HOW WE DO IT - Case Studies
Powerex Corporation
Objective:
Enterprise Application Integration to achieve Straight-Through Processing in a trading and risk management environment.
Solution:
Working together, Quadrus and Powerex planned and developed an EAI system that provided straight-through processing of data which, in turn, improved data entry validation, streamlined processes and reduced overall operating costs. Powerex is a leading marketer of wholesale energy products and services in western Canada and the western US, generating almost $4 billion of revenue in fiscal 2002.
A large part of Powerex's business involves real-time power (electricity) trading. Such trades must be captured accurately, and processed consistently and quickly. Powerex wanted to automate and speed up processing "straight through" the workflow to reduce corrections and support higher trading volumes.
Quadrus was engaged to analyze Powerex's requirements for EAI, to achieve straight-through-processing (STP) and to recommend a solution infrastructure. Quadrus recommended appropriate tools and designed and built Powerex's enterprise STP architecture, integrating real-time trading applications with deal processing systems.
Designing the optimal STP architecture to achieve EAI required extensive understanding of Powerex's business domain, operating practices and workflow. Quadrus worked closely with traders, risk managers, controllers and IT personnel to first document relevant business processes, identify workflow and capture requirements, and then to formulate a project plan to balance business needs with development costs and timelines. Quadrus analyzed competing integration solution infrastructures and recommended Microsoft BizTalk as it provided the capabilities necessary to meet Powerex's requirements at a fraction of the cost of other available options.
With the project plan in place, Quadrus worked with Powerex to develop a robust and extensible STP framework. MSMQ was used as a transport mechanism with SQL Server at the back end. Auditing capabilities, essential for Powerex's operations, were provided by leveraging the asynchronous processing of MSMQ and BizTalk. Industry best practices were implemented—an iterative and incremental development approach was followed in order to identify and mitigate risk early in the development process. Quadrus also delivered a variety of training courses to ensure that Powerex was equipped to support and enhance the new STP system. One-on-one mentoring was provided and detailed documentation was written to explain the solution architecture, the deployment process and EAI best practices.
With this project, Powerex's business goals were to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs and risk while supporting higher transaction volumes toward increased revenues. These business goals were realized by integrating business workflows across enterprise software applications thereby achieving STP between systems. This solution streamlined and sped up the trading process and reduced errors from re-keying trade information in the old system. The highly scalable integration framework also allowed Powerex to re-focus its human resources on the higher value-added aspects of the business process rather than on merely preventative and detective controls over trade processing. It has provided for lower throughput errors and has significantly improved the timeliness of deal administration. Overall, Powerex has received demonstrable business value from this successful and effective STP project.