ETRM Program Assurance

Someone on your side of an ETRM implementation who has run one before, whether the program is starting or already in trouble.

Engagement

Standing role or fixed review. Either a review of a program in flight with a written recovery plan, or a standing role through go-live.

Who it is for

The executive sponsor of an ETRM implementation who is accountable for it and cannot tell from the status report whether it is on track.

When people call us

Change requests are piling up, go-live has moved twice, the business has stopped attending testing, or the integrator's status is green and nobody believes it.

What you are buying

The work we do

Review
  • read the scope, the design documents and the change log against what the business actually needs
  • interview schedulers, traders, accountants and the integrator separately
  • trace which customizations exist because of a real requirement and which because a design decision was never made
  • test the integration design against a closed month, end to end
Standing role
  • sit on your side of the table with the integrator and review every change request
  • build parallel-run and cutover criteria from real months, not test data
  • hold go-live to the criteria, including recommending it moves

What you receive

Review
  • a plain account of where the program actually stands
  • the customizations and change requests worth keeping, and the ones worth reversing
  • a recovery plan with a date you can defend to the board
Standing role
  • a change request log with a decision and reasoning for each entry
  • parallel-run results reconciled to the legacy close
  • a go-live decision made against written criteria

How we know it is finished

Review finishes when the recovery plan is agreed with the sponsor. Standing role finishes after the first clean month-end close on the new system.

What we need from you

  • Access to the program documents, the change log and the integrator's plan
  • Time with the people who will run the system after go-live
  • An executive sponsor who will act on what the review finds

ETRM programs rarely fail at go-live. They fail during design, when a decision about how a commodity actually moves gets deferred, and the integrator fills the gap with a customization. By the time it shows up in a status report, it has become a change request.

What we look for first

Customizations that exist because nobody decided how a process should work. Integration designs that have never been walked through a real month. Testing on scenarios the integrator wrote. A business team that has stopped turning up, because the system in testing does not look like their job.

Test against real months

A system that settles test deals is not ready. A system that closes a month you have already closed, and reconciles to what the old process produced, is. We build the parallel-run and cutover criteria from your own history, so go-live is a decision against evidence rather than a date on a plan.

Recommending the date moves

Sometimes the most useful thing assurance does is say the program is not ready. We would rather say that before go-live than explain a failed first close after it.

What you keep

The code and the data·Your existing relationships·Approval and control·The ability to stop·The off switchWhat that means

Start with a 45-minute briefing.

Bring the program, the proposal or the month-end that will not close. We will tell you honestly where to start.