Customers

Client: TNK-BP

Activities:TNK-BP is Russia's third largest oil company and among the world's top 10 private-sector oil producers. The company employs more than 100,000 personnel operating six refineries in Russia and the Ukraine, and markets product through 2,200 retail stations operating under TNK and BP brands. In 2003 the company produced net sales over USD$10 billion, and totaled 1.276 million barrels per day in crude oil production. BP purchased 50% of TNK in 2003, creating TNK-BP. TNK-BP lists Aspect in its corporate objectives as one of the main components in its strategy to maximize exports, optimize sales and logistics, and achieve enhanced efficiencies and transparency for domestic and international markets. Many challenges were uncovered during an initial business process analysis conducted jointly by OILspace, now Aspect Enterprise Solutions, and TNK-BP.

Objective:TNK-BP's aggressive corporate strategy for growth called for the need to deploy leading technology that would centralize activities and standardize data and processes. This would create an efficient two-way flow of information among its clients, internal departments and management. The system envisioned would pave the way for effective forecasting, planning, informed decision-making and efficient resource allocation. Ultimately achieving its long-term sustained profitability plan would require TNK-BP to optimize its processes at every part of the value chain. Compared to the rest of the world, Russia's infrastructure for moving product is one of the most complex and expensive. To succeed, the company would need to link its entire operation and overcome difficulties in its vast logistics program. All units would need to work together in a visible, collaborative environment, simultaneously tracking railroad deliveries, port operations and financial activities. TNK-BP knew that accurate and timely management information would establish a competitive advantage over its domestic rivals and provide a roadmap to expansion. Management also realized how vital it was to modernize the company's accounting systems and practices. They understood the importance of delivering faster, and more accurate and comprehensive financial information for internal and external reporting, and compliance with International Accounting Standards (IAS).

Solution: OILspace clients vary in their requirements from needing only one Aspect component, such as Risk Management for sophisticated risk analysis, to full-scale integration of all components. For TNK-BP, building upon several Aspect components to create a full-scale supply chain was deemed necessary because of the many varied solutions it required. In just the first few months, new tools were deployed to address immediate challenges. In approximately one year, several components were configured and deployed along with complete integration of the Energy Service Bus (ESB). The ESB serves as the technology backbone for real-time processing and continued software integration via Web Services. It also allows TNK-BP to continue to build on its supply chain with software from Aspect Enterprise Solutions or other vendors. Energy companies of all sizes are embracing this flexible, modular approach to solving problems and capturing immediate ROI through swift, controlled, low-risk deployment.

Technology Solution Benefits

No rip and replacement of existing investment in legacy applications.

• Tremendous savings on total cost of ownership.
• Elimination of hardware, computer software installations & system administration expenses.
• Completely client-driven, configurable solutions.
• Immediate deployment with no disruption to business.
• Continuous zero-cost upgrades delivered instantly & transparently to every user.
• Easily integrates with existing applications, customer interfaces & business partners.
• Convenient, secure access via any Internet Web Browser.
• Grows and expands with the business.
• High-level of user acceptance across organization.
• Technical support across all time zones, 24 hours, 5 days.
  

“Control and transparency are the keys to any successful trading operation. Here are the building blocks without which one cannot establish proper corporate governance and best practices. When I joined TNK one of my first priorities was to implement a new system of operations control through Aspect Office, which now, in my opinion, is the besting the market. It allows tracking of movements at any time; what was sold, who the seller and buyer were, and what the market situation was at that moment, and all this market-to-market. Transparency is one of the keys to making the right decisions, absolutely vital in a competitive market in which one tries continuously to optimize results.”

Jonathan Kollek, VP of Sales, Trading and Logistics, TNK-BP

Client : Global Trading Firm

One of the world’s largest commodity trading companies with over 50 trading offices in 30 countries and an annual turnover in excess of $12 billion.

Activities: With offices in North, Central & South America; Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia this Aspect ETRM client is one of the world’s largest trading firms. Headquartered in London, its annual turnover is in excess of USD$12 billion. Its primary trading businesses are the supply and offtake of petroleum products, natural gas, and liquified natural gas (LNG). Among the company’s diversified goals is to work with customers and suppliers to minimize commodity price exposure to ensure stable margins and avoid speculative risk.

Critical Issue: Today, trading companies face myriad risks associated with oil price volatility, transportation challenges, managing specifications and multiple commodities by geography and harnessing opportunities through timely internal and external communications. This company needed a real-time solution for traders and risk managers to project profit and loss on current and forward positions associated with both physical and financial deals. The solution needed to be both simple to use and sophisticated in its functionality.

Solution: The company has an excellent internally developed transaction fulfillment system, however, as the business grew rapidly in the last few years and the volume of trades increased, the need for a company-wide risk management and P&L system became a management priority. It was able to leverage its existing system for order management, fulfillment and logistics and wished to retain as much of its current infrastructure as possible to minimize disruption to working practices as well as training, software licenses and hardware costs. Their internally developed system was designed in the mid-nineties to fulfill back-office requirements. It’s a client-server based system and therefore was inherently unscalable and unable to quickly meet the growing functionality requirements of the business. They considered developing their own risk management system, however the client-server model would require an extensive VPN rollout, further terminal installation, costly network maintenance and was ultimately considered to be too great a risk. They also tested many risk management software programs. For this client, the AspectETRM Risk Management component and the Profit & Loss feature set of the AspectETRM Transaction Management component were necessary to solve the proposed challenges. In less than one year, components were configured and deployed along with complete integration. It also allows this client the ability to continue to build on its supply chain with software from Aspect Enterprise Solutions or other vendors. Energy companies of all sizes are embracing this flexible, component approach to solving problems and capturing immediate ROI through swift, controlled, low-risk deployment.

