London, 7 April 2011

UK-based Contigo is a relatively new Energy Trading & Risk Management (ETRM) vendor that has began to carve out a niche for itself in northwest Europe. Founded by three industry veterans who had previously worked at Powergen (E.ON UK) in the systems area for trading & risk and other parts of the business, Contigo set out to “do it better.”

The founders experience working with commercial and homegrown ETRM software at E.ON helped them gain an understanding as to the relative strengths and weaknesses of different approaches in ETRM software which they brought into sharp focus when founding Contigo. As Simon Piercy, Director, puts it; “When we founded Contigo, we knew there was a great opportunity to combine systems expertise with industry knowledge. We have a pin-point focus on this niche area and we've stuck to that rigidly—it means we're up to speed from day one and can get started on projects without a lengthy ramp up time. We make sure customers projects are delivered quickly and are successful; in doing so we continue to grow and be successful ourselves.”

Back in 2009, I wrote about Contigo and its plans to bring new products to market and since then, Contigo has signed six new customers for its EnTrader software product including E.ON UK, Centrica, Barking Power, Drax, First Utility and RWE npower. Contigo seems to be becoming the provider of choice for many energy companies which are looking for expert knowledge of their business in a supplier. The company has adopted a different approach to solving the system implementation problem; this has also contributed to the sales and delivery success. Its enTrader software product, launched in March 2009, is quickly becoming a market leader in addressing both energy retail portfolio management and fuel logistics, as well as establishing itself as a serious contender in the ETRM/ CTRM space.

Focus on Physical Trading & Logistics

Contigo have squarely focused on the physical side of the ETRM space, often taking a novel approach to solving some of the traditional problems in managing physical trading and logistics in electric power and other energy commodities. Where Contigo have really found niches is in the area of fuel logistics and energy retail portfolio management. On the fuel logistics side, one customer that I spoke with waxed lyrical about the company and their approach while telling me that the system was handling coal, wood pulp and wood chips, among other fuels, for them.

EnTrader is a part of the enTrader suite which also includes Contigo's enVoy product which provides fast, responsive and reliable intra-industry data flow management, with minimal operational intervention and its latest product, enPrice—a comprehensive costing and pricing engine designed for the electricity, gas and dual fuel retail markets.

Inaugural User Group Meeting

At Contigo's recent user group meeting in Birmingham, England, I learned about a new partnership with Lacima Group which will allow users to add the risk analytics capabilities offered by Lacima to their EnTrader implementation and plans to build out more functionality in the credit risk and other areas. The User Group was very well-attended with more than 50 people from across Europe representing customers, prospects and partners.

The meeting commenced with Contigo Director Simon Piercy giving a welcome and talking about the changes that Contigo was making, as well as rolling out its new “Simply Different” tag line. The company is forging ahead with plans to cement itself into the ETRM landscape and better establish its brand.

The latest release of EnTrader completes the Oracle migration—meaning, the product is now available on SQL Server and Oracle databases and includes a number of improvements in logistics and stock accounting areas, as well as the next phase of their energy retail module. Subsequent releases will be issued at a rate of four per year, and will include a variety of new and improved functionality including (in no particular order):

* Retail position management

* Retail portfolio management

* Retail hedging

* Logistics scheduling optimization

* Lacima Group risk integration

* Basic credit risk

Additionally, Contigo will also be adding functionality to its EnVoy and EnPrice software products.

Overall, Contigo put on an interesting and dynamic day with good content and lots of enthusiasm which was obviously shared by its small—but growing—customer base who are obviously happy with their choice.

Ends --

Gary M. Vasey, Ph.D., Managing Director, Europe and AsiaPac

www.contigo.co.uk