Case Studies tagged with ""
MidDel Performs the “Impossible”
Issue Our client, one of North America’s largest power producers, was in the midst of a corporate merger with another large power producer. Our client needed to integrate the acquired company’s ETRM system (Endur®) into our client’s ETRM system (Zainet®/Aligne™). In addition, all risk management reporting needed to be re-engineered to accommodate the acquired company’s data and book … Read More
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FTR VaR (Value at Risk) Reimplementation
Issue Our client was using a large Excel spreadsheet with multiple linked tabs to calculate value at risk (VaR). The client was not measuring VaR for any of its FTR positions. The volatility and correlation calculations were not properly weighted. In addition, the delta between the published price and the non-published price was not updated on a regular … Read More
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Cash Month P&L Variance Reduction – Forecast to Actual
Issue Our client’s daily intra-month P&L report had significant variances when compared against the month end actual P&L results. These variances contributed to loss of confidence and trust between the corporate executives and the front and back office. Our objective was to reduce variation and re-establish confidence in the process, thus increasing executive trust in forecasts. … Read More
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Redundant and Incomplete Reports
Issue Our client had hundreds of reports under an old data model which was not meeting its business requirements. Many reports were either duplicates or unnecessary and without extensive report documentation. Report users were busy and needed assistance to revise the reporting framework. Solution Our consultant combined technical expertise and knowledge of the data … Read More
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Improved Overnight Invoice Process
Issue This client’s primary invoicing report failed overnight several times per month. In addition, users could not perform basic invoicing operations in the invoice system GUI. Solution Our consultant had a thorough understanding of the client’s invoicing process and was able to modify the reports and application configurations to prevent failures. Result … Read More
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Improved Nightly Batch Process
Issue Our client’s primary nightly batch process ran over two hours and occasionally did not finish due to the amount of data being processed. The client expected a solution to be implemented within a short time frame. Solution The consultant met with various functional groups to determine how the existing information was utilized and … Read More
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Inadequate Trade Application Security
Issue Our client’s user security model within the Aligne trading application was not adequately addressing the SOX controls now required by the business. Solution Our consultant used their knowledge of the application combined with the client’s requirements to produce detailed documentation and a test plan for the security configuration. This implementation enabled the client … Read More
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SOX Compliance Report Modification
Issue Our client lacked expertise with the Aligne application to quickly prepare needed reports while maintaining controls set by the company. Solution Our consultant captured requirements, documented specifications, then built, tested, and deployed a solution while maintaining SOX compliance. They learned the company’s change management process, prepared documentation, and tested the output as required … Read More
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MTM, Value at Risk (VaR), and Invoice Reports Validation
Issue For system changes, the client needed to agree or reconcile key reports (mark-to-market, VaR and invoicing) before and after the change. Visual comparison of each report’s outputs took too long and wasn’t always reliable. Solution MidDel’s consultant automated the process so that the underlying report output tables were compared directly in the database. … Read More
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Emissions Transactions and Settlement Discrepancies
Issue Emissions trades listed on the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE) were originally modeled as physicals creating problems with present value mark-to-market (MTM) valuation and settlement resulting in double discounting of MTM. Solution Our consultant identified the problems and applied business knowledge to design a solution that eliminated the valuation problem. The consultant performed … Read More
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Multiple Time Zone Data Integration Issues
Issue The client operated its business in two different time zones and experienced difficulty integrating the data to maintain the accuracy of the daily P&L, value at risk (VaR), and invoicing reports. In attempting to standardize the trading position, the client entered the transactions as one time zone. This created a problem when the trades were settled due … Read More
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New Customer Quoting System
Issue Our client, a $500M developer of large manufacturing testing equipment, required an improved SAP tool for developing customer sales quotes versus what their SAP VC module could supply. They had identified a third-party application providing the missing functionality, but desired a partner to assist with the design, development, and deployment of the interfaces to and from SAP. … Read More
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UNICODE Conversion
