Reports The Use of Spreadsheets in Commodity Trading | Page 9

The Use of Spreadsheets in Commodity Trading – 2015

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Systems in Use
In order to provide additional context to our research, we asked
the respondents to identify which CTRM or ERP system they
currently used. Quite a number stated that either they didn’t
such system or, in some instances, did not wish to respond to
the question. Of those who did provide an answer, SAP was
the most commonly used system, presumably deployed as an
ERP solution. OLF Endur, Triple Point, SunGard Aligne and
OLF RightAngle were the most widely used CTRM solutions,
but a number of different CTRM and ERP solutions were also
identified by the respondents (Figure 8 below).

Figure 8 | ERP and CTRM Solutions Use

by CommodityPoint and Commodity Technology Advisory in
the ETRM and CTRM space when we have asked this question (Figure 9).
Of those that have a vendor supplied and supported system, only about 15% of the respondents were able to
claim that the implementation of that ERP/CTRM solution
had eliminated the widespread use of spreadsheets. A very
small number admitted that while extensive spreadsheet use
had been initially eliminated, since the implementation of their
new system, the use of spreadsheets was once again becoming common and was increasing over time. More tellingly, a
majority indicated that implementation of their chosen solution had not eliminated widespread use of spreadsheets and
almost a quarter stated that they still use spreadsheets extensively in their organization (Figure 10).

No

Non

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SAP
Res
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OLF
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Sun
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In H
ous
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RO
ME
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Figure 10 | Elimination of Spreadsheets

In terms of user satisfaction with these solutions, a majority of the respondents indicated they were satisfied with their
installed products, with about half noting they were “Satisfied”
and a further 12% stating they were “Very Satisfied”. About
15% of respondents noted that they were “Unsatisfied”. The
overall distribution is very slightly skewed towards unsatisfied
a result that is entirely in line with several years of polling data

Figure 9 | Satisfaction Ratings

The results indicate that while the implementation of a
structured software solution will almost always reduce the
dependence on spreadsheets, these systems will rarely eliminate their use entirely. Experience has shown that CTRM software is often only an 80% fit to requirements out of the box
in the best of circumstances, with the remaining 20% reflecting the widely varying business practices across the industry
and the perceived needs of individual users. Essentially, this
makes supplementation of the commercial software with convenient tools like spreadsheets difficult to avoid. In our sample
however, 15% were able to avoid the use of spreadsheets altogether after implementing a software solution.

© Commodity Technology Advisory LLC, 2015, All Rights Reserved.