Previse Systems Sees Success with its Innovative Ecosystem.
Last week, I caught up with Messrs. Marc Zumstein and Asbjorn Hansen of Previse Systems to find out how things were going and to hear the latest news. Previse Systems is a newer vendor that is engaged in a novel ecosystem approach to building out an ETRM solution in Europe. Its all new technology initiative separates ETRM out into three distinct elements and was the subject of a white paper that we issued last year. Its threefold approach includes,
- A user-owned common trade repository (called ChorusLink) where each trade is stored and accessible by all parties to the trade in a fast and secure environment,
- A high-performance position application (called Coral) that delivers the ability to quickly and easily visualize, and process large volumes of data, and
- An app store-like platform (Coral Ecosystem) where third-parties can offer incremental and purpose-built functionality that can easily be added to the customers’ ecosystem and provides choice and competitive prices.
It has been actively signing early customers and with a new recent signing now has four customers. Mr. Zumstein indicated that the new customer was significant and well-known but for now could not be named. It has previously announced European Energy, Norlys Energy Trading and EnBW as customers. He expects to sign another 1-2 customers this year on the back of what he describes as a solid pipeline of opportunities. “We are seeing a lot of interest including areas like Scandinavia and also in gas trading,” he told me. He also noted interest on the part of a few industrial-type market participants where some are looking at different strategies in a market where power prices are volatile and rising.
Mr. Hansen also told me that they had been busy enhancing the product with new functionalities while continuing to work on extensibility and scalability. “We have changed the architecture a little to get better scalability and valuation performance,” he told me. They have also been working on the app store side of things. There they already have several apps from other vendors that they are already reselling but are also working on the technology side of the app store to make it all work more easily and seamlessly, he said.
I also asked them about the procurement process to see if they had noted any changes from the RFI/RFP approach. While they see several smaller players taking a ‘proof of concept’ approach, it is still pretty much the classical RFP that is still used. As noted in our previous blog article, there are some drawbacks to this approach and Previse cited in particular the use of “unfocussed’ RFPs that can cause issues as described in that blog. Meanwhile, the company is growing, and it has hired several new staff in areas like QA, development, Business Analysis and so on. It is actively seeking sales staff as well.
We will check in again with Previse later this year or early next to continue to monitor its growth and development.
