very odd to share an elevator with an office worker and two dogs but, well, you get used to it! The office itself is very comfortable and includes air conditioning which is actually pretty unusual here.

I guess the other thing I have learned about working in the Czech Republic is to have a more relaxed attitude. Czech bureaucracy has now become something I am used to and tolerate with a smile. No one will do anything here until you have an official document stamped multiple times with various stamps (our accountant tells me as long as it looks official, it will work even if it is useless in of itself!). You can’t form a company here with $50 and two minutes on a website – no, it takes months and lots of paperwork and stamps and more stamps. And that doesn’t end after a company is formed, it simply goes on and on but you get used to it. Amazing, but true.

And, one last thing: lunch. Here no one goes to McDonald’s or other fast food outlets. They are way too expensive. Instead, we go to any one of hundreds of decent Czech restaurants that offer lunch menus, home cooked soup and main course, and usually for less than the equivalent of $2.00 USD. Well, unless you order a drink. Even a bottle of water will set you back more than the cost of the food!

At the end of the day, I enjoy doing what I do:  keeping up with the industry, trying to second guess trends, writing commentary and advising our clients. It really is fun and even better, I like doing it from here, the Czech Republic, and in the past four years, we have gained significant new clients, not just in Europe, but across Asia and the Middle East, too. Our research is now more truly global, and so is our perspective. We have transitioned from covering essentially North American Energy Trading and Risk Management (ETRM) to global CTRM software. We are building tools and providing intelligence to help people in the industry navigate complexity and reduce risk. And, in the end, that is what Patrick Reames and I do for a living.

The amount of information concerning the commodities and Energy industry that has been passed on to me recently by leading research and expert analysts Dr Gary M Vasey and Patrick Reames of CommodityPoint (with a combined experience of 54 years Energy and Utilities) is enough to fill a small library. Throw into the mix high expectations around creating a more customer focused environment throughout Utilipoint set by David Steele, President of Utilipoint International, and you then have a great setting for my first three weeks at CommodityPoint.

E-World – In at the Deep End
A few days at E-World in Essen was also a good way to open my eyes.
One surprise for me was that sixty percent of the firms that I had a chance to talk with were German firms with a view to expand into other European countries. Even more surprising was that 90 percent of this group did not have any English collateral, websites or even English speaking staff on their stand. To quote one fairly senior gentleman “I was not expecting to speak to English people here”. Of course there were also many other emerging European firms from France, Italy, Romania etc. that had a strong presence and it was informative and educational to talk with these companies.
There were also those whose firms that have been around a while and who have their thumbs seemingly in every pie. Imagine my surprise when we arrive at an event that is host to many thousands of people and I find that I am standing with the Energy industry equivalent of a John Travolta or Morgan Freeman.

You could barely walk passed a stand and someone would shout “Gary” – The amount of respect and information that then passes between Dr. Vasey and whichever client or industry leader that met with him was really something special for me to observe. And that is where it became very interesting – you might expect that industry leaders would know what was happening where, when and with whom at all times, but every so often I would watch a client hang on to the edge of their seat gathering as much information as they could from Gary. Discussions about ways to approach the market in a more effective matter, how to better brand their company or where their firms stands in relation to the market and what they should consider in order to raise the bar a little more.

One example that really stuck in my head was a well known vendor in the industry. After several minutes of conversation it seems that this particular vendor is perceived in the industry to be focused almost entirely on the financial side of commodities whereas they are in actual fact a full services vendor. The vendor is aware of this misconception but does not really know how to change market perceptions.

“Well” says Gary – why not use the CommodityPoint vehicles to get this message across. Weekly we communicate with over 10 000 people within the industry. We have research reports that target over 100 000 people in the industry and websites and blogs that are seen by over 200 people daily who are relevant to your business.
To prove his point, here are a few examples of the current projects we are working on:

The Sourcebook
In February/March 2010, CommodityPoint will publish the definitive guide to CTRM software complete with comprehensive information about more than 30 products. The sourcebook, which will be distributed free of charge, will be the definitive resource for prospective buyers of CTRM software and it will carry advertisements from those interested in reaching this market.

