Global Commodity Trade and Risk Management Cloud Provider Aspect Transforms its Business Processes to Better Serve Customers 

Avanade, the leading provider of innovative digital and cloud services, business solutions and design-led experiences for its clients, today announced that it will help Aspect to manage its IT platform with scalable product support and development, supporting the company’s strong growth trajectory.

Rapid transformation in the global commodities trading market combined with often dramatic volatility in the global trading prices for oil and gas, has driven exponential growth in demand from FTSE 100 and S&P 500 companies for Aspect’s cloud-based trade, risk and market data solutions. The company needs an IT platform to meet this demand while also delivering the improved operational efficiency that is key to its growth ambitions.

Aspect recently moved its outsourced operations from Russia to India. Working with Avanade’s Global Delivery Network and local Delivery Centres, Aspect established a new scalable workforce, within a matter of weeks. In addition, Avanade successfully took over product management and maintenance of Aspect’s business-critical platform.

In a fast-changing market, businesses are now looking for a new economics of efficiency that will deliver flexibly and quickly at a lower cost. Aspect awarded a five-year contract to Avanade due to its unrivalled experience in cloud-based development, service management and end-to-end ecosystems. In addition, Avanade has the ability to deliver increased productivity by offering solutions which maximise efficiency, increase agility and give the freedom to innovate for Aspect’s customers.

“Avanade is well placed to help us transform our business and create value over the coming years through new IT approaches. As our partner Avanade will play an important role in managing our product development and maintenance, end-user support, assisting with our roadmap development and future expansion plans,” said Steve Hughes, CEO at Aspect.

Aspect will now work with Avanade to transition to a single platform delivery model that is agile, adaptable to scale, reliable and cost-effective. Aspect’s integrated platform is a key revenue stream for both users and customers, providing real time trade data and risk exposure. The work with Avanade will ensure Aspect can cope with current and future growth, while being in a position to easily absorb acquired companies – a key part of its business plan.

Jacob Parsons, Energy and Utilities executive at Avanade UK, said: “Throughout the tender process we have shown our deep understanding of the trading market that Aspect is in and carefully managed its end-to-end service. With a quick turnaround required, we delivered a complex transition from Russia to India on schedule and have been delivering successfully for over two months.”

Hughes continued: “Businesses can be wary of outsourcing, particularly in complex environments such as Russia where the transition of knowledge to India can create uncertainty. However, Avanade overcame these cultural challenges to transition and stabilise our business within a matter of weeks, taking over product development and maintenance of our business-critical platform. It was a huge success, and no major issues have been reported since.”