Issue The client had been utilizing the full SAP suite for build-to-order since 1999, but had never enabled UNICODE. Companies desiring the extended ASCII character set for Chinese, Korean, and Japanese symbols must first modify all programs to enable UNICODE, and allow them to translate forms and screens into native Asian languages. As this company planned to expand … Read More
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Infrastructure Upgrade
Issue Our manufacturing client initiated a major upgrade to infrastructure (LAN, telephony, video) to improve network performance, standardize configurations, and replace antiquated equipment. Solution Our engineering consultants developed the project, created cut-over and roll-back plans, designed and deployed switch configurations, and implemented the new system alongside the client’s full-time engineers. As part of the … Read More
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PeopleSoft Benefits Administration
Issue Our client’s large PeopleSoft ERP installation was experiencing multiple instances of unauthorized payments in P/S HRMS to third party benefit vendors upon reenrollment cycles. This issue had the undesired effect of causing inaccurate deductions from compensation for some employees. No pattern or consistency was apparent regarding the errors. Identifying these anomalies and correcting them was proving time … Read More
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Sales & Use Tax Software Integration
Issue A university decided to convert approximately 1,000 adjunct faculty from independent contractor status to full-time status. Since these individuals resided across the U.S., they needed to implement a Vertex Sales and Use Tax software application to coincide with the enrollment of these “new” employees in an extremely short timeframe. Solution Our consultant … Read More
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Business Continuity Project
Issue Our client was running an older application on a similarly aged database (Progress) that was installed in 2006. During the ensuing years very little scheduled database administration had been done, resulting in a slow degradation of performance. In addition, they had outdated backup protocols requiring review and maintenance to ensure a recovery point in the event of … Read More
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Human Capital Dashboard
Issue This client’s corporate executives did not have visibility into a broad range of human capital measurements. Although a Human Capital module operated within the company’s ERP framework, the reports were cumbersome and inefficient. Reporting required gathering information from 18 sources for 60 business units and each unit required 21 pivot tables consolidated into spreadsheets each quarter. … Read More
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Financial Performance & Planning Executive Dashboard
Issue As part of an initiative to improve the corporate reporting process, the client requested a KPI based dashboard providing O&M, capital, and HR information on a monthly basis. Due to the project’s high visibility among executives, the project incurred multiple requirement changes. Solution Our consultant, along with the project team, was able to … Read More
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Meter to Mailbox Dashboard Project
Issue A large investor-owned utility, with multiple geographic and business unit operations, was utilizing Excel spreadsheet reports from over 30 separate data sources and measuring various business drivers from their customer facing operations. This client requested an automated and simplified visual display of trends and alerts for key customer facing business drivers. Solution Our … Read More
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Improving Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Functions in SAP
Issue Our client, an international company, was spending too much time manually transacting Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) payments within their SAP environment. SEPA was introduced globally in 2006 to reduce the cost of intra-Euro payments. Solution Our consultant configured vendor master records for French and Italian vendors with updated payments to reflect … Read More
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Report Consolidation (Over 3,000)
Issue A Fortune 500 commodity trading client maintained over 3,000 various financial reports from its ETRM system. Many of the reports were redundant and some were inaccurate resulting in “multiple versions of the truth.” Due to the excessive number of reports, month-end close was taking longer than desired. The client requested to develop a more efficient, accurate, and … Read More
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Consolidated Multiple Accounts Payable Databases
Issue A Fortune 500 client maintained five separate Accounts Payable modules within its ERP system (JD Edwards). Prompt payment discounts were managed ineffectively due to duplicate and inconsistent data between the various databases for the same vendors. In some cases, the client was either paying invoices too early or not taking advantage of early payment discounts when available. … Read More
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ETRM Deal Modeling and Valuation
Issue A client’s Risk and Trading groups were in disagreement about the valuation of certain option instruments. Proper valuation was needed for mark-to-market disclosure. Our objective was to determine the source of the discrepancy and gain agreement between Risk and Trading. Solution Our consultant combined his knowledge of the mathematical models supporting option valuation … Read More
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ETRM Price Conversion
Issue A client had a program equipped to calculate complex price data conversions between schemas, but it had not been tested. A number of differences had been noted, but the full extent was not known. Our objective was to determine the scope of differences and provide an accurate solution. Solution Our consultant combined extensive … Read More
