Aspect Enterprise Solutions, the leading cloud commodity trade and risk management solution provider, was pleased to sponsor and speak at the recent annual Energy Risk Summit USA in Houston, Texas.
Critical Success Factors in ETRM Implementation
Before a packed house, Aspect Vice President of the Americas, Michael Cox, whose experience on the vendor and client side spans more than 30 years, spoke about the critical success factors in deploying energy trading and risk management solutions.
Joined by a panel of other energy industry veterans, Cox explained, “There is a common theme in successful projects. It comes down to people, processes and technology. If you have support from Senior Management and you do a really good job on educating the end user and keeping the project moving forward, it can be a smooth process.”
Michael Cox
Importance of Documenting Business Processes
Cox also stated, “It’s important to do a good job of documenting business processes, and projecting future processes. This goes right into the technology. People do not always take into account what they will need five years from now.”
Leveraging Out-of-the-Box Functionality
Cox went on to explain how using out-of-the-box functionality is under used. He explained how there is no “one-size-fits-all solution,” and if you have done your due diligence for your chosen solution — there shouldn’t be glaring gaps that have to be developed. Most solutions offer ways to use the tools available, while balancing feature/functionality builds.
AESthetics Project Drives Standardization
Aspect understands this well, and has spent the past few years on a game-changing project called AESthetics, which brings simplicity and standardization to its AspectCTRM solution. By taking into account best practices for business processes, Aspect has created a series of Work Benches that allow companies to assemble their solution into any workflow to meet their business requirements. Work Benches represent common activities among global commodity trading companies, such as: Reference Data Management, Contract Management, Credit Management, Transaction Capture, Deal Confirmation, Risk Management, Physical Delivery, Settlements and Accounting. These Workbenches are being built and released with each new release of AspectCTRM.
This concept creates system flexibility, scalability, and decreases the deployment time further. Aspect already has the fastest implementation times in the market, ranging from two weeks, to just a few months on more complex configurations and integrations. Aspect will be releasing more information around its AESthetics project in the next few weeks.
Additional Keys to ETRM Project Success
Other success factors revealed include the need for dedicated deployment resources, and strong management teams and business sponsors. Inevitably there will be differences of opinion among vendors and customers, and these need to be escalated to an appointed committee that can make the decision.
About Aspect Enterprise Solutions
Aspect Enterprise Solutions www.aspectenterprise.com is a leading global provider of multi-commodity trading, risk management and data analysis applications delivered Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in the cloud. With more than 500 customers in 90 countries, it’s one of the fastest growing providers with rapid deployment, controlled costs and immediate ROI for all size companies. Applications include AspectCTRM®, a full-featured commodity trading and risk management enterprise suite for front, middle and back office. It’s available in three editions: Lite, Standard and Enterprise, seamlessly expanding in functionality according to the needs and budgets of clients. AspectDSC is the decision support center for traders offering oil, metals and agricultural market news, prices, futures and analytical tools on desktops, tablets and mobile devices. AspectPM is the Price Manager solution which provides consolidation and support for the global oil price forecasting process and forward curve management.
