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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In the routine operations of a leading fuel supplier in North America, significant errors and mismatches in Bill of Lading (BOL) numbers posed a notable challenge, affecting operational efficiency. The BOL numbers outline shipment contents and destinations, these details were often compromised due to manual data entry errors made by truck drivers at delivery sites. These discrepancies included mistakes in BOL numbers, vendor details, and other critical information. With the receipt of hundreds of BOLs daily, totaling 10 to 100 mismatches, cash flow experienced a notable impact. Failure to generate invoices due to Bill of Lading discrepancies posed risks to credit limits, trade restrictions, operational disruptions, regulatory compliance, resource allocation, customer satisfaction, and cost management.
To address these issues, daily manual validation became necessary to maintain the accuracy of BOL information. Recognizing this need, Value Creed introduced automation solutions to identify and rectify BOL data discrepancies, ensuring the seamless integration of accurate and up-to-date information into the system. Through the implementation of automation, businesses could effectively reduce errors, minimize delays in invoice generation, and uphold smooth operations within fuel transportation logistics.
Automated analysis processes boosted operational efficiency by 75%
Achieved 95%+ Data accuracy on BOL data
60-70% reduction in resource utilization for manual tasks
90% accuracy in destination code management
Decrease in invoicing cycle time by 80%
Our suggested solution is a comprehensive workflow implemented through Power Automate, designed to significantly enhance operational efficiency by optimizing manual processes.
Data Integration and Visualization: Implemented a unified platform to integrate data from various sources such as RightAngle, and other applications to fetch information from various parameters.
Automated Validation and Matching: Developed automated algorithms to validate BOL numbers and other parameters across different systems to identify correct data. Enabled automated mapping of this data that generated simplified results in the desired format.
Streamlined Reporting: Automated generation of reports and summary tables enabled distribution of data throughout the organization to verify and align the data.
Efficient Database Updates: Integrated automated tools to update Bill of Lading (BOL) data in the RightAngle database seamlessly to ensure timely and accurate updates to prevent errors in fuel delivery logistics
Performance Optimization: Streamlined operations, reducing manual processing time and errors by 70%. Implemented user feedback loop for ongoing enhancements and analytics-driven refinements.
Obtain the most appropriate and useful data for your specific needs! Value Creed offers a range of services to support you during your data transformation journey. With expertise in data integration, reporting, and performance optimization, we assist in ensuring that your data is optimized for analysis, visualization, and validation.
Our solution aims to revolutionize the industry by offering a scalable, user-friendly, and highly efficient platform for managing fuel delivery logistics. The solution covered custom solution development, data integration, workflow optimization, data validation and quality assurance, user training and support, and continuous improvement initiatives.
We tailored a Power Automate workflow for seamless data extraction, validation, analysis, and database updates. The solution drastically reduced manual analysis time from 8 hours to 2 hours daily, preventing breaches of credit exposure limits due to Bill of Lading data mismatches. It streamlined operations, minimized errors, and reallocated resources efficiently. Automation and validation mechanisms ensured data accuracy and compliance with fuel tax regulations, mitigating risks of incorrect tax calculations. By automating data validation and synchronization, our solution expedited invoicing, ensuring accuracy, and reducing manual analysis time, ultimately enhancing efficiency.
Contact us today to learn more about our digital transformation solutions.
Performance Challenge A prominent downstream company that operates a network of gasoline service stations across the United States faced significant challenges while generating timely business
Performance Challenge Due to manual efforts, a company encountered data analysis challenges that hindered its operations. Generating multiple reports, such as monthly reports for various
Performance Challenge One of North America’s most prominent oil and gas utility companies aimed to upgrade their CTRM to better serve their customers in a
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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
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A prominent energy midstream company operating in Western Canada, faced the challenge of upgrading their Endur system from an unsupported version v17 to v23, necessitating a thorough assessment to determine the complexity, cost, and feasibility of the upgrade. They needed to categorize the upgrade project into either homogeneous or heterogeneous, assess the total cost of ownership for different Endur versions, review technical aspects such as code, configuration, and dependencies, identify the scope of impact and incongruences between v17 and v23 solutions, and evaluate platform engineering and infrastructure requirements. Additionally, they sought to establish a robust quality assurance framework for testing the upgraded Endur system.
Increase in certainty on scope, cost, schedule, and risks.
Reduced total cost to deliver based on optimization recommendations
Identified risks due to disparities in critical solutions between v17 and v23 Endur
Reduced costs by leveraging shared tenants, cost optimization measures and FinOps practices
Value Creed’s comprehensive Endur Upgrade Advisory program addressed the client’s challenges through a strategic approach, incorporating key insights throughout:
Capability, Process & Implementation Mapping: A thorough assessment of capabilities, processes, and implementation requirements is crucial for effective project planning and decision-making. By developing solution blueprints across business verticals and engaging key stakeholders, Value Creed ensured a thorough understanding of requirements, fostering collaboration and alignment.
Conduct Version Selection Advisory: Careful consideration of Endur version selection based on business needs and risk assessment is paramount for maximizing the value and success of the upgrade. Through meticulous analysis considering risk appetite and solution architecture fitment, Value Creed facilitated strategic Endur version selection, maximizing the value of the upgrade.
Planning of Upgrade Project: Early detection and mitigation of risks are essential for minimizing disruptions and ensuring smooth project execution. Value Creed coordinated with ION, planned capacity, allocated resources, and managed risks, laying a robust foundation for a successful upgrade while ensuring efficient resource utilization.
