Upgrades in Dynamic Markets: Solutions for Liquids Trading
Explore the benefits of upgrading to the latest version of RightAngle with our in-depth analysis of new features, improvements, and bug fixes. This blog highlights major enhancements, evaluates their functional and technical impacts, and showcases how our expertise can guide you through the decision-making process.
Discover how our innovative solutions can help you achieve your goals. Explore our solution page now to learn more about what we offer.
Why Choose Value Creed for Your Upgrade?
Value Creed’s commitment to excellence and client satisfaction, coupled with our extensive expertise and track record, make us the ideal partner for ensuring a successful transition. Our key differentiators include:
Tools like Testing Automation & FinOps enable a quicker, error-free upgrade with minimal disruption.
A structured roadmap for upgrade assessment ensures smooth transition and effective resource utilization.
Experienced with diverse upgrades, we ensure a successful upgrade tailored to your needs.
With fixed-price models and a commitment to delivering value, we provide transparency throughout the engagement.
By minimizing business involvement, we ensure a seamless upgrade process, continuity, and reduced downtime for your operations.
We identify cutting-edge platforms for enhanced performance, providing comprehensive support from strategy to implementation.
SUCCESS STORIES WITH VALUE CREED’S UPGRADE SERVICES
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This case study highlights how an energy company achieved a Swift upgrade in three months with Value Creed’s upgrade services:
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Key Enhancements: Impact and Insights
The streamlined movement and scheduling tools enhance scheduling efficiency by simplifying data staging and importing, reducing manual effort, and minimizing errors. The enhanced precision in the Inventory Workbench with real numbers improves accuracy in inventory tracking and management, facilitating better decision-making. The new Projected Inventory Reports offer valuable insights for long-term planning, enabling more informed inventory management strategies.
These enhancements require updates to data import tools to support streamlined movement processes and improved precision in inventory tracking. Additionally, enhancements are needed in inventory reporting systems to accommodate the new Projected Inventory Reports, ensuring accurate and efficient projection functionalities.
Precision of financial operations by providing more detailed payment terms, streamlining cash management through the treatment of negative value invoices, and ensuring compliance with tax regulations via enhanced tracking and reporting capabilities. Additionally, they improve the visibility and management of receivables and tax compliance measures.
Implementation necessitates updates to accounting modules to seamlessly integrate event-based payment terms, negative value invoice handling, and tax license tracking functionalities. Adjustments to data structures and reporting systems are required to accommodate these changes effectively, including enhancements to support streamlined cash management processes and improved reporting capabilities.
The new mass features in S23 enhance system precision by capturing data in both volume and mass metrics across inventory, movements, invoices, and risk assessments. This update requires thorough configuration and testing for seamless integration. Custom reports may need adjustments. Some users may need help with using volumetric units, necessitating specific configurations. Value Creed offers expertise to help clients navigate these changes, ensuring smooth transitions and tailored solutions for both mass and volumetric calculations.
S23 upgrades involve significant system modifications, including database schema and API updates for dual quantity handling, improved inventory management, and enhanced risk management reporting. Performance is boosted through optimized data processing and scalability testing. Value Creed ensures precise system configurations and seamless transitions. Our structured methodology, including continuous business engagement and user training, supports efficient operations and maximizes upgrade benefits.
The upgrades result in an improved user interface and integration capabilities, facilitating seamless interaction with custom APIs and third-party systems. Additionally, security management is strengthened, ensuring enhanced protection of sensitive data. Our team analyzes service monitor threads, optimizes licensing costs, and provides the right systems and configurations are chosen for each upgrade.
Significant updates are required across the system architecture to accommodate the upgrades, including codebase adjustments for seamless integration with DevExpress controls and thorough testing for the new API framework. Careful planning is essential to maintain stability while incorporating these new features. Value Creed provides comprehensive support in configuring security settings, optimizing system performance, and ensuring seamless integration of new frameworks.
Increased flexibility in adjusting units of measure for inventory groups, comprehensive support for all valuation methods to enhance inventory reporting, and the ability to reset inventory balances in both volume and mass for precise control. Furthermore, improvements in managing mass units of measure (UOMs) within key processes like the Order Actualization Tool, Quantity Caps, and Over/Under Lifting processes streamline operations.
Minor adjustments are made to further enhance the existing dual quantity handling capabilities introduced in S23. These adjustments involve refining data processing algorithms, optimizing database queries, and fine-tuning system configurations to ensure seamless handling of mass and volume separately downstream. Additionally, improvements are made to API endpoints and data validation routines to accommodate the updated handling requirements.
