White Papers What Does Tomorrows CTRM Look Like? | Page 3

Commodity
 Management

 A
 ComTech
 Advisory
 Whitepaper

Introduction

The
  $1.6
  billion
  Commodity
  Trading
  and

Risk
  Management
  (CTRM)
  software

category
  continues
  to
  change
  and

evolve
  rapidly,
  driven
  by
  the
  many
  and

varied
  issues
  that
  those
  in
  commodity

industries
  face.
  Today,
  the
  CTRM

software
  category
  is
  being
  forced
  to

move
  from
  one
  that
  is
  mostly
  about

managing
 trading
 transactions
 after
 the

fact
  (capturing
  volume
  and
  price,

managing
  the
  delivery
  and
  then

producing
  an
  invoice),
  to
  something

dramatically
 different.

“If
  you
  can’t
  get
  a
  user
  to
  engage,
  you’re
  not

providing
  them
  with
  the
  collaborative
  tools

they
  need
  to
  be
  the
  best
  at
  their
  job.
  If
  they

aren’t
  collaborating
  on
  a
  unified
  platform,
  it’s

going
  to
  be
  difficult
  to
  measure
  performance,

monitor
  activity
  and
  provide
  the
  real-­‐time

business
 analytics
 they
 need
 to
 get
 an
 edge
 on

the
  competition.
  That
  edge
  comes
  in
  the
  form

of
 intelligence,
 efficiency
 and
 risk
 control.”

Richard
 Williamson,
 CEO,
 Generation
 10
 Ltd.

Multiple
 issues
 now
 face
 those
 operating
 in
 the
 commodity
 industries,
 including:

o
o
o
o
o
o

The
 need
 to
 process,
 store
 and
 manage
 vast
 quantities
 of
 structured
 and
 unstructured
 data,

Ensuring
 compliance
 with
 numerous
 new
 and
 onerous
 regulatory
 requirements,

Responding
 to
 structural
 change
 in
 the
 industry
 such
 as
 the
 exit
 of
 the
 banks,
 for
 example,

The
 emergence
 of
 an
 array
 of
 new
 trading
 instruments
 and
 markets,

The
 move
 to
 exchange-­‐based
 and
 exchange-­‐cleared
 transactions,
 and

The
 need
 to
 reduce
 costs,
 increase
 efficiency
 and
 maximize
 profits.

The
  confluence
  of
  these
  issues
  is
  driving
  many
  of
  the
  changes
  in
  CTRM
  software.

  For
  those
  wh o
  need
  to
  manage

physical
 commodities
 and
 their
 supply
 chains,
 the
 issues
 are
 magnified
 further
 due
 to
 the
 complexity
 of
 tracking

and
  managing
  those
  physical
  commodities
  with
  stock,
  quality
  characteristics,
  paperwork,
  movement
  and
  much

more.
  There
  is
  more
  data,
  more
  regulation
  and
  more
  risk.
  CTRM
  software
  must
  incorporate
  much
  more

functionality
 to
 support
 the
 modern
 supply
 chain.

In
 the
 future,
 CTRM
 solutions
 will
 necessarily
 need
 to
 offer
 users
 real-­‐time
 analytics
 and
 provide
 them
 with
 the

tools
  they
  need
  not
  only
  to
  manage
  and
  report
  transactions,
  but
  also
  to
  help
  identify
  trading
  opportunities,

©
 Commodity
 Technology
 Advisory
 LLC,
 2014

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