Non Traditional Delivery Methods Research Project
Recent CommodityPoint research and vendor and end user briefings suggests that alternative delivery models for CTRM seem to be catching on as a trend in the industry – specifically SaaS and hosted models. This study is designed to look into these trends and establish some benchmark data around SaaS, hosted and other delivery models. CommodityPoint are still seeking sponsors to help shape the study and advertisers who would like to have a presence in the final free report

The Non-Energy Commodity Vendor Perception Study
A vendor perception study that is solely focused on the non-energy commodity trading world in order to specifically benchmark the vendor landscape, procurement rates and criteria in the metals, agricultural and other non-energy commodity area. The study will target companies across all industry segments, from producers to end users, for these commodities and will be global in nature. We believe it will be the first study of its kind to examine this market place. Again, we are seeking sponsors to help shape the study.

All of these initiatives offer advertising space.

CommodityPoint – The Market Leader
And from my experience this is why people come to CommodityPoint. Players in the industry respect CommodityPoint and their analysts. They know about our websites and quality research, about our reports and analysis and want to get involved with sponsorships or through advertising.

In conclusion – CommodityPoint has certainly giving me a fantastic impression of being the number one research and analyst company in the space. Our vehicles for understanding the market and communicating with the market are second to none and our services for assisting clients are well known.

The last three weeks were just the beginning of a great learning experience for me.

The breadth of these educational programs include the traditional engineering courses that focus on the skills necessary to design and maintain the wide ranging systems and infrastructures that delivery energy in its many forms, including recently developed courses focused on “green” energy and smart-grid technologies. Others, like programs offered through the business colleges at the University of Texas, Tulane, and the University of Houston, are focused on the business of energy trading and risk management, acquainting students with the dynamics of the complex energy markets and equipping them with the analytic skills necessary to find employment in the energy trading industry.

One area related to energy that has not been particularly well served by the universities until now, however, is the information technologies and systems that are required by, and specific to, energy trading and risk management.

Energy trading companies have traditionally had to internally develop the skills and knowledge that are required of the IT resources supporting their trading operations. These requisite skills include a solid understanding of the terminology and processes of energy trading, in addition to the technical skills required to install, integrate and support extremely complex commodity trading systems. Once trained, these IT resources become a critical component of the trading floor and, should they leave, the cost to replace them in terms of time and dollars can be very high.

The University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business, having recognized the challenge that these companies face, has designed and launched a first-of-its-kind Energy Trading System Track, covering the issues and complexities of energy trading and risk management (ETRM) software and technologies. This new Energy Trading System Track leverages the schools finance department course in Energy Trading and couples it with a new Management Information Systems (MIS) course for 2010, Energy Trading Systems.

The new program is the brain child of energy industry veteran, Ed Bell, who, through his long association with the university, has marshaled the necessary support to create the program and is serving as the instructor for the first iteration of the course. The Energy Trading Systems course will leverage the school’s existing classroom and lab space, including a dedicated network infrastructure on which students will get hands-on experience in the complexities of installing, integrating and supporting complex ETRM systems.

The university’s course description outlines the objectives for the class: familiarize the MIS/SCM undergraduate students with energy business processes related to risk in trading; provide hands-on exposure to the software and hardware tools used by firms to manage these processes; allow students to develop understanding of how to leverage and use the technology for profit and efficiency; and provide interaction between talented information-technology students and the energy trading community. Mr. Bell notes that his priorities as an instructor are for his students to develop a working knowledge of energy trading practices, terminology and systems concepts; to acquire enough knowledge to evaluate a career as an IT or Supply Chain professional in an energy trading environment; and get substantial hands-on system experience from their lab environment that will mimic a trading floor infrastructure.

According to Mr. Bell, the students, in addition to getting a well-rounded understanding of the working of the energy trading markets, will get valuable hands-on experience installing and implementing a leading commercially available ETRM system, GasPro, donated to the school by Data Management Solutions. That company’s founder and president, Frank Pena, will also play a hands-on role, working with the students to provide an understanding of the software and how to appropriately model within it, the energy markets that it serves. CommodityPoint is also proud to note that one of our “UtiliPoint Expert Series” books, “Selecting and Implementing Energy Trading, Transaction, and Risk Management Software” will be utilized as a supplemental text for the course; and in addition, our organization will be providing a guest lecturer during the semester.

This new course has attracted a significant amount of attention on the U of H campus. Mr. Bell notes that all available seats are taken for the current semester and several students that wished to take the class were unable to sign-up due to space limitations. The school is looking toward expanding the offering next semester to include an additional course in order to meet the current and anticipated demand.

