Abacus :: News

February 10, 2021 - Abacus announces the release of SATURN 10.0

Abacus Solutions Inc announced that it has released SATURN 10.0, a new version of its flagship integrated CTRM system. SATURN is an enterprise business management system that integrates several key applications including Generation Management, Trade Management, Credit Management, Market Analysis, Business Intelligence, and Retail Management. SATURN facilitates improved decisions and helps analyze corporate and functional risks, revenues, costs, and profits for a portfolio of plants, trades, and other assets. Using modern technology, SATURN helps users realize significant benefits and gain unique and sustainable competitive advantages.

"We are very pleased to announce the release of SATURN 10.0, a new version that offers important improvements including enhanced modeling of Solar, Wind, and Storage generation units, improved modeling and co-optimization of load-dispatch & market modeling, expanded business intelligence analytics, and the support of new commodities" said Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "SATURN 10.0 supports Agriculture (Corn, oats, cotton, rice, other), Livestock (Hogs, cattle, other), Forest (Lumber, pulp, other), Minerals (Gold, silver, other), Metals (Copper, steel, other), and other" according to Dr. Jabbour.

October 1, 2020 - Abacus and OTC Global Holdings announce new developments and offerings

OTC Global Holdings (OTCGH), the leading independent interdealer broker in over-the-counter commodities, has expanded the offering of its data services using new features of SATURN 9.0, the flagship integrated CTRM software system of Abacus Solutions Inc.

"We are pleased with the development of our partnership with OTC Global Holdings (EOXLive) which offers joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantages" said Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Our partnership with EOX enables our clients to streamline their market analysis process and integrate updated forward curves in their daily asset management, trading, and hedging decisions", he added.

"We are delighted to be collaborating with our data partner Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of SATURN, an integrated enterprise-wise ETRM system (front, mid, back office) with decision support capabilities and additional unique tools" said Campbell L. Faulkner Senior Vice President and Chief Data Analyst at OTC Global Holdings (EOXLive). As with all OTCGH Market Data products the data reports draw from the deep liquidity of OTCGH's breadth of brokerages and leverage the company's well-known EOXLive broking/trading platform.

June 15, 2020 - Abacus releases an Oil Tank and Risk Management application

Abacus Solutions Inc announced that it has released SATURN 9.5, a new version of its flagship integrated CTRM system that includes an Oil Storage and Risk Management (OSRM) application for the Oil industry. SATURN is an enterprise business management system that integrates several key applications including Generation Management, Trade Management, Credit Management, Market Analysis, Business Intelligence, and Retail Management. SATURN facilitates improved decisions and helps analyze corporate and functional risks, revenues, costs, and profits for a portfolio of plants, trades, and other assets. Using modern technology, SATURN helps users realize significant benefits and gain unique and sustainable competitive advantages.

"We are very pleased to announce the release of SATURN 9.5, a new version that offers an important application for the oil industry" said Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "The new OSRM application helps oil companies manage the transport and blending of oil shipments and helps manage volumetric, quality, and financial risks" according to Dr. Jabbour.

February 12, 2020 - Abacus announces the release of SATURN 9.0

Abacus Solutions Inc announced that it has released SATURN 9.0, a new version of its flagship integrated CTRM system. SATURN is an enterprise business management system that integrates several key applications including Generation Management, Trade Management, Credit Management, Market Analysis, Business Intelligence, and Retail Management. SATURN facilitates improved decisions and helps analyze corporate and functional risks, revenues, costs, and profits for a portfolio of plants, trades, and other assets. Using modern technology, SATURN helps users realize significant benefits and gain unique and sustainable competitive advantages.

"We are very pleased to announce the release of SATURN 9.0, a new version that offers several important functional and performance improvements driven by user suggestions and evolving market needs" said Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "SATURN 9.0 offers expanded capabilities, improved performance, and enhanced integration of all applications" according to Dr. Jabbour.

October 9, 2019 - Abacus announces partnership with OTC Holdings EOXLive

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced a partnership with OTC Holdings EOXLive, the leading global energy commodities inter-dealer.

"We are pleased to partner with OTC Holdings EOXLive and offer joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantages" said Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Our partnership with EOX enables our clients to streamline their market analysis process and integrate updated forward curves in their daily asset management, trading, and hedging decisions", he added.

"We are very excited about our partnership with Abacus Solutions Inc" commented Mr. Campbell L. Faulkner, EOX Holdings EOXLive Senior Vice President and Chief Data Analyst. "EOXLive products leverage the data generated by OTCGH's 14 brokerages and over 1000 institutional clients combined with algorithmic modeling to ensure consistent, unbiased, and robust datasets. This superior approach removes the externalities found in hand marked broker curves while also combining superior model inputs lacking in third party price reporting agencies. We look forward to working with Abacus Solutions Inc and their clients", he added.

July 10, 2019 - Abacus announces partnership with NRGSTREAM

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced a partnership with NRGSTREAM, the provider of the largest and most detailed database of energy fundamentals used in North America.

"We are pleased to partner with NRGSTREAM and offer joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantages" said Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Our partnership with NRGSTREAM enables our clients to streamline their market analysis process and integrate forward curves and detailed generation and weather data in their daily asset management, trading, and hedging decisions", he added.

"We are very excited about our partnership with Abacus Solutions Inc" commented Mr. Kevin Sebastian, NRGSTREAM EVP Sales and Marketing. "Our primary goal is to develop market intelligence solutions to support the complex data environment of power trading operations. We look forward to working with Abacus Solutions Inc and their clients as we continue to pursue our vision by providing easy access to energy intelligence", he added.

May 15, 2019 - Dr. Jabbour, speaks at the North American Energy Marketers Association conference in Nashville

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced that Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, Abacus founder and CEO presented "Managing Hidden Traps in Decision Making" at the North American Marketers Association Spring 2019 conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

According to Dr. Jabbour, "making decisions is one of the most important job functions. It is also the most difficult in situations that involve risk and uncertainty. Bad decisions can cause significant damage to a business and/or a career." The presentation identified many hidden judgment traps, the leading causes of bad decisions, including anchoring and adjustment, recallability, unlikely rare events, dramatic events, representativeness, randomness, unstated assumptions, hindsight, curse of knowledge, vividness, escalation, framing, overconfidence, and many others. Dr. Jabbour explained that decision making is often distorted by hidden cognitive factors including misperceptions and biases and cautioned that the "most complex/important decisions are most prone to distortions"; he concluded by offering several illustrations and recommendations on how to avoid these judgment traps.

May 2, 2019 - Abacus announces the release of SATURN 8.0

Abacus Solutions Inc announced that it has released SATURN 8.0, a new version of its flagship integrated CTRM system. SATURN is an enterprise business management system that integrates several key applications including Generation Management, Trade Management, Credit Management, Market Analysis, Business Intelligence, and Retail Management. SATURN facilitates improved decisions and helps analyze corporate and functional risks, revenues, costs, and profits for a portfolio of plants, trades, and other assets. Using modern technology, SATURN helps users realize significant benefits and gain unique and sustainable competitive advantages.

"We are very pleased to announce the release of SATURN 8.0, a new version that offers important functional and performance improvements driven by user suggestions and evolving market needs" said Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "SATURN 8.0 offers expanded capabilities, improved performance, and enhanced integration of all applications" according to Dr. Jabbour.