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Global Risk Reporting
Issue Our client desired a replacement for an aging and inflexible global risk reporting system, impacting offices in three countries, which would improve the daily reporting cycle and reduce the constant maintenance required by IT staff. Solution Our consultant’s broad business acumen and technical skills lead to a strong design based on the … Read More
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Front Office ISO Communication Application Replacement
Issue A large Northeast generation company required a replacement for its front office load forecasting, bidding, scheduling and dispatch platform as the technology of the current application was coming to the end of its useful life. The client wanted to implement a vendor package for the bid submission and dispatch component, however, due to the strategic nature of … Read More
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Integration to ORACLE Treasury
Issue A large multinational client sought to merge its three divisions into an existing Oracle instance with as little customization as possible. In addition, a new Oracle Treasury module was needed to be implemented to manage inter-company loans. This module had not been used by the client prior to this implementation and created a learning curve for the … Read More
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Natural Gas Liquid Modeling
Issue Our client had a growing NGL trading book that was modeled by the front office in spreadsheets, outside of its ETRM system. Since NGL deals were not captured in the client’s ETRM system, nor was it supported in the software “out of the box,” the mid office had no visibility into risk exposures or P&L for the … Read More
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Reduced Credit Exposure Risk By Re-Engineering And Automating Credit Reporting
Issue Our client traded commodity physical instruments and financial derivatives that made up a complex portfolio and position. The credit department found their current credit reporting to be inaccurate and not always very useful when assessing their credit exposure. Because of inaccurate reporting, the client may have been exceeding credit limits without knowing. Solution … Read More
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Trading Book Valuation
Issue A mid-size Northeast retail power and gas company had the opportunity, as part of their organizational strategic portfolio growth plan, to bid on two books of business that were up for auction. Books included power and gas, residential and commercial contracts, and fixed and variable price volumes. The client wanted to determine whether they should bid on … Read More
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OSIsoft PI Solutions – WECC Reporting
Issue Our client’s method of reporting planned and projected power generation data consisted of five spreadsheets with VBA code to extract data from various sources. Reporting was run on a daily basis and required a user to open each spreadsheet, enter data and run the report. A separate process sent the files to an FTP location. Our client … Read More
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Analytical System Pilot Study
Issue Our client was considering the deployment of a portfolio risk analytics system throughout its global organization, but first wanted to prove the software’s applicability to the client’s unique set of challenges. The software needed to do the following: organize and store information obtained from multiple sources and in various formats; calculate and report exposures across multiple currencies … Read More
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Implementation Come Snow or Shine!
Issue Our client was seeking an upgrade of its ETRM system which managed deal capture, gas and power scheduling, position and risk reporting, counterparty invoicing, and accounting. The primary objective of the upgrade project was to move to the vendor’s latest technology platform. This upgrade would also provide the foundation for several critical projects in latter phases. … Read More
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ZEMA Implementation
Issue A client had pricing data stored among multiple databases, ETRM systems and spreadsheets. There were too many sources of pricing data to support, which created issues in the daily P&L due to overwriting price data across systems. Solution Our consultants combined extensive trading and risk management experience to create an RFP and guide … Read More
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Retail System Automation
Issue Our client’s retail business was expanding and having difficulty keeping up with its growth. The client determined that if it was going to thrive in this competitive market, the business would need to automate and streamline their processes. The client decided they needed to develop a retail system to support the ordering of usage information, processing of … Read More
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ISO/RTO Operational Assessment
Issue Our client had recently started participating in MISO South having previously been participating in Entergy pre-merger. Since joining MISO South, Unit Commitment and Economic Dispatch were producing less than optimal results. Solution Our consultant combined his deep functional knowledge of organized power markets with his operational and technical competency to provide a solution … Read More
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BOBJ Deployment
Issue Our client did not have an operational user-friendly Business Intelligence tool. Two years earlier they had attempted to install SAP Business Objects incorporating Active Directory with Single Sign On. Without a viable tool, users were only given the option to work with BEx queries in a limited portal and without flexibility. Access to the SAP Business Warehouse … Read More
