Commodity Management and CTRM technology can be broadly divided into two distinct groups: repository-style, and those that act as business enablers. Organisations using a legacy repository-style CTRM are limited by this technology; it does not make processing any quicker, does not manage activities to ensure processes are followed and creates additional work for busy traders and operators who need to manually update the CTRM upon completion of every action.
By contrast, business enabling Commodity Management technology such as Gen10’s is designed to speed up processing. It automates calculations and processes so that your people can work faster and more accurately, with fewer errors, and therefore less risk. Your team uses the platform to complete their tasks, meaning that there is no need to log activities again and that the reporting takes care of itself.
The time saving benefits of modern Commodity Management technology compared to a legacy CTRM cannot be overstated. For example, to create a new contract the trader simply selects whether they wish to copy an existing contract, changing only pertinent information, or a pre-defined contract template. From here the system automatically creates a new contract using information that has already been input and auto-calculating pricing. Automatically created documents also include instructing loading and sampling operations, Bills of Lading and invoice creation – all of which can also be sent via email directly from within the system.
For organisations losing time and opportunities as a result of using an outdated CTRM system, the need for better commodity management is clear, yet many that are aware of the issues with their current technology are reluctant to update it. One of the reasons frequently cited for this reticence is the idea that transitioning between these enterprise systems is a disruptive, costly and lengthy task.
In the past, it was the case that CTRM implementations could take upwards of 18-months, cost huge sums of cash, require a significant amount of hardware and onsite technicians, and cause widespread disruption before, during and even after the implementation as the business migrated historical data to their new system. However, with modern Commodity Management technology, these concerns are often no longer warranted.
Implementations of Gen10 software can take from just a few weeks to a few months to implement, depending on levels of customisation and data requirements. Our latest roll-out migrated 3 international teams for one company in just 4 months, including all user training, data migration and software customisation. Other implementations for single business areas have been achieved in as little as 3 weeks.
Because Gen10’s technology was designed with flexibility in mind from the ground up, most system customisation occurs without any custom development. This means that you can adapt the automation workflows to your own processes (such as how to calculate pricing for contracts and invoices) simply and quickly, saving you both time and costs.
As well as the flexibility of a modern platform, this rapid implementation is made possible by cloud technology. This means that the solution is hosted with an external service provider, rather than installed on each user’s machine or a central server within your company. With a cloud solution, each user simply logs in securely to the system via their web browser, meaning that there is no need for technicians to visit the office or for users to download any software. This cloud technology has allowed us to complete implementations 100% remotely, with software projects going live during the recent UK lockdown.
A technology partner with experience of rapid remote implementations like Gen10 can outline the implementation process and timelines before you begin and work the implementation around your business, for example by going live in different locations at different times or by scheduling repeat data migrations to minimise disruption during the switch-over. Gen10 implementation journeys are completed in 4 steps, with timeframes depending on your requirements and business areas:
- Requirements-gathering workshops and customising your automation workflows
- Integrating with other business systems such as ERP or finance programs
- User training and allowing users to test the system
- Migrating your historic data for complete reporting
The promise of rapid, lower cost implementations of commodity management software is now being delivered. Our clients have benefited from short, low cost and minimally disruptive implementation of Gen10’s software delivering real benefits to their business and freeing them from the hindrance of expensive legacy software. Isn’t it time you did the same?
Gen10 were joined by ComTech Advisory in September 2020 to discuss how simple it can be to implement new commodity management technology and why now more than ever, companies with legacy CTRM systems are at risk. Watch the webinar recording now
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