News

2009/11/16: New Developments in EFETnet

Since the beginning of 2009 the customer basis of Ponton Consulting has further increased to 52 energy traders from domains such as investment banking, mineral oil majors, and European utilities. We expect a further growth up to 70 participants by the end of 2010. On the EMART conference Ponton Consulting presents the latest release of the EFET Box with new functions for eCM (electronic Confirmation Matching), EasyFax (manual processing of fax confirmations), eSM (electronic Settlement Matching), and ePM (electronic Position Matching).

2008/11/14: Ponton Consulting released EFET Box 4.0 with eCM3.3 and ePM1.1

After several months of quality assurance and 18 months of development and testing effort, the latest release of the EFET Box is now available for download. This new EFET Box is a great leap forward in functionality and technology:

• Confirmation matching of swaps with various commodities for financial trades. The EFET Box is now also capable to confirm e.g. oil trades.
• Click & Confirm: If activated, incoming confirmations can be directly reviewed and confirmed through the EFET Box without any back-end integration.
• Integration with the EFETnet Community Service: users may directly click through to the Community pages from their EFET Box GUI.
• Improved “End-to-End Ping” to monitor the status of counterparty EFET Boxes
• Chat function to directly talk to counterparty back-office staff and to share document views.
• Many other non-functional features (performance to allow parallel processing of eCM, ePM and eSM documents, automatic migration support, improved GUI).

2008/11/03: ECC went live with a new settlement system

European Commodity Clearing - a joint clearing provider for power exchanges such as EEX, PowerNext and Endex - went live with their new SMSS system (Spot Market Settlement System). Ponton Consulting has developed the SMSS over the past 10 months. The system settles physically and financially all power/gas/EUA transactions of the connected exchanges. A major component is the SMSS Member Interface which provides online access for settlement and clearing members to examine all transaction details and to receive customised reports. ECC uses the Ponton X/P messaging infrastructure to enable nearly 50 EFETnet participants to receive reports directly into their trading systems.

2008/02/18: Ponton develops Settlement-System for ECC

Ponton Consulting was asked by ECC (European Commodity Clearing) to develop a settlement system for the delivery and payment of CO2-Deals. The system will be operational in Q4 2008 and minimises efforts of settlement members, clearing members, and exchanges for the management and delivery of CO2 certificates. This is also a step forward for EFETnet participants as their online integration with the clearing service will be drastically improved.

2008/02/15: Ponton Consulting Introduces The New Version 3.0 of Its B2B-Integration-Software Product Ponton X/P

With more than 20 new features Ponton X/P 3.0 sets another milestone in automated data exchange over the Internet.
The Ponton X Suite is a Java-based B2B integration infrastructure that supports major communication standards such as ebXML, AS1, AS2 and AS3, providing secure peer-to-peer integration over the Internet (P2P over IP). The result is a significant reduction in total cost of the B2B infrastructure for all companies involved. More than 150 companies worldwide, including many global players, have been using the Ponton X Technology successfully for several years.

As the market leader for electronic data interchange (EDI) in the entire paper supply chain and in pan-European energy trading, Ponton Consulting GmbH has broad experience in message-based B2B integration. This experience and a close dialogue with our customers were the basis for developing Ponton X/P 3.0

Michael Häusler, leader of the Ponton X/P development team comments: “With over 20 new features, we have improved Ponton X/P once again in many important areas. Especially important are features such as Processing Exceptions and Content-Based Routing. Using these features, our customers now can analyze the content of an XML message, create content specific rules that determine the destination URL to which the message is sent, and forward them or send them to the back-end system for processing. With FTP support, we enable data exchange based on a protocol that is used globally. The FTP-based AS3 protocol even adds messaging functionality to FTP data exchange, providing a higher security level. A “Plain Messaging” feature now also allows communication with partners who do not use a messaging software on their end. A feature implemented especially for our North American customers is the support for ANSI X12, which is predominantly used for communication between US companies. For European customers who want to exchange data with US companies this feature is a true benefit as well.”

Dr. Michael Merz, general manager of Ponton Consulting GmbH, adds: “Ponton X/P 3.0 is a true milestone in the evolution of our B2B integration technology. We clearly favor ebXML as the communication protocol, but with support for the AS1, AS2 and now also AS3 protocols we offer our customers true flexibility in their communication with business partners. Another real accomplishment of our development team is the drastic increase in the size of documents into the Gigabyte range. This increase in size for the exchanged documents or payloads was accomplished by using sophisticated streaming mechanisms and is fairly unique in the world of messaging software for electronic data interchange. Even though Ponton X/P can transport any binary file including EDIFACT files, the majority of our customers have chosen XML as the document format. At this point there is global acceptance for the XML document format and ebXML as an extremely flexible communication protocol shows rapid growth in terms of popularity. We anticipated this trend several years ago and implemented specialized functionality for these 2 standards, giving our customers the power to control EDI transactions based on their needs with full flexibility in today’s fast paced business environment. The rapid growth of our customer base shows that we are on the right track.”

