Commodities companies are beginning to recognize the increasing importance of analytics in solving their key business issues. While many companies have found value in implementing a transaction system such as CTRM and ETRM software for managing trading and risk operations, they are realizing that these solutions were not meant to be used for complex analysis of the huge volumes of data typical in a commodity organization.
However, at the same time, they are realizing that the existing solutions available for commodity analytics are limited, leaving them to wonder if they should devote precious dollars and resources to build a proprietary solution, or attempt to customize an existing solution.
Eka recently polled executives at commodities companies in the agriculture, chemicals, oil, natural gas, and power industries, and found that 95% of respondents cited one of these 3 issues as their biggest challenge with analytics solutions.
About half of commodities companies surveyed cited trying to integrate data from multiple sources as the greatest challenge with analytics solutions. This is not surprising, as it is common for commodities companies to have data stored in many different systems, including CTRM, ETRM, ERP, Treasury, Accounting, CRM, spreadsheets, and more. Pulling all of these data sources together to enable real-time analysis of data for better decision making seems to be the Holy Grail for commodities companies.
The other half of respondents said they believed the analytics solutions on the market are too expensive and would require too much effort, resources, or time to implement. With low commodity prices, high volatility, and margins constantly under pressure, cost consciousness prevails. Risks still have to be taken in the commodities business, but require greater control in the current trading environment. Companies do not always have the resources for a large-scale software implementation, yet they still require the ability to make timelier, data-driven, and fact-based decisions.
The last challenge noted by survey respondents was that current analytics solutions are simply not fit for purpose and do not solve their business problems. Many commodity market problems are unique and require complex logic to get to the answer. Specific knowledge of commodities markets and algorithms to run commodity analytics needs to be incorporated in order to provide a complete solution. Learn more in “The Benefits of Analytic Solutions Focused on Commodities.”
“It is telling that half of commodities companies name data integration as the biggest issue with analytics solutions and the other half say the available solutions are either too costly or not fit for purpose,” said Michael Schwartz, EVP & CMO at Eka.
There is a fundamental difference in Eka’s approach to providing commodity analytics. What makes Eka’s Commodity Analytics Cloud platform unique is its ability to bring in data from multiple sources and to provide specific apps that target key business issues, at a favorable value point.
Eka's Commodity Analytics Cloud delivers industry-specific apps that cover P&L, procurement, risk, and supply chain. Unlike generic business intelligence tools, Eka's advanced analytics platform has been built with the specific needs of commodities companies in mind. Harnessing data from both internal and external sources, Commodity Analytics Cloud brings all the data needed together in one place to answer the most important questions for commodities companies.