At the latest MCG Energy Users Conference outside of Denver, Colorado on October 10-11, 2024, CEO and co-founder Mike Prickett discussed how MCG met recent and coming challenges in the energy software industry over the past year. Among the most important is the impact of FedRAMP.
After the online and hybrid events of the past few years, this was MCG’s first all in-person conference since 2019. The highlights included a new conference format and greater opportunities to network with MCG staff and peers in the industry.
MCG’s Key Milestones in the FedRAMP Journey
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy offered MCG FedRAMP sponsorship. We accepted and began the arduous process to achieve FedRAMP Authorization. At the conference, MCG’s Compliance & Reporting Manager, Brenda Huebsch, covered MCG’s road to FedRAMP, the evolution of MCG’s Security program to reach it, the evolving NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) rules as updated in January 2024, as well as addressing customer mandates and internal initiatives, strategies, and vision.
Meeting Challenges to Achieve FedRAMP Authorization
For years MCG has completed annual SOC and NIST audits, and provides documentation to customers when it’s available near the end of each year. Our Security policies and procedures also follow GDPR, FISMA, and State level requirements. The latest among these is aligning with the Federal mandate to use FedRAMP level services for cloud solutions that was codified into law in 2022.
While most companies stop at the Infrastructure level, with the backing of the Department of Energy, MCG has worked tirelessly toward FedRAMP certification of our software product suite as well as our Infrastructure. To our knowledge we are the only energy software company pursuing both at this time. When complete, MCG stands to be the first in the industry with FedRAMP Authorization for both its software products as well as its hosting facilities and services.
Learn more about MCG’s outstanding Private Cloud & Security.
MCG Company Growth
MCG is growing through new product launches, existing product and customer expansions, and the FedRAMP security journey. To handle these developments MCG is thrilled to announce a number of additional focus areas to maintain this level of excellence.
In late September we hired our first Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Jayson Nelson. Jayson will be responsible for handling MCG’s FedRAMP status and customer-facing cybersecurity. Jayson and the MCG team will work to uphold the very real and critical world of cyber- and information security going forward.
We not only added Jayson Nelson as CISO – our long-time Human Resource Director, Chris Lechner, is retiring at the end of the year. We have found a great new talent to transition into her role in Terry Larson. We’re excited to welcome Jayson and Terry, and thank Chris for her countless contributions to help get MCG where it is today through acquisitions and organic growth.
MCG is now in the process of redefining and expanding its commercial organization as a result of the new products added over the past twelve months and those now being launched. (Stay tuned for more to come here.) MCG is also looking forward to expanding its Marketing and Delivery model into the New Year.
New Products and Features
The past year saw significant expansion of products and features in the MCG Energy Software Suite:
- The Compliance Reporting System (CRS) is a new compliance and reporting module of our Energy Accounting System (EAS). CRS will provide jurisdictional load (PUC) reporting and FERC and NERC reporting.
- A new Maintenance Management offering (OMMS) in the works from Versify Solutions as it continues to build out its Workforce Health & Safety (HS&E) product.
- The Integrated Asset Manager (IAM) Cost Allocation module is becoming a stand-alone product.
- The Paragon Energy Risk Manager (ERM) and Credit Risk Manager (CRM) are undergoing significant changes, including enhanced Monte Carlo Value at Risk (VaR) and Credit Scorecarding capabilities.
Watch our website and LinkedIn for information about these new offerings, and contact us today to discuss what they can do for your organization.
The Future of MCG
Combined, these developments mark 2024 as one of the very best years the company has had in its history and there is so much more to come on the horizon. Continue to visit our website for the latest MCG Energy events and follow us on LinkedIn to learn more about MCG’s new products, FedRAMP and other improvements in security and services, and company changes to advance these exciting developments.
David Peterson, Ph.D. is the content specialist for MCG Energy Solutions.