Improve valuation accuracy and reporting for blended products, enhancing financial precision and compliance. The capability to finalize reconciliation within specified tolerances streamlines inventory management, minimizing manual tasks and ensuring seamless transitions between accounting periods.
Adjustments to WACOG calculation algorithms and reporting systems for blended products. Similarly, reconciliation processes require modification to support finishing within specified tolerances, including updates to tolerance settings and data validation routines. Implementing Automatcher Rule Maintenance necessitates customizing validation options. Integrating Write to Zero functionality entails enhancing data processing and validation mechanisms.
The introduction of the MTI Maintenance report and streamlined user interface on risk reports simplifies MTI entry assignment, enhancing overall operational efficiency. Value Creed’s support ensures clients can fully utilize these enhancements, increasing accuracy in P/L calculations, improving performance measurement, and enhancing strategic decision-making, ensuring a seamless transition to the upgraded system capabilities.
Modifying database schemas, enhancing user interfaces, and integrating backend logic for MTI management. Implementing security measures for data protection and access control ensures seamless integration and efficient operation of the new MTI functionalities across the system. Our team provides comprehensive support, including system configuration, assigning levels of authorizations for making MTI changes, user training, and ongoing maintenance to ensure accurate market price management.
S24’s tax integration ensures compliance, reduces manual tax calculations and enhances audit readiness. Improved payable matching streamlines transaction handling, reduces errors, and eliminates dropdown list redundancies. These features enhance accounting accuracy, efficiency, and overall operational performance.
Implementing tax integration requires API updates, database schema changes, and enhanced reporting. Payable matching improvements involve optimizing algorithms and UI components, eliminating dropdown redundancies. These modifications ensure accurate data import, efficient processing, and enhanced system performance.
The introduction of editable document templates and convenient access to favorite tools enhances flexibility and efficiency in document management. Users benefit from streamlined processes, improved accuracy, and reduced manual effort in customization tasks. Template editing simplifies customization, reducing manual effort.
Implementing these features necessitates adjustments in document management systems to support direct editing of templates, enhancing usability and integration.
Upgrade with Value Creed: Your ETRM Solutions Partner
Experience the difference with Value Creed, your premier partner for ETRM solutions and upgrades. With years of experience and a proven track record in executing seamless transitions, we tailor our approach to your specific needs. Seamlessly upgrade to RightAngle S24 and optimize your energy trading operations by partnering with us. Get in touch today to ensure a smooth and efficient upgrade process.
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In the fast-paced world of commodity trading, delivering shipments to customers’ preferred locations efficiently and cost-effectively is crucial. Traders rely on robust logistics systems to transport commodities, optimizing economies of scale and minimizing shipment costs. Typically, commodity trading firms operate dedicated shipping or freight desks that select the most efficient and safe transportation methods for each delivery to maintain low overall commodity costs. However, when managing commodity deals, these desks must choose a vessel along with its International Maritime Organization (IMO) number for transportation. Often, the shipment team lacks real-time information about the vessel’s availability, operability, credit status, and movements. This information gap can significantly hinder effective transportation and shipment planning, leading to costly delays and inefficiencies.
To address the above-mentioned issue, the Value Creed team of experts provides an integrated Lloyd’s List Intelligence with your ETRM system. Lloyd’s List Intelligence provides comprehensive maritime data, news, and industry trends. This integration enables the shipment team to access vessel information and track real-time vessel movements, enhancing decision-making and planning.
The interface features a table to retrieve information from Lloyd’s List Intelligence into the ETRM system, providing users with access to the latest vessel data and risk ratings. This interface offers four main features:
By integrating these capabilities, the Value Creed team ensures that the shipment team has the necessary real-time data to make informed decisions, optimizing transportation and reducing costs.
Simplifying Vessel Booking for Crude Delivery
Value Creed experts excel in implementing custom solutions tailored to your specific system needs. By proactively analyzing industry trends and anticipating potential challenges, we ensure your business stays ahead of the curve.
Gain an edge with the following advantages of the featured solution:
Comprehensive vessel information is readily available within the ETRM system, eliminating the need to search multiple websites for current data and streamlining decision-making.
The system restricts users from selecting potentially risky vessels for shipment scheduling, ensuring safer transportation.
Users can confidently make informed decisions with precise vessel information, including IMO details, contributing to efficient logistics management and minimizing errors.
