Reports Analyst Briefing Note Aspect Enterprise Solutions | Page 2

and providing access and instruction on how to leverage the AESthetics framework. As a result of these efforts, Aspects’ clients will have access to a
larger number and more varied selection of consulting resources, reducing reliance on a handful of specialist CTRM resources, effectively deskilling
the process and reducing project costs.

Products
In summary, Aspect’s products include:
AspectCTRM - A web deployed trading and risk management solution for commodity traders, risk managers, operations staff and back-office
personnel. The product is built around four components: Trade Management, Risk Management, Physical Operations and Financial
Operations; and is customizable around specific market segments or industries via the Aspect Multi-Commodity Framework. The solution
expands to budget requirements, via what the company calls Lite, Standard and Enterprise Editions. According to the company,
AspectCTRM is recognized for its advanced reporting functionality and ability to calculate P&L in real time with trading markets. The Aspect
processing engine uses an in-memory database for powerful performance, instant analysis and daily, monthly a nd year-end closing reports
that can be rolled up quickly.
AspectDSC - A multi-commodity market data and analytics platform to track real-time and historical price data and news. Products include
oil, refined products, petrochemicals, natural gas, metals, steel, agriculture, forex and financial indicators. It is a cloud-based portal with
user selected price and information feeds from a variety of exchanges, and includes news and price services, including ICE, NYMEX, LME,
Shanghai Futures Exchange, Platts, Argus, OPIS, TFS, Dow Jones, BBC and others. It's recognized for its advanced charting functionality,
ease-of-use and modern intuitive interface, and mobile device functions.
AspectPM - A forward curve management solution and framework for calculating, consolidating, archiving and re-distributing forward prices.

A key differentiator for Aspect is that all of its products were developed to be web-delivered applications, making the company one of the pioneers
of SaaS in the commodity trading technology space. As a result, Aspect has been at the forefront of promoting the value proposition of cloud solutions
since 1999. Given its technology genesis, Aspect can deliver its software in a variety of configurations including true multi-tenanted in the cloud,
hosted in the cloud or, if desired, “traditional” on-premises. Aspect cites, as a result of its deployment model, benefits including fast
delivery/implementation and a lower total cost of ownership; and utilizes the web-delivery mechanism to offer and deliver free trials of its software
products.
Aspect’s technology stack includes SUN Java platform and an Oracle RDBMS for all of its products. Integration with other software and data is achieved
using web services in a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) environment.

Company Strategy
Aspect has grown out of its original OILSpace branding (since 2007) and its focus on data products, expanding into the broader global CTRM software
market. Here, its innovative early adoption of web-enabled technologies has allowed it to pursue cost-conscious segments of the market that
traditionally have relied on spreadsheets or light-weight home-built solutions; however, given the product’s scalability and the company’s market
success, AspectCTRM is increasingly finding adoption in larger trading and trading-related firms as well. As the company has continually broadened
the coverage of its AspectDSC data platform, moving from its traditional oil market data to agriculture, softs and metals, it has been able to often
leverage the AspectDSC client base to cross sell its CTRM products, cooperating with those clients to increase AspectCTRM product’s commodity
scope and capabilities. In addition, the company has been uniquely successful in non-traditional geographies like Africa where, once it had established
a foot-hold, has managed to grow its market presence more or less unchallenged. Overall, the company has been successful executing its strategy
and has experienced solid growth rates in recurring revenues, with a decreasing reliance on one-time perpetual license fees.
Though the company's software had previously been solidly focused on oil and petroleum products, it has, via the cross selling of its AspectDSC client
base, started to target metals and ags/softs prospects with some early success, enabling the company to invest in becoming a multi-commodity
solution provider. While the company’s CTRM products do not target all commodities (such as power trading), Aspect does continue to broaden its
functionality and cross-commodity coverage while leveraging its footprint, clients and expertise on the data side.

Outlook and Analysis
The early focus on, and experience in, the cloud and web-enabled software means that the company is adept at creating the value proposition and
answering the sales objections when it comes to cloud-based deployment and benefits from the accelerating interest in CTRM in the cloud. Current
ComTech Advisory estimates indicate that growth rates in cloud-delivered solutions could reach 15% per annum, versus 3-5% for traditional onpremises software, giving the company an advantage versus its peer group in the mid and lower-tiers of the market. Additionally, given the company’s
leading position with many niche or geographically isolated customers, it should be well positioned to continue to dominate those segments. In its
traditional and current markets, Aspect has the product, support and positioning necessary to succeed and continue to grow at solid rates.

© Commodity Technology Advisory llc

June 2014

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