Fendahl Technology Announces the Opening of a New Office in Houston, Texas

Fendahl Technology as one of the world’s fastest growing CTRM (Commodity Trading & Risk Management) software companies is proud to announce, as part of our expanding operations, the opening of our new office in Houston, Texas.  

The new office, located in Williams Tower, 2800 Post Oak Boulevard, Houston will allow us to service our growing American client base from the oil and gas capital of the USA.   

Executive Director of Fendahl Technology, Matthew White states that “Houston was a sensible choice for both us and our clients. With an expanding client base in the Americas, we wanted to ensure that we were able to meet our client’s high expectations in terms of service and support excellence.”

About Fendahl

Fendahl is a specialist provider of consulting services and CTRM (commodity trading & risk management) software solutions to commodity trading organizations. A rapidly growing global software company we have a dedicated team of 85 staff with offices in the Americas, Asia, and EMEA, serving an ever growing global client base across multiple commodity segments.

To find out more about Fendahl or for all press enquiries regarding the opening of our new office in Houston please get in contact with information@fendahl.com; by visiting www.fendahl.com or calling +1 (832) 390 2273.

The 10 Key Advantages of a Modern CTRM System

Trading companies are unnecessarily suffering from high running costs and poor performance in using of outdated CTRM software from legacy providers. Tied into license agreements and concerned about migration and adoption of a new system they remain unaware of the significant advantages that a modern CTRM system can provide.

Forward thinking and innovative software developers such as Fendahl Technologyare providing the next generation of CTRM software in the form of Fusion CTRM. Some of the key advantages of this new generation of CTRM software are outlined below.

• Easy to Maintain: - Single consistent technology stack (.Net technology stack) makes deployments/upgrades extremely easy and straightforward. There is no need to install multiple individual software frameworks and worry about their upgrades, patches, etc.
• Fast & Flexible Deployment: - Easy one click deployment for the release and an option to deploy in-house or on the cloud.
• Future Upgrades: - Microsoft is investing heavily into adding more feature/functions to the .Net technology stack and cloud based development - this is very good for the products developed using .Net technology stack as it guarantees continuous improvement in the underlying framework.
• Low Cost of Ownership: - Due to advancements in the technology and various tools available at developer's disposal, it takes less time to develop functionalities when using an advanced technology stack like .Net. This therefore results in lower cost to the client.
• Easy Integration: - Server side logic is exposed in the form of WCF services so as to allow integration very easily. The services exposed are very secure and reliable - the .Net framework guarantees the security and reliability of the messages.
• High Performance: - Use of background processing/multi threading allows available hardware to be used optimally in order to achieve the best performance.
• Scalability: - Applications can easily on the cloud (Microsoft Azure cloud is designed to work for .Net based products).
• Services Levels: - Expert functional and technical support can be provided 24/7 remotely by solution providers without in-house technical or functional staff.
• Enhanced Security: - Improved cyber security and computer hosting based in jurisdictions that value business data confidentiality.
• Intuitive Interface: - CTRM systems are being developed with end users in mind, with ease of use a priority, next generation platforms meet the type of sleek interface we expect from modern software of any kind.

Find Out More

Fendahl is a specialist provider of consulting services and CTRM (commodity trading & risk management) software solutions to commodity trading organizations. A rapidly growing global software company we have a dedicated team of 85 staff with offices in the Americas, Asia, and EMEA, serving an ever growing global client base across multiple commodity segments. Fendahl offices are located in the London, UK; Houston, USA; Dubai, UAE and Nagpur, India.

Fendahl’s Fusion CTRM suite is leading the next generation of CTRM solutions, setting new standards for; ease of use, flexible functionality, end user performance, scalability, reliability, and provides the lowest cost of ownership in the industry.

In addition to the Fusion CTRM Suite Fendahl offers a range of outsourced managed support services for several other major CTRM platforms. The managed services range from simple second level support for an existing help desk to a fully outsourced help desk services where no internal support desk staff are required.

APPEC 2016

Fendahl CTRM Technology is proud to be attending APPEC (Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference) 6th - 8th September 2016 - Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore

Fendahl welcomes you to join us at APPEC 2016 where we will have a live demonstration of our next generation cloud based Fusion CTRM Platform. Fendahl Fusion CTRM suite is leading the new generation of CTRM solutions, setting new standards for; ease of use; flexible functionality; end user performance; scalability; reliability; and provides the lowest cost of ownership in the industry. Download the Fusion CTRM white paper here.

