The Oxford Knowledge Company

IT control for energy market simulation and modelling

The price of energy, our sources of energy, and its impact on the environment are topical subjects of debate.

And our energy mix, with its patterns and trends is one aspect which global expert Pöyry Energy Consulting is constantly seeking to better understand and anticipate. In turn, Pöyry provides analysis to the industry’s key regulators, policy-makers and some of the world’s largest energy companies as crucial market intelligence and strategic advice.

Pivotal

The extensive energy market modelling, analysis and forecasting predominantly takes place at Pöyry Energy Consulting’s Oxford office, where IT plays a pivotal role. The company’s historic IT provider had been unable to sustain the required service levels, explains IT Manager Sanjay Tinani:

“This was beginning to negatively impact our productivity forcing us to seek a more responsive IT partner.”

Today, Pöyry relies on Microsoft Gold Certified Partner The Oxford Knowledge Company for infrastructure support and assistance with individual projects. Tinani continues:

“Almost every process we perform takes place on a PC. From project research, and data mining of information, right through to modelling and trend analysis; so a failsafe and powerful infrastructure that can cope with heavy-duty number crunching and analysis is paramount. It needs to be a robust and powerful system to support this type of intensive use,” he notes.

Technical agility

“With a wealth of credible client references, from the outset it was apparent that The Oxford Knowledge Company had the proactive insight, expertise and overall technical agility to manage and navigate our systems infrastructure.”

But most importantly, he adds: “The Oxford Knowledge Company instinctively knows how to apply that insight. By not taking situations at face value, and by assessing and fully pre-empting any issues, we find that potential pitfalls further along in the implementation of plans and systems, are forestalled.”


Data ‘headroom’

So, what IT scenarios does The Oxford Knowledge Company typically manage for Pöyry? Tinani elaborates: “Our main database search engine server – a Microsoft SQL server – was becoming a major concern in terms of its speed of data delivery.

“The Oxford Knowledge Company proactively and expertly managed the upgrade from a 4 year old single 18GB disk to a much faster 72GB RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) platform. In short, we have a newer, more resilient system and more room for growth, without having to rebuild the SQL server.

“The switchover was done so quickly it meant minimal disruption to our network. We can now access and analyse considerably more data than with our previous disk – and have ‘future-proofed’ database capacity for at least the next two years.”

And The Oxford Knowledge Company’s Business Development Manager Robert Arnold adds:

“Database capacity management is indeed critical because if the data has no ‘headroom’ to expand, usage becomes unresponsive, rendering information modelling impossible.”

Additionally, Tinani notes that the recent changeover of Pöyry Oxford’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) which subsequently impacted on the company Directors’ access to systems from home was seamlessly helmed by Robert Arnold’s team:

“The crux was to ensure that the intricacies of home Internet and mail systems were configured to replicate and synchronise with our main office servers; which they did, first time, so smoothly that users didn’t actually realise the switchover had taken place.”

Sophisticated

And significantly, The Oxford Knowledge Company’s consultants know how to relay technical information to non-technical staff in layman’s terms: “This is particularly helpful when I’m out of the office. Rob and his team act as an integral part of our organisation.”

Tinani finishes: “As Pöyry Energy Consulting progresses from spreadsheet statistics to sophisticated simulation software, I’m confident that under the expert guidance of The Oxford Knowledge Company, our analysts will have the IT peace of mind to focus on our core business – garnering powerful market intelligence to shape the energy market.”