SoftSmiths Teams up with Direct Energy Optimizing Supply Management Operations

HOUSTON - July 29, 2014 - PRLog -- Houston, TX. – July 22, 2014 – SoftSmiths, Inc., a leading energy software solutions and services company, today announced it has teamed up with Direct Energy, to deliver an integrated solution for optimal supply management operations to retail electric customers in Texas.

Direct Energy, one of North America's largest energy and energy-related services companies, and its midstream and trading team offer physical and financial energy management solutions including supply agreements to retail electric providers (REP) in Texas. It offers REPs an industry-leading self-service portal for reviewing and purchasing supply through a high degree of automation.

SoftSmiths is the dominant Web-based Supply Management solution for competitive load serving entities in the ERCOT market. Subscribed to by 25% of the ERCOT REPs, the SoftSmiths suite of applications deliver easy-to-use and integrated functionality for Load Forecasting, Position Analysis, Retail Pricing management, Scheduling and Settlement thereby providing the insight and granularity to manage demand effectively.

By teaming up, Direct Energy and SoftSmiths empower REPs to quickly execute supply purchases and manage their supply position. By establishing essentially an e-commerce/e-business environment, they enhance the experience of their mutual REP customers through integration and automation of manual processes that other systems still require, thereby increasing efficiency and productivity resulting into a differentiating value proposition in the competitive retail market in Texas.

“The ERCOT Market represents a tremendous opportunity to offer innovative products and services to competitive retail electric providers. We recognize that the better the information and processes flow, the more efficient their business, which in turn lowers the cost of doing business, which ten creates a competitive advantage. Collaborating with partners such as SoftSmiths helps us in meeting the needs of our mutual customers", said Greg Rudolph, Head of Texas Wholesale Marketing at Direct Energy.

"We are pleased to be working with Direct Energy to meet the needs of our mutual customers", said Hugo Stappers of SoftSmiths. “We’ve built our reputation on providing the most comprehensive and innovative cloud-based retail supply management solution for ERCOT retail Electric providers, and are committed to SoftSmiths’ founding principle that technology should make doing business less - not more, complicated.”

About Direct Energy

Direct Energy is one of North America's largest competitive energy suppliers of electricity, natural gas and related services.

About SoftSmiths

SoftSmiths, Inc. is a leader in enterprise-class, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for energy businesses, combining a lower cost of ownership with an innovative approach to business applications. SoftSmiths applications process more than 90 billion kilowatt hours per year for its clients in North America. SoftSmiths delivers energy trading, operations, and settlement solutions designed for today's energy marketing and load serving organizations and the way they conduct their business. Delivered in the cloud leveraging a modern technology platform, SoftSmiths offers a fresh alternative to legacy ETRM systems. Visit us at http://www.softsmiths.com.