Trading faster may allow commodity businesses to generate greater returns from a wide range of assets – not only physical commodities, but counterparty relationships and their employees’ valuable time. Completing each trade faster allows these resources to be used to trade more volume; for example by freeing up credit lines to enable more transactions with a counterparty or reducing administration and allowing traders more time to explore new deal opportunities.
Faster trading is not simply down to traders to deliver. Slowdowns and issues can arise in any department, from trading to risk, sustainability or operations. Indeed, disruptions to trading operations often come from communication issues between teams, such as incorrectly copied information, delays in responses and unclear communications.
Improving trading speed and volume therefore relies on all teams operating efficiently and working together efficiently, too. Commodity management apps help all teams within your organisation share information and carry out their tasks faster, with improvements across front-, middle- and back-offices combining to generate real benefits for the business.
Why commodity management apps?
Gen10’s commodity management apps allow you to implement new solutions quickly and easily – providing deal-accelerating benefits without the widespread disruption that can occur from technology implementations. Each app provides a targeted solution to a specific problem, from deal capture and contract management to logistics automation and trade finance. Adding a commodity management app to solve a pressing problem is an agile way to continually enhance your technology’s commodity management capabilities.
Because many of these apps are in addition to, and complementing, your existing technology, they do not require a complete system overhaul or large multi-team implementation project. There is no need to replace large-scale systems such as a CTRM, if this technology is largely meeting your needs.
The apps work with your existing technology, connecting by APIs that allow them to share data with other systems. They therefore do not only accelerate the processes they are directly involved in, but also help your teams create efficiencies and value in your existing systems by providing the data they need, without the risk of omissions and copying errors that do occur when even the most careful humans are involved.
Gen10 apps are accessed through your Internet browser. They are secure cloud apps, meaning that you can log in and use them whenever and wherever you have an Internet connection, from a computer, tablet or phone. And for some apps, you don’t even need Internet access.
Gen10’s Aud.IT web and mobile app
Improving processes across the value chain
If you are not already using automation to manage trading, risk and operations, you may decide you need Gen10’s Commodity.Manager, a solution that provides the functions of a traditional E/CTRM, with added commodity management and automation features. This app includes automated document creation, logistics calendars, workflows between teams and real-time risk management and reporting – with no need to wait for end-of-day updates.
Or, if there are specific areas of your current technology and processes that cause bottlenecks, commodity management apps can solve these issues. Below we explore just some of the areas where targeted apps can provide the benefits of faster operations, better data flows and automation.
At deal capture
If your organisation is not communicating price levels or capturing this data quickly, what opportunities could you be missing?
The Trade.Counter app can be used as your own private digital marketplace to invite offers and close deals quickly whilst providing enhanced monitoring. Not only does this app increase the speed of individual deals, the information it provides allows traders to increase trading volumes by finding deals they would not otherwise have been aware of.
Deals can be closed from anywhere using the app, with APIs updating your contract management software automatically when a deal is confirmed. This allows traders to quickly take advantage of new opportunities, provides faster communication with counterparties and reduces administration so that traders have more time to spend on the next opportunity.
When creating contracts
Gen10’s Contract.Manager app uses workflows and document templates to automate your contract creation processes, accelerating contract processing whilst reducing manual workloads. This might include counterparty/credit checks, sending contracts to multiple approvers, and digital signatures. The automated document creation means that once templates and special clauses are approved, the full terms of each contract no longer need to be manually checked and individually approved, saving time for all involved and providing a faster service to counterparties.
Digitalising contract creation means that all information is readily available for anyone who needs it, and shows what actions need to be taken next, as well as the responsible individual. And views of all contract stages make it even more difficult for outstanding actions to be missed, preventing lengthy delays before they occur.
Because Contract.Manager integrates with CTRM, ERP and other systems, it feeds information into your reports without the need for manual intervention and reduces administration time for every contract – again leading to faster contract turnaround and more time for your people to focus on other activities.
A major advantage of using commodity management apps for contract creation is that they support higher volumes of contract processing, as well as accelerating each individual contract. The automation and controls limit actions to those in line with your processes and the outstanding tasks views create an environment where adding contract volumes do not mean losing oversight or control. With the right automation in place, traders and operators are empowered to use the time they save to increase the number of deals they create, without increasing pressure and whilst overall improving risk management and governance.
For managing risk
Commodity management apps can accelerate the process of managing risk and reduce the manual tasks associated with marking exposure to market (MTM), squaring hedges, P&L and more. Position data from connected apps combines with market data for instant hedge programme reporting, position & stock reports and reconciliations. Traders and operators no longer need to update a CTRM with actions they have already taken, and reports can be created at the click of a button, saving risk professionals hours or even days each month.
Traceability and provenance
From certificate and document management in Contract.Manager to Trade.Counter’s ability to capture deals across any supply chain, including rural smallholders or large-scale mining operations, traceability can be made faster, easier and less admin-intensive with the use of apps. App traceability features are enhanced by their connected, integrated nature, showing all stock’s provenance and sustainability data across systems and demonstrating traceability across the supply chain.
If you need to perform due diligence or inspections on warehouses or suppliers, the Aud.IT app digitises and streamlines auditing for faster data-sharing. Unlike paper inspection records, which are prone to damage, copying errors and can take weeks to be distributed to the relevant individuals, inspections carried out on a mobile or tablet device using the Aud.IT app can be made instantly available as soon as the data is collected. And for areas with limited connectivity, your agents can complete an inspection offline and upload it whenever they have Internet access.
In the competitive commodities markets of today, it is more important than ever for all departments in commodity trading firms to ensure they are operating efficiently and collaborating with colleagues in other teams as rapidly as possible to increase overall trading volumes and profitability. Many of us have parts of our process that we just accept naturally take longer than others – but this might not actually be the case. Get in touch today to explore whether commodity management apps could accelerate the time-intensive areas of your business processes.
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