As part of my series of interviews with Triple Point clients, I recently had the chance to sit down with Thomas Harvey, CIO and VP of Information Technology at The Energy Authority, to discuss industry changes and how they use technology to operate effectively in the energy marketplace.

Q: What are some of the major trends driving your industry and how do you see it changing in the next few years?

Thomas: The Dodd-Frank Act and what’s happening with the CFTC is the hot topic. We’re looking at our business policies and technical systems across several areas–transaction and position reporting; audit-ability; credit management; and documentation–to ensure we’re ready to meet additional reporting requirements.

From an IT perspective, we see technology becoming less about automating routine tasks and processing data; it’s more about mining data for information we can act on. Some of what’s driving this is the world in which we live and our reliance on immediate information exchange. Technology enables us to capture and access huge amounts of data, and the ubiquitous presence of it in our lives means our workforce is increasingly more technically savvy and astute to analyzing the information available to them. Service providers that quickly provide actionable information to move businesses forward will be market leaders.

Q: What are some of the business issues that keep you up at night?

Thomas: Technology is an underpinning of TEA’s ability to operate effectively in the energy marketplace…so we’re always questioning where we should be investing our efforts and resources in terms of improving business processes. We are cognizant of how we can provide reliable, cost-effective competitive advantages to our traders, power managers, schedulers, and analysts.

Q: What were the major business drivers in moving to Triple Point’s Enterprise Solution?

Thomas: Having trading, scheduling, and risk management functionality on a common platform was key. Triple Point enables us to manage both transaction and decision-making information in one solution: physical and financial transactions for power, gas, and oil; scheduling; and credit risk management.

Q: In addition to your current business, how do you see Triple Point supporting TEA’s future expansion?

Thomas: TEA represents 46 Public Power Utilities throughout the United States, and we wear multiple hats to support our partners. Triple Point truly understand the complexities of our business, and this provides great peace-of-mind. With Triple Point, we have the infrastructures in place to support our business strategically, now and in the future. If you really look at what TEA offers, a cornerstone of our business is risk management. The value that Triple Point provides in our risk management practice will continue to be a contributor to our success.

Q: What have been the biggest benefits of implementing the Triple Point Solution?

Thomas: I’d be remiss in not mentioning the exceptional Triple Point staff we work with. Our success with the implementation of Triple Point’s commodity management and credit risk platform is built upon the dedication of some very smart, hard-working individuals. Triple Point provides an outstanding implementation team and superior customer support. They’ve been invaluable in educating our team on the inner working of the Commodity XL product and have been fully engaged in helping craft solutions for our unique requests. It’s really the whole package, Triple Point’s software and people, which brings benefit.