December 5, 2018 - Abacus announces new advanced dynamic hedging capabilities

Abacus Solutions Inc announced the release of a new advanced version of the dynamic hedging application of its flagship CTRM system, SATURN. According to Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, "We are pleased to announce the release of a new version of our unique and differentiated dynamic hedging application." SATURN offers portfolio management and hedging capabilities that allows users to identify trades that enable the most efficient risk/return tradeoffs. "The new version enables users to optimize trading and hedging decisions that meet multiple trading objectives and risk policies without re-running time consuming simulations", according to Dr. Jabbour.

May 10, 2018 - Abacus announces the release of SATURN 7.0

Abacus Solutions Inc announced that it has released SATURN 7.0, a new version of its flagship integrated CTRM system. SATURN is an enterprise business management system that integrates several key applications including Generation Management, Trade Management, Credit Management, Market Analysis, Business Intelligence, and Retail Management. SATURN facilitates improved decisions and helps analyze corporate and functional risks, revenues, costs, and profits for a portfolio of plants, trades, and other assets. Using modern technology, SATURN helps users realize significant benefits and gain unique and sustainable competitive advantages.

"We are very pleased to announce the release of SATURN 7.0, a new version that offers important functional and performance improvements driven by user suggestions and evolving market needs" said Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "SATURN 7.0 offers expanded capabilities, improved performance, and enhanced integration of all applications" according to Dr. Jabbour.

December 7, 2017 - Abacus announces new capabilities of its flagship software system SATURN

Abacus Solutions Inc announced the release of a new application of its flagship CTRM system, SATURN. According to Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, "We are pleased to announce the release of the SATURN Attribution application." SATURN offers portfolio management and hedging capabilities that allows users to identify trades that enable the most efficient risk/return tradeoffs. "The new version enables users to attribute changes in portfolio key metrics to changes in key market drivers and identify potential future changes with increased confidence", according to Dr. Jabbour. "This is a very important capability that leverages recent advances in bid data analytics to enable an improved understanding of changes in portfolio performance", he added.

May 4, 2017 - Abacus announces the release of SATURN 6.0

Abacus Solutions Inc announced that it has released SATURN 6.0, a new version of its flagship integrated CTRM system. SATURN is an enterprise business management system that integrates several key applications including Generation Management, Trade Management, Credit Management, Market Analysis, Business Intelligence, and Retail Management. SATURN facilitates improved decisions and helps analyze corporate and functional risks, revenues, costs, and profits for a portfolio of plants, trades, and other assets. Using modern technology, SATURN helps users realize significant benefits and gain unique and sustainable competitive advantages.

"We are very pleased to announce the release of SATURN 6.0, a new version that offers important functional and performance improvements driven by user suggestions and evolving market needs" said Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "SATURN 6.0 offers expanded capabilities, improved performance, and enhanced integration of all applications" according to Dr. Jabbour.

December 8, 2016 - Abacus announces new capabilities of its flagship software system SATURN

Abacus Solutions Inc announced the release of new capabilities of its flagship CTRM system, SATURN. According to Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, "We are pleased to announce the release of new capabilities that enable user-configurable data visualization of market curves analysis." SATURN offers seamless integration with various data sources and data providers including market curves and weather. "The new version enables users to receive automated analysis of changes in market prices and weather forecasts", according to Dr. Jabbour. "This is a very important capability that allows users to save time developing and maintaining internal visualization tools; most importantly, it allows users to gain insights and quickly develop actionable trading strategies that capitalize on recent market prices and weather forecasts", he added.

May 6, 2016 - Abacus announces the release of SATURN 5.0

Abacus Solutions Inc announced that it has released SATURN 5.0, a new version of its flagship integrated CTRM system. SATURN is an enterprise business management system that integrates several key applications including Generation Management, Trade Management, Credit Management, Market Analysis, Business Intelligence, and Retail Management. SATURN facilitates improved decisions and helps analyze corporate and functional risks, revenues, costs, and profits for a portfolio of plants, trades, and other assets. Using modern technology, SATURN helps users realize significant benefits and gain unique and sustainable competitive advantages.

"We are very pleased to announce the release of SATURN 5.0, a new version that offers important functional and performance improvements driven by user suggestions and evolving market needs" said Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "SATURN 5.0 offers expanded capabilities, improved performance, and enhanced integration of all applications" according to Dr. Jabbour.

December 5, 2015 - Dr. Jabbour, speaks at the Sand Hill Angels annual meeting in Palo Alto

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced that Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, Abacus founder and CEO presented "Managing Hidden Traps in Decision Making" at the Sand Hill Angels annual meeting in Palo Alto, California.

May 7, 2015 - Abacus announces the release of SATURN 4.0

Abacus Solutions Inc announced that it has released SATURN 4.0, a new version of its flagship integrated CTRM system. SATURN is an enterprise business management system that integrates several key applications including Generation Management, Trade Management, Credit Management, Market Analysis, Business Intelligence, and Retail Management. SATURN facilitates improved decisions and helps analyze corporate and functional risks, revenues, costs, and profits for a portfolio of plants, trades, and other assets. Using modern technology, SATURN helps users realize significant benefits and gain unique and sustainable competitive advantages.

"We are very pleased to announce the release of SATURN 4.0, a new version that offers important functional and performance improvements driven by user suggestions and evolving market needs" said Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "SATURN 4.0 offers expanded capabilities, improved performance, and enhanced integration of all applications" according to Dr. Jabbour.

January 6, 2014 - Abacus announces the release of SATURN 3.0

Abacus Solutions Inc announced that it has released SATURN 3.0, a new version of its flagship integrated CTRM system. SATURN is an enterprise business management system that integrates several key applications including Generation Management, Trade Management, Credit Management, Market Analysis, Business Intelligence, and Retail Management. SATURN facilitates improved decisions and helps analyze corporate and functional risks, revenues, costs, and profits for a portfolio of plants, trades, and other assets. Using modern technology, SATURN helps users realize significant benefits and gain unique and sustainable competitive advantages.

"We are very pleased to announce the release of SATURN 3.0, a new version that offers important functional and performance improvements driven by user suggestions and evolving market needs" said Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "SATURN 3.0 offers expanded capabilities, improved performance, and enhanced integration of all applications" according to Dr. Jabbour.

September 16, 2013 - Abacus announces new advanced data management capabilities

Abacus Solutions Inc announced the release of a new version of its flagship CTRM system, SATURN, that supports very fast data processing and data retrieval. According to Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, "We are pleased to announce the release of a new SATURN version that supports user configurable processing of reports that include very large amounts of data and allows users to access results within a few seconds." SATURN offers stochastic simulation capabilities that enable users to perform a large number of simulations for a large number of markets, generation units, and trades, and to store simulated results using hourly granularity. "A simulation run can generate over 1TB of data; users need to be able to retrieve any report with any user-selected configuration within a few seconds", according to Dr. Jabbour. "That is exactly what the new version of SATURN enables", he added.

September 14, 2012 - Abacus Solutions Inc and MeteoGroup announce optimized renewable power modeling solutions

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise Commodity Trading and Risk Management (CTRM) system, SATURN, has entered into a partnering agreement with MeteoGroup, one of the world's largest independent weather businesses. MeteoGroup's weather data is integrated into SATURN to simulate optimized scenarios for renewable power output.

MeteoGroup provides Abacus with historical weather data and weather forecasts for all weather elements known to impact on the price of power and commodities. Abacus then applies the data to their flagship system SATURN which produces optimized power output solutions for renewable power plants.