Vessel information is always updated, eliminating manual data entry tasks and ensuring access to the latest data, enhancing operational efficiency.
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Navigating the intricacies of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) within C/ETRM software like RightAngle demands a tailored approach. Our custom utility module is designed to seamlessly track the flow of RINs while ensuring alignment with renewable fuel standards and adapting to your business requirements. With strategic integration, custom automation, regulatory expertise, risk management solutions, and testing and maintenance support, we offer a comprehensive solution for your renewable fuel management process. Whether it’s merging renewable standards into existing systems or addressing compliance risks, our suite of instruments streamlines your operations and ensures continuous rule adherence.
Traditionally, businesses manually manage their compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), relying heavily on spreadsheets and manual calculations to assess risks. This approach led to issues in various segments such as data management. Companies encountered difficulties in manually collecting information on renewable fuel types and quantities, tracking purchases, blending activities, and production using spreadsheets or third-party applications, leading to inaccuracies. Manual calculations added complexity, as users must compute volumes of renewable fuels needed to meet regulatory obligations.
Furthermore, record-keeping became demanding, requiring the maintenance of extensive records detailing renewable fuel usage, associated RINs, and transactions related to RIN trading. Additionally, preparing reports for regulatory agencies necessitates manual data entry and verification, posing a risk of errors due to the labor-intensive effort.
Our experts propose a solution to enhance the management of Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) compliance by integrating RFS requirements into ETRM systems like RightAngle through a custom module. This method entails customizing various aspects to suit specific needs.
Creating a custom module or integrating an extension into RightAngle to automate the collection and recording of data concerning renewable fuel usage. This includes tracking the type and volume of renewable fuels, generating RINs, and monitoring trading activity.
The integrated system within RightAngle will consistently verify renewable standards requirements by automating blending ratio calculations, thereby ensuring the organization remains compliant with its obligations. In addition, users can track all transactions involving the flow of RINs through stages including Generation, Transfer, Retire, and Separation.
Automation will generate accurate and timely reports for regulatory agencies, minimizing reliance on manual data entry and verification. Furthermore, businesses can manage and monitor transactions with editable reports and views.
By automating RFS compliance processes, organizations can improve operational efficiency, reduce administrative overhead, and lower the risk of non-compliance.
Our custom module centralizes RINs operations, significantly reducing manual work to only 1-2 hours, achieving over 90% accuracy.
Effectively oversee numerous transactions amounting to 1,000,000 gallons of RINS annually, reducing transactional risks.
This solution significantly reduces the risk of non-compliance with RFS regulations, avoiding potential financial and legal penalties.
Empowers companies to manage their RINS transactions within RFS regulations, enabling them to access subsidies for their business activities.
Renewable certificates are tracked by recording transactions. This involves exchanging these transactions with EMTS and automatically confirming they meet the necessary standards.
An integrated system can maintain a detailed audit trail, providing a record of all renewable standards activities, which is crucial for compliance verification.
Our custom utility solution effectively streamlines processes through automation, minimizing manual efforts and resource consumption. This enhancement ensures accuracy and timeliness in compliance records, ultimately reducing errors and delays. By reducing administrative overhead, our solution reduces cost. It also promotes sustainability through cleaner fuels and encourages eco-friendly practices. With efficient data management and automated reporting, our system enhances accuracy and operational efficiency, marking a significant step forward in renewable fuel management.
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A leading fuel supplier in North America faced operational challenges in their rack business operations across all business functions. With 1,000’s of daily truckloads across multiple terminals, matching the associated BOL’s to the relevant rack deal was a very time-consuming process.
With several different applicable business scenarios and the associated rules that apply in matching the BOL’s to the rack deal automatically, RightAngle (the clients system of record for their rack business) was unable to effectively match 20% of their BOLs which led to discrepancies in data capture increasing financial risk and causing invoice payment delays. The client user team then had to spend time manually to associate the BOL’s to the relevant rack deal to enable the downstream business functions.
Reduced manual errors by up to 80% on implementing the custom automatcher rule within RightAngle.
20-30% boost in productivity through the implementation of custom interfaces, which monitor inventory levels and minimize write-offs.
Custom reports provided insights for better decision making resulting in reduction of risk exposure by 10–15%.
Our recommended solution included customizing RightAngle to enhance efficiency, productivity, and accuracy of the BOL matching process to optimize the overall rack business in the system. The solution featured tailored deal templates, custom BOL automatcher rules, invoice templates, daily invoice drafts, and custom reports. These optimizations streamlined operations, improved RightAngle system utilization, and enhanced user satisfaction while reducing errors and boosting profitability.
