Like many typical mid-sized companies, you may still be using homegrown systems for accounting. Even if you upgraded your accounting system to a popular package such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV or Microsoft Dynamics AX, you’re still relying on spreadsheets to manage inventory, forward sales contracts, logistics, or trading. Analysis involves several hours of spreadsheet work. You wait days or even weeks to get an accurate risk exposure, inventory valuation, or forward cash flow report.
Between the spreadsheets and other old systems, when you need answers your team scrambles to pull the data together. What’s worse, this laborious effort is error-prone. And as soon as a spreadsheet is ‘finalized’ it quickly becomes out of date. Running scenarios or asking ‘what if’ questions is impossible. Static reports do not allow you to drill down to uncover insights. With a multitude of systems, certain questions remain difficult or impossible to answer, such as, what is the unrealized P&L on an open position? The problem is you can’t look quickly in one place and know that you’re seeing an accurate, up to date view of all financial elements to support an urgent business decision.
You dream of an unrealized risk report. In fact, you were on your smart phone just the other day and wondered why you can’t tap on some of your daily business reports to drill through to the underlying detail of some real-time issue the way you can on one of those nearly free dating apps.
You can.
Is ERP the Answer? – Don’t Get Taken by Fool’s Gold
Growing companies that are using an ERP solution to manage accounting or other business functions may be tempted to extend the use of ERP to manage commodities in place of a CTRM or ETRM software solution. But ERP is ineffective for managing trading and risk; you might as well keep your spreadsheets.
The way commodities are priced and valued impacts practically everything throughout the commodity supply chain. ERP solutions have no way to account for the fact that prices will change in the future. Unlike most manufacturing businesses where the price of goods is known throughout the supply chain, unpriced and partially priced positions cause core differences in the way a commodity is bought, sold, shipped, stored, invoiced, accounted for, and valued throughout the supply chain.
The best option is to invest in CTRM or ETRM software.
Modern Solutions Required for Today’s World
To compete effectively in today’s markets, companies need to have modern trading and risk solutions that address the needs of internal stakeholders including the finance team, risk managers, and executives. These groups need a real-time view of risk and inventory in a timely manner; otherwise, company effectiveness suffers. Additionally, external stakeholders such as investors, customers, and suppliers will expect the company to use solutions that meet the company’s auditing and compliance requirements.
To maximize profitability, particularly in this era of high volatility and low commodity prices when margins are tighter than ever, companies should not compromise on requirements for best-of-breed solutions for commodity management or accounting. An integrated solution that meets requirements for both is the most cost effective answer, assuming it is seamless with limited integration risk.
A Seamlessly Integrated Solution
Eka’s solution provides the best of both worlds for companies on a growth trajectory that are seeking the most advanced solutions to manage trading and risk as well as accounting. With a history of successful implementations, Eka has a proven model of integrations with third party applications. To maximize productivity and ensure unified, accurate data across an organization, Eka’s solution has been seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics AX, as well as with other leading accounting packages including SAP, Oracle, and JDE.
Eka provides the most functional end-to-end CTRM and ETRM software on the market today that includes support for all front, middle, and back office activities, and is suitable for a wide range of commodities in the agriculture, manufacturing, metals, and energy industries. The ETRM and CTRM software platform seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Dynamics NAV and AX to provide real-time inventory information and traceability of every transaction to its associated contract. You can finally get a complete view of trading and risk information. With an integrated solution from Eka, you can make smarter decisions, faster.
How long would it take to get there though? Shorter than you think, in many cases, less than six months! Imagine that in just a few short months, your team could be on a web-based, fully integrated front to back office system, providing you with active data, reports on demand, and the latest in security and reliability. Gone will be the days of waiting three weeks to get the reports you needed immediately.
It is imperative that growing companies put the best systems in place to manage trading, risk, and accounting. These important decisions should not be unduly influenced by systems currently in use. What worked well for the company in its early years may impede progress in the future. The factors considered when the company was small may no longer be relevant as a company embarks on its next phase of growth. Eka makes the decision easy with its seamlessly integrated solution that provides market leading CTRM and ETRM software along with a powerful accounting package.
That’s too easy you say? Come talk to us and our customers.
This is a guest blog by Roger Schaffland, managing principal of AXCELERUS.
