It is a little bit funny and a little bit sad watching the technology group try to get buyoff from Louise and the business units on 2002 budgets.  It is unbelievable that we can't get a project-based capital and expense budget for next year where someone like me can say I signed up for these 5 projects and willing to do them at such and such a cost.  If the project costs more then I'm not interested.  While there is definitely room for improvement on the technology side, the commercial side has room for improvement as well.

We had a very useful EES Risk / Wholesale Risk technology meeting on Friday.  It was clear from that meeting that Commercial, Technology, and Operations are not on the same page.  East Wholesale and West Wholesale Commercial aren't on the same page.  EES Commercial and ENA Commercial aren't on the same page.  EES Marketing and EES Risk may not be on the same page.  Anthony and Beth aren't on the same page.  Sally Beck's organization is organized wholesale vs retail while (at least on the power side) the commercial and technology groups are heading towards organized along commodity lines.  

For fear of sounding too dramatic ... the success of EES as well as wholesale Services deals is a function of our technology and back office.  Without it we fail.  The cost numbers are huge.  It is a critical point of competitive advantage.

It was amazing, we had a room full of talented people at this meeting on Friday;  I believe what was standing between us and a successful technology development effort was organization.  We are completely disorganized right now.  There are very few specs that are currently written to support next year's projects.  We have a completely inefficient, decentralized process for working through this stuff.

I have some thoughts that I'd like to share.  It cuts across wholesale and retail.  I think that we need a lead from commercial, technology, and operations for power (and probably gas).  I think the commercial person needs to drive the process and ultimately sign off on spending money for projects.  I think that we need one technologist in charge of all power systems.  I think that we need to look at everyone we have and choose the right person -- not necessarily the people who are currently leading this effort, although Anthony and Beth could be leading contenders.  We need Sally Beck to look at her organization and make sure that it is aligned for maximum likelihood of success.

The goal of this is not to micromanage each business unit's technology needs.  It is to coordinate and optimize across groups.  We have to make sure that we don't spend money in wholesale and retail and then develop incompatible systems.

How do you guys want to talk through this?