Part 1 Request for Information/Proposal- RFI RFP for Etrm Software

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Part 1 of 3 Blog Series

 Request for Information- RFI & Request for Proposal-RFP Process Defined for Ctrm-Etrm (C-ETRM) Software: Technical, Security & Front-office Considerations -Part 1

In today’s competitive commodity energy trading and risk management C-ETRM software system vendor space vendors are accustomed to responding to a variety of Requests for Information-RFI and/or Request for Proposals -RFPs for enterprise risk management and commodity trading systems. That being the case, it is important to define certain criteria that should be included and important features and benefits that are sometimes overlooked when entities are soliciting quality C-Etrm products.   With a host of options, features, functions and architectures available in the C-Etrm software space there remains some important technical, front-office, middle-office and back-office high-level features and functional areas that one should consider in a RFI- RFP proposal for C-Etrm software:

1. Technical – Is the software compatible with our technical infrastructure. Will it be able to easily integrate into our existing environment? Hint: Look for C-Etrm software that has middle-ware technology built in for "Ease of Integration." Is the architecture web-based (thin client). What are the programming language skills that are needed to customize and/or manage change to the product or is the product configurable without the need for expensive coding skills. Hint: Look for newer technologies that are formula-driven and offer the ability to easily Configure (no coding needed) Vs. Customize (coding needed) to meet unique needs; this will drastically lower the cost of implementation and the total cost of ownership
2. Security- Is the security and audit features of the product in compliance with our internal security and audit protocols?
3. Does the platform offer C-Etrm process automation in the form of programmable work-flow
4. Front-office:
• Deal-capture:     
• Will the system capture all of the needed commodity and financial instruments
• Can it easily configure the front-office to meet our needs
• Does if feature trader dashboards and decision support tools
• Does the system provide a means for traders to easily configure there deal-entry screen to their preference i.e. input field renaming, moving and hiding
• Does the front-office promote ease-of and rapid deal entry capability           
• Will the system easily manage trading and risk management change; Is coding needed to modify the product? Precaution: Many C-ETRM vendors claim this capability, however few can deliver this feature without expensive coding changes, one test is to ask about the underlying code; if it is hard coded with .Net or Java without being configurable leveraging a  formula-driven architecture than it will require coding changes to meet unique requirements
• Will the system be able to easily meet Section 728 of the Dodd-Frank Act Swap Data Repository -SDR reporting requirement; will coding changes be necessary etc.
5. Reporting-

• Is the reporting engine all web-based
• Is the C-Etrm framework compatible with Microsoft Office (import export capability)
• Does the system offer an internal Adhoc reporting capability
• Does the system require coding and/or do I have to  purchase a third party report writer (ex. Crystal reports) to get reports generated
• Does the system offer a simple means for generating reports, for example template-driven means (no coding needed) 
• Does it offer advanced reporting capability like business intelligence -OLAP cube reporting capability
• Will the reporting architecture easily meet Section 728 of the Dodd-Frank Act Swap Data Repository -SDR reporting requirement without the need for coding changes

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