ENI reap the benefits of PRISMA’s premium API service

Skip back just a few years and the process by which Italian energy company ENI would book and trade gas capacity on the PRISMA platform was almost unrecognisable to how it looks today.

The catalyst for this change has been ENI’s decision to adopt PRISMA’s premium Application Programming Interface (API) service, which allows shippers to perform all of the steps required for booking and trading gas capacity by using automated tools that are fully integrated with their existing systems.

The service itself was created in the early days of the PRISMA platform as a solution for shippers needing to make quick and reliable retrievals of booking and auction confirmations, as well as other large chunks of data, in a machine-readable format. High-frequency users of the platform would be forced to perpetually request access to the platform each time they wished to retrieve data or trigger transactions. The solution, developed in-house by PRISMA, was our API service.

As well as the above, ENI’s decision to adopt the service was also driven by market trends that were rapidly moving away from longer term bookings to much shorter ones. As these trends became apparent, the company began seeking a solution to replace their old system which required constant, time-intensive manual activity for each booking. And, as Alessandro Iorio, the man in charge of Gas Logistics Capacity Booking at ENI, tells us, it was PRISMA’s API service that ticked all the right boxes.

“As soon as this opportunity arose with PRISMA, and we had taken time to scrutinise how it would work, we decided to get on board.”

Alessandro Iorio, Gas Logistics Capacity Booking, ENI

“Our collaboration with PRISMA started several years ago,” says Alessandro, “and over the years, the platform evolved to include new functionalities and features. Before the implementation of the API service, our system was based on manual activity, which was becoming increasingly difficult to manage. As soon as this opportunity arose with PRISMA, and we had taken time to scrutinise how it would work, we decided to get on board.” 

Risk and reward

“We felt assured that PRISMA would provide this service in a perfect way so that any sense of losing control wouldn’t be an issue.” 

Alessandro Iorio, Gas Logistics Capacity Booking, ENI

While the advantages of an API such as PRISMA’s are well documented, there remains a lingering resistance among many to change a process that may be lacking in efficiency, but is at least familiar to those who use it. For ENI, however, it was simply a matter of weighing up the risks versus the rewards.

“We had internal discussions in which we balanced the benefits of this solution against any possible downsides,” Alessandro explains, “but the scales tipped clearly in one direction.”

One of the considerations was whether the company was prepared to relinquish an element of control in exchange for automation - but the verdict was conclusive.

“There’s always a risk with this kind of service that you lose a certain degree of autonomy,” says Allesandro. “However, we felt greatly assured that PRISMA would provide the service in a perfect way so that any sense of losing control wouldn’t be an issue.”

Implementing the service

“The transition from our previous system to the API was pretty much seamless.”

Alessandro Iorio, Gas Logistics Capacity Booking, ENI

When it came to the physical application of the service, ensuring a smooth transition was essential for creating confidence and allowing ENI’s day-to-day operations to continue uninterrupted. Happily, this was successfully achieved through early planning.

“Putting into practice the API was pretty much seamless,” recalls Alessandro. “Most of the work had already been carried out during the implementation phase of our IT system, to transcode information received from the platform. So the actual changeover was relatively simple.”

And the same was true of training their team up on how to use the new system. “Ultimately it made everything simpler to manage,” he says, “so it was more a case of showing them what they didn’t need to do any longer, rather than what they did. In fact that’s the beauty of API service, in a nutshell - it’s an easy-to-use product that can be tested and learnt even without any IT background.”

“Trust is the basis of all strong relationships – and we’d already built up a high degree of trust with PRISMA. Adopting the API service has been a consolidation of that alliance.”

The ‘Butler’ effect

“The time savings we’ve achieved has had a major impact on our ability to focus on other projects and activities.”

Alessandro Iorio, Gas Logistics Capacity Booking, ENI

The characteristics of the API service have led to one imaginative member of the PRISMA team comparing it to having your own personal butler. Now that he’s well acquainted with the service, it’s an analogy that resonates strongly with Alessandro.

“I think to compare it to a private butler perfectly describes the functioning of the service,” he says. It takes your orders and returns a wealth of bespoke information based on your request and your needs. There’s definitely a big similarity!”

Building on the benefits

“We’d love to see the service extended to other functionalities such as storage booking – we believe that would really add value.”

Alessandro Iorio, Gas Logistics Capacity Booking, ENI

While ENI continue to enjoy the benefits of the API, they already have one eye on how the service might be further built upon and enhanced in the future.

“We would certainly love to see the service extended out to include functionalities that are not currently provided for, such as storage bookings. We think this would be of great value to ENI and would further demonstrate the ability of the API to help organisations such as ours to prosper and grow.”

It is this shared vision and willingness to embrace, and adapt to, change that has helped make the API collaboration between ENI and PRISMA such a resounding success - and one that we both believe will bear fruits long into the future.