Here is a detailed overview of the new features in Ponton X/P 3.0:

Multiple certificates per Partner
In Ponton X/P 3.0, a pool of certificates can be built up for each Partner. An expired certificate will be replaced automatically by a valid new one.

Loopback transfer
Ponton X/P 3.0 allows the message exchange between two local Partners.

XML modification filters
The Ponton X/P 3.0 Messenger can modify incoming as well as outgoing XML messages with regard to their encoding, line endings, and envelope. This simplifies the integration with a backend system and the communication with Partners using an older Ponton X/P version or a different messaging system. It is now possible to use different XML encodings for different partners while still using just one encoding for the backend system. Additionally, it is possible to improve the human-readability by applying a “pretty-print” modification.

Processing exceptions
Different payload processing can be applied based on the detected message type. This allows for the signing of certain messages such as invoices, while all other messages are not signed.

Content-based outbound routing
Rules can now be configured to use alternative destination URLs when sending out messages.

ebXML Message Status requests
Ponton X/P 3.0 realises optional ebXML 2.0 features like Message Status. This includes the ability to check how the transmission of a message sent by Ponton X/P is proceeding, especially if the message has been received by your business partner’s backend system.

ebXML message ordering
This ebXML 2.0 feature allows the definition of an order in which a set of messages will be delivered from a business partner’s messaging software to his backend systems.

ANSI X12 / EDIFACT recognition
Ponton X/P 3.0 recognizes sender, receiver, and message ID in documents configured according to the ANSI X12 or EDIFACT standard.

FTP-based communication
Ponton X/P 3.0 can now accept incoming FTP transmissions and transmit outbound messages via FTP.

Integrated application updater
Notifications about new application updates from Ponton are shown on the status page and can be downloaded and installed via the web-interface.

AS3 / plain message packaging
In addition to ebXML, AS1, and AS2, there is now also support for the FTP-based AS3 communication and a “plain” mode where business messages can be transmitted and received without any packaging to allow communication with partners that do not use a B2B messaging application.

Configuration import
Ponton X/P 3.0 can import main parts of the configuration plus the database from a previous Ponton X/P installation of the versions 2.1 to 2.4, so that a new 3.0 installation is ready to send and receive messages right away.

SingleSignOn
Ponton X/P 3.0 is available as SSO version for MS Windows 2003 Server and MS Windows 2000 Server operating systems. If Active Directories are used in the local network, access rights to Ponton X/P can be integrated into the global user administration.

Database reconnection
Changes in the database configuration can now be adopted without restarting the X/P 3.0 Messenger

Certificate dependency check in Agreements
Additional integrity checks for Agreements were added that detect missing or expired certificates.

Multiple addresses per protocol
In Ponton X/P 3.0, several HTTP and HTTPS addresses for each Partner can be set up.

Improved logging in Listener
The retention time of log files in the Listener module of Ponton X/P is now configurable. More details are logged for better problem investigation.

Advanced Listener Status Pages
For improved monitoring all Status Pages now contain timestamps and the requester’s IP addresses.

Built-in Server
Ponton X/P 3.0 uses an integrated HTTP server instead of Apache Tomcat as in previous versions. Multiple HTTP/S ports can be set up with access to selected components of the application via the graphical user interface.

Transfer of bigger documents
Maximum payload size of documents to be transferred has been increased from 150 MB to 1 GB.

Customizable user interface
Features and options of Ponton X/P 3.0 that are not in use can be masked out to facilitate an intuitive user interface.

For additional information, please contact:
Ponton Consulting GmbH
Mr. Asmus Jacobsen (Manager Sales and Marketing)
Dorotheenstr. 60
22301 Hamburg
sales@ponton-consulting.de
www.ponton-consulting.de
Tel: +49 40 69 213 356

2007/11/16: One of Germany’s largest public health insurance companies, the Techniker Krankenkasse, has chosen the Ponton X Technology for data transfer in the production process of the new German health insurance card (eGK)

The new health insurance card, called eGK (electronic health card), will be issued to about 80 million members of public health insurances in Germany. The Techniker Krankenkasse will produce more than 4 million cards for their members. For the transfer of customer-specific data from the insurance company to the card manufacturers, a solution complying to the highest standards in terms of security, reliability and data integrity is required.