Organizational Change Management: Identifying key stakeholders and devising effective communication strategies, Value Creed facilitated smooth transition and adoption of the upgraded Endur system, fostering stakeholder engagement and alignment.
Proactive Risk Identification: Early identification of potential pathways and risks was key to minimizing disruptions and ensuring seamless transitions. We identified 16+ risks including API depreciation, custom code conflicts, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
Cost Optimization: With our experience in tackling issues and risk patterns in past Endur upgrades, we offered various insights and guidance. This approach not only facilitated optimal resource utilization but also enabled effective budget management, leading to successful project outcomes.
Our Advisory services not only will help you guide your operations but also help you achieve your vision by taking all stakeholders into consideration. Our highly experienced team has combined full lifecycle, functional and technical expertise to deliver frameworks and guidance around building reliable and scalable commodity trading businesses.
Our team is made up of industry-leading CTRM experts who help you model new business requirements to ensure a future-proof setup. We empower you to customize and enhance performance. Our primary focus is to optimize functionality across the board, aligning with market demands through a holistic solution.
Value Creed offers unparalleled expertise in upgrades, providing meticulous planning, substantial cost savings, early risk detection, stakeholder engagement, and cloud cost optimization. With a track record of success, we ensure seamless transitions, aligning Endur versions with business needs and mitigating potential disruptions. Our commitment to excellence and client satisfaction makes us the ideal partner for companies seeking efficient, cost-effective, and reliable upgrade solutions.
Performance Enhancement A leading global trading firm faced a significant challenge integrating trades from diverse external sources into their Endur ETRM system. With multiple ETRMs
Performance Enhancement A leading global trading firm faced significant challenges with their End-of-Day (EOD) processes. The complexities of trading across multiple markets and geographies, coupled
Performance Enhancement A Midstream producer sought to enhance the performance of their Endur ETRM system. Their primary goal was to streamline the Order to Cash
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A leading global trading firm faced a significant challenge integrating trades from diverse external sources into their Endur ETRM system. With multiple ETRMs catering to different commodities, the lack of a standardized validation process led to errors, delays, and increased operational overheads. Manual validation methods were time-consuming and prone to inaccuracies, posing risks to the integrity of trade data and regulatory compliance.
Improved Data Accuracy: Quarter on quarter from the time of deployment
Enhanced Operational Efficiency: Reduced errored trade count total trades per day
Risk Mitigation: Increase in timely reporting to trade repositories
Streamlined Reconciliation: Reduced manual verification hours for front-office (2 Desks & 7 Members)
Drawing upon our extensive expertise in ETRM systems and technology, we architected & developed a middleware layer that served as a data layer & pipeline between external trade sources and ETRM systems. Our solution incorporated the following critical components:
Centralized Validation Tier: By introducing a common validation tier for all ETRMs, our solution streamlines the validation process. Trades from external sources undergo validation before entering respective ETRMs, eliminating the need for multiple validation methods and reducing redundancy in the workflow.
Data Standardization: The middleware layer handles various data formats such as XML, JSON, and FIX, converting them into a standardized XML format. This standardization ensures uniformity in data processing and facilitates seamless integration with the validation tier.
Real-time Error Management: Our solution incorporates a dashboard within the validation framework, providing traders with real-time visibility into all trades entering the system. Any errored or misaligned trades are promptly flagged, allowing traders to review and rectify discrepancies efficiently. This proactive approach minimizes the risk of erroneous trades entering the ETRM systems.
Enhanced Trade Modeling: Through enhancements to the Endur data model and GUI screens using OpenComponent library extensions, our solution enables the modeling of complex trade structures such as multi-commodity trades, multi-parcel modules, and multileg trades in Endur. This capability ensures that trades from various external sources are interfaced into Endur without any errors or missing data, further optimizing the trading process.
Reduction of Reporting Errors: By pre-validating trade data before it enters the ETRM systems, our solution significantly reduces reporting errors, including those related to Profit and Loss (PnL) calculations and position reporting. This proactive validation approach minimizes manual work and reprocessing efforts, which would have been necessary to rectify incorrect trades at later stages in the trade lifecycle.
Audit Trail Enablement: Our solution provides comprehensive audit trails, capturing all trade validation activities and changes made by traders. These audit trails not only facilitate regulatory compliance but also support reconciliation efforts, ensuring transparency and accuracy in trade data management.
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.
Value Creed helps organizations integrate DevOps across CTRM and manage the cultural shift that perpetually feeds on itself to deliver continuous improvement and proactive identification and creation of desirable product features.
By centralizing validation, standardizing data formats, implementing real-time error management, enabling enhanced trade modeling, and reducing reporting errors, our solution empowers traders to operate with confidence, knowing that their data is accurate, processes are streamlined, and regulatory compliance is assured. Partner with Value Creed to navigate the complexities of the energy trading landscape with agility and precision, driving business growth and maintaining a competitive edge in the market.
Performance Challenge Due to manual efforts, a company encountered data analysis challenges that hindered its operations. Generating multiple reports, such as monthly reports for various
A diversified energy company based in New York needed to upgrade its CTRM, but had no experience with major technical software upgrades in the past
Global Energy Company’s Ambitious Growth Goals Powered by Value Creed’s Seamless CTRM Upgrade The Imperative Challenge A global energy company engaged in natural gas production,
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