Openlink Voted Best Overall Energy Trading and Risk Management Platform for Ninth Year in a Row

Annual Energy Risk survey also ranks Openlink “Best ETRM System for Project Delivery on Time and Within Budget”

New York – February 27, 2014 – Openlink Financial LLC (Openlink), the global leader in Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM) software, has been voted “Best Overall ETRM Platform” and “Best ETRM System for Project Delivery on Time and Within Budget” in the 2014 Energy Risk Software Rankings.

These accolades represent almost a decade of overall excellence for Openlink in providing commodity/energy trading and risk management (C/ETRM) systems, according to the 2014 Energy Risk Software Rankings.

Openlink has honed its project delivery expertise by leveraging intellectual capital gleaned from global implementations for more than 450 clients. The company has developed its proprietary Market Standard Implementation Models, a time-saving, cost-effective way for clients to streamline deployment of C/ETRM systems. For example, the company recently successfully deployed its Endur system in just 12 weeks for a major international energy company and a global trading group based in Europe.

Further underscoring Openlink’s delivery excellence is its Springboard Implementation Approach, which accomplishes the following:

• Minimizes total cost of ownership for the client
• Shortens time to market and time to trading
• Maximizes ROI for Openlink customers
• Minimizes delivery risks
• Promotes excellence on execution and for reusable implementations
• Leverages best-of-breed business and IT intellectual property

“In conjunction with our product management strengths, Openlink’s vote of confidence from users in the ‘Best Overall Ease of Using the System’ category shows that Openlink is committed to an ongoing investment in the company’s ETRM platform. It also serves as proof that Openlink is focused on delivering a robust and holistic user experience to satisfy a demanding global client base,” said Ken Knowles, Executive Vice President, Product Management at Openlink.

Openlink earned a total of 23 top-three placements in the Energy Risk survey. In addition to “Best Overall ETRM Platform” and “Best ETRM System for Project Delivery on Time and Within Budget,” voters ranked Openlink as No. 1 in the following categories:

• Post-trade services
• Market risk: Oil
• Market risk: Gas
• Portfolio management
• Widest product coverage
• Coal trading
• Degree of straight-through-processing
• Physical and financial integration
• Best middle-office system

Survey voters also recognized Openlink’s strengths in several ancillary areas, placing the firm in the top-two providers in the following categories:

• Overall ease of using the system
• Customer/support services
• Regulatory compliance (i.e. Dodd-Frank, REMIT)
• Access to multiple OTC and cleared energy markets
• Market risk: Power
• Modelling
• Risk metrics
• Front office & trade capture
• Best knowledge of the market in which the software operates

The annual Energy Risk Software Rankings are based on an online poll, which the magazine ensures consists of only industry end-users from energy trading companies, oil/gas houses, utilities, energy producers and executives from other firms who rated their top software and data vendors and implementation specialists.

“We are gratified by our strong showing in the survey, and appreciate this vote of confidence from the user community,” said Dr. Mark Greene, CEO, Openlink. “We work hard to maintain leadership in the dynamic ETRM market, so this outcome is an important validation of our investments in our ETRM products and delivery services. We remain committed to evolving these offerings to help our clients succeed in this increasingly competitive industry.”