My career began in 2001 in the front office, where I started as a gas and power operator, managing gas pipelines and power stations. I then transitioned to natural gas trading, focusing on European assets like storage facilities, pipelines, and hedging LNG cargos. Then I had the opportunity to develop my own CTRM system to focus on trader selection for oil, gas, and LNG clients.

Amphora then approached me to lead their CTRM implementations a decade ago, and for the last few years, I've headed the sales and marketing team. My initial years in the front office were invaluable, providing me with a deep understanding of the industry's operational side, which helps when interacting with users. Having been involved in the system selection processes, I know what users need and their pain points. This experience has been crucial in developing a user-centric approach at Amphora, ensuring our CTRM solutions meet our clients' needs.

Initially, CTRMs were mainly suitable for large organisations, with implementations often costing millions of dollars and taking years to complete. Today, most vendors offer cloud solutions, significantly reducing the cost and the timeframe for implementation. At Amphora, we aim to complete implementations within 12 weeks, often achieving this even quicker.

The advent of open APIs has been a game-changer, allowing different software modules within an organisation to communicate seamlessly. In the past, companies relied on one piece of software for everything, often leading to compromises. Now, businesses can integrate best-in-class solutions for various functions through open APIs, simplifying data management and system integration.

Another key development is ensuring that all clients, regardless of size, are on the same software version branch and can upgrade simultaneously, preventing anyone from being left behind with outdated software and allows all clients to contribute to the software's roadmap and benefit from continuous innovation.

One of the biggest challenges is capturing all your data and being able to extract it effectively. For audit purposes, it's crucial to have all data within the CTRM itself. However, it’s equally important to easily get data out, whether via APIs or a simple Excel extract. No user should be forced to make assumptions or approximations outside the system and then input limited amounts of data back into the CTRM software.

Symphony addresses these pain points by ensuring that all data can be captured and easily extracted as needed. This reduces the risk of errors and ensures that all relevant information is available within the system, supporting better decision-making and compliance.

Over the 25 years Amphora has been in business, we've developed our own implementation model with implementations now taking 12 weeks or less, with full transparency throughout the process. We set up a project steering committee and a project working group at the start. The steering committee, which includes upper management, meets monthly and signs off on the project, while the working group, meets for one or two hours each morning for the first month to scope out requirements.

For training, we tailor packages for each user. Our accountancy course is the shortest, lasting two hours. The super user course, which provides a high-level experience of all modules, takes 16 hours. All our courses are CPD certified, providing a qualification at the end and ensuring continuous improvement.

This year, we're focusing on two major themes. The first is the ability to upgrade each of our modules independently rather than waiting for a core upgrade. Currently, our core releases are every six months, but starting in August, we'll be able to release each module separately. This means if we build new functionality we can release it the following weekend.

The second theme is enhancing our APIs to improve reporting functionality. There's increasing demand from users who want to create their own reports and extract data easily. By focusing on these two areas—independent module upgrades and enriched APIs for better reporting—we aim to provide more flexibility and responsiveness to our clients' needs.

AI is a buzzword in any industry, and it will certainly be the case for CTRM software. We know this will be a game-changer for most of our clients. As they learn how to best use the data they have, they need to be able to extract it more easily from the CTRM. By enriching all our APIs, we aim to play a central role in helping them with this.

Amphora is well-positioned to support companies in this evolving landscape by continuously innovating and enhancing our systems to meet future demands. Our vision for the future is to remain at the forefront of the CTRM industry, leveraging new technologies to provide our clients with the best possible tools and solutions. We aim to continue evolving our products to meet the changing needs of the market and to help our clients navigate the complexities of commodity trading with greater ease and efficiency.