In the past trading houses had only two options: spreadsheets or big-budget custom software development programs. Now SaaS-delivered solutions combined with Cloud Computing offer a real, cost-effective alternative. With the global economy, regulatory environment and credit shrinkage increasingly mandating formalized systems for even small trading companies, SaaS offers fast-start, turnkey solutions without up-front investment or resource demands.
Steve Hughes
President & CEO
Aspect Enterprise Solutions
Cloud-based applications — aka Software as a Service (SaaS) — have seen steady growth over the past few years and will continue to grow.
Gartner, Inc., Cloud Computing: The Next Generation of Outsourcing, Ben Pring, November 1, 2010

According to Technology Research Analyst Firm Gartner…

We are in the midst of a fundamental shift, as more enterprises start to use services enabled by cloud technologies. This will heavily impact IT services providers, who must now consider strategies for coping with profound changes in the marketplace or risk being left behind.
Cloud Computing:
The Next Generation Of Outsourcing
Ben Pring, November 1, 2010
According to Technology Research Analyst Firm Gartner…
Increasingly, hosted or SaaS-based solutions are gaining favor among end users as a means of reducing capital costs, deployment times and support overheads. While traditionally these solutions were preferred options for smaller end users or end users with limited functional requirements, as the functional capabilities of SaaS - or application service provider (ASP)-based deployments grow, the appeal to larger organizations will widen.
Magic Quadrant For Energy Trading And Risk Management Platforms
Keith Harrison and
David Furlonger
March 18, 2011
AspectCTRM was installed and working for us so fast – quickly enabling us to get a real-time understanding of profit and loss, exposures, price movements in the markets and how we can better manage risk.
Peter Malcom King
Business Development & Strategy Manager
Linetrale Oil Supply & Trading Company, Nigeria

Training

Aspect Academy

Aspect offers in-depth training courses for AspectCTRM, our commodity trading and risk management solution. The program is designed to help new clients kick start effective adoption of the system and for more advanced users to get the most out of the system. Be sure to send new users to Aspect Academy to get them quickly up to speed and for access to our knowledge base of user guides, FAQs, Webcasts and other training materials.

Students can choose from a varied path of flexible learning options to accommodate convenient, self-paced learning or face-to-face interaction with a certified instructor:

On-Demand

Students can access training material through our online learning portal. This library gives the student access to Webcasts on specific functional areas of the product.

Instructor-Led Training

Classroom training on-site or at one of our offices is executed by a certified instructor. End-of-module exams are available to ensure the student has grasped the content. For clients who have custom developed functionality, bespoke training is also available.


Modules

The modules have been split into several functional areas:

Front Office

  • Understand AspectCTRM fundamentals and system navigation
  • Customize your profile with personal settings
  • Learn how to capture physical deals, understand parcel management and capture paper trades
  • Capture deal related and standalone costs. Analyse costs using dedicated reports
  • Analyse MtM positions
  • Monitor real-time P&L using dedicated reports from price capture to advanced P&L reports
  • Track historical P&L snapshots utilising end of day procedures which also produce daily and monthly P&L change results.
  • Set up security and manage system administration

Back Office

  • Learn about financial control and planning
  • Manage receipt and payment of invoices
  • Validate and confirm settlement records
  • Configure counterparty credit risk

What If

  • Learn how to create scenarios to analyse P&L based on different pricing rules
  • Set up scenarios to determine if trade is more profitable being bought/sold in a different location
  • Create scenarios to change parameters of a single trade to see impact on P&L and exposure

Template Management

  • Create templates to support faster physical trade and cost entry for standard contracts
  • Manage template accessibility and administration

Bespoke Custom Reports And Basic Scripting

  • Learn how to create bespoke reports for exporting to external systems
  • Create custom reports for management
  • Learn how to use scripting to import data from spread sheets directly into Aspect

Advanced Risk Management

  • Configure VaR risk parameters and learn how to manage VaR related reports
  • Learn about pricing groups
  • Learn how to capture option deals and manage interest rates and volatility surfaces
  • Manage option P&L and exposure using dedicated reports

Advanced OLAP

  • Learn how to configure views to analyse P&L, Position, Pricing, Greeks, Quantity or any combination of measures
  • Bookmark reports for personal or shared access

Trader PnL Report

  • Enable traders and deals desk personnel with this dedicated P&L report to discuss trading strategies and P&L movements
  • Bookmark reports for personal or shared access

Physical Operations

  • Learn how to define physical inventories and mange contract information and rental costs
  • Plan receipt and dispatch of product in and out of inventory
  • Analyse stock and capacity projections
  • Manage inter-tank movements and actualise supply and demand
  • Run inventory valuation reports and produce other storage reports
  • Create and track shipments
  • Create netouts and bookouts

Contact

For more information about these training modules or customized training for your team, please contact Training@aspectenterprise.com or call + 44 020 7632 0170.

Please contact Chetna Bhatia for more information about AspectSERVICES, or contact the Aspect office nearest you.
 

More Information About AspectAcademy Training

For more information about these training modules or customized training for your team, please email us or call + 44 020 7632 0170.