“None of the software packages accurately reflected our established business protocols, the cost of customization and licensing were significant and the risk of being locked-in to a vendor’s proprietary made us keen to find an alternative solution.”

Key Advantages

• The improved flow of critical real-time data throughout the business systems has significantly reduced errors and allowed contracts to be completed more efficiently.
• The ability of ASPect Office to instantly assess and process the real-time data has speeded the delivery of management reports allowing key decisions to be executed faster.
• ASPect Office was quickly rolled out across the business with minimal IT support required and training has been run by its own staff who had been closely involved in specifying the system requirements from the start of the project.
• The ease with which OILspace was able to develop and integrate an organisation-wide system for P&L and Risk has lead to further integration in key systems to improve the availability, accuracy and use of internal data.

Client: MABANAFT

Activities: The largest independent distributor of oil products in Germany with marketing activities in the UK, Switzerland, Hungary, and Austria. Active products trader in northwest European market with independent storage facilities. U.S. activities center around storage and distribution at a New Haven Connecticut cargo terminal with expansion plans for the Atlantic Basin cargo, and local barge and pipeline markets.

Critical issue: Mabanaft was expanding its U.S. marketing activities, opening a new office in Connecticut and needed reliable, real-time and historical market data to forecast and execute trades.

Solution: Mabanaft’s sister companies, Oiltanking, a leading global provider of storage and logistics for petroleum and petrochemicals, and Matrix Marine Fuels, a bunker supplier in the Gulf of Mexico, highly recommended OILwatch, now known as AspectDSC Oil. Both are subscribers and understand the competitive economical advantages of using AspectDSC for market data. After evaluating other market data providers, abanaft found that AspectDSC matched up in terms of analytical tools and important global price benchmarks from industry sources such as Platts, NYMEX, IPE and Dow Jones. But in terms of economics Aspect provided tremendous savings over all others. Another important factor in the decision was its convenient Internet access. This office is remote from its Houston an overseas offices, so not having to allocate IT resources to keep it running provided even greater benefits and savings.

Bonus: Each subscription included a FREE XDA PocketPC phone which allows traders to continue to track the market while outside of the office by simply logging into AspectDSC with a secure password. This portable and versatile handheld device also allows users to send and receive email, access the Web and contacts.

“We decided to go with OILwatch because it offers information services and analytical tools that equal the competition at a substantially lower cost. Additionally, OILwatch offers the flexibility of different service levels. The service and technical support have been first rate. OILwatch offers everything we need for success.”

Craig Roberts Managing Director, Mabanaft

Key Advantages

• Low monthly subscription packages for entire organizations.
• No terminal fees or software installations.
• Mobility with secure password via Internet & PocketPC.
• Pricing and news in real-time from leading exchanges & media.
• Powerful analytical charting tools, blending calculator, Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) links for integrating formulas into Excel & archiving data.
• Easily integrates with your existing software & hardware.
• Continuous zero-cost upgrades delivered instantly & transparently to every user.

Client:City University, London – Cass Business School. Energy Trade and Finance course for MSc students.

Activities: Cass Business School, recently named top institution in London for undergraduate business and management studies by the Guardian newspaper, coaches MSc students on the institution's Energy Trade and Finance course. It is believed to be the only course of its kind in the world where energy traders can learn their craft prior to employment.

Critical issue: The trading element of the MSc course is the brainchild of energy specialist Charles Daly of Channoil Consulting who also introduced the Aspect applications. "The objective was simple: create students who could go on directly to join a trading company armed with the practical knowledge they'd need to become traders. The Aspect applications represent the current state of the art in that business and give the students invaluable, hands-on experience." Students gain this experience during a five-week trading simulation during which they learn the gas, oil and electricity markets and how they work.

Solution: Aspect has given its AspectETRM and AspectDSC applications free of charge to City University's Cass Business School. AspectETRM is a powerful energy trade risk management solution which students use for trade capture, position keeping and exposure tracking. At the same time AspectDSC provides students with real-time market prices and data together with decision support tools.

"Students get a real insight into the business, learn new skills and have fun while they're doing it," says Daly. "The Aspect tools are intuitive, easy to ease and highly interactive. Also it's very probable that when students go on to get jobs as traders they'll be using Aspect for real with their employers."

The Aspect solutions in use at the Cass Business School are identical to those used at more than 500 major banks, energy companies and trading houses around the world. Delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications they are fast to implement, simple to support and cost less to own than older technology alternatives.

AspectETRM is a fully-featured enterprise trade risk management solution for the front, middle and back office. Customisable screens allow tailoring to individual traders' needs, while workflows and security parameters fit corporate business processes exactly. AspectDSC provides real-time and historical market news and pricing from leading commodity exchanges, supported by a suite of powerful decision support tools. It is available on demand anywhere in the world with Internet access and works with desktop, mobile and PDA devices.