Energy markets may be less volatile than a year or two ago, but a combination of factors are keeping energy risks high and demanding more resources and enhanced capabilities, from both IT and risk software vendors. In their annual Software Rankings survey, Energy Risk pointed out that “This potentially requires new thinking around data gathering, analysis and the software systems being used, to ensure firms have the most robust, integrated system for analysing and forecasting risk holistically not just in real time but years into the future.”

Where Does Beacon Rank?

Beacon Platform was ranked second overall for creativity and innovation, strengthening our Top 5 positions in enterprise risk management software, enterprise-wide data capture and storage, analytics package, and cloud-based system. The 2024 Energy Risk Software Rankings paint a compelling picture of the growing importance of open and extensible trading and risk management systems for the energy and commodities industries. Openness and extensibility also factored into Beacon’s strong Top 3 placement in data management firms, for our pricing and curves features and ease of integrating with other systems. As a technology advisor, Beacon also placed highly in analytics development and technical architecture and infrastructure.

It is also worth noting that KWA Analytics, one of Beacon’s domain-expertise Service Partners for cross-asset capital markets and energy and commodity trading was ranked #1 in 6 out of 9 technology-advisory categories, including software implementation, technical infrastructure, understanding client needs, staying within budget, and best value for money. 

What Are Beacon’s Clients Seeing? 

Mark Ayzenberg, Beacon’s Head of Energy Global Sales, recently had the opportunity to sit down with Energy Risk for a Q&A about the market issues, technology choices, and challenges ahead. Mark noted that volatility and supply disruptions are encouraging greater diversification and even proprietary trading desks at firms with significant energy and commodity exposure. He also pointed out the opportunity to install an open and customizable platform like Beacon as an adjunct or augmentation to existing systems, as opposed to wholesale replacement. By ‘opening up the hood’ and exposing the source code along with an integrated development environment, Beacon clients can quickly adapt to niche requirements, bring in data from multiple sources, and “create their proprietary secret sauce on one platform that runs on cloud infrastructure.”

Perhaps the most compelling verdict on the advantages that Beacon’s clients gain from the platform comes from a recent case study at a global physical energy supplier. The Vice President of Energy Trading said “Beacon is helping us become more sophisticated and risk-aware traders, increasing both the speed and confidence of our trades and portfolio exposure, and extending our visibility from six months to five years.”