Commodity trading companies are rapidly switching from on-premise commodity trading and risk management solutions (CTRM) to cloud-based systems.  Research from Commodity Technology Advisory LLP shows that cloud-delivered CTRM solutions now outsell on-premise solutions and will significantly outpace spend on traditional deployments over the next five years.

Small commodity companies lead the way

One reason for this shift is a change in the commodity industry. Early adopters of cloud-hosted CTRM solutions tended to be small firms, usually trading a single commodity. A spate of divestitures, the trend to downsize trading desks, and the arrival of more niche start-ups created more of these smaller players in the market. Recognizing that generic spreadsheets (still the main competitor to CTRM systems in this space) were wholly inadequate to the task, this new cohort is taking advantage of the cloud to implement a single, uniform platform across all their commodities.

For these firms, having an implementation time in the region of 10-16 weeks rather than 10-16 months is obviously advantageous, as are the minimal upfront financial and technical investments. Having the software’s experts in charge of maintaining, upgrading, and securing the solution adds extra assurance, and small firms with big plans for new geographies, commodities and business lines, see cloud-deployed CTRM as a vital enabler of growth.

Equally, those firms operating in the more remote areas of the commodities supply chain found access to mission-critical information through mobile devices essential. And, since the success is often dependent on the ability to respond to rapid shifts in commodity markets, an equally agile and responsive CTRM platform like Eka’s has obvious appeal.

Large companies follow as they see the value

Increasingly rigorous regulations are driving larger, more established firms to recognize the value of CTRM solutions in place of traditional spreadsheets. Mitigating risks associated with extensive supply chains, multiple business lines, a network of overlapping counterparties, and volatile markets is challenging. Cloud-deployed systems can be implemented in just 12 weeks, robustly addressing regulatory and stakeholder mandates quickly and effectively.

Commodity markets are volatile, and commodities businesses have to respond to market shifts in a shorter timeframe because the consequences of delays are severe. The simplified scalability and elasticity of cloud-based CTRM solutions enables commodity trading companies to add new users, customers, counterparties, credit limits, commodity types and trading functions in hours rather than months. There are no capital expenditures required to expand.

The environment management services, upgrades and updates, DBA support, helpdesk, and technical support that accompany cloud systems have obvious appeal to CIOs who have seen maintenance of the status quo absorb ever greater amounts of their budget.

And lingering concerns about security – one of the biggest hurdles to take-up so far – have been eroded. Vendors like Eka have been working hard to build data encryption, HTTPS protocols, field-level security and role-based hierarchy controls into their products. Public cloud providers can also take much of the credit, having invested heavily in cybersecurity measures at an economy of scale that individual players cannot hope to repeat.

Real-time insight

Competitive and regulatory pressures have driven much of cloud take up to date. But cloud also addresses one of the long-standing problems within commodities trading. Highly compute-intensive tasks, such as end-of-day reporting, are traditionally run at fixed times – usually overnight – when no other mission-critical requirements are placed on the system.

But spinning up the compute power of cloud-delivered systems exactly when required overcomes this problem. Anyone can access real-time insight into chosen key metrics from counterparty exposures and risk reporting, to derivative P&L reports, or value at risk (VaR) whenever they are needed – not just when the IT system allows.

That changes the calculus around risk management and compliance, productivity and innovation, with long-tail consequences for the entire business.

It has taken some time for mainstream commodity trading and commodity management markets to fully embrace cloud. But functional, technical and financial arguments are breaking through – and it’s increasingly clear that cloud-delivered CTRM solutions will dominate the market in the coming years.

Much like the earth’s climate has been undergoing a gradual shift, so has the climate for cloud-based business applications and systems. The use of cloud-based applications for personal purposes including email, picture-sharing, and listening to music has become ubiquitous.

As a result, people have become accustomed to accessing what they want, when they want, from wherever they want. Their tolerance for traditional desktop software has diminished. Each day, more businesses are embracing the cloud as they see how it can significantly reduce costs and virtually eliminate the need for the ongoing, time-consuming maintenance that’s required to keep traditional software running smoothly.

Commodity management companies’ slow adoption of cloud solutions

Many large companies have been slow to adopt cloud-based solutions because they hesitate to store a key asset – their data – offsite. Security concerns are the number one reason why they hesitate. The idea of having essential information out of company control creates discomfort. While security concerns make sense intuitively, the reality is that cloud providers have better security mechanisms than most companies. These companies invest time, money, and technology to plan for ways to avoid and counter attacks, much the way a bank invests more in security because management knows it could be a target. And companies do maintain control of their own data, which can be hosted on private servers and accessed at any time and from any device.

Commodity management companies have also invested a lot of time and money in their on-premise solutions, making a shift to cloud challenging. Having invested months, sometimes even years, implementing a solution makes users reluctant to admit the systems failed or subject themselves to another long, complicated implementation. They do not understand that cloud implementations are significantly shorter than on-premise implementations. Eka’s cloud-based CTRM software, for example, can be implemented in under two months.

The changing tide

Many commodity management companies are starting to adopt cloud-based CTRM systems due to technical innovations in cloud technology, increased pressure to reduce costs, and a growing need for more auditable, functionally-rich solutions to meet regulatory requirements.

As stated above, cloud-based applications can be deployed in less than half the time of an on-premise implementation, and they do not require capital expenditures because there is no hardware component. Users can easily scale cloud-based solutions by drawing on more of the vendor’s host servers. If they experience a decrease in demand, they simply scale back by using less capacity.

Cloud-based software updates are automatic and do not require end user input. The servers are offsite and updates are installed by the software company. Maintenance is also managed by the software provider.

Despite initial fears about data security, cloud-based platforms are more secure, with layered security and audit logs to guard against inappropriate access. Lost or stolen laptops can be wiped remotely to ensure data stays secure. Data is more accessible because it is stored in the cloud and can be accessed from any device, anytime and anywhere.

Why choose a cloud-based CTRM solution?

Choosing a cloud-based CTRM solution enables commodity management companies to decrease costs and lower risk while reducing reliance on often over-worked IT departments. 

• Companies don’t have to install hardware or software to use the software. Cloud-based solutions require no additional capital investment. As a result, implementations are faster and significantly less expensive.
• Upgrades and new functionality can be quickly and seamlessly implemented without relying on user IT resources. The vendor implements all changes on their servers, without any interference to users and their IT departments.  
• All implementation and technical risks are assumed by the vendor, because all hardware and software is hosted on the vendor’s servers.
• Capacity can be quickly and easily adjusted to meet changing business requirements. Users do not need to invest in new servers to expand, they simply ask the vendor for additional capacity when needed. This is less expensive, and much faster, than purchasing new servers.  
• Cloud-based solutions have web-based, open API platforms that can be accessed anytime, from anywhere. Users gain huge advantages by having access to data and reports wherever and whenever they want.  

Moving to cloud-based solutions provides tremendous advantages to companies, including increased security, lower hardware and software costs, decreased burden on IT resources, and the ability to access data anytime, anywhere, and from any device. While fear of losing control of data is a strong motivation to rely on on-premise solutions, the reality of lower costs and increased flexibility is shifting the tide and cloud-based software will soon outstrip on-premise solutions. At Eka Software, for example, 75 percent of new customers choose Eka’s cloud-based CTRM and analytics solutions to enjoy faster implementations and lower costs.