In a shift that allows energy businesses to customize their online trading, Altra Energy Technologies Inc. has partnered with a California e-business provider to give customers the ability to set up private trading exchanges online. Altra’s alliance with @TheMoment of San Mateo, CA will give companies more control over their online trading floors, allowing them to set up direct sales online, through forward auction and live bid/ask exchange applications.

Houston-based Altra, which has offered software and neutral trading systems since 1996, said the strategic deal would expand its global online trading floor. It set up the alliance after learning from its customers that they wanted and needed private branded exchanges with auction functions. Altra CEO Paul Bourke said @TheMoment offered the best product extensions, including portal and risk management solutions, which complement Altra’s existing suite of trading and transaction management solutions.

Bourke said the alliance will allow customers to expand their e-commerce offerings with private trading exchange functionality, and give Altra a boost to become a single source for energy-related services. “We are building on the success we have already realized with our Altra Market Place online trading exchange” with the new platform, he said, by now giving customers a configurable trading option.

Based on a messaging bus platform, @TheMoment uses trading services that support auction and live bid/ask market applications. The applications are flexible, allowing companies to produce the market type of their choice to reach their business objectives, which can be tailored to generate incremental revenues through the sale of products or services, improving sales processes, increasing sales volumes or even producing a new sales channel.

The trading platform, which will be offered to all of Altra’s customers, has several options, including an auction function, which will enable seller-driven (forward) or buyer-driven (reverse) markets where the transaction occurs at a deadline. The live-bid function enables one-to-many or many-to-many (neutral) markets where goods or services are sold continuously while the price changes, reflecting the supply and demand conditions that incorporate the seller’s pricing strategy.

Altra now serves more than 7,000 energy professionals in 500 companies worldwide, offering trading, scheduling, transporting and accounting services for power, natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude. Partner @TheMoment is funded by several partners, including VantagePoint Venture Partners, Reuters Greenhouse Fund, TIBCO Software, Tarrant Venture Partners and Comdisco Ventures.

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