There were more than 112 million blogs as of March 2008 with new blogs being created at a rate of 175,000 per day and 1.6 million new blog posts per day according to Technorati, a blog tracking website.

How many of these are focused on energy, natural resources or commodities is anyone’s guess- but it is a big number.

And how has the blog caught on as a corporate communication tool in energy and utilities? UtiliPoint has observed a growing trend among software vendors in the space to add a blog to their website as well as among mainstream publishers and even some Utility companies.

This survey was conducted to establish just how much influence blogs have in the space and how important a tool they are becoming for corporate communications. The survey seems to demonstrate that blogs in the energy industry are beginning to gain in importance both as an information source and as a promotional device.

This report bundle includes two UtiliPoint reports at a special combined price:

The 2008 North American Energy Trading, Transaction and Risk Management (ETRM): Market Analysis and Sizing Report

The 2007 European Markets for Energy Trading, Transaction and Risk Management (ETRM): Market Size and Analysis Report

The CommodityPoint TRM Vendor Perception study is repeated every two years and represents a view of how users and prospective buyers perceive the market landscape. By capturing a representation of user and buyer perceptions about the vendors in the space much is learned regarding market maturity and the overall evolution of TRM software. This study was conducted during the first quarter of 2009 and represents user and buyer views as of the close of 2008.

The survey indicates that the TRM software market landscape is becoming increasingly dominated by a group of transnational vendors and products that includes OpenLink Financial (OLF), Triple Point, SunGard Energy, Allegro Development, SolArc and Ventyx. Other vendors have a higher degree of importance in particular geographies (for example Navita in Europe and OATI in North America) or in particular industry segments (e.g. TradeCapture in Crude Oil and other segments, Abacus Solutions in the Generation segment and so on). In terms of brand recognition, this smaller group of more dominant vendors is increasingly well known.

The study was kindly sponsored by Navita and supported by SolArc