The integration of MeteoGroup data within the SATURN CTRM platform will provide accurate and timely power output models for energy companies and financial services trading on weather critical markets.

Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager, Abacus Solutions Inc commented: "We are pleased to partner with MeteoGroup and offer joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantages. Our clients rely on a broad set of skills, tools and capabilities to meet their business needs. Through a carefully established Alliance and Partnership Program (APP), Abacus Solutions Inc. enriches its own offerings with best of breed tools and services from a select group of partners."

Kevin Stenson, Business Manager, MeteoGroup USA added: "The power output of renewable installations is highly weather-dependent. The combination of MeteoGroup's reliable and accurate weather information, with Abacus advanced CTRM system SATURN, will enable customers to optimize their trading strategies."

July 16, 2012 - Abacus Solutions Inc and IIR Energy announce partnership

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise Commodity Trading and Risk Management (CTRM) system, SATURN, has entered into a partnering agreement with IIR Energy, a division of Industrial Info Resources, the leading provider of supply-side market intelligence for the energy market including Electric Power Generation, Oil & Gas Storage, Transmission and Production, Alternative Fuels such as Biodiesel, Ethanol, and Coal Gasification, and the Petroleum Refining industry.

"We are pleased to partner with IIR Energy and use their high quality data in our generation simulation model, SATURN, to offer our customers optimized solutions and unparalleled market insights", said Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions. "Our clients rely on a broad set of skills, tools and capabilities to meet their business needs. Through a carefully established Alliance and Partnership Program (APP), Abacus Solutions Inc. enriches its own offerings with best of breed tools and services from a select group of partners" he added.

"In today's challenging energy markets, our clients demand integrated, transparent, reliable, and easy to use market models. By integrating the IIR generation outage data with the SATURN generation simulation model, our joint clients can leverage their market insight and fundamental data sources to monetize and maximize their portfolio", said Paul Copello, President of IIR Energy. "This newly created partnership will truly give market participants an edge in understanding and predicting market momentum"

June 04, 2012 - Dr. Jabbour speaks to leading publication Commodities-Now

In an interview with Guy Isherwood, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of leading publication Commodities-Now (www.commodities-now.com), Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise CTRM system, SATURN, addressed the latest trends and developments in commodities trading and risk management in the energy industry. The following is a summary of the key points made by Dr. Jabbour:

The market seems divided into 2 groups: Those looking for an established legacy vendor with a large number of users and those looking for vendors that can best meet well defined needs; the first group includes conservative risk-averse companies while the latter includes progressive players seeking innovative nimble vendors.
Users are becoming increasingly sophisticated and more demanding; what was suitable 3-4 years ago is no longer acceptable. The widespread use of smart phones and tablets and the quick access to information is impacting user needs and expectations of CTRM systems; users are demanding faster, easier, and intuitive access to information.
Increased awareness of the powerful computational capabilities of modern architecture 64-bit multi-core processors encouraged users to demand full simulation risk and portfolio management solutions that were previously unattainable without complicated and expensive hardware configurations.
Now that almost all companies have deployed some version of a first generation ETRM/CTRM system in conjunction with several supporting tools and systems, users are increasingly aware of the costs and risks of after the fact brute force integration. This painful experience has been a key motivator of many recent replacement activities.

May 15, 2012 - Abacus and Energy Fundamentals announce the Integration of their Solutions

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise CTRM system, SATURN, announced that it entered into a partnering agreement with Energy Fundamentals, a Swiss based company that specialises in providing fundamental power market data and analytical solutions within the European Energy Market.

"We are pleased to partner with Energy Fundamentals and offer joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantage" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc. "This solution integrates fundamental power market data from the Energy Fundamentals European Power System Insight (EPSI) platform directly with the full simulation generation modelling capability of SATURN, and will provide our clients in Europe with a one stop shop for power market modelling" according to Mr. Dawes.

"The Energy Fundamentals EPSI platform provides users with high quality power market fundamental data and a highly user-friendly market modelling tool" said Dr. Twan Vollebregt, CEO of Energy Fundamentals. "Through this partnership, clients will be able to use high quality EPSI fundamental power market data consistently throughout their analysis, and focus on applying the right analytical tool for the task. We welcome the partnership with Abacus Solutions Inc, and are pleased to broaden our clients access to detailed generation modelling using SATURN" according to Dr Vollebregt.

March 19, 2012- Abacus joins the International Energy Credit Association and announces a new Credit Management application

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise CTRM system, SATURN, announced that it joined the International Energy Credit Association (IECA) and announced the release of a new version of SATURN's Credit Management application.

"I am pleased to announce that Abacus Solutions has joined the International Energy Credit Association (IECA) and started to participate in the IECA meetings and conferences" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc. "The latest release of our flagship CTRM software system, SATURN offers unparalleled credit risk simulation capabilities that we developed to meet emerging needs and based on client requests" according to Mr. Dawes. "We look forward to presenting our offerings to the IECA members and to exploring how SATURN advanced capabilities can help meet their emerging needs", he continued.

December 11, 2011 - Oglethorpe Power Corporation licenses SATURN

Abacus Solutions Inc, Los Altos Hills, California, announced that it signed a new SATURN End User License agreement with Oglethorpe Power Corporation (Oglethorpe), one of the largest power supply cooperatives in the US with more than $8 billion in assets serving 39 Electric Membership Corporations which provide electricity to more than 4 million Georgia citizens. Under the terms of the agreement, Oglethorpe is licensed to use Abacus flagship software, SATURN.

Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions Inc, said "we are pleased that Oglethorpe, one of the largest power supply cooperatives in the US, has selected SATURN as their new market analysis and production simulation system." According to Dr. Jabbour, "this demonstrates that SATURN offers features and capabilities that are not matched by existing systems; it further demonstrates that SATURN is a system that meets the emerging needs of Generation and Transmission cooperatives, a group of companies that constitute a very important segment in the US power supply industry."

According to Mr. Reggie Brett, Lead Planning Analyst at Oglethorpe, "Our long term planning requires market and production simulation capabilities that support a diverse fleet of generation assets. We selected SATURN because of four main features: Ease of use, advanced stochastic simulation, fast performance, and advanced optimization capabilities."

August 18, 2011 - Dr. Jabbour speaks at the Coal-Gen Conference & Exhibition in Columbus, Ohio

Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise CTRM system, SATURN, gave a presentation on Optimizing Fuel Purchases and Allocation Decisions at the Coal-Gen Conference & Exhibition in Columbus Ohio. According to Dr. Jabbour, coal burning power companies face increasingly challenging coal purchase and management decisions due to increased operational complexity, increased environmental issues, increased cost pressures, and thinning operating margins. Decision makers face complicated economic tradeoffs among different coal fuels that offer different characteristics (heat content, sulfur content, ash content, etc.) at different prices and that allow a generation unit to operate at different conditions (operating ranges, heat rates, etc..). Coal purchase and fuel allocation decisions are typically made using legacy production cost models that provide good and reasonable solutions. Increased price volatility (commodity and transportation) and thinning margins have complicated these decisions and created a need for more advanced solutions. Dr. Jabbour presented an optimization framework that facilitates improved decisions and allows coal companies to optimize fuel purchase and allocation decisions.