System integration for the eGK
Despite some issues in the early phase of the project, the eGK remains the basis for the next step into an electronically connected health system. The Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) implemented one of the first functional online updating systems for their customers in Hamburg this summer.

In the future when an address change is required or a customer decides to participate in a special care program, the new system takes care of the fast and secure data exchange between practitioner and health insurance. The basis for this exchange is a reliable cooperation among all background services such as the management of customer-specific data including pictures to be put on the cards, the production process itself as well as the management of security certificates from certified trust centers.

As the centerpiece for the implementation of safe and reliable data exchange between all service-partners and the transformation of data into XML that is used during the actual transmission, the TK has chosen the software products Ponton X/P and Ponton X/D by the German software development company Ponton Consulting GmbH located in Hamburg.

Dr. Frank Griffel from the TK, who is responsible for the creation of the TK framework around middleware, application software, and infrastructure software, explains: "After diligent market research we found the software products of Ponton Consulting right around the corner. Ponton is a company which has an impressive track record for integration projects in the energy industry and the entire paper supply chain for many years. Because we were looking for a homogeneous, modern communication standard we chose ebXML (electronic business XML) which is non-proprietary and internationally accepted.

Due to time pressure we needed a solution that could be implemented in a very short time without major learning, installation, and maintenance efforts, but at the same time the solution had to be flexible enough to connect various heterogeneous systems. In the combination of Ponton X/P and Ponton X/D we have found such a solution. But there were other factors driving our decision as well. The Ponton solution had some unique features we couldn't find anywhere else on the market such as the possibility to purchase an industry-specific license and the ability to handle very large amounts of data. During the evaluation phase we were able to transfer data on a live system within 6 hours of setup time. This clearly indicated that we had found the right solution," Dr. Griffel concludes in his assessment.

As an international expert in electronic data interchange (EDI) and Managing Director of Ponton Consulting, Dr. Michael Merz rates the TK decision as a very positive sign and comments: "We are excited about the fact that we can introduce our technology and our know-how to the German health industry. Many of the challenges with regards to stability, traceability, and security in data exchange the eGK project is facing we have addressed in other industries a few years ago. Our solutions are flexible and are based on state-of-the-art technology in combination with adherence to globally accepted standards such as XML and ebXML and so we can bridge the gap between heterogeneous systems. The result is a drastic decrease in effort and therefore overall project cost, which the integration of all service partners in the TK eGK project has clearly shown. Reduced cost of IT projects benefits not only the TK, but also all of their customers. The TK as an innovative public health insurance company has high expectations with regards to their IT solutions and IT partners. The fact that our Ponton X Technology could live up to these high expectations supports our vision of delivering leading-edge products."

For further information please contact:
Ponton Consulting GmbH
Mr. Asmus Jacobsen (Manager Sales and Marketing)
Dorotheenstr. 60
22301 Hamburg
sales@ponton-consulting.de
Tel: +49 40 69 213 356

2007/03/26: Ponton Consulting products ready to be used under MS Vista

After comprehensive testing Ponton Consulting GmbH announces that its products Ponton X/P version 2.4.1 and the EFET Box version 3.2 are ready to be used under Microsoft's new operating system Windows Vista.

2007/02/07: Ponton's EFET Box has been certified

The EFET Box, used by 18 European Energy traders, has been certified by KEMA (an international testing and certification authority) to be in all aspects compliant with the EFET Standard eCM 3.2 (Trader- and Broker-side implementation). Not only for this reason, we expect another 10-12 international trading organizations to use the EFET Box over the coming 12 months.

2006/10/20: Ponton presents new EFET Box release on EMART

Ponton presents the new release of EFET Box 3.2a on EMART in Berlin on October 25th/26th. Today, 22 international energy traders support Ponton's EFET Box with a monthly throughput of over 50,000 trades. Following the latest EFET eCM 3.2 standard for electronic confirmation matching, Ponton has developed EFET Box 3.2a with enhanced control functions for the confirmation matching process. This release also allows for confirming CO2 certificates, apart from power and gas. It further has a number of new features that ease daily back office procedures of the trading organisations.

2006/10/13: 6 new EFET Box users in October 2006

The trading organisations Deutsche Bank, EnBW, E.ON UK and ESSENT, Gaz de France and NUON support the EFETnet consortium. This raises the number of active participants to 22. The expected 25 participants for end of 2006 thus appears more than realistic - specifically since 5-6 further participants can be expected by end of 2006. All of the new participants have conducted a detailed benchmark of available products. In all cases results clearly suggested to use the EFET Box. Apart from high software quality, the organisational set-up of EFETnet convinced the evaluators most. This significant extension of the EFETnet consortium strengthens the network effect which allows all software users to gain advantages from standardisation. Specifically future software releases and add-on developments can thus be introduced at a fraction of the cost for individual development since cost will now be socialised among more than 20 participants. And for the future, further increasing efficiency can be expected.

