Thought Leadership:
CTRM Fears
Industry participants are regularly asked to provide the first word that comes to mind when thinking about CTRM software. Very often, the word they propose is negative. This article looks into some of these common negative feelings, explains how they can impact the user experience and proposes how you can avoid similar issues in your organisation.
Expensive, Long Implementations
CTRM software has constantly evolved over the last 20 years. While initially, CTRM solutions were often more suitable for larger organisations, with implementations that could often cost millions of dollars and take years to complete, this is no longer the case. Today, most vendors offer cloud and/or SaaS solutions with significantly lower costs and shorter timeframes for implementation. This perception of long and costly implementations is largely no longer true. At Amphora, we typically aim to complete implementations within 12 weeks, often achieving this even faster. We conduct all our implementations in-house as opposed to bringing in help from a 3rd party. More details on Amphora’s implementation process can be found in one of our newsletter articles.
Inflexible
Older CTRM solutions evolved over time adding functionality for different clients in a monolithic application. These monolithic applications become increasingly difficult to support and maintain over time and can be quite inflexible. However, an architectural evolution has taken place over the last few years and many CTRM solutions are now architected differently using more modern technologies meaning they are more adaptable and flexible than ever before.
A CTRM should be highly scalable. Whether you have five users, 500 trades, or 1,000 commodities, you should be able to implement the system quickly and easily, managing it all yourself without needing intervention for updates or changes.
A CTRM should be adaptable, allowing users to create additional fields, decide if they are mandatory, and customize their views. This allows traders, operators, and back-office staff to build tailored workspaces and dashboards.
Amphora has been working and investing in modernising its architecture, technologies and development/testing approaches to ensure that its solutions are adaptable, easier to support and implement. It will continue to invest in this area.
Outdated
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. Amphora has put in much effort to get all customers on the same software branch making updates easier.
Complex
The ability to handle complex trades is a key differentiator when selecting a CTRM. The process of capturing a trade pricing formula and all the nuances of the contract should be a simple process to enter and to view the information. Often, however, one of the biggest challenges a CTRM user faces is capturing all this data and being able to extract it effectively.
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. The users should push back on the CTRM vendor if a trade price is calculated or information stored outside of the system, even if this only happens for edge case trades. Entering the trade data into the CTRM must be easier than using excel, otherwise user experience will be impacted from the start.
For audit purposes, it's crucial to have all the information within the CTRM itself. However, it’s equally important to easily get data out, whether via APIs or a simple Excel extract. This reduces the risk of errors and ensures that all relevant information is available within the system, supporting better decision-making and compliance.
Disaster
The industry is littered with examples of failed implementations - many of which never even went live before the plug was pulled. It is therefore vital that the client has control over the implementation payments, which should be made across the implementation and not at the start, (or months before). If certain agreed milestones have not been met by the vendor then payment is held back, the plan amended and reasons provided.
Full transparency is key throughout the implementation process. Weekly reports should be provided by the CTRM vendor, with key achievements that week, what is planned for the following week, and any risks uncovered.
Monolithic
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 clunky 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.
Training
A bad user experience can often be unrecoverable, especially if the user finds the software confusing to use from the start. User training and education can be used to avoid this and for training, a CTRM vendor should tailor courses for each user. Ideally, these courses should be independently certified, by CPD for instance. Manuals should be provided, containing a step-by-step walkthrough of the main business processes, which should evolve once in production. This will ensure the user understands how to use the CTRM for their day-to-day activities. More details on Amphora’s training process can be found in one of our newsletter articles.
Poorly Supported
A CTRM vendor chooses to either outsource client support to approved 3rd party offerings, or to support the software in-house. In-house support can lean on the developers and business analysts within the company, who produced the functionality that users may require help with. 3rd party support will not always be aware of functionality for each release, with limited support resulting. At Amphora, for this reason, we have a dedicated in-house support team who provide best-in-class support. More details on Amphora’s support process can be found in one of our newsletter articles.
Summary
The CTRM software industry has evolved, especially during the last 5 years. Gone are the days of expensive implementations, when even the vendor often made a loss. Open APIs have ensured that a CTRM is no longer a standalone application but used as part of an organisation’s ecosystem. Being on the same software branch ensures that the CTRM is continually improving and not being left behind. Providing each user with a tailored training package and guides will aid the transition into using the CTRM, resulting in a strong user experience from the start. Amphora has worked and invested to modernise its approach and CTRM solutions and that can be seen in our significantly faster implementations, ability to in-house support all customers with free upgrades.
Perception surveys are always backwards looking reflecting the past rather than the future. CTRM software and the vendor’s providing it evolve in step with the industry and available technologies and we feel that many negative sentiments expressed reflect the past in this young software category.
Amphora has worked ceaselessly to improve all aspects of the users experience with its solutions reinvesting profits into enhancements some of which the user never really sees like improved performance, additional adaptability, improved UX, architecture migration and much more.
In the end however, the users must also invest in their chosen solution through continual training and work with their vendor to get the very best that they can from their software investment.
Real time commodity trading and risk management software