As the most prestigious event in the Asia Pacific oil and gas industry calendar, the 32nd Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC 2016) sets a unique agenda bringing key industry leaders together to discuss trends, risks and issues affecting upstream, refining and trading communities in this volatile time. Gain new connections, new ideas, and new businesses over three days of sessions and networking to develop the insights you need for the year ahead.

The Business Case of Legacy CTRM System Replacement

Business Summary

One of the major costs commodity trading businesses face are IT costs associated with CTRM (commodity trading and risk management) systems. The high costs of ownership of these systems might have been acceptable when commodity trading margins were high. However now that commodity trading as entered a period of low commodity prices and lower trading margins trading businesses are re-evaluating the cost of ownership of CTRM solutions.

The conclusion that many trading businesses are reaching is that there is a strong business case to justify replacing legacy CTRM systems with a new a new generation of CTRM systems that deliver improved functionality and a lower cost.

High Cost of Ownership of Legacy CTRM Systems

During the commodity boom years trading businesses purchased CTRM systems with little consideration of license and support costs. Traditional CTRM vendors like OpenLink, Triple Point, Allegro, and others were able to charge license fees and on-going annual support & maintenance fees that now look out of proportion to the profitability of their customers.

For many trading businesses there is a compelling business case to replace existing high cost legacy CTRM systems with a new generation of low cost Web enabled CTRM solutions.

A New Generation of Low Cost CTRM Systems

A new generation of CTRM systems vendors have emerged over the past few years. These vendors offer modern CTRM solution that take advantage of Web technologies to drive down the cost of CTRM software licenses, deployment, and support & maintenance costs.

Although these new CTRM systems cost less to purchase and operate, they still provide rich CTRM functionality for front, middle and back office. They also offer advanced functionality such as; market data management, integration to exchanges, VaR, stress scenario management, credit risk management, etc. They also another significant advantage as they have modern software architectures that offer much better standards of system performance and reliability.

Vendors like Fendahl Technology are delivering full function CTRM solutions with a significantly lower cost of ownership than traditional CTRM systems. They also offer customers of existing legacy vendors a range of pre-packaged CTRM data migration tools that significantly reduce the disruption and costs of a CTRM system replacement project.

Replacement Business Case

A typical trading business with 30 end users could have expected to pay up to $1 million for a perpetual software license from a legacy CTRM software provider, and up to 24% in on-going annual maintenance. The on-going operating expenses, including upgrade costs, can be over $750,000 every 3 years.

Trading organizations are discovering that their Opex spend on existing CTRM systems over 2 or 3 years will pay for the replacement of their legacy CTRM system. They also find that on-going support and maintenance savings can be 50% or more per year.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that for many trading businesses it is time to look at their CTRM systems and consider if their existing CTRM system is really delivering value to their business.

When Should an Energy Trading and Risk Management system be replaced?

Changing systems causes business disruption and costs money, but living with a poorly performing ETRM can cost a trading business significantly more. So when does it make sense to replace an ETRM system?

It’s a fact that many trading businesses live with poorly performing ETRM systems. But for many businesses it is a case of “better to stay with what you know” than risk change. Senior management worry about disruption to the business and often have a pragmatic view that there probably are no “better” ETRM systems available.

Until recently these concerns meant that there was no real justification for making a change. But over the past 2 years a new generation of ETRM systems have emerged that has made many senior managers start to wonder if now is the right time to make a change.

These next generation systems provide some key advantages over the existing legacy ETRM systems that have dominated the ETRM market since the late 1990s. Firstly the new systems are flexible. The trading and risk functionality they offer can be molded to the specific business processes of individual trading businesses. Existing legacy systems typically provide a poor functional fit because they are highly inflexible. In many cases this means a significant proportion of a trading business’ processes have to be performed outside the ETRM system which is not good at all.

Secondly next generation systems provide a new level of reporting and decision support tools. The existing legacy systems were built largely to act like static accounting systems; capturing trades, managing positions, managing risk, etc. They were not designed to support decision making and this explains which almost none of the legacy ETRM systems have any effective reporting capabilities.

