CEZ Group uses ION’s Beta Program for upgrade success

London,  14 July 2022: ION Commodities, a global leader in energy and commodity management solutions, announces that CEZ Group, a Czech Republic-based gas and power utility, participated in ION’s new version Beta Program, helping them upgrade successfully to the latest version of ION’s Openlink. A long-standing ION customer, CEZ has used ION’s Openlink commodities management solution since 2005, and last underwent an upgrade four years ago. Under the BETA program, CEZ reported that the upgrade was completed in record time, with less cost and improved quality.

CEZ’s participation in ION’s Beta Program gave them early access to the new Openlink V22 release in its complete form, but before it became available to the wider market. Alongside other Beta Program participants, CEZ tested new and improved features, assessed data architecture changes, and performed end-to-end scenario testing– all with the full support of ION experts.

“Having early access and participating in the Beta process was a new approach for us. We had previously been conservative, waiting on other clients to adopt upgrades first,” says  Pavel Doucha Head of ETRM Operations, TRADING at CEZ. “We found that ION had invested heavily in improved quality and upgrade success. ION’s Beta Program helped us achieve a far smoother upgrade, with less time, effort, and associated costs.  The quality of the solution and the product enhancements, including real-time data streaming, allowed us to deploy the solution easily into production and obtain benefit from the new version more quickly.”

Openlink is a multi-commodity software solution, with out-of-the-box capabilities for utility companies like CEZ, covering power, gas, certificates trading, risk management, end-to-end processing, and reporting. Since the upgrade, CEZ has already capitalized on the new enhancements. Their early adoption of Openlink’s latest version has enabled CEZ to be well prepared for the demanding 2022 European energy environment.

“We were pleased to work closely with CEZ and our other Beta customers in deploying the new version of ION Openlink. We are also encouraged by the metrics, which show that customers are able to upgrade more seamlessly, with less cost and improved quality and functionality. Our partnership with CEZ provided great insight and allowed them to maximize their investment with improved business, performance and security improvements of ION Openlink’s new version,” adds Richard Grossi, CEO of ION Corporates.
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