May 19, 2011 - Dr. Jabbour delivers a Webinar for the American Coal Council

Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise CTRM system, SATURN, delivered a webinar for the American Coal Council (ACC) Utility Coal Compliance Webcast Series. Dr. Jabbour presented an optimization framework that facilitates improved decisions and allows coal companies to optimize fuel purchase and allocation decisions. The framework addresses the following issues:

How to allocate coal purchases among various coal fuel alternatives?
What fuel blends offer the most cost effective fuels that help maximize operating margins and/or reduce operating costs?
When to burn different fuels and different fuel blends?
How to allocate a limited amount of fuel to different power plants?
How to update operating plans during the year?

Dr. Jabbour explained that recent application of the optimization framework indicates that a typical coal burning company with an annual budget of around 200 million dollars can improve its operating margins (and/or reduce its operating costs) by 3-5 percent; that is a 6-10 million dollars per year.

February 28, 2011 - Abacus announces partnership with Wipro Technologies

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise CTRM system, SATURN, announced that it entered into a partnering agreement with Wipro Technologies, a division of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT), the first PCMM Level 5 and SEI CMM Level 5 certified global IT services organization.

"We are pleased to partner with Wipro Technologies and offer joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantages" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Our clients rely on a broad set of skills, tools and capabilities to meet their business needs. Through a carefully established Alliance and Partnership Program (APP), Abacus Solutions Inc enriches its own offerings with best of breed tools and services from a select group of partners" according to Mr. Dawes.

"We are very excited about our partnership with Abacus Solutions Inc" commented Tom O'Meara, ETRM Global Practice Head of Wipro Technologies. "Wipro works with alliance partners to offer compelling business propositions for the customers. Our alignment with the leaders across various industries enables us to provide our customers with world-class solutions that transform their business processes. The customers are always challenged to decide on the best-fit of technology and vendors, and Wipro being a trusted advisor helps customers optimize their business. With a rapidly expanding footprint in the ETRM domain across the globe, we look forward to working with Abacus Solutions in providing innovative and cost efficient ETRM solutions to the market."

January 24, 2011 - Abacus announces partnership with syseca

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise CTRM system, SATURN, announced that it entered into a partnering agreement with syseca, a Swiss based independent IT company that specializes in providing integrated solutions within the Energy Market.

"We are pleased to partner with syseca and offer joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantages" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Our clients rely on a broad set of skills, tools and capabilities to meet their business needs. Through a carefully established Alliance and Partnership Program (APP), Abacus Solutions Inc enriches its own offerings with best of breed tools and services from a select group of partners" according to Mr. Dawes.

"syseca provides the leading pan-European scheduling system EDIS which complements the CTRM system SATURN, delivering a powerful solution for energy traders. Users benefit from a reliable and easy-to-use tool in their daily settlement and time-critical scheduling process without being confronted by technological issues. syseca guarantees timely adaptation to the ever changing energy market without disturbing the continuous operation of the CTRM system" according to Mr. Ernst Killer, business development manager, syseca.

December 20, 2010 - Energy Metro Desk publishes Dr. Jabbour's article on integrating Generation, Trading and Risk Management

US-based Energy Metro Desk (http://www.scudderpublishing.com/) published "Integrating Generation, Trading and Risk Management", an article by Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN. The article explains that "industry analysts agree on the need for improved management strategies and supporting tools to achieve stable and sustainable operations. More specifically, market participants in the power industry need improved tools in four key business areas: Generation management, trading management, risk management, and integration."

According to Dr. Jabbour, "recent advances in hardware and software technologies enable implementing needed highly integrated applications including advanced generation management, trading management and risk management tools. Legacy, silo-focused and simplistic methods are no longer adequate to meet emerging needs and challenges." The energy industry "is no longer the safe business it used to be during the regulated environment. It is becoming increasingly competitive and will most certainly witness additional survival of the fittest shakeouts", he added.

Download full article: Integrating Generation, Trading and Risk Management

December 9, 2010 - Abacus delivers a webcast about the impacts of the Dodd-Frank regulation on energy trading

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, delivered a webcast on the impacts of the Dodd-Frank Act on energy trading and risk management. Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, Abacus founder and CEO, and Mr. Mike Gill, Senior Policy Advisor, Crowell & Moring, LLP discussed key implications, implementation timeline, and jurisdictional issues (FERC, State, CFTC, SEC) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act including new reporting requirements, capital and margin requirements, clearing, position limits, swap data repositories, derivatives clearing, swap dealers, operational challenges, valuation issues, and data management requirements. The presenters identified key challenges faced by users of legacy ETRM systems including data management and integration, performance challenges, and system architecture; they described how modern systems meet evolving requirements using technological advances, advanced data management, and modern BI technology.

Dr. Jabbour noted several critical areas including a robust reporting engine capable of creating real time user-configurable reports; a strategy to meet potentially conflicting requirements of regulatory authorities including the CFTC, FERC, state agencies, ISO/RTOs and others; trading activity surveillance and real time position monitoring to ensure full compliance and avoidance of likely onerous penalties; and a strategy to address record maintenance and data retrieval needs.

December 2, 2010 - Commodities-Now publishes Dr. Jabbour's article on full simulation real-time portfolio management

UK-based Commodities-Now (http://www.commodities-now.com) published "Game Changer: Full-Simulation Real-Time Portfolio Management", an article by Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN. The article discusses "new developments that enable the challenging application of modern portfolio theory in energy trading and risk management. Senior management and corporate directors are raising the bar on risk managers. Recent market turbulence and on-going market volatility have heightened the importance of efficient and effective risk management practices, a situation that requires and necessitates the use of improved tools and techniques. Recent advances and innovations are enabling integrated real-time full simulation risk and portfolio management. Management expects solid well founded solutions and they expect them when they ask for them - in real-time."

According to Dr. Jabbour, "SATURN is viewed as a game changer technology, primarily because it enables much needed important applications that have not been achievable despite many attempts in recent years." It is "a second generation CTRM technology that capitalizes on recent hardware/software advances and offers computational and performance capabilities that enable real time full simulation portfolio and risk management", he added.

Download full article: Game Changer: Full-Simulation Real-Time Portfolio Management

October 29, 2010 - Abacus announces an expanded solution for retail energy management

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced an expanded retail energy management solution that offers new and improved functionality to meet evolving market needs and requirements.

capabilities based on users feedback and requests. The new version includes more detailed modeling of customer migration and shopping, expanded representation of retail charges, additional load modeling alternatives, and more detailed reporting" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc.

October 20, 2010 - Abacus announces partnership with Agiboo

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise CTRM system, SATURN, announced that it entered into a partnering agreement with Agiboo, a Dutch based consulting organization, specializing in commodity trading and risk management solutions

"We are pleased to partner with Agiboo and offer joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantages" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Our clients rely on a broad set of skills, tools and capabilities to meet their business needs. Through a carefully established Alliance and Partnership Program (APP), Abacus Solutions Inc enriches its own offerings with best of breed tools and services from a select group of partners" according to Mr. Dawes.

"We are pleased to partner with Abacus Solutions Inc and see SATURN as a value-added solution for the CTRM market. It is important to fit solutions to real needs and challenges in trading and risk management, allowing the industry to benefit from the unique capabilities SATURN provides" said Jan van den Brom managing partner of Agiboo.

September 30, 2010 - Dr. Jabbour, speaks at the Mid-Continent Energy Marketers Association conference in New Orleans

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced that Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, Abacus founder and CEO presented "Managing Hidden Traps in Decision Making" at the Mid-Continent Energy Marketers Association Fall 2010 conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

August 27, 2010 - Abacus announces an expanded credit risk management solution

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced an expanded credit risk management solution that offers new and improved functionality to meet evolving market needs and requirements.