Modern next generation ETRM systems have been designed with decision support as a key requirement. They come with powerful analytical and business reporting tools tightly integrated. These tools have been designed to be easy to use and are intended for business users. Next generation solutions like the Fusion ETRM solution from Fendahl Technology offer powerful decision support tools to perform market simulation and sophisticated “what if” analysis.

The third advantage that a next generation ETRM solutions offer is flexible deployment options. Aspect Development has been offering a Web only based ETRM solution for some years now. However exiting Web based ETRM solutions have offered only marginal benefit over legacy on-site deployed ETRM solutions. Being able to access inflexible ETRM functionality via a Web browser provides no real benefit. However true next generation solution offer flexible deployment options (i.e. on-site, hosted, or SaaS) and offer flexible ETRM functionality.

The fourth advantage that next generation ETRM systems offer is better value. Next generation systems offer trading businesses the opportunity to significantly reduce operating costs in terms of lower support and maintenance costs. The cost reduction alone in most cases is large enough to financially justify a replacement project business case.

Senior management often worry that implementing a new ETRM system will cause a high level of disruption in the business. They have seen how much time and effort their existing systems took to implement and they are concerned. However, the new next generation ETRM systems can be implemented in most trading businesses in far less time than traditional legacy ETRM systems.

The memory of pain and run away implementation costs, that makes senior management shudder when they remember implementing their existing ETRM system, were mainly caused by inflexible functionality. They were forced to change business processes and pay their ETRM system vendor for expensive “change requests”. This added months to the implementation project and added massive costs to the project. The flexible functionality of modern next generation ETRM systems means implementation projects are shorter and cost far less.

An increasing number of trading businesses are realizing that their existing ETRM systems are holding their business back. The new next generation ETRM systems provide; flexible functionality, advanced decision support tools, a significantly lower cost of ownership, and can be implemented quickly and efficiently. As a result they have concluded it is time to evaluate replacing their exitsing ETRM systems.

Find out more about Fusion ETRM

Fendahl Fusion Selected by Seaboard Corporation to provide Next Generation CTRM Software System

ISLE of MAN, May 24th 2017- The Fendahl Fusion CTRM solution has been selected by Seaboard Overseas Limited, a division of Seaboard Corporation, to enable future growth and profitability.

Seaboard Overseas is a global trader of; wheat, corn, soybeans, soybean meal, mill feed, rice, pulses, milk products, sugar, food oils, and other protein meals. Seaboard sources, transports, and markets over 9 million tons of commodities each year. In addition, Seaboard operates a fleet of company owned and chartered bulk freight vessels, delivering commodities to in-house and to third-party customers around the world.

Seaboard has been using a legacy CTRM system to manage trade and risk management business processes for several years. This system has however simply not supported the way that Seaboard does business, making it a difficult and complex system to operate. The out dated design of the existing system made it inflexible and expensive to modify. Seaboard’s legacy CTRM system was also proving expensive to support and maintain.

To address these issues and avoid their legacy CTRM system acting as a constraint on future business growth, Seaboard management decided to run a competitive 12-month selection process to select a modern CTRM solution.

At the conclusion of the selection process Seaboard selected the Fendahl Fusion CTRM solution because Fusion is a modern CTRM solution that supports complex agricultural trading industry business processes. The selection team found that Fusion CTRM is a flexible solution that can be molded to fit bespoke business requirements, without costly change requests and long delays for custom development. They also discovered that Fusion CTRM solution is cost effective and offered Seaboard a low long-term cost of ownership.

“Fusion is a flexible and modern CTRM system that supports the way we do business. We believe that partnering with Fendahl will help us to continue growing our business profitably for years to come” Gail Cummings, Executive Vice President, Seaboard Overseas Limited

The implementation of the Fusion CTRM solution is now underway and is expected to be completed later this year.

About Fendahl

Fendahl Technology is a rapidly growing global CTRM ETRM software and consulting company with a dedicated team of over 100 staff with offices in the Americas, Asia, and EMEA, serving a growing global client base across multiple commodity segments. Fendahl offices are located in the London, UK; Houston, USA; Dubai, UAE, Singapore and Nagpur, India. 

If you would like to see the advantages of a next generation CTRM solution then click here to learn more about Fusion CTRM.