Customized automatcher rules automatically matched over 1,000 BOLs to transactions daily, reducing errors and streamlining reconciliation.
Mandated specific fields in rack deals within RightAngle to enforce data accuracy and completeness for automated matching of BOLs.
Developed interfaces to integrate actual inventory data into the system, enhancing the tracking of inventory levels and reducing write-offs.
Customized invoice templates to include rack transaction details, boosting billing accuracy.
Developed custom EFT draft reports, offering insights into counterparty daily billing, draft invoices, and payment deadlines by payment types, aiding credit risk exposure monitoring.
Unlock operational effectiveness and elevate the efficiency and reliability of your database through Value Creed’s services. Optimize performance with fast and accurate data extraction, reconciliation, calculation, and reporting.
To optimize the client’s rack business within RightAngle, our recommendation was to customize the BOL to rack deal matching logic called “Automatcher” within RightAngle. The customization incorporated all the business scenarios resulting in streamlined rack business operations, including managing trading activities, tracking positions, billing customers, and mitigating risks.
Also, the recommended solution included building custom reports and interfaces that would bring the overall inventory positions together on a near real-time basis and thereby help the middle office manage and monitor risk exposures effectively. This reduced manual efforts and errors in reconciliation.
Performance Challenge Achieving a competitive edge requires agility and seamless data integration. This case study details how we revolutionized railcar integration and tracking for a
Business Challenge When embarking on an upgrade, it is crucial for clients to dedicate an upfront focus to their business prerequisites and how these align
How a Major Petroleum Company Uses Value Creed’s CTRM Business Process Outsourcing for Their Invoice Backlog and Needed Fixes The Main Challenge A major petroleum
Customize & improve business processes with Value Creed’s Implementation Services
Achieving a competitive edge requires agility and seamless data integration. This case study details how we revolutionized railcar integration and tracking for a top energy trading firm. The client encountered significant operational challenges in managing the in-transit inventory across 80-100 railcars. Manual tasks consumed 10-12 hours of labor due to the absence of an automated and integrated railcar management system. Implementing our suggested solution reduced manual entry, costs, errors, and improved inventory and service efficiency.
Our solution prioritized Inventory Management, reducing stockouts, optimizing resources, and enhancing financial reporting precision. It’s adaptable to market shifts, improving cash flow visibility for efficient working capital management.
In-Transit Inventory Management
Efficient Time Management – Records processed within 10-15 minutes
Automates updates to railcar orders and movement status
Market Risk, Credit and Replacement Risk, In-transit Inventory Risk
No extensive reconfiguration is required
Reduction in manual data entry
Value Creed suggested a customized solution that utilized RightAngle’s advanced features, including custom tasks, reports, and integrations.The strategy was centered on using Car Location Messages (CLM) to automate data flow between external railcar tracking systems and RightAngle. This ensured accurate, real-time updates on railcar locations and statuses, streamlining operational workflow. The implementation phase included several essential components:
Creating Custom Interfaces: Developing interfaces to connect RightAngle with external railcar tracking systems.
Data Mapping and Transformation: Ensuring smooth data exchange across different systems, formats, and standards.
Automating Data Updates: Setting up workflows for real-time data updates in RightAngle to minimize manual errors.
Customizing Scheduling: Tailoring scheduling for railcar tracking to improve transaction settlement tracking.
Ensuring Quality: Implementing rigorous testing protocols to ensure system reliability and accuracy.
Planning for Scalability: Designing solutions with scalability in mind to accommodate future business growth and changes.
Unlock operational effectiveness and elevate the efficiency and reliability of your database through Value Creed’s services. Optimize performance with fast and accurate data extraction, reconciliation, calculation, and reporting.
In our approach to addressing operational challenges around practical railcar integration and tracking, we prioritize efficiency, reliability, and scalability. For instance, our focus has been on improving in-transit inventory management, as our clients typically handle around 80-100 in-transit railcars per month, totaling 1-1.5 million gallons of volume. With our solution, we’ve achieved significant cost savings of 10-15% annually on in-transit inventory management.
Through our emphasis on efficient inventory management, precise timekeeping, streamlined operations, and improved risk management, our team addresses current market complexities while paving the way for the client’s sustained success and future growth in a dynamic market environment.
