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From their roots as Enform Technology, a leading energy technology consulting house, through their acquisition by SunGard, the SunGard Consulting Services organization has established itself as a leading provider of consulting services to financial services and energy firms. In addition to getting Austin's take on trends in the ETRM solutions space, we also wanted to find out more about how SunGard Consulting Services' Energy Practice had managed to grow and flourish supplying services to energy trading companies.

UtiliPoint: Can you give us some background/history of SunGard Consulting Services?

Austin Morris: SunGard Consulting Services started as Enform Technology in 1998. It was founded by a core group of experienced consultants from some of the top global consulting firms who focused primarily on developing custom solutions for energy companies, with a particular emphasis on the trading and marketing sectors. Enform was acquired by SunGard Data Systems in 2002 as part of a strategic initiative to grow their presence in the energy market. Today, SunGard Consulting Services employs over 400 people in the U.S. and over 300 in Europe.

UtiliPoint: What industries does SunGard Consulting service?

Mr. Morris We serve two primary industries, which include energy and financial services. Within energy, our key focus areas are trading and marketing, transmission and distribution, ISO integration, and utilities.

UtiliPoint: Speaking specifically to the Energy Consulting practice that you head, what are the types of services that SunGard Consulting provides?

Mr. Morris In general, we help customers optimize their business processes through the effective use of technology. The specific services we offer tend to fall into several categories: business process consulting; package selection and implementation; custom application development; business intelligence and data warehousing; and systems integration. In addition, we provide solutions for industry initiatives, such as Texas Nodal and other regulatory compliance issues.

UtiliPoint: SunGard has several organizations servicing the energy vertical, including SunGard Energy, Kiodex and GMI. Is your organization operationally associated with those other groups?

Mr. Morris We have worked with the other SunGard business units that you listed and will continue to do so, as needed, in order to bring comprehensive solutions to our customers. With that said, however, SunGard business units have historically operated autonomously, and we are no different. SunGard Consulting Services is charged with supporting its own business and thus operates independently. The product groups typically have their own professional services organizations that provide product-specific expertise. In contrast, our knowledge, skills, and experience are vendor-neutral. We frequently help customers select, implement, integrate, and optimize systems that do not involve SunGard products.

UtiliPoint: Given that many of SunGard Consulting's most successful service products, including solution roadmaps and product selections, rely on vendor impartiality; how have you been able to ensure that your organization remains impartial given that you are a SunGard company?

Mr. Morris As a consulting organization, we have an ethical responsibility to our customers to remain impartial. We do this by analyzing their business problem and using our expertise to propose the most appropriate solution for their particular situation. By definition, this process demands an objective evaluation of all relevant products in the marketplace, some of which may be SunGard products and others may not. We ultimately select the product that we believe is best suited to help the customer achieve their business objectives.

UtiliPoint: What are SunGard Consulting's competitive advantages?

Mr. Morris First, we are in the fairly unique position of being a consulting company with approximately 800 employees but backed by a $4.3B parent company. This allows us to operate with the customer-focus and attention to detail of a boutique firm while having the financial stability of a very large organization. We also pride ourselves in bringing a powerful combination of energy industry expertise, business process knowledge, strong technology skills, and thought leadership to our customers. Finally, we have invested in developing proprietary methodologies and other intellectual property that further increase the value of our services and differentiate us from the competition.

UtiliPoint: How large is the Energy Consulting practice? What is your geographic coverage?

Mr. Morris Our U.S. energy practice represents about 40 percent of our business. We serve customers across the United Staets and Europe from our offices in Houston, Dallas, Baltimore, New York City, Charlotte, London, Paris and Pune, India.

UtiliPoint: How do you see SunGard Consulting's position in the market - are you competing against the “Big 5”, boutique firms, or the mid-sized firms?

Mr. Morris We successfully compete with the large consulting firms on most of our engagements. In addition, each geographic region seems to have 1-2 boutiques or mid-sized firms that we compete with on occasion.

UtiliPoint: Many of the consulting firms in the energy vertical report that they have had problems finding enough qualified resources. Are you experiencing the same problem?

Mr. Morris Yes. Our standards are high, and the market for qualified resources is currently very tight. Driven primarily by our extensive referral program, we have still been able to find and hire many talented people with the right mix of energy, technology, and consulting experience.

UtiliPoint: Where are you seeing the most activity in energy market right now?

Mr. Morris Overall, the entire energy industry is quite strong right now. We are actively doing work in many segments, including trading, utilities, distribution, and transmission. However, the power market has generated the most activity for us during the first half of 2007, and we expect that trend to continue for the remainder of the year. This is being primarily driven by the California ISO MRTU and ERCOT Nodal programs underway. In addition, with the influx of financial institutions into the energy trading segment, we are doing a significant amount of work in commodity trading.

UtiliPoint: Where do you see the future growth coming from for SunGard Consulting's energy practice?

Mr. Morris Given the combination of a strong industry and well-established customer relationships, we expect some growth to come from the continued success of our customers. We are also focused on geographic expansion across both North America and Europe. Lastly, future growth will come from developing new service offerings and pursuing opportunities in segments of the energy industry where we have not historically focused.

UtiliPoint: What do you think ultimately differentiates SunGard Consulting from your competition?

Mr. Morris Ultimately, I believe any consulting company's differentiation comes down to the people within the organization and the quality of their customer relationships. We have succeeded on both of these fronts. We have attracted and retained a phenomenal team and built strong relationships with many of the best customers in the energy industry. However, I believe our true point of differentiation comes down to our sincere interest in the success of our customers. We are dedicated to openly communicating with our customers about how to best help them achieve their business objectives. We then identify, build, and deliver solutions that bring them real business value.

Austin Morris is the managing partner of the Energy Practice at SunGard Consulting Services. His career has been focused on most sectors of the energy industry, and he is thus recognized for the depth and breadth of his industry knowledge. Mr. Morris is experienced in interacting with company executives to understand and assess their key business requirements and then developing and delivering solutions that provide significant business value. Mr. Morris has a particular interest in energy trading and risk management solutions. His experience ranges from assisting customers in developing business and IT strategies to optimizing business processes to implementing systems that efficiently support a company's operations.