North American CTRM software markets were probably the most impacted in 2020. Not only was COVID-19 and the lockdowns an issue but the collapse of the oil price around the same time added an additional and unexpected challenge.
Understandably, budgets were tightened considerably for software and consulting in the producer segment, Keith Thibodeaux, VP of Sales for North America for Enuit, told me. “The marketing side of businesses were by and large still profitable, but we also saw budget tightening there too,” he said. Enuit saw a couple of instances were having been selected, projects got pushed back anyway earlier in the year. Despite that, Enuit was busy and expanding during 2020. “we added some new business, but we also sold more modules to existing customers as well,” he said.
Demand improve in North American CTRM markets
In the last few weeks, Enuit has seen demand improve in North American CTRM markets. “We see a combination of businesses waking up to the fact that they have grown and realized that they need a system of record with adequate controls and others realizing that their spreadsheets don’t cut it,” he said. As a result, they have seen good opportunities in areas like LNG, natural gas, some power and refined product areas where things seem to be better and there are still margins to be had. Indeed, Keith pointed out that Enuit is very active in the LNG side of things where they have existing customers and are working with several prospective new customers who are in build phase right now with infrastructure.
Over the course of 2020, Enuit added staff including documentation staff, pre-sales, sales, several developers and implementation consultants to cope. Having joined in 2017, he has seen staffing for from 25-30 to more than 100 in that time. “This while most of our competition has been laying off staff,” he said.
Enuit has coped with home office and business continuity well, he told me. “We saw a lot of businesses waiting for it to be over and so project work declined but fortunately we had a lag and kept all of our staff busy,” he said. “Remote implementation has been a bit challenging for out of state projects honestly although we have had a couple of go-lives this summer.” While some decided to delay, eventually projects had to get started anyway and these had to be done remotely. “Everything worked out,” he said. Recently, with the Proof of Concepts and implementations we are involved in, we have opted for a small on-site team supported remotely and that has worked effectively too.”
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