This study was designed to examine Risk Management in the Energy and Commodities Market in order to produce:

·         A review of the current state of risk analytics used in the market;

·         An assessment of the systems deployed there;

·         The key risk management requirements of companies trading in the market;

·         An assessment of where risk management is headed in commodity and energy trading and its impact on the systems.

CommodityPoint and Seminel utilized a combination of a web-based questionnaire (Appendix A) and phone and/or in-person interviews with industry participants to determine their views along with secondary research and interviews. The survey, which was conducted between July and October 2009, had 47 valid responses.

The respondents to this study came from a diverse background across the commodities space with a general bias towards physical energy players such as utilities, generators and refiners and while just under half of the respondents were based in North America, there was good geographic diversity with strong European participation.

The study was sponsored by Abacus Solutions, Amphora, SAS/RiskAdvisory and SolArc.

The CommodityPoint TRM Vendor Perception study is repeated every two years and represents a view of how users and prospective buyers perceive the market landscape. By capturing a representation of user and buyer perceptions about the vendors in the space much is learned regarding market maturity and the overall evolution of TRM software. This study was conducted during the first quarter of 2009 and represents user and buyer views as of the close of 2008.

The survey indicates that the TRM software market landscape is becoming increasingly dominated by a group of transnational vendors and products that includes OpenLink Financial (OLF), Triple Point, SunGard Energy, Allegro Development, SolArc and Ventyx. Other vendors have a higher degree of importance in particular geographies (for example Navita in Europe and OATI in North America) or in particular industry segments (e.g. TradeCapture in Crude Oil and other segments, Abacus Solutions in the Generation segment and so on). In terms of brand recognition, this smaller group of more dominant vendors is increasingly well known.

The study was kindly sponsored by Navita and supported by SolArc

This CommodityPoint study provides the latest analysis of the trends impacting the market for ETRM software in North America, and provides a quantitative analysis of the size of that market. Included in this report (a follow-on to UtiliPoint's 2006 North American ETRM Market Sizing and Analysis report) is an expanded examination of market forces and trends impacting market players and the providers of ETRM solutions and services. This analysis and report is backed by UtiliPoint's proprietary research and models, and provides a five year overview of the market from 2006 through 2010 covering the four primary drivers of revenues -new license sales, incremental license sales (or sales to existing customers), associated support and maintenance, and services associated with implementation of new ETRM systems. Additionally the report provides a detailed examination of the current market size, including market size by commodity and industry segment.

CommodityPoint believes this 36 page report to be the most comprehensive examination of the North American market for ETRM products available, and is critical information for investors, software firms, consulting organizations and others to support investment decisions and guide the allocation of resources (both capital and human).

This study was sponsored by The Structure Group and RiskAdvisory (A Division of SAS).