Contents:

Executive Summary Company Profile Technology Graph Supported Web Platforms Graph Supported Browsers Graph Language/Applet Usage Graph E-Mail Link Graph Technology Gas/Power Management - General Graph Commodities Graph Currency Graph Gas/Power Management - General Gas/Power Management - Power Scheduling Graph Gas/Power Management - Power Scheduling RTO/ISO Power Bidding, Scheduling Dispatch and Settlement Functions Graph RTO/ISO Power Bidding, SchedulingDispatch and Settlement Functions Gas/Power Management - Gas Scheduling Graph Gas/Power Management - Gas Scheduling Risk Management - Reporting and Analysis Graph Risk Management - Reporting and Analysis Credit Risk Management Graph Credit Risk Management Processing Back-Office Functionality Graph Back-Office Functionality Contract Processing Graph Contract Processing Other Functionality Graph External Connectivity Graph Other Functionality Vendor Listing Vendor Additional Information @TheMoment, Inc. ALSTOM EAI Automated Power Exchange, Inc. “APX” ENSYTE Energy Software, Int’l, Inc. Entero Corporation Excelergy Corporation Henwood Energy Services, Inc. Lukens Energy Group Kiodex, Inc. KWI Lloret Data Systems, Inc. LODESTAR Corporation Logical Information Machines Murex S.A. NewEnergy Associates - A Seimens Co. Nexant, Inc. OATI, Inc. OpenLink Software, Inc. Quorum Business Solutions, Inc. RiskAdvisory Software, Inc. SoftSmiths, Inc. SolArc, Inc. TradeCapture, Inc. Vedaris, Ltd. Woodlands Technology, L.L.C.

Summary:

Technology is constantly evolving to meet the emerging needs of business. Things are no different in the energy industry,where the waves of change are transforming how almost every business function is conducted. With new regulations and requirements, as well as the shifts in how business functions are handled, more is being required of internal software systems. Gas and power transaction management and the ability to handle tracking, analysis, scheduling, reporting, and risk management is becoming increasingly critical to energy businesses. These new business requirements are driving software vendors to add new features at an ever-increasing pace. New players have entered the market; old names have fallen by the wayside; function-specialization seem to be the emerging trend in the market. Distinguishing between the different vendors and software systems available has become a challenge to thoselooking to upgrade or invest in a new system. For the past six years, we have been an ctive participant in the energy market. Part of our success can be traced to our ability to see a need within the marketplace and fulfill that need with timely, purposeful information that energy participants cannot readily obtain elsewhere. Methodology Over 100 invitations to participate in a comprehensive online survey were e-mailed to software vendors in the energy transaction sector in January 2003. Follow-up calls were made to those not responding within the first week. The survey consisted of more than 350 questions. There are a number of numerical and text answers that concern vendor company information, however the majority of questions deal with system functionality. For each question, survey participants had the following response options: - Package contains functionality; - Package does not contain functionality; - Functionality available by end of 2003; - Not Applicable New to the 2003 survey, the “Not Applicable” option was made available to participants. This option reflects the ability to show the functionality of software systems that focus only on one or two specific business functions, not all of the functions within the survey. Altogether, 36 vendors completed the survey. Each vendor was also asked to provide any biographies, corporate or marketing materials they felt would be beneficial. How to Use this Report The data was compiled and formatted in easy to follow side-by-side tables for ready comparison. The information is broken down by category so you can quickly access the features most important to the buyer. The report is designed to give a comprehensive overview of the specific features available from a wide number of vendor offerings for energy market participants. It can be used to narrow down the software packages for further investigation. Many vendors offer similar sets of functionality but use different approaches and methodologies to achieve similar goals. Once the choices are narrowed to the vendors meeting the functionality requirements, it is up to the buyer to perform due diligence to ensure those choices meet compatibility requirements of your current or future software systems. Please note that this report is not intended to be an indication of performance or feasibility of any of the software described. It is solely provided as a presentation and comparison of the information provided by the individual vendors. By publishing this report, we do not imply preference or judgment of any specific vendor or software package, and no endorsement should be assumed or implied by the publication of this report.