Performance Challenge In their pursuit of operational enhancement, one of our leading energy clients recognized the need to stay up-to-date with the latest version that
Performance Challenge A leading Energy Company based out of Houston found itself at a crossroads when it needed assistance with upgrading its ETRM system. Lacking
Business Challenge When embarking on an upgrade, it is crucial for clients to dedicate an upfront focus to their business prerequisites and how these align
Customize & improve business processes with Value Creed’s Implementation Services
The ICE eConfirm system streamlines commodity trading by automating trade confirmations electronically. This enables companies to swiftly confirm trades with companies, brokers, and counterparties thereby reducing manual processes. Periodic updates to the system by ICE enhance functionality, data integrity, and regulatory compliance which may involve changes to message formats, data fields, or validation rules. Furthermore, the integration of the ICE eConfirm platform with existing ETRM systems relies solely on API configuration.
The ICE eConfirm system streamlines commodity trading by automating trade confirmations electronically. This enables companies to swiftly confirm trades with companies, brokers, and counterparties thereby reducing manual processes. Periodic updates to the system by ICE enhance functionality, data integrity, and regulatory compliance which may involve changes to message formats, data fields, or validation rules. Furthermore, the integration of the ICE eConfirm platform with existing ETRM systems relies solely on API configuration.
The recent enhancements on the ICE trade Vault and Confirms feature Unique Product Identifiers to replace OTC derivative taxonomy values for FX, Credit, and IR markets. ICE eConfirm’s updated API enhances XML request construction and response reading efficiency. Furthermore, security upgrades include transitioning to Single Sign-On tokens and configuring certificates for secure connections.
As per the CFTC compliance requirement, a UPI replaces the current simplistic OTC derivative taxonomy values.
ICE eConfirm updated its core REST API Schema and URL.
ICE implemented changes to their authentication cookies, replacing them with Single Sign-On (SSO) tokens.
Certificates need to be configured on the ETRM Systems and mapped with the ICE portal.
During version upgrades, compatibility issues can disrupt operations. Failure to implement these enhancements may increase the impact on business operations. Here are some factors that might be affected:
Manual confirmation processes without automation like ICE Econfirm can take 2-3 minutes per trade, leading to inefficiencies and potential losses for high-volume trading firms.
Relying on manual methods for broker confirmation can cause delays in Accounts Receivable, impacting cash flow and overall operational efficiency.
Failure to adhere to ICE Schema changes for CFTC compliance (Part 43/45) can result in fines and regulatory scrutiny.
Inefficient processes increase operational costs for energy companies, with outdated systems incurring higher expenses due to labor hours, error correction, and compliance-related expenses.
Technological enhancements and updates offer a competitive advantage by automating processes and integrating real-time data.
Installing digital certifications ensures legitimate data exchange, enhancing system security and functionality.
Value Creed specializes in ensuring smooth transitions and maintaining submission consistency without interruptions. ICE eConfirm’s announcement of v1’s deprecation necessitates migration of all submissions and logs to API Batch v3.
Trade confirmation processes are vital in enhancing various aspects of business operations. Quick confirmation ensures accuracy and minimizes risks, although manual methods may be time-consuming, requiring 2-3 minutes per trade. Manual broker confirmations in the back-office can cause delays in Accounts Receivable processes, impacting cash flow.
When implementing updates in the eConfirm schema, various challenges arise for ETRM systems. These challenges include ensuring seamless integration, adjusting data mapping configurations, and meeting reporting requirements.
Inadequate incorporation of eConfirm schema updates disrupts workflow, necessitating seamless integration for efficient trading and risk management.
Schema adjustments introduce new or modified fields, demanding ETRM systems’ data mapping configurations. Without updates, correct data interpretation may falter, risking critical process errors.
Schema alterations affect reporting mandates, obligating ETRM systems to produce and transmit reports. Non-compliance can incur penalties and reputational harm.
Our team of experts excels in tailoring ETRM systems to accommodate updates from ICE eConfirm and Trade Vault, offering a comprehensive array of services. We meticulously compare schema columns provided by ICE with ETRM tables, making necessary adjustments for seamless integration. Additionally, we adapt processes to utilize the new API for transmitting deal data to eConfirm, ensuring smooth functionality.
We keep abreast of impending schema changes through ICE and other channels, proactively monitoring updates' impact on ETRM systems.
Count on us to incorporate changes seamlessly, ensuring your ETRM system remains current and efficient.
Our team conducts comprehensive post-implementation testing to guarantee smooth transitions and optimal performance.
We bridge communication gaps, liaising directly with ICE representatives to implement custom integrations or configurations as needed.
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