Wednesday, September 29, 2010

How Improved Data Management Increases Business Performance

Most companies make IT investments in terms of money and time expecting to have a better business performance. But is there any measurable evidence of a direct dependence between improved information technology, especially, data management and financial consequences?

The study from the University of Texas (source: "The Benefits of Improved Data – Quantified At Last!") found the impacts of effective data on productivity of employee and key financial performance indicators for a company. The research has been conducted for a Fortune 1000 business (median 36,000 employees and $388,000 in sales per employee). They found that a 10% increase in:

  • data conciseness and consistency results in a 15% average increase in sales per employee
  • data accuracy and accessibility results in a 16% average increase in return on equity (ROE)
  • mobility of data for the sales force results in a 1.4% average increase in return on invested capital (ROIC)
  • intelligence and remote accessibility of data results in a 0.7% average increase in return on assets (ROA)

The findings demonstrated the often dramatic impacts from even marginal improvements in data quality and usability.

In conclusion, there is a noticeable correlation between key data management elements and business results. The revealed relationship between improved data management and increased business performance may encourage many companies to pay more attention to their company’s data management area.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

A New Group on LinkedIn to Inform about Data Management Conference

Today’s energy markets are highly complex. In a fast-paced and volatile trading environment, well-known as well as new fundamental forces reshape a complicated energy trading business. Frequent regulatory changes, market volatility, technology evolution, in addition to the recent developments in renewable, emissions, and other environmental areas make implementing ETRM systems an expensive and time consuming process.

As you may know, ZE is organizing an important event - Energy and Commodities Enterprise Data Management Conference in Vancouver. The conference will bring together friends in the energy and commodities industries for a valuable information exchange and networking opportunity. You are welcome to join us and share your insights with the top people in your industry. To provide additional informational support for this event, a new group has been created on LinkedIn. Please join it at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3437483

It is a convenient way to exchange short timely updates!

Energy and Commodities Enterprise Data Management Conference

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Newly Created ZE Blogs Get Listed on Technorati

Technorati was founded as the first blog search engine to help bloggers succeed by collecting, classifying, and distributing the global online blog content. The leading blog search engine, Technorati.com is able to index millions of blog posts. On September 21, 2010 Technorati Blog Directory listed 1,240,778 blogs.

A week ago we submitted our two blogs for listing on Technorati. To make a searching process easier, Technorati uses such parameter as Authority. It measures a blog site standing and influence in the blogosphere. Authority is on a scale of 0-1000. And 1000 is the highest possible authority. The following are the links where our blogs approved (both have Technorati Authority around 120 as of September 2010):

Friday, September 17, 2010

One More Record Year for ZE PowerGroup: Annual Report Highlights

ZE PowerGroup Inc. ® (ZE), the developer of award-winning ZEMA Suite ™, announced that its recently compiled financial report indicates one more record year. For the fiscal year ending May 31, 2010, all key performance indicators of the company have reached new highs in revenue, income, human resources, research expense and net profit; exceeding the 2009 levels by at least 25% in each category. A better indicator of ZE's growth is measured by the performance during the recent economic crisis. Over the past two years ZE has more than doubled its software client base by over 50%.

ZE's client profile has also broadened. The ZEMA software is being used by utilities, hedge funds, financial institutions, large industrials, marketers and multinational organizations across all commodity classes. As an example of ZEMA's success, over the last two quarters of operation alone, ZE has supported the addition of 13 new implementations.

In terms of product offerings, ZE has released a substantially enhanced version of the ZEMA Dashboard and developed a robust derivative forward curve building and workflow engine. Further, ZEMA has extended its services and APIs, helping to create generic interfaces to several downstream ETRM and analytical systems. Upcoming releases include SQL Server support and ZEMA 4.0.

Dr. Zak El-Ramly, President and CEO of ZE elaborated on last year's performance, "What is encouraging is the ability to grow our client base while we are expanding our products and services in addition to sustaining the high quality of service, as measured by our clients. This stable growth is fully funded by ZE's own earnings without resorting to third party financing in any form."

Waleed El-Ramly, COO of Product Development comments on ZEMA's success, "I think that the uptake by the industry of ZEMA is because the market is starting to realize that our software is aligned with their existing technical architecture and their business goals. Our system is very robust and the ease of implementation is something that they are very happy with and have not experienced in the past. Integration with a client's own processes and systems doesn't have to be a risky, lengthy or expensive exercise. ZEMA provides our clients with access to all the market data they need, is supported by strong software tools and the expert advice that is required to make clients' projects successful."

In the early part of 2010 ZEMA has been highlighted in the "Cool Vendors in Energy and Utilities" industry research put out by Gartner, Inc. and has been awarded “Data Management House of the Year” by Energy Risk, for a second year in a row (2009 and 2010), and was ranked against its competitors as #1 for preferred system, #1 for ease of system integration and #1 customer service in the annual Energy Risk Software Survey. In recognition of its role as a technological leader in the industry, ZE is holding its first ZEMA User Forum and organizing a conference for "Enterprise Data Management for Energy and Commodities" in October.

The outlook for ZE for the coming year is very bright. With strong revenues, government research and development funding and a healthy pipeline of prospective clients, ZE is preparing to take on the challenges that come with success while continuing to maintain its high level of customer service and support.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

ZE Freely Shares its Expertise with the Industry by Contributing to Major Industry Events

The autumn of 2010 is rich of Energy and Commodities industry events. In October 26 -27, Enterprise Data Management Conference for Energy and Commodities (Vancouver, BC) is held by ZE PowerGroup; speakers: Dr. Zak El-Ramly, Aiman El-Ramly, Waleed El-Ramly, Alex Melekhin, and others. It will cover navigating the data universe, complexities and realities of evolving markets, turning data into market intelligence, considerations for data and system integration, future markets and regulation, etc.

September 14-16, SolArc 2010 ASCENT Conference and User Group Meeting in Montgomery, TX. ZE Attendees: Fran Rolon, Alexey Melekhin

September 13-16, The Allegro 2010 Customer Summit in Dallas, TX. ZE Attendees: Igor Melekhin, Geoff Trawick

September 13-15, Triple Point's FocalPoint 2010 in Rye Brook, NY. ZE Attendees: Bruce Colquhoun, Vlad Alexeyev

September 13-15, LDC Gas Forum Mid-Continent in Chicago, IL. Manal El-Ramly, Director of ZE Eastern Office will be presenting at this conference. The title of her presentation is: “Front, Middle and Back Office Integration - The Challenges and Outlook for the Future”

September 28-30, MEMA 2010 Fall Conference in New Orleans, LA. Aiman El-Ramly, ZE Senior Vice President, Strategy & Business Development will be speaking at this event. The title of his presentation is “Deepwater Horizon – Global Energy Effects: A Focus on the Mid-term”

October 6-8, NESA 29th Annual Meeting: Energy Forum 2010 in Bastrop, TX. ZE Attendees: Fran Rolon, Geoff Trawick

October 11-13, LDC Gas Forum Rockies & West in Los Angeles, CA. Dr. Zak El-Ramly, ZE President and CEO will be presenting at this conference. The title of his presentation is “The Art of Managing Business Risk”

If you are interested in learning more about ZEMA, or about the people behind the product, join us at these events or schedule a meeting in the area. For other event attendees, this is your opportunity to meet face-to-face with representatives of the leading Data Management solution ZEMA Suite™; contact us at zema@ze.com to find out how to book your on-site demo.