This new course and the skills being taught should come as a welcome development within many of the country’s energy trading shops, particularly those in Houston that recruit heavily on the University of Houston campus. The ability to bring onboard new employees already equipped with many of the critical skills in energy trading IT should provide valuable savings, both in time and dollars, to companies seeking to expand and upgrade their workforce to meet the challenges of a constantly evolving industry.

]]> http://www.ctrmblog.com/2010/02/etrm-goes-to-school-by-patrick-reames/feed/ 0 http://www.ctrmblog.com/2010/01/commoditypoint-welcomes-mark-tredway/ http://www.ctrmblog.com/2010/01/commoditypoint-welcomes-mark-tredway/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:42:22 +0000 Gary M. Vasey http://ctrmblog.com/?p=92 On Monday, Mr. Mark Tredway joins CommodityPoint based in our Brno, Czech Republic office as Director of Business Development. Mark originally hails from South Africa but now lives in Brno with his Czech-born wife. Mark’s role will be to help us in business development and client management globally. We welcome him and wish him every success in his endeavors.

CommodityPoint Initiatives for 2010

This new newsletter is only one of a variety of new CommodityPoint initiatives for 2010.

First, we are expanding and will be adding key new staff throughout the year both in Europe and North America, beginning with Mark Tredway who will help us with account management. Mark will be located in the Brno, Czech Republic office and, being a native of South Africa, adds additional multi-national experience to CommodityPoint. We will also be adding an additional analyst in the Houston office and expanding our staff of researchers in Brno over the year.

Towards the end of the first quarter, CommodityPoint will commence with a series of webinars on a variety of topics, each supported by our industry leading, proprietary research. Included in our 2010 research calendar are a variety of topics including an examination of non-energy commodity CTRM and the market for Saas or ASP delivered CTRM products. In a significant change for CommodityPoint, the resultant reports from our research will now be made available free of charge, ensuring the widest distribution possible.. The first report we intend to issue in the New Year will be what we believe to be the most comprehensive directory of CTRM vendors and their products ever published, a report that we anticipate will become the “source book” for those companies seeking to procure CTRM software.

CommodityPoint will also be leveraging UtiliPoint’s relationship with both The Abraham Group and Forbes Connect. We expect to partner with The Abraham Group to deliver a thought provoking live and video conference on GHG regulatory and market developments towards the beginning of Q2 which will be titled “Live from Washington—The Issues as We See Them.” CommodityPoint will also prepare thought leadership articles for the Forbes Connect website during the year.

Another new development is the launch of the CTRM Blog, primarily authored by Gary Vasey, which will be a companion site to the highly successful ETRM Community Blog authored by Patrick Reames. The two blogs will provide not only each of our primary analysts take on the developments in the global commodity markets, they will also cover the regional issues and activities in their respective geographies. We take pride in having become the market’s most innovative provider of information to the buyers and sellers of CTRM/ETRM technologies, having developed such tools as the online CTRM Software and Services Directory, and we anticipate that CommodityPoint will continue to be the leading source of information, analysis and opinion for the CTRM marketplace in 2010.

Your Feedback is Important

Meanwhile, back to CommodityAlert. This newsletter will be published every Thursday. Should you know of anyone who you think would benefit from receiving CommodityAlert and is not currently subscribed, please direct them to www.utilipoint.com to sign up. And finally, we relish feedback, so do please send your thoughts and comments on our material back to us and feel free to suggest areas of content to us.

We look forward to a great year and we wish you a great and profitable 2010.

]]> http://www.ctrmblog.com/2010/01/the-inaugural-edition-of-commodityalert-by-gary-vasey-patrick-reames/feed/ 0 http://www.ctrmblog.com/2010/01/2010-a-big-year-for-commoditypoint/ http://www.ctrmblog.com/2010/01/2010-a-big-year-for-commoditypoint/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:13:39 +0000 Gary M. Vasey http://ctrmblog.com/?p=57 I came in to the office today with a sense of excitement as 2010 has finally arrived and we have some big plans for CommodityPoint which will now start to see some movement. The first thing will be the launch of our new electronic newsletter CommodityAlert which Patrick and I will write weekly starting this week. Secondly, are the new research projects that we are working on and lastly will be the issue this month of our Vendor Directory. In addition, we are hiring and in mid January will have a business development resource here in Brno along with more research staff. An analyst will also be added in Houston later in the year.

Stay posted for updates on this blog.

We also developed our 2010 research calendar, created some new products – of which more later – and many other exciting programs. 2010 will be a busy year for us at CommodityPoint that’s for sure.