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In September 2004, our founder, Dr Salim Jabbour, launched a new startup, Abacus Solutions, and announced a plan to develop a leading-edge software system called SATURN inspired by the planet original name, the shining one, and its connotations of abundance, cyclical renewals, and awe-inspiring majestic rings. A few months later, in May 2005, Dr Jabbour spoke to London-based Energy Risk magazine about his plan to develop a cutting-edge solution that addresses the five challenges that hinder the effective use of software in the energy industry: Seamless Integration, improved Analytics, effective Decision Support, modern IT, and stable fully tested software with infrequent Patches & fixes.

The Uncommon Path

We started our journey with an unwavering determination, a steadfast commitment, and a laser-focus on our objectives – guided by seven fundamental principles:

  1. Use leading-edge technology – and revisit and update regularly. 
  2. Enlist the smartest team – with diverse skills and perspectives.
  3. Encourage critical thinking – embrace dissent and different perspectives.
  4. Challenge conventional wisdom – focus on product superiority before focusing on sales.  
  5. Set high goals – be best-in-class and aim for breakthrough.
  6. Partner with the smartest customers – seek intellectual stimulation. 
  7. Put customers first – and maintain a laser focus on their needs.

We chose a contrarian approach – the decision was deliberate. We made a conscious decision to partner with a select number of users to refine the product and solve the industry’s biggest challenges before launching a formal go-to-market. This approach gave us the ability to pursue innovation without compromise, address industry’s critical issues, implement client feedback at unprecedented speeds, and offer support at a level that’s difficult to match. We understood the tradeoffs and went to work with passion, resilience, and a relentless determination to solve the toughest challenges.

Notables

The results of our approach came early – faster than we expected. The market quickly recognized our team and our product superiority. Three noteworthy events:

  1. In 2006: Abacus software engineers won the 2006 ACM world championship outperforming over 300,000 contestants and 1733 universities from 84 countries. The IBM/ACM contest, a major force in advancing information technology known as IBM “Battle of the Brains”, is the most prestigious software engineering contest in the world; it tests the ability to solve complicated and complex problems.
  2. In 2008, two leading energy companies, PSEG in the US and Scottish Power in the UK, became our first 2 customers and explained that SATURN “enables enterprise risk management with an unprecedented mix of analytics, ease, and speed” and “streamlines our workflows, helps us save a significant amount of time, and performs 20 times faster than our tools – it is next generation system.”
  3. In 2009, Gartner, a leading technology firm, named Abacus and ICE “Cool Vendors in Energy” and explained “Saturn is a unique offering … combining extensive ETRM coverage with Generation Analysis and Optimization. Covering a wide range of generation asset types in depth, including Thermal, Storage and Renewables, Saturn has extensive configuration and integration … and SaaS delivery options.

Game Changers

Early success validated our strategic decisions and gave us vital momentum. The decision to partner with a select group of industry leaders gave us the ability to keep our laser focus on product development and innovation; our users played a crucial role – they vetted our solutions, helped us focus on real-world challenges, and engaged us in stimulating intellectual discussions. While many view this approach as diverting from growth initiatives, our contrarian approach was in fact a strength. It allowed us to remain nimble, to implement client feedback at unprecedented speed, to deliver a level of support that remains difficult to match – and most importantly gave us freedom to innovate without compromise. Accomplishments followed: 

  • 2005: Released a multivariate stochastic simulation that captures inter-commodity, inter-market, and inter-month relationships at record speed. 
  • 2007: Released a Lagrangian Relaxation solution that optimizes operations under multi-month limits including fuel, emission, hydro energy, and other limits.  
  • 2008: Released a stochastic simulation-based option valuation model that addresses the limitations of Black-Scholes and other financial engineering models.
  • 2010: Released a breakthrough “Game Changer: Full-Simulation Real-Time Portfolio Management” and announced it in a Commodities Now article.
  • 2012: Released a knapsack generation optimization solving one of the hardest problems in combinatorial optimization that requires efficient algorithms.  
  • 2016: Released the most integrated CTRM software system offering unrivalled efficient frontier hedging and risk management.
  • 2018: Released a modern BI application that offers advanced analytics, interactive visualization, real-time intelligence, and seamless integration.
  • 2021: Released a retail solution empowering load aggregators, large consumers, and load serving entities to manage demand/supply positions.
  • 2023: Released a new knapsack solution with breakthrough performance enabling unprecedented generation modeling.

Our Users

We could not have achieved what we accomplished without our users. The deliberate choice to keep our operations focused on a select group of users was one of the best decisions we ever made; our deep collaboration served as a catalyst for innovation, refined our product, provided fresh perspectives, and resulted in user-centric solutions. Their partnership turned theory into practice – together, we transformed abstract algorithms into tools that improve processes, sharpen decisions, and maximize margins. We owe our users a great deal of gratitude for being true partners in our journey. Their collaboration pushed us further than we could have gone alone and set the standard for what the entire industry can expect from Abacus.

Current Status

After 20 years of product development, refinement, improvements, expansion, and innovation, SATURN has proven its superiority in several areas through benchmarking tests vis-à-vis other commercial software. The performance observed by our first 2 users continues to be validated in recent comparative studies – the knapsack solution has been solving generation optimization problems at 25-30 times faster than leading software systems. Abacus continues its white-glove service and partner-relationship with select industry leaders; our nimble style continues to serve us well and to benefit our users who receive same-day support and fast turn-around. SATURN has been an extremely stable software for over 5 years based on users experience and internal regression testing – we have been operating under a zero-bug policy since 2020.  We are ready for the next phase.

The Path Forward

Abacus is ready to scale with confidence – extending the same precision, reliability, and client-first service that have defined our work for two decades to the broader energy and commodities community. We are pleased to announce the launch of our new go-to-market initiative and invite industry participants to benefit from proven innovations that deliver real-world results. We plan to stay as close to our clients as ever, to keep solving their hardest challenges, and to ensure every partnership delivers meaningful, measurable, and impactful value.

We invite you to discover what two decades of disciplined innovation can do for your business – experience the quality, speed, foresight, and reliability that only SATURN delivers.