Sally

James New mentioned a Ginny Latham is an experienced power person who may 
have an interest in coming to London - but did not give me any details prior 
to disappearing on holiday this week !

Thoughts?

Mike

---------------------- Forwarded by Mike Jordan/LON/ECT on 19/06/2000 13:23 
---------------------------


Mike Jordan
19/06/2000 11:19
To: Sally Beck/HOU/ECT@ECT
cc: Fernley Dyson/LON/ECT@ECT 

Subject: Continental Power - the case for greater experience/breadth of view 
in the controllers' position

Sally

Further to our discussion on Friday I summarise my view of Joe Gold's issues 
with the MO control process

Joe expressed some frustration with the current status as follows: -

The DPR has historically been 'filled with noise' around adjustments for 
edits on trades, provision restatements etc which negates it's effectiveness 
for him as a control/supervisory report 
The risk team appear to have been reacting to p&l 'noise'  - particularly 
around transmission adjustments rather than proactively finding booking 
solutions - or instructing IT to flex Enpower
Settlements have gained a perception in the market place for 'errors' such 
that originators are informing Joe that business is being 'lost' due to our 
perceived inability to support transactions - ( must be careful here as no 
specifics on errors have been provided )
The risk team ( post Neil Tarling's transfer to EBS ) is relatively junior 
and does not possess many 'years' of experience of Power support
James New as Power,Gas and Credit Controller has ( necessarily ) too broad a 
role for him to focus on these detailed issues

In mitigation

The recent continental book split ( which is only now being 'settled' in to 
the daily process) and the clean up of historic provisions/reserves prior to 
Neil Tarling's transfer has exaggerated the base issue around certainty of 
daily p&l
Designing an approximate booking process for transmission has not been a top 
priority for the risk team in the recent past ( this was either wrong or the 
prioritisation call  was not  effectively communicated to Joe ) - and it is 
felt that there are no IT resources to code  these solutions to Enpower ( 
also London struggles to influence Houston IT resource prioritisation )
The settlements infrastructure has been supporting a business volume growth 
it is not designed for and supporting acitivity on this platform requires 
'skilled' staff ( we are down on resources for Continental Power ) - 
continuing growth in volumes are expected along with junior settlement staff 
being asked to join Commercial groups
We are  experiencing  generational  change as a result of Barry's move to EBS 
- resourcing is James and my top priority

I believe what Joe is asking for, is what we are trying to provide - namely :

upgrade in resourcing in the risk group where we are insisting that the lead 
individual has full responsibility, end to end, for the business including 
the assessment of operational risk and effectiveness of the business process,
focus on identifying and implementing the necessary quick hit solutions that 
eliminates 'manual workarounds' and consequently 'noise' in the process
more proactive communication with Commercial - especially to manage 
expectations
a definitive plan for how the strategic upgrade in applications architecture 
for MO will benefit/change his business support

However, we are behind in finding the 'right' replacement for Neil ( one with 
experience and breadth of view potential ), we have found a continental power 
settlemetns manager but he does not arrive until July 3 rd, we have been 
struggling with book split when that should have been completed a month ago 
and it is taking time to get all the ducks lined up re our plans for 
Enlighten/DTL/EnVoice/Autoconfirms/DCAF - hence his frustration about lost 
business opportunities NOW!!

Hence I would love to find someone who could deliver the above ( ie be Neil 
Tarling's replacement ) or could assist us in
providing and communicating the judgement calls on transmission and other 
adjustments - so improving perception of C.P. DPR
prioritising and influencing Enpower development agenda ( along with others )
project manage issues around 'unstable' documentation and settlement process 
vis a vis client sensitivity
provide leadership in changing expectations/perceptions

I'm sorry for the length of the note but it may help you in determining a 
'best fit' person 

Please call if any of the above is unclear.

Mike