Aspect
A Unique, Multi-Commodity Trading and Risk Management Platform

Commodity trading companies today operate in an exceedingly cutthroat and dynamic environment where change is one of the few invariable factors. Complications in doing business are increasing due to changes in regulation, business models, and trade flows. Subsequently, commodity traders are under pressure to incessantly revisit their role in the supply chain and re-examine the value they add to the market. Their problems increase with the rising cost of automation and age old systems that need to be revised by adopting the latest technologies. “Cloud has become essential for organizations as they do not wish to invest in IT departments or hardware. They need a solution that somebody else can manage on their behalf and is accessible from anywhere at any time,” says Steve Hughes, CEO of Aspect. The company provides a platform for cloud commodity trade, risk management, and market data solutions. Aspect offers the only integrated, Energy Trading, Risk Management (ETRM)/Commodity Trading, Risk Management System (CTRM), and Market Data platform with one-password access for users to perform pre-trade analysis and trade, risk, and operations management in one system.

“We offer AspectCTRM, a Software as a Service (SaaS) application delivered in the cloud and includes physical operations to enable end-to-end processing for oil trading firms,” adds Hughes. The platform integrates front office trading, middle office storage, and physical operations with back office business and financial operations in one common system. It’s an affordable option for small to mid-size companies and—because of its ability to scale and deploy swiftly—is also used by some of the largest companies globally.

According to Hughes, Aspect Cloud has transformed the way businesses approach, deploy, and run commodity trade and risk management processes. Previously, large IT teams managed expensive traditional software and hardware that was complex to run and maintain. A“But now, with our two-in-one approach of collaborating CTRM with Aspect Decision Support Center, an online source to track real-time and historical market data including futures, spot and wholesale prices, we are conquering the market,” explains Hughes.

“We solve the clients’ business challenges with full-featured trade, risk, transport, inventory, and financial solutions.” These solutions are the key to managing the lifecycle of a trade from pre-trade market analysis to understanding trade and risk exposure to managing points across the physical supply chain. Aspect’s system takes controls of the trading environment through their AspectDSC platform. “Right from the time the trader analyzes the market to choose the term for buying a new product till the decision on final price, our platform handles it all,” adds Hughes.

Built on Aspect’s robust AESthetics architecture, the platform is fully scalable, configurable, and standardized. It’s deployed to all Aspect customers and extends to indirect channels via its Aspect Partner Program (APP). “Partners are able to sell, integrate, deploy, build, and train in connection with Aspect’s platform,” asserts Hughes. One of the company’s prominent clients was using an older system and realized that they were not producing the required output and an overhaul wasn’t financially feasible. That was when they decided to approach Aspect for a complete makeover in a pocket friendly manner. Aspect transformed the legacy system and replaced it in 3 weeks with functions and functionalities matching the client’s requirements.

We solve the clients’ business challenges with full-featured trade, risk, transport, inventory, and financial solutions

Aspect has always taken pride in their market superiority and unique solution platform. “For the road ahead, we aim to provide the industry’s best cloud based solution alongside improving the bottom line, user experience, and overall performance of customers,” concludes Hughes.