"We added several capabilities based on users feedback and requests. The new version includes enhanced modeling of secured and unsecured credits, expanded margining and netting capabilities, and improved handling of A/Rs and A/Ps" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc.

June 10, 2010 - CommodityAlert interviews Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, Abacus founder and CEO

Dr. Gary M. Vasey, Managing Director, Europe and AsiaPac at CommodityAlert interviewed Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN and discussed Abacus recent developments and accomplishments. According to Dr. Vasey, "SATURN is described as a next generation ETRM system with breakthrough real time full simulation portfolio optimization. I was interested in getting an update about the product since my initial review prior to its commercial launch." The interview focused on some of SATURN's unique and differentiating features, particularly in the area of real-time full-simulation portfolio management and its ability to offer users the benefits of implementing the much needed and challenging efficient frontier optimization.

"We are very pleased that the market has recognized SATURN's unique capabilities and that several key market participants are now realizing significant operational benefits and competitive advantages by using our system" said Dr. Jabbour.

June 4, 2010 - Abacus announces hosted solutions for Portfolio Management, Fuel Procurement, Operations Planning, & Asset Valuation

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced that it has started to offer hosted solutions that support key multi-million dollar decision processes in the energy industry. Abacus service is aimed at helping energy companies reduce operating costs and improve operating margins in four critical business activities:

Portfolio Management - Service includes finding position changes to improve and optimize a portfolio risk/return balance. Solutions include trading recommendations in specific markets.

Fuel Procurement - Service includes optimizing fuel purchase decisions for a fleet of generation units. Solutions include specific fuel mix recommendations including spot/contract and amount/quality.

Operations Planning - Service includes developing an optimized generation operations plan that meets operational and environmental constraints and maximizes operating margins.

Asset Valuation - Service includes providing financial valuation for generation units based on long term simulations of asset operation under different market prices and conditions.

Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions Inc, said "many energy companies continue to make complex multi-million dollar decisions using spreadsheets and outdated software systems. In doing so, they end up with reasonable decisions but often not the best possible decision. Our service offers improved solutions that reduce costs and improve margins by several million dollars - we guarantee it."

"We decided to start offering this service in response to customer requests - this is a market pull situation" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Market participants are becoming increasingly demanding and are now seeking best possible solutions; they feel they cannot leave money on the table" according to Mr. Dawes. "Our offering includes a full-service hosted solution that helps our customers avoid the hassle of setting up and supporting both hardware and software systems; it is targeted toward small and medium size companies; access is provided through an encrypted SSL connection to a dedicated secure database. Needless to say, customers always have the option of licensing the software and setting it up on their own hardware" said Mr. Dawes.

May 17, 2010 - Walmart Texas Retail Energy selects SATURN as its ETRM system

Abacus Solutions Inc announced that Texas Retail Energy (TRE), a wholly owned Walmart entity, selected SATURN as its deal capture and risk management software system. TRE manages the energy supply for Walmart and Sam's club stores and distribution centers including over 300 stores in Texas and over 400 stores in the UK.

Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions Inc, said "we are pleased that TRE selected SATURN to manage trading and power supply in both ERCOT and the UK and we look forward to seeing SATURN support TRE's growth plans and expansion in other markets. We are proud that the trading organization of the largest and most efficient retail company in the world chose our ETRM solution and equally proud that our joint teams achieved a record deployment period of less than 5 months from contract signature to go-live."

According to Dr. Jabbour, "SATURN provides the Competitive Energy Operations at TRE with an integrated solution and straight through processing including front office deal capture and valuation, mid office risk and position management, and back office scheduling and reporting. We are very pleased that Abacus high quality and responsive support is helping our client meet their needs and address their challenges."

April 20, 2010 - Abacus announces the release of SATURN 2.0

Abacus Solutions Inc announced that it has released SATURN 2.0, a new version of its flagship integrated ETRM system. SATURN is an enterprise business management system that integrates multiple corporate applications. It facilitates improved decisions and helps analyze corporate and functional risks, revenues, costs, and profits for a portfolio of plants, trades, and other assets. Using modern technology, SATURN helps users realize significant benefits and gain unique and sustainable competitive advantages.

"We are very pleased to announce the release of SATURN 2.0, a new version that offers many enhancements driven by user suggestions and evolving market needs" said Salim J. Jabbour, founder and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "SATURN 2.0 offers expanded capabilities in key applications including trade valuation, market simulation, asset management, and portfolio optimization" according to Dr. Jabbour.

"With the release of SATURN 2.0, work is already under way on many new enhancements for both the north American and European markets" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Existing and new users can expect to have access to another new release later this year. Given the overwhelming market interest in SATURN since its commercial launch, we expanded our development efforts to meet customer needs and market changes" according to Mr. Dawes.

March 24, 2010 - Dr. Jabbour, Abacus CEO, speaks at the CCRO Energy Risk Priorities Summit 2010

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced that Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, Abacus founder and CEO, participated in the Committee of Chief Risk Officers (CCRO) Energy Risk Priorities Summit 2010 held in the Woodlands, Texas. Dr. Jabbour addressed the conference on the subject of "Optimizing Your Risk Management Backbone: System Priorities for 2010 and Beyond" and described recent trends, lessons learned from implementation projects, and key requirements for the successful deployment of ETRM systems.

In his presentation, Dr. Jabbour encouraged participants to raise the bar on their expectations and indicated that "recent innovation and developments are enabling advanced capabilities that were not achievable a few years ago". According to Dr. Jabbour, "integration challenges are becoming too costly and too risky; market players are rethinking their systems strategy and are increasingly requiring significant reductions in the number of systems and spreadsheets in their trading and risk management operations."

March 11, 2010 - Abacus launches a series of educational webcasts

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, today announced that it launched a series of educational webcasts addressing emerging issues in the energy trading and risk management business.

"New risks are emerging almost daily in the dynamic and volatile energy markets. Our webcasts are intended to help participants learn methods and techniques that can help them gain a sustainable competitive advantage and meet the challenges of the increasingly competitive and complex energy trading and asset management business" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc. "It is very obvious that market participants are looking for high quality educational content; our first webcast on Integrated Enterprise Risk Management (IERM) was attended by 86 industry professionals from 8 countries" according to Mr. Dawes.

March 1, 2010 - Abacus announces a 15-article series on Integrated Enterprise Risk Management (IERM)

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, today announced that it has completed a 15 article series in collaboration with the Energy Metro Desk, discussing the building blocks of Integrated Enterprise Risk Management (IERM). The concept has been receiving significant attention and interest by industry experts and practitioners since Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, Abacus CEO and author of the IERM series, introduced it in September 2008.

"We are pleased to have collaborated with the Energy Metro Desk on this groundbreaking series. IERM is the next generation enterprise risk management framework that integrates transaction-based ETRM with sophisticated risk management and decision support tools. IERM is helping progressive energy companies meet the challenges of the increasingly competitive and complex energy trading and asset management business" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc. "IERM is the process through which an organization integrates all key tools and applications used in the analysis and management of costs, revenues, profits and risks for a portfolio of power plants, trades, loads, and miscellaneous other assets. When implemented correctly, IERM can significantly reduce integration costs and risks, and can improve decision quality" according to Mr. Dawes.