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OSI PI Transmission and Generation Dashboard
Issue Our client viewed a web dashboard that displayed real time readings of transmission and generation information on a public website. The information was presented graphically to the user through dials and linear gauges. This client requested to provide similar capabilities in-house while maintaining a similar dashboard. Solution Our consultant reviewed several off-the-shelf products … Read More
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ETRM – Deal Capture Allegro
Issue Our client replaced two internally developed trade entry systems that were used by wholesale power and natural gas traders. The applications were the primary deal entry systems that were integrated with SunGard’s Aligne ETRM system. The client chose to use Allegro’s ETRM system as their replacement deal entry system with an interface into Aligne to manage risk. … Read More
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Outage Manager – Unit Outage Analysis
Issue A large Midwest retail power and gas company needed a way to monitor and analyze the health of power generation units for the executive level and plant management. The client wanted to determine the current daily, weekly and monthly available generation capacity versus curtailed units. They also wanted to analyze outage types and trends and how they … Read More
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PCI System Admin Dashboards
Issue Our client requested a dashboard that would display real time readings of all the ISO’s day ahead processes and studies on an internal website. The information would need to be monitored by system admins where appropriate actions could be taken proactively to avoid any issues with submitting timely offers to the power market. Solution … Read More
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End-to-End Unit Outage Analyzers
Issue Our client had a large amount of generation unit data in silos. Unfortunately, there was not any integration in place to review the status of a generation unit over its lifetime. There were questions by the client about the life-cycle performances of some of the combined cycle units. Solution Our consultant proposed to … Read More
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Executive Generation Forecast Dashboard
Issue Our client’s executive managers viewed power generation forecast data based on a series of daily emails and spreadsheets. The information presented was used to base sound judgements regarding generation/load positions, but was difficult to interpret. This client requested a simple dashboard to present outage information by ISO and region. Solution Our consultant … Read More
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Custom Invoicing Enhancement
Issue Our client was the first to implement a vendor’s invoicing module, which provided no functionality to apply cash payments. This limitation prevented any type of receivables/payables tracking, aging, or credit reporting. Solution Working closely with the vendor, MidDel’s consultant was able to rely upon their back office expertise, functional knowledge of the … Read More
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ETRM for Power Retail
Issue Our client, a retail provider of power and gas to commercial, industrial and residential energy customers required an improved solution to manage their retail power operations. Their legacy processes relied heavily on structured database tables and spreadsheets for position monitoring and other key reporting needs. The legacy setup, however, offered little in the way of functional controls, … Read More
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In-House System Review and RFP Process
Issue Our client, a mid-sized retail power and gas company, requested that we review their existing internal systems to determine the viability of solutions and if there was cost justification to continue development. The annual development and support budget of their legacy systems was in excess of $1mm per year. Additionally, the client was unable to produce a … Read More
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Refined Products Blending and Inventory Software Demo
Issue Our client, a large refined products blending company, implemented an ETRM system a number of years ago. The original software that was implemented failed to meet the needs around inventory valuation and reporting. This has resulted in manual work arounds for an extended period of time. The issue around blending and inventory management was caused by a … Read More
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ETRM Systems Consolidation
Issue Our client was seeking to consolidate ETRM systems, which would save thousands of dollars a year in license fees if they could migrate to one platform. They had integrated one system used by the front office for deal entry with another system that was being used by mid and back office for risk and settlements. The organization … Read More
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Credit System – TPT Contract Support
Issue Our client’s Credit team was using spreadsheets and other manual processes to perform tasks their Credit System was not handling. These manual steps were workarounds and added extra time to their daily processes. The Credit System was generating incorrect values for Margin Calls and Callbacks. This alone was potentially exposing our Client to millions of dollars of … Read More
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RTO Assessment and System Selection