2006/05/12: EFET Box 3.2 available for EFETnet Members

The latest version of the EFET Box was released in conjunction with Carbon Expo in Cologne on May 10th-12th. After several weeks of tests, release 3.2 is available for download now. The traders RWE Trading and Electrabel as well as the broker Spectron participated in the SAT (Site Accaptance Test). The software was accepted without any objection. Apart from other functional extensions, EFET Box 3.2 is now capable to exchange and match CO2 confirmations. This further reduces effort and risk for the 12 productive users in their post-deal activities. At the same time, EFETnet participants now use Ponton X/P 2.4, which is delivered with a extended set of features. Thanks to the high software quality that was asserted by the testers, it can be expected for the next weeks that several new participants will join the group of EFETnet users.

2006/04/28: Ponton develops online incentive portal for Cadooz AG

The online incentive company Cadooz has ordered from Ponton the development of an Online Incentive Portal (OIP). The OIP enables sales departments of varoius retail-oriented companies to incentivate successes of their salesforces. Synergy of different expertises - marketing background and years of technical know-how in portal development - lead to an innovative B2B platform for individually structured bonus systems. These are used by customers from such various sectors as retail trading, fincance and travel.

2006/04/24: Partner Contract for Portuguese Market Closed

Infosistema and Ponton Consulting have closed a partner contract on April 21, 2006 to join forces in order to bring Ponton X/P to the Portuguese market. Thanks to the professional approach of Infosistema, their experience in B2B integration for Portuguese companies, and the high quality of Ponton X/P, both sides expect a rapid increase in usage on the Portuguese market. Goncalo Caeiro, Infosistema's CEO says "Ponton X/P is the easiest to handle B2B integration tool we ever came across. As a fully compliant ebXML implementation, it also offers the highest security, reliability and flexibility. It is the perfect software tool to support our customers in electronic exchange of business documents." Michael Merz, CEO of Ponton Consulting: "Infosistema has a proven track record as a solutions provider in Portugal - a perfect fit for Ponton since our expertise is complementary to the benefit of our Portuguese customers."

2006/03/30: Ponton X/P 2.4 released

After a long time of internal and external testing, Ponton X/P 2.4 was released on March 30th. The Software can be downloaded here. An online-activation is required for a test installation. A lot of new features have been developed: * Database and file logging is now optional to minimise the disk footprint. Max. throughput is increased to more than 150 messages per minute. * High performance mode: any number of parallel messenger can be clustered such that more than 600 messages can be exchanged per minute. * EDIFACT Support with a large range of EDIFACT Schema Sets * Support of AS1 & AS2 communication * Binary Payloads (e.g. PDF, Word, ...) * improved certificate handling * Localisations for English, German, French, Russian * Improved usability of the AdminTool and MessageMonitor * "Ping-to-all" feature to test life status of all external partners * Listener can act as proxy for outbound messages * Listener supports https client certificate authentication * Remote management of the Listener via the Ponton X/P admin GUI * SMIME Support for encryption and signatures * PKCS#7 signature objects * Use of LDAP servers for certificate distribution (required for European eInvoicing) * Sending of messages without BackendEnvelope

2006/02/09: Ponton presents new release 3.2 of the EFET Box on E-World 2006

Ponton presents the new release of EFET Box 3.2 on E-World in Essen (Booth no. 550). Today, more than 16 international energy traders use Ponton's EFET Box with a daily throughput of over 1,000 trades. Following the latest EFET eCM 3.2 standard for electronic confirmation matching, Ponton has advanced the EFET Box accordingly for standard compliance. This release also allows for confirming CO2 certificates, apart from power and gas. It further has a number of new features that ease daily back office procedures of the trading organisations. Finally, Ponton has finalised the latest relesase of the ebXML Messages Services, Ponton X/P 2.4 - a highly performant software that allows to exchange more than 1,000 ebXML messages per minute. A large range of Protocols is supported as well: ebXML, AS1, AS2, http(s), smtp, SMIME and others.

2006/02/01: Ponton presents B2B-Projects on ebXML Conference in Lisbon

An ebXML conference was organised in Lisbon on February 1st, 2006 under the patronage of the European Commission. Current topics of standardisation, case studies and practise reports were presented around the topic of the ebXML standard. Michael Merz presented papiNet and EFETnet, which are facilitated by Ponton as the main supplier of software and services. Both projects are characterised by their efficient and quick integration of international business communities who communicate "peer-to-peer" over the Internet. Moreover, this approach was considered as exemplary for further sectors.