Happy Birthday, EnronOnline!

On November 29, 1999, Enron launched EnronOnline, an electronic transaction platform that offered free, real-time pricing information for 2,100 commodities, including electricity, natural gas, coal, pulp and paper, clean air credits, bandwidth, weather and credit derivatives, petrochemicals and plastics, and oil and refined products.

Unlike other Internet commodity service providers, EnronOnline did not match buyers with sellers. Instead, commodity consumers and producers around the world were able to instantaneously conduct transactions directly with an Enron company as principal. EnronOnline was simply an extension of what occurred within the various Enron companies via the telephone on a daily basis. EnronOnline worked by matching itself with every potential buyer or seller, making money on every transaction.

EnronOnline ran on an Oracle database and WebLogic Java application servers that ran on Windows NT. Portions of the site took advantage of Macromedia shockwave, and transactions were secure using SSL encryption.

Efficiency gains made possible by dynamic pricing and trading were especially well suited to Enron’s online business because electronic trading could match the speed with which commodity pricing changed. Transactions that used to take up to three minutes to complete over the phone now took just a second or two.

Enron charged no commission and no subscription fee, an offer which led some analysts to forecast the extinction of traditional brokerages.

Though it didn’t last long enough to put traditional brokerages out of business, EnronOnline quickly made its presence known. It became the largest ecommerce website in the world. In just two years it bought and sold $880 billion worth of products, averaging 6,000 transactions a day worth an average $6 billion.

A particular element of symmetry: EnronOnline closed down for online trading on the morning of November 28, 2001, exactly two years after it went live, and only six months after it reached the one-millionth transaction milestone.

What Almost Happened

What almost happened was you got to see the original Enron Intelligent Network “ePower” website. And the original EnronOnline.

That’s why I bought Enron-Online.com. I wanted to recreate it, so you could see it with your own four eyes. I have the original files and wanted to put them up. But for some reason that I am too tired to work on anymore, they simply won’t show up. If you go to http://www.enron-online.com/default.htm, you see “something” which quickly turns into nothing. It just spools and spools – there is a javascript that makes me want to stab somebody in the neck with a fork.

I’m tired. I was at work for twelve hours today and my brain hurts. If you think you see the problem, give me a shout. Otherwise, let’s all just sulk because the internet is such a tease.

EnronOnline Management Report

What we have here is an Enron Online Management Report from July 17-27, 2001. Bliss yourself out.

EnronOnlineManagementReport

Today In Enron History

Today in Enron history, in 2001, Enron completed its one millionth transaction on EnronOnline. 

EnronOnline was the first global online system that allowed traders to transact commodity products in real time.   It went live on November 29, 1999.

Until that date, a trader who wanted to sell an energy contract would  have to speak to a person who wanted to buy a contract and then agree to terms.   EnronOnline allowed both parties to see prices, like a stock market ticker, thereby introducing simplicity into a process that, as Jeff Skilling said during an EnronOnline ad, had been “dark and blind”.   EnronOnline offered natural gas contracts, as well as electricity, credit, bankruptcy, weather derivatives, lumber, paper, metals, steel, frieght, broadband and TV commercial time, as well as many other commodities.

EnronOnline was not Jeff Skilling’sinvention.  An enterprising young woman named Louise Kitchen and her boss, John Sheriff worked on the project at night at the London office on servers that had not yet been set up.  One day Sheriff flew to Houston to meet with Skilling.  He presented the project and Skilling was slowly won over.  After he got his approval, Sheriff grinned and said, “Great, because it goes live in six weeks.”

It was an instant success.  Money was made hand over fist. 

A particular element of symmetry: EnronOnline closed down for online trading on the morning of November 28, 2001,  exactly two years after it went live, and only six months after it reached the one-millionth transaction milestone.

  Click here to see a video created to celebrate the 1,000,000th transaction. A party for Enron employees was given for the occasion. 

Today EnronOnline is owned by UBS Warburg, where Louise Kitchen is employed.  The system is presently implemented under UBS’s proprietary name, but make no mistake: it is an Enron system.