"Since the inception of ETRM systems in the early 90s, vendors, system integrators and industry users have struggled with the big challenge of integrating their enterprise tools and applications. We believe this series offers a conceptual solution and explains how to achieve this elusive objective and how to create a fully simulation based, fully integrated enterprise risk management capability" said Mr. John Sodergreen, Editor-in-Chief of the Energy Metro Desk. "IERM may not roll off your tongue as easily as ETRM (energy trading risk management), or ERM (Enterprise Risk Management), but give it time. This latest acronym in the risk space will likely become standard lingo before you know it" according to Mr. Sodergreen.

December 7, 2009 - Abacus announces partnership with DataGenic

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced that it signed a partnering agreement with DataGenic, the international specialists in the delivery of data management solutions.

"We are pleased to partner with DataGenic and offer joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantages" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Our clients rely on a broad set of skills, tools and capabilities to meet their business needs. Through a carefully established Alliance and Partnership Program (APP), Abacus Solutions Inc enriches its own offerings with best of breed tools and services from a select group of partners" according to Mr Dawes.

"We are very excited about our new partnership with Abacus Solutions Inc" commented Richard Quigley, CEO of DataGenic. "Like Abacus Solutions Inc, DataGenic's philosophy is to develop and quickly deliver solutions that are attuned to client needs, without the steep investment, deployment lag and maintenance associated with proprietary offerings. DataGenic's high performance and versatile data management solutions have been adopted by many organisations across the world and we are looking forward to working with Abacus Solutions Inc and their clients in providing advanced data management capabilities that will augment and enhance the powerful risk management capabilities offered by Abacus Solutions Inc".

June 30, 2009 - Abacus announces partnership with Rackspace Hosting, Inc.

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, today announced that they have entered into a Select partnership in the Solution Partner Network with Rackspace™ Hosting, (NYSE: RAX), the world's leader and specialist in hosting. This agreement is designed to add mutual value for their current clients and to increase targeted exposure and reputation for both companies.

"We are pleased to partner with Rackspace and offer joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantages" said Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Our clients rely on a broad set of skills, tools, and capabilities to meet their business needs. Through a carefully established Alliance and Partnership Program (APP), Abacus Solutions Inc enriches its own offerings with best of breed tools and services from a select group of partners", according to Dr. Jabbour.

"We are pleased to add Abacus to our Solution Partner Network and we look forward to working with them" said Robert Fuller, Vice President, Worldwide Channel Sales of Rackspace. "We will strive to build hosting services that fit the needs of SATURN clients and enable small companies and large enterprises to access a very advanced technology without the hassles of setting up and maintaining needed IT infrastructure. Our services are backed by our award-winning Fanatical Support™ and our service level agreement, which includes our 100% network uptime guarantee. This should allow Abacus to concentrate on their customers, rather than worrying about their IT infrastructure. The scalability of our joint service should streamline the growth of the SATURN application and help alleviate infrastructure obsolescence costs."

June 26, 2009 - Abacus announces collaboration with leading energy market software firm Utilisoft

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced that it entered into a new collaborative relationship with Utilisoft, a software firm that provides energy market integration solutions to over 75 companies in several areas including energy trading, retail, metering, and distribution. Utilisoft enables the effective exchange and use of data within and between energy companies in accordance with market processes and offers market compliance for the UK and Australian energy trading markets. Abacus and Utilisoft plan to introduce a next generation integration system for the US energy trading market through a joint initiative. Utilisoft has offices in the UK and Australia and has been the leading provider of market interaction solutions to the energy sector for twelve years.

"We are pleased to partner with Utilisoft and offer joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantages" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Our clients rely on a broad set of skills, tools, and capabilities to meet their business needs. Through a carefully established Alliance and Partnership Program (APP), Abacus Solutions Inc enriches its own offerings with best of breed tools and services from a select group of partners" according to Mr. Dawes.

"Utilisoft is delighted to collaborate with Abacus and offer our joint customers the benefits of our best of breed market interaction and integration tools and processes" said John Furness, Managing Director of Utilisoft. "Abacus is emerging as a leading solutions provider in the energy trading market and shares many characteristics with Utilisoft, including the ability to react quickly, decisively, and responsively to customer needs and demands" according to Mr. Furness.

June 18, 2009 - Abacus partners with UK-based consulting firm Baringa

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced that it signed a partnering agreement with Baringa, a UK-based international consulting firm that delivers strategic and practical programs to the energy, utilities and financial services sectors.

"We are pleased to partner with Baringa and offer joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantages" said Simon Dawes, Business Development Manager of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Our clients rely on a broad set of skills, tools, and capabilities to meet their business needs. Through a carefully established Alliance and Partnership Program (APP), Abacus Solutions Inc enriches its own offerings with best of breed tools and services from a select group of partners" according to Mr. Dawes.

"Baringa's team of industry leading ETRM consultants makes significant differences in trading operations through the implementation of market leading vendor solutions. Increasingly, our asset backed trading clients are seeking integrated solutions that bring asset optimisation capabilities together with core transaction management processes" said Nick Tallantyre of Baringa Partners. "The SATURN product from Abacus Solutions Inc has been developed to address the needs of sophisticated buyers looking for key strengths in the asset optimisation and stochastic risk measurement space. A new generation technical architecture enables SATURN to achieve unparalleled results for users with a significant focus on system performance" according to Mr. Tallantyre.

June 12, 2009 - Abacus partners with LIM, the world’s premier source for energy data

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced that it signed a partnering agreement with LIM, the world's premier source for extensive high quality energy data and the tools to analyze such data.

"We are pleased to partner with LIM and offer joint products and services that enable our clients to achieve operational excellence and gain and sustain competitive advantages" said Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Our clients rely on a broad set of skills, tools, and capabilities to meet their business needs. Through a carefully established Alliance and Partnership Program (APP), Abacus Solutions Inc enriches its own offerings with best of breed tools and services from a select group of partners" according to Dr. Jabbour.

"When you have a Porsche, you need premium fuel to go along with it and run it" said Tony Kolton, president of LIM. "Our data is the perfect fuel for the SATURN ETRM system; together we offer best of breed tools and solutions" he added.

May 25, 2009 - Abacus joins the Mid-Continent Energy Marketers Association

The Mid-Continent Energy Marketers Association (MEMA) announced today that Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, has joined MEMA as an associate member.

"The MEMA Board of Directors is extremely pleased to welcome Abacus Solutions Inc. as MEMA's newest Associated member and look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship" said Mr. Michael B. Critchley, Executive Director and CEO of the Mid-Continent Energy Marketers Association.

"We are pleased to join the Mid-Continent Energy Marketers Association (MEMA) and we look forward to working with MEMA members" said Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "MEMA includes key market participants in the energy industry in North America; our membership will facilitate their access to our flagship technology, SATURN, a modern software system that offers energy marketers and traders risk management and decision support tools with unparalleled speed, ease of use, and accuracy through seamless integration of key capabilities including market analysis, generation optimization, load analysis, credit management, financial analysis, business intelligence, ISO integration, and portfolio management", according to Dr. Jabbour.

April 7, 2009 - Abacus named “2009 Cool Vendor” by leading analyst firm Gartner

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, has been selected by Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT), the world's leading information technology research and advisory company, for inclusion in the firm's "Cool Vendors in Energy and Utilities, 2009" report.

