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.
MidDel began the engagement by leveraging more than one hundred years of collective experience in commodity markets to guide the client in defining business processes. We assisted them in focused discussions of all areas of front, middle, and back office operations to define requirements. This allowed us to formulate the set of tasks that the ETRM system would perform and provide detailed documentation to enable the users to maintain the system.
Working closely with both the vendor and client, MidDel configured a set of test transactions and processes in the system required to manage all phases of the trading lifecycle, including trade entry, pricing, inventory and logistics management, confirmations and invoicing, counterparty and credit management, and back office reporting, among others.
MidDel then prepared a set of detailed job aids to transfer knowledge to the client, and conducted familiarization training on all aspects of natural gas configuration, readying the client for the beginning of activity in four months.
We estimate that the combination of expertise and efficiency that MidDel brought to the project prepared both the system and the client for go-live in less than three months. In addition, our approach of providing familiarization training ensured that staff, new to both the client and the system, had the baseline knowledge to make them comfortable executing data setup, trade and price entry, and scheduling functions. The detailed job aids left with the client will allow them to step through the processes to add new counterparties, enter trades, schedule and actualize gas flows, and settle with counterparties without further assistance from consultants once their physical gas activities begin.