Issue The client is a fully integrated electric utility in the Midwest, not currently participating in a major organized transmission system. They and other utilities were contemplating entering into an organized system, most likely the Southwest Power Pool. As part of its due diligence for entering into this market, the client requested assistance in understanding how its processes would change … Read More
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Municipal Utility System Landscape Assessment
Issue MidDel Consulting was approached by a Municipal Utility in California to conduct a systems delivery assessment to determine the recommended course of action to improve their systems capabilities required to support entering the Energy Imbalance Market (EIM). MidDel conducted a bottom-up analysis of their Settlements, Trading, and Risk groups by meeting with key stakeholders to understand their current state … Read More
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Retail Power Systems Assessment
Issue A retail electric provider in Texas engaged MidDel Consulting to assess their current systems and processes landscape. MidDel was engaged to provide a recommended course of action to improve their systems capabilities, streamline current operations, and lay the foundation for future profitable growth. MidDel conducted top-down and bottom-up analyses by meeting with management and key stakeholders at the user … Read More
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ETRM Demo Scripts
Issue Our client, a municipal electric provider, solicited a request for proposal to replace an outdated ETRM system to better manage their power portfolio. They had limited internal resources to manage the RFP process and required assistance in developing scripts for vendors to follow during webinar and onsite software demos. Solution A MidDel … Read More
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Retail Gas System Integration
Issue MidDel Consulting was approached by a large East Coast natural gas utility and marketing company to assist in integrating a newly acquired retail business into their existing systems. MidDel conducted a bottom-up analysis of their existing two-system solution, with interfaces moving data between their trade capture/scheduling system to their risk management/accounting system. MidDel was also asked to implement a … Read More
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Endur Support
Issue MidDel Consulting was approached by a large Midwestern natural gas and power company to assist in reducing their ongoing Openlink Endur support costs. This client recently completed an Endur implementation. They then faced the challenges of creating required reports not completed during the initial implementation, as well as on-boarding a new business unit, while facing the need … Read More
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OSIsoft PI Solutions – PI Audio Alarm
Issue Our client needed to receive audio alerts based on readings from the OSIsoft PI real-time data. OSIsoft has a product that delivers notifications but not in audio format. The client wanted an alert as soon as a limit was exceeded in real-time delivered through audio so it would not be missed. Solution … Read More
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Retail Centric Strategy Evaluation
Issue Our client, a large North America power company that has a presence in over twenty states, desired to pursue a more retail-centric strategy, and consolidate its Wholesale and Retail System Landscape into one platform to gain efficiencies and better align its system architecture to meet the business needs of its future portfolio. The current level of integration between the … Read More
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Allegro ETRM System Physical Gas Implementation
Issue Following the re-implementation of the Allegro ETRM system for trading refined petroleum products, our client, the physical energy trading subsidiary of a large, multi-national financial trading and investment firm, was then tasked with a second phase of the project to capture physical natural gas trading activity including trade entry, scheduling, actualizing, and invoicing. Solution … Read More
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Endur Power and Gas Upgrade
Issue MidDel Consulting was approached by a Northwestern Power and Gas utility to assist in upgrading the OpenLink Endur Energy Trading and Risk Management (“ETRM”) system, from version fourteen (“v14”) to version seventeen (“v17”), amidst significant market volatility and with an aggressive delivery window required to beat the end-of-year blackout period for any system changes. … Read More
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Scheduling and Pathing Support
Issue Our client, a West Coast energy utility company who serves a significant number of natural gas fired power generators and local distribution companies, had difficulty closing their books the prior year due to corrupt storage nominations and schedules. The client reached out to us to help them load and balance their ETRM system, Endur, which they use … Read More
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Software Re-write
Issue The client is a leading wind energy producer in the US. The IT group inherited a program named Data Shipping from the Wind Operations department. Data Shipping sends meter data at 5- or 10-minute intervals to external customers via SFTP. The program requires high availability since one customer uses the data to generate forecasts for the client’s … Read More
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Assessment of Commercial Operations Systems and Processes
Issue The client operates an impressive portfolio of assets, consisting of hydro, wind, solar, and one thermal resource, across both the RTO and bilateral North American markets. Management of power markets, requires a wide-ranging combination of different people, processes, technology, and data to support the business objectives and the market requirements. At the beginning of operations ten years ago, the … Read More