The report stated, "This research highlights vendors whose technologies provide an innovative approach to traditional utility business processes, as well as vendors whose solutions address new challenges caused by energy utility transformation... Any energy merchant or utility in any region should be interested in a close coupling between ETRM and Generation Optimization functionality or in improving the connectivity between emissions management and trading and generation optimization. While the established requirements around deal capture, position management and reporting, straight through processing and market and credit risk management and reporting are well covered by many ETRM vendors, not many venture into Generation Optimization, one of Abacus's strengths.

"We are honored to be named by Gartner as a 'Cool Vendor' in the energy and utility space. We believe this prestigious award distinguishes SATURN from other legacy ETRM systems and validates our innovation and our achievements" said Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. " As the only full 21 st century ETRM system, SATURN offers many risk management and decision support solutions with unparalleled speed, ease, and accuracy through the seamless integration of 12 key capabilities including market simulation, generation optimization, parameterization, load analysis, trade capture, trade valuation, credit management, financial analysis, business intelligence, ISO integration, risk management, and portfolio management"

According to the Gartner report, "Since the early 1990s, Energy Trading and Risk Management (ETRM) development has moved in many directions, including wider cross-commodity operations, wider support for financial instruments and physical logistics, improved market and credit risk. Abacus Solutions, through its Saturn application, has a unique offering in this domain - combining extensive ETRM functional coverage with Generation Analysis and Optimization. Covering a wide range of generation asset types (including Thermal, Storage and Renewables) in depth, Saturn has extensive configuration and integration options as well as traditional and SaaS delivery options."

"Our customers are gaining significant competitive advantages by transforming overwhelming data into meaningful and actionable information", said Dr. Jabbour. "SATURN enables them to meet growing business and risk management challenges and facilitates their data management needs and decision making processes. Their success in using our software helped create this award and recognition."

March 25, 2009 – Abacus expands SATURN support into Europe from London, UK

Abacus Solutions Inc, the developer of the integrated enterprise ETRM system, SATURN, announced that it hired Mr. Simon Dawes to expand its global marketing and sales into Europe from London in the United Kingdom.

"We are pleased to announce the addition of Simon to our team" said Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc. "Simon has the ideal mix of skills, experience, and expertise needed to achieve our short and long term goals. We look forward to Simon implementing initiatives to reach out and present our innovative software to the global energy industry."

Prior to joining Abacus, Simon held senior account executive and business development positions with ORACLE, D&B and LIM where he was responsible for sales and marketing of enterprise software and data management solutions in the energy and financial services industries. Simon has over 15 years of business development experience and extensive account and customer relationship management expertise; he is a native of the United Kingdom and holds a BA Honors in Geography.

"I am very excited to join Abacus and take part in brining the innovative software system SATURN to the energy industry” said Simon Dawes. “Having spent lots of time talking to software users in the energy industry, I am keenly aware of their integration challenges and their need for decision support tools and portfolio management capabilities. SATURN addresses both challenges and offers users a unique and differentiated solution.”

At Abacus, Simon will lead the global sales and marketing activities of SATURN, Abacus flagship software system. As the only full 21 st century ETRM system, SATURN enables users to perform many risk management and decision support analyses with unparalleled speed, ease, and accuracy through the seamless integration of 12 key capabilities including market simulation, generation optimization, parameterization, load analysis, trade capture, trade valuation, credit management, financial analysis, business intelligence, ISO integration, risk management, and portfolio management"

"SATURN is the ideal system to meet current market needs and emerging customer challenges" added Dr. Jabbour. "Replacement rates for ETRM systems continue to be very high, exceeding 60% according to some industry analysts. Consolidation is exacerbating integration challenges and creating additional opportunities for integration tools. Users are becoming increasingly sophisticated and painfully aware of the limitations of legacy ETRM systems. Emerging market conditions are requiring more advanced risk management, generation optimization, business intelligence, and decision support systems. Senior management is asking increasingly challenging questions and requiring integrated portfolio management", according to Dr. Jabbour.

December 5, 2008 – Abacus announces a groundbreaking full simulation runtime

Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions Inc announced today an unparalleled groundbreaking runtime with Abacus flagship software system SATURN. According to Dr. Jabbour, “full simulation risk management model runs are notorious for requiring a very long time to execute, even when using the most advanced hardware; this is particularly the case when the analysis includes good modeling of physical generation assets. Such runs can take many hours, even days, to complete; often memory limitations can be a key limiting hindrance.” Dr. Jabbour added “We are pleased to announce today that we have demonstrated a runtime of less than one hour for a full simulation 500-scenario/5-year hourly-granularity case that includes over 50 generation units, over 100 markets, and over 5000 trades.”

According to Dr. Jabbour, “This performance is unparalleled and groundbreaking; SATURN is 20-50 times faster than competing systems. This is attributed to a modern multi-processing, multi-threaded and scalable architecture with a load-balancing capability that handles automatic hardware configuration, spawns threads, and allocates RAM for each process based on case/run memory needs and available hardware.”

September 23, 2008 – Dr. Jabbour gives the keynote presentation at EUCI's Risk Management Conference

Dr. Jabbour gave the keynote presentation at EUCI’s Energy Trading, Transaction and Risk Management (ETRM) conference in Houston, Texas on September 23, 2008. In his speech, “Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) – Are we There Yet”, he stated that ERM remains an elusive goal in the energy industry despite numerous claims by ETRM vendors and system integrators. The presentation outlined the challenges of this much needed capability and offered concrete suggestions to address them. Dr. Jabbour addressed 12 functional areas including Footprint, Data Acquisition, Data Mining, Data Analysis, Data Management, Transaction Management, Data Security & Integrity, Reporting & Presentation, Decision Support, Application & Use, Architecture, and Enterprise Services.

Download full presentation: EUCI ETRM Conference (September 2008): Keynote Presentation of Dr. Salim J. Jabbour

August 15, 2008 – Risk publication The Desk publishes a glowing review of SATURN

John Sodergreen, Editor-in-Chief of Scudder Publishing newsletters, published a glowing review about SATURN in the August 15, 2008 issue of The Desk. He summed up his review with his statement “pretty slick stuff” and elaborated that “Saturn covers 1) Traditional trading/transaction management functionality, 2) Data mining/management, 3) Asset optimization, 4) Risk management, 5) Financial analysis, and 6) Reporting and presentation … Saturn isn’t a slimmed-down version of each discrete function area – this is no “lite” ETRM system. The demo we saw offered layer upon layer of sophisticated portfolio management functionality we’ve not yet seen in a platform designed exclusively for the Web.”

Mr. Sodergreen also addressed how SATURN streamlines business processes and workflows as he described how “simulations can be fully automated; users can set them on a schedule and the system will update market data, develop the necessary simulation parameters (volatilities, correlation factors, etc.), run the simulations, and create the reports without any user mess. One great feature we noted in the parameterization algorithm lets you know if data or details are missing for a specific market or zone. Say you received some data from a broker on a specific market. If numbers or any other details are missing, the tool will flag these areas with a unique color block amidst the sea of numbers on your screen … Saturn was designed to be fully integrated ... All are a click away, from histograms to distributions to price ratios, and hundreds of charting possibilities can be generated on the fly.”

The review concluded with this recommendation: “Saturn ETRM looks to be the real deal. We recommend you make the time to beat this system up yourself. It won’t take long.”

