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64% of Energy Trading Firms Say Their Systems Are Failing Them. The Fix Isn’t Another System.
The energy and commodities trading industry is modernizing fast — but new systems alone aren’t solving the problem. We break down the latest data from Molecule’s 2025 ETRM/CTRM report, and what it means for trading desks still wrestling with fragmented workflows.
Every year, Molecule surveys hundreds of energy and commodities trading firms on the state of their technology. This year’s report — built from over 400 responses across more than ten industries — paints a clear picture: the industry has stopped debating whether to modernize and started doing it. But the data also reveals a gap that most modernization programs aren’t addressing.
The Numbers Tell an Uncomfortable Story
The headline findings from Molecule’s 2025 ETRM/CTRM Transformation and Modernization Report are striking. Modernization is no longer a future plan — 70% of firms already have projects underway, up from just 24% the year before. ETRM adoption has jumped from 34% to 85% in a single year. Nearly every firm in the survey has launched or is planning a modernization initiative.
And yet, despite all of that investment and momentum, 64% of respondents say their current systems still don’t support all their processes or the range of commodities they trade.
That’s not a technology problem. That’s a workflow problem.
The Gap Modernization Isn’t Closing
New ETRM systems are better than the ones they replace. They’re more scalable, more flexible, and better equipped to handle the complexity of modern energy markets — renewables, shorter lead times, greater product granularity. But even the best ETRM system is still just one system among many.
Traders don’t work in a single system. They work across market data feeds, position management tools, risk platforms, scheduling systems, and operational dashboards — often simultaneously. When those systems don’t share context, traders fill the gap manually: switching screens, re-keying data, and making decisions with information that’s already a few steps out of date.
Modernizing the ETRM doesn’t fix that. It just gives you a better system that still doesn’t talk to the others.
What Leading Firms Are Doing Differently
One of Europe’s largest energy trading groups faced exactly this challenge. As electricity markets grew more complex — with smaller product granularity, shorter lead times, and a growing number of trades — their traders were operating across a series of isolated desktop and web applications with no unified context sharing between systems.
Rather than replacing everything, they partnered with interop.io to build a unified trading desktop — a modular, role-based environment that brings together market data, position management, risk systems, and operational tools in a single coherent workspace. The result was faster time to market, reusable components across trading personas, and a platform that could scale horizontally to additional business units without rebuilding from scratch.
“We moved from solutions designed around applications to workflows designed around traders. The platform gives us the agility to respond to market changes — and to scale across teams without starting from scratch.”
— Senior IT Product Owner, leading European energy trading group
That shift — from optimizing individual systems to connecting them into a unified trading environment — is where the real productivity gains live.
interop.io is trusted by leading financial institutions including JPMorgan and Citi, and is now bringing that same enterprise-grade foundation to energy and commodities trading desks worldwide.
The Broader Trend
The Molecule data points to something important: firms don’t just want faster systems. They want systems that flex with their business, provide clear answers when the stakes are high, and remove the guesswork from risk and compliance. Scalability is now the number one modernization driver, ahead of speed.
That’s exactly what desktop interoperability delivers. Not a replacement for your ETRM — but the layer that makes everything you already have work together, in real time, in the hands of your traders.
What This Means for Your Trading Desk
If you’re among the 64% whose systems aren’t fully supporting your workflows, the answer probably isn’t another system replacement. It’s connecting what you already have — and giving your traders a desktop that’s built around how they actually work.
interop.io helps energy and commodities firms do exactly that. And with our recently announced partnership with DXC Technology, we’re bringing that capability to energy and commodities desks everywhere, backed by deep E/CTRM implementation expertise.
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