Enterprise Software Stack Sacking Your Natural Gas Business?
Have you heard the one about the company that bet its business on an enterprise software product offering functionality for all its business needs? If you have worked with or worked for a company of sizeable revenue, no doubt you have. And, you have come to understand both the allure and the reality of an enterprise software stack purported to be capable of supplying all the functionality your business needs – it’s perception vs. reality in spades. Perception is you will benefit from a completely integrated solution supplied by a global software giant with all the functionality your business requires, negotiated at a very high discount, making it seem more valuable. Reality is that what you actually receive is a compilation of software functionality originating from a multitude of vendors, having different code bases, user interfaces and nothing close to the kind of integration you expected. Why? Because big software vendors often acquire as much functionality as they develop themselves, rebranding acquired products as their own. So what, you say?
One of our natural gas retailer discussions definitively answers this. We were introduced to a retailer who, ten years ago, acquired an enterprise software solution from a Redwood Shores, CA company; no, not the one from Germany. They made a strategic decision to acquire an enterprise software solution offering “a broad range of functionality for all our business needs”. Post -purchase, they discovered the available operations software functionality was not built for natural gas. So, with sunk cost as it was, they set about making the best of the situation by enlisting software developers to customize the product to meet their business needs. “Over eight years, we spent close to $10 million, only to be recently told by the software vendor that support for the original product we purchased is nearing end-of-life and that we must purchase the new product as its replacement. Can you believe it!?”
Of course we can … Enterprise software vendors, purported to be innovators, have for years been filling in gaps of their core functionality via acquisition of third-party products like the one this retailer was stuck with. These are products that fill a void in the vendor’s offering in order to make the software stack appear more complete. Unfortunately, these void-fillers often come from small software companies, tend to be limited in functionality and generic in nature. Rarely do the big software vendors do anything to enhance the product, nor do they undertake any development to truly integrate the software with their own code and its look and feel. As a result, it shouldn’t be surprising that the most expendable software stack components are those that were acquired, not the ones the vendor developed themselves. The sad reality is that Natural Gas businesses pay big money for software that isn’t purpose-built, then pay more big money to try to make it fit for purpose, only to face the ugly reality of having to do it all over again when the software vendor decides to deprecate the original software functionality.
What’s questionable is whether the bigger mistake was trusting the big brand software vendor to provide purpose-built functionality or spending a fortune trying to turn something generic into something specialized and capable. The truth is that both represent BIG mistakes, originating from the belief that you cannot go wrong buying from a big name vendor. In reality, big brand software represents generic functionality and significant risk relative to a truly best-in-class software solution that is purpose-built.
The good news for those seeking a best-in-class, purpose-built solution for wholesale and retail natural gas operations is that an off-the-shelf, end-to-end solution exists, eliminating the time, cost and risk of software customizations. Its functionality spans all day-to-day business operations from wellhead to pipeline to city gate to meter. It houses all retail operations data in one central repository, simultaneously accessible by all business users via a common user interface, is user configurable and has been in production for 20+ years. Yup, you guessed it … its name is nGenue.
End Users, LDCs, Marketers, Pipelines, Producers and Utilities face increasing competitive and compliance pressures, requiring increased operational efficiency, data integrity and process improvement. Their operational systems must support this, but most don’t. Engage us and we’ll show you how to make a breakthrough. It’s what we do for natural gas companies, and we are experts in our field.
~Ken