Download full article: The Desk (August 2008): SATURN ETRM

July 7, 2008 – Dr. Jabbour discusses Abacus launch of SATURN with Energy Risk

UK-based Energy Risk magazine published an interview with Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, Abacus founder and CEO, in the System Frontrunner section of the July 2008 issue. According to Dr. Jabbour, “a combination of five features differentiates SATURN from the crowded field of legacy energy trading and risk management (ETRM) systems: integration framework, rigorous analytics, modern architecture, intuitive interface, and easy deployment. The system’s 64-bit, multi-threaded, multi-core architecture enables the use of advanced quantitative solutions across a broad footprint. An elegant and intuitive interface enables a wide range of analysts, managers, and executives to be direct users. A standardized building-block approach streamlines system deployment, one of the most difficult and agonizing software challenges.”

Addressing the system key benefits, Dr. Jabbour noted that “SATURN transforms data into actionable business intelligence and offers tangible benefits. It saves time and costs, reduces risks and mistakes, streamlines data mining, and improves decisions. This is achieved by integrating applications, facilitating reporting and presentations, improving enterprise-wide consistency, and reducing redundancies. Users can easily generate statistics about historic prices, load-weather relationships and generation, and transfer results to PowerPoint and/or other tools – all within 2–3 minutes. Price simulation parameters can be automatically developed from recent data and market quotes. Managers and executives can review performance updates through customized dashboards. Traders can quickly review updated market information and hedge positions as trades are entered into the system.”

Download full article: Energy Risk (July 2008): System Frontrunner Interview with Dr. Salim J. Jabbour

March 31, 2008 – Scottish Power licenses SATURN

Abacus Solutions Inc, Los Altos Hills, California, announced a new SATURN Application Service Provision (ASP) agreement with Scottish Power UK plc, Glasgow, UK. Under the terms of the agreement, Scottish Power is licensed to use Abacus flagship software system, SATURN, and Abacus will provide all necessary hosting services through a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection.

Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions Inc, said “we are pleased to reach this agreement with Scottish Power after several months of extensive testing and validation. This contract is very important as it demonstrates SATURN’s ability to meet the requirements for business management software in Europe including those for an ASP setup. Given Scottish Power’s high standards and requirements, we are pleased of their selection of SATURN.”

According to Mr. Richard Cook, Generation Planning Manager at Scottish Power, “SATURN streamlines our business management workflow and helps us save a significant amount of time; it enables us to perform extensive “what if” analysis very quickly. SATURN has performed 20 times faster than our tools. It is an easy-to-use next generation system. We are very pleased with our collaboration with Abacus.”

February 28, 2008 – PSEG licenses SATURN

Abacus Solutions Inc, Los Altos Hills, California, announced a new SATURN End User License agreement with PSEG Services Corporation, a New Jersey Corporation. Under the terms of the agreement, PSEG is licensed to use Abacus flagship software, SATURN, an enterprise risk management system.

Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions Inc, said “this agreement demonstrates that our recently released software, SATURN, has many features and capabilities that are not matched by existing more established systems. This is particularly important in the context of PSEG’s high standards and requirements.” According to Dr. Jabbour, “this contract was reached after several months of detailed testing and validation through which Abacus demonstrated SATURN advanced capabilities and ease of use, including its easy integration within the infrastructure of a large enterprise.”

According to Mr. Steven B. Oster, Director of Quantitative Analysis at PSEG, “As a large integrated company, our enterprise risk management requires rigorous stochastic modeling of inter-related broad areas including forward and spot market prices, generation assets, and loads. SATURN enables enterprise risk management with an unprecedented mix of analytics, ease, and speed. Abacus was able to meet our needs and provided us with a comprehensive solution.”

March 2, 2007 – Abacus launches its flagship software, SATURN, a next generation ETRM system

Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, CEO and founder of Abacus Solutions Inc, announced today the launch of an enterprise risk management software, SATURN. According to Dr. Jabbour, SATURN is a next generation business management integration framework that facilitates key corporate processes including deal capture, transaction management, data mining, data analysis, decision support, asset management, risk management, financial management and compliance with governance and regulatory requirements. SATURN integrates data capturing, data mining, data analysis, and data presentation across all fundamental areas in the energy industry including markets, plants, trades and loads. It has a wide footprint that includes price simulation, generation optimization, trade capture, retail load, credit analysis, risk management, financial analysis, data mining, reporting and dashboards.

SATURN covers all commodities in great detail, including power (energy, capacity, ancillary services, REC), fuels (oil, gas, coal, nuclear, biomass and other), emission allowances (NOx, SO2, CO2, Hg, PM, VOC), weather, interest rates, foreign exchange, load (electric and gas), electric transmission, gas transportation, gas storage, credit, and insurance products. In addition to advanced analytical features, SATURN offers several other capabilities, including dynamic news feeds, usage records, e-mail notifications, full audit trail, data validation, warning and error messages, detailed diagnostics, newsletters, document sharing, and links with other systems

October 19, 2006 – Abacus prepares to roll out SATURN, an enterprise risk management system

Dr. Gary M. Vasey, General Manager of UtiliPoint Europe and noted expert on energy trading, transaction, and risk management software published a review about Abacus software, SATURN, in the October 19, 2006 issue of UtiliPoint IssueAlert. Dr. Jabbour, Abacus founder and CEO told Dr. Vasey: “I saw an opportunity to solve a growing problem in the energy industry; lack of integration has become too costly and too painful” and added “true integration goes beyond linking a bunch of systems; it involves removing unnecessary redundancies and offering a common scalable platform with broad analytical functionality.” Dr. Vasey noted that “its broad and deep functionality makes SATURN somewhat unique … Based on the demonstration and comments of various users currently testing SATURN, Dr. Jabbour and Abacus seem to just have succeeded.”

Download full article: UtiliPoint International (October 2006): SATURN – An Enterprise Integration and Risk Management Solution

May 03, 2005 – Dr. Jabbour, CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc, warns buyers of ETRM systems

In the May 2005 issue of Energy Risk magazine, Abacus founder and CEO Dr. Salim J. Jabbour cautions buyers of ETRM systems about 5 common mistakes in selecting an ETRM system and offers the following recommendations:

Integration: Strive for a wide stable footprint that is compatible with your infrastructure.

Analytics: Keep a broad perspective and ensure a balanced approach.

Decision Support: Look for vendors with established experience in decision support systems.

IT Matters: Ensure end-to-end modern system architecture and data structures.

Patches and Fixes: Accept only limited patches and fixes; short-cuts are often short-lived.

Download full article: Energy Risk Magazine (May 2005): Buyer Beware (Article by Dr. Salim J. Jabbour)

October 06, 2004 – Energy industry veteran Dr. Salim J. Jabbour starts Abacus Solutions Inc

Dr. Salim J. Jabbour, a 20-year veteran of the energy industry, is now President and CEO of Abacus Solutions Inc, a new consulting and software firm focused on risk management, decision support, and business applications. Previously, Dr. Jabbour was the founder and CEO of Business Management Consulting (BMC), a company he sold to Nexant, Inc in 2001. According to Dr. Jabbour, “the industry shakeout of the last few years created significant challenges and opportunities for software vendors and consulting firms in the energy space. Industry structural changes, corporate strategic re-directions, and software and hardware technological innovations created the need for new business solutions and corporate management systems. Legacy companies are facing great difficulty in trying to deal with these fundamental and disruptive changes; new players are emerging and have started to capitalize on the opportunities. Abacus will play a key role helping energy companies to deal with the challenges of the 21st century by offering modern solutions un-encumbered with legacy thinking and outdated software.”