A Visit to Contigo
I visited with Contigo last week in the Midlands and as usual, enjoyed every minute of my time there. The purpose of my visit was to catch up with how they are doing and what had changed. Much progress has been made it seems in the two years I have been away from the CTRM scene.
EnTrader, Contigo’s core product, now has 12 customers using it and, while the majority remain UK-based, it has started to see some success outside of the UK as well. Contigo has also added some important functionality as modules to support ‘logistics’ and ‘retail’. I found the logistics module extremely interesting as it deals with the procurement , shipping and storage of fuels such as biomass, coal, oil and so on for generators and can handle other types of aggregates like gypsum. This provides Contigo with a platform for the growing commodity supply chain management sector and, in the future, it may also be the basis for extension into other commodities.
Contigo has also made good progress with its other products including EnVision (Business Intelligence and reporting), EnPrice (Retail pricing and tender management) and EnVoy (TSO interfacing for UK) and has a comprehensive platform of products that spans the wholesale and retail sides of the industry. It has already amassed an impressive portfolio of customers that includes the likes of E.On, Centrica, Bord Gais, GDF Suez and CNR for example, and has established itself particularly in UK power and gas markets as a key E/CTRM vendor. The company had also grown considerably and seems to have more or less outgrown its new office space in Sollihull.
Contigo is carving out a niche for itself in wholesale and retail energy markets by first taking a leading position in UK power and gas markets and then using that as a springboard into Europe. Since its technology is web-enabled, it lends itself to delivery mechanisms other than the traditional en premise perpetual license model and products can be delivered as a SaaS or as a hosted solution. In fact, one way in which Contigo tries to live up to its’ simply different branding is by keeping its users up to speed with enhancements and new versions of its software via the web.
The challenge for Contigo remains to broaden its installed base across Europe and to achieve critical mass of users for all of its four products. While this may not be an easy undertaking, the European gas and power ETRM market remains dominated by regional players and Contigo has every chance of emerging as a true pan-European force.
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