The CTRM Blog

Navita is building up its team of German speaking staff in its ongoing efforts to break into the German ETRM and related software market. Anyone who ever attended E-World in Essen will understand that the German market is pretty opaque and insular served primarily by German vendors. Non the less it is a large market that might benefit from more choice. Part of the problem is that it seems to require German speaking resources and a presence in the country to break in. Navita have both having recently opened an office in Germany and having hired three German staff already. It also has four German clients for its software and hence has a beach head to build on.

After polling almost every vendor in the space for our Market Sizing study one thing that is very apparent is that the majority of vendors had a record year in 2010. In fact, we heard this from so many vendors it seemed almost a mantra. A case in point was my discussion yesterday with Ms. Anette Nordskog of Navita. She told me that Navita had also had a record year in 2010 and that the activity levels had continued into 2011 with several new clients signed already in Q1 of this year. She also sent me the company’s Annual Report which shows that the company grew revenues by around 5.4% and EBITDA by 132%. Navita has also invested heavily in modernizing the POMAX platform utilizing .Net and other Microsoft technologies.

In a call with Navita today I was directed to an interview on their website that makes for fascinating reading. Its titled “Creating the next generation ECTRM platform” and it discusses their internal project (known as Airbus apparently) to deliver a new version of Pomax that introduces OLAP cube technology, moves application layer calculations to the database layer, employs the AppFabric application platform from Microsoft, and leverages workflow technology, all in combination with some key functional enhancements including fully flexible, and high-performance sub-hourly resolution and multi-leg trade modeling.

Anette Nordskog is Vice-President of Corporate Communications and Project Development for Navita Systems, where she is responsible for developing and deploying Navita’s green offerings to a fast-growing global trading market amongst other responsibilities. Most recently, she held the position of Green Portfolio Manager for Fortum Markets where she was responsible for optimising the value of Fortum’s external production portfolio in Norway. In 2008, Nordskog was elected to the board of RECS International, which works to lower trade barriers and promote a pan-European renewable electricity market. She is also a programme committee member for the 2011 RECS conference and a speaker in Copenhagen in 2009. I took some time to discuss with Anette recently the European Green Trading scene, the issues and the ETRM software landscape.

CommodityPoint recently had an opportunity to talk with Dr. Grim Gjonnes, EVP with responsibility for business development at European TRM software vendor – Navita. We asked him what kind of year 2009 had been for his company and what he saw as key trends in the industry for 2010. Dr. Gjonnes characterized 2009 as an “excellent but challenging year” for Navita. In common with almost every other business, Navita had to conduct its activities against the backdrop of a global financial crisis and credit crunch.