For many large enterprises, ERP is seen as a core technology that enables faster reporting and processing across different departments; linking operations, accounting, customer service and more. Yet due to their scale and broad coverage, many people we speak to find that their ERP does not provide the best commodity management solution for their business.
Because ERPs are not designed primarily for commodity management, teams in the commodities sector often find their agility is compromised and they need to carry out manual, offline processes to enter trades and manage contracts, simply because their ERP does not have this functionality.
ERPs add the most value when used across the enterprise, with many or all business areas using the ERP and the data in it. They are therefore often implemented centrally and those teams who would benefit from different software often cannot replace the ERP. And discussions around implementing CTRM software alongside the ERP frequently hit roadblocks due to the cost of implementing a full CTRM, especially when the CTRM and ERP share some common features; meaning the organisation would be paying twice-over for the same results.
This is why Gen10 have developed a range of commodity management apps. Each app solves a specific challenge and can be implemented individually or as part of a broader solution, at a much lower cost than a full CTRM. And all Gen10 apps are collaborative by nature, meaning they integrate directly with your ERP’s database as well as with other Gen10 apps so you benefit from all the advantages of collaborative commodity management.
In the below example, a business unit within a large multinational organisation must use the company’s standard ERP. They are not responding to opportunities with the agility they’d like to because entering trades and managing contracts is a manual, time-intensive process that relies on spreadsheets, emails and messaging apps.
Trade.Counter
The team begins with a radical transformation of their procurement and sales operations technology. They create their own private digital marketplaces for each business area using Gen10’s Trade.Counter app. The marketplaces allow the teams to communicate price levels, invite offers and close deals with the partners they have invited to use the app, all in real-time, online and with a complete audit history. The team can now check offer/bid activity and close deals at any time from any device, with the final price being automatically shared with the ERP and their other commodity management apps.
As well as more efficient operations, better customer service and a broader reach, the team are able to implement a forward hedge programme and analyse pricing data across commodities, locations and forward months to manage their risk and inform their future strategy.
Contract.Manager
Having integrated Trade.Counter into their day-to-day operations in a matter of weeks, the team then decide to digitise their contract management process to speed up time to completion, reduce errors and gain real-time position reporting.
They integrate Contract.Manager with Gen10’s Trade.Counter and the ERP so that data is shared across all apps and they have one connected, digitised process. They create pre-approved contract templates to reduce the Legal team’s workload and contract processing time and contract workflows that progress each contract to the next team in the process.
They gain complete visibility of each contract’s progress and create a clear audit trail of actions that can be accessed from anywhere. They manage their operational risk better than ever before with real-time counterparty credit reports, P&L and more that update with no waiting for end-of-day or month reports.
CommOS-as-a-Service
The team decide that the other Gen10 apps could provide incremental gains but are not necessary at the moment. However, they are embarking on a new blockchain proof of concept and note that Gen10’s collaborative apps, dApps and APIs could form a key piece of the technology infrastructure they would need to create. They therefore take advantage of CommOS-as-a-Service, working with the Gen10 team to create their custom technology faster and at a lower cost by using the existing apps as building blocks for the next stage in their digital transformation.
The team create a technology ecosystem with greater functionality than their ERP, leveraging greater returns from their previous technology investment and allowing the business to work better, together. They pave the way for incremental gains from future app implementations and prove the value of a larger-scale digital transformation.
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