Offering Solutions for the Deregulated Energy Market
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Wholesale Trading System Projects |
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Retail Market System Integration |
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Business Process Analysis, Benchmarking and Design |
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Data Warehousing Solutions |
Deregulated
Energy Markets Create New Automation
Challenges
As the energy markets have become deregulated, new business requirements have been created. In order to preserve profit margins, companies must automate customer acquisition and operational processes. Systems must support a variety of new market rules and provide new reports for profitability and risk analysis. Project timetables are always short, and it can be difficult to find knowledgeable resources to meet your deadlines. JDG Consulting brings the experience and dedication to make your projects a success.
Wholesale Marketing and Trading Requirements
Modern trading systems are essential for wholesale market participants to manage the flood of market and transaction data created each day. Effective systems allow all users to share the same underlying data, and provide the following functionality:
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Contract administration - Track all counterparty contracts including instruments, terms, and conditions. |
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Deal capture – A system must capture all relevant deal attributes in order to be valued and settled properly. Rapid entry should allow traders to capture all trades quickly. |
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Confirmations and controls – The system must provide sufficient controls to validate all transactions. |
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Manage Market Data - A system should properly model both spot and forward market prices. It must also capture a variety of price volatility and correlation data sets. |
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Scheduling – An effective system will support the physical delivery of commodity transactions. These schedules will then be carried forward for settlement purposes. |
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Deal Valuation – A system must properly value the cash flows associated with different deal structures (forwards, swaps, and options). |
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Market & Credit Risk Exposure – Systems should compute open position and Value at Risk reports using both linear and simulated techniques. |
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Settlement – A system should generate accurate invoices and remittance statements to support settlement and accounting. The system should also provide an automated interface with other accounting systems. |
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Comprehensive Reports – Leading edge trading organizations must enable their analysts to review large quantities of data each day. Data Warehousing techniques can facilitate the assessment and explanation of the changes in valuation that occur each day. |
Retail
Marketing Requirements
Now that customers can choose suppliers in many states, retail energy marketers must master a new set of requirements. This includes:
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Pricing – Customers are demanding fixed-price contracts, or real-time prices with various caps. For the energy supplier, this creates significant risk exposure. |
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Enrollment – Managing the communication with multiple distribution companies is essential in order to enroll customers in a cost-effective manner. |
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Load Forecasting – Accurate forecasts are essential for managing daily scheduling operations and long-term risk management. |
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Load Settlement – Gathering and managing large amounts of usage data (often 15 minute interval data) is required in order to properly settle in the imbalance markets. |
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Billing – Customers expect to receive timely and detailed billing information for single or multiple accounts and commodities. Billing must support a variety of rate structures, such as time-of-use, real-time Pricing (with or without caps and floors) seasons, tiers and a variety of demand and customer charges. |
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Customer Relationship Management - It is no longer enough to provide an accurate bill to customers. Leading organizations are prepared to manage customer contacts through a variety of channels. |
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Valuation – Some customers are more profitable to serve than others. Forward-thinking energy providers have the capability to assess the profitability of each account. The ability to perform margin analysis is major source of competitive advantage. |
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Credit Monitoring – When customers sign long term contracts, the credit exposure is no longer limited to a receivable balance. In conjunction with deal valuation, the future value of energy contracts must be considered. |
Services Provided
JDG Consulting is prepared to work with you to achieve success. A variety of services can be provided to suit your needs. This includes:
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Requirements Definition – Working closely with the business process owners, comprehensive and concise documentation of business requirements will be prepared. Existing requirements can be reviewed against our extensive compilation of needs for wholesale and retail markets. |
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System Selection – We are prepared to assist you through all phase of a selection effort. We will create test scripts and other selection criteria to suit your needs and timetable. |
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System Implementation – From project planning to configuration, testing and training, JDG Consulting is prepared to make your implementation efforts as efficient and timely as possible. |
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Testing / Quality Assurance – Even the most well-run project will benefit from additional testing and outside review. JDG Consulting can assist you in testing new applications and interfaces. We also provide a quality assurance service to make sure technology solutions are meeting business requirements. |
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Business Process Analysis – In addition to technology related efforts, JDG Consulting can provide detailed business process analysis. We prepare detailed "As-Is" diagrams and map existing systems and data to these processes. In conjunction with new technology implementations, we can develop and document changes to these business processes. |
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Data Warehouse – JDG Consulting was hired to lead the development of OpenLink Financial's new Data Warehousing Solution. This new reporting architecture complements the standard reports and Real Time Position Engines (RTPE) and provides a framework for enhanced analysis of critical performance and exposure results. |
Retaining JDG Consulting delivers value to your organization in many ways.
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Flexibility – Technology projects require higher levels of staffing during the initial implementation. JDG Consulting provides the additional resources you need to meet your tight deadlines. |
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Experience – Over the past seven years JDG Consulting has assisted a variety of major retail and wholesale market participants. We have implemented a number of the leading software packages and have designed major enhancements to these applications. This hands-on experience can save you valuable time in selecting and implementing an appropriate technology solution. |
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Approach – Working style is just as important as the quality of the final product. JDG Consulting collaborates with your existing staff in a collegial manner to provide results at the desired level of detail. |
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Affordability – As an independent consulting company without the overhead of a "Big Four" or publicly traded consulting firm, JDG Consulting provides the support you need at an affordable price. |