COMMODITIES MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Measuring and managing risk from mine to market
TIME FOR A CHANGE The global commodities markets are becoming increasingly volatile and complex. Rapid price and exchange rate fluctuations, changing interest rates, the globalisation of trade and a lack of political stability in many regions are all at play. Even the effects of climate change are having an increasing impact on production.
Change is now constant. But add to this the growing regulatory, legal and corporate governance requirements that firms must now comply with and the pressure on all aspects of a business, from purchasers and traders to finance and operational managers, is intense. And yet some organisations still do not have the basic information infrastructure in place to track and monitor commodity trading or ensure corporate compliance. At worst companies are relying on simple spreadsheets that are difficult to maintain and share, not auditable, inherently insecure and lack any of the analytical functionality necessary to aid decision-making and reduce risk. That s why more and more companies are recognising they urgently need to address this issue or run the risk of losing business, failing audits and incurring unnecessary and potentially excessive losses. Where systems do exist at best these often comprise of piecemeal applications, tailored to the specific needs of traders and schedulers, with little or no integration. After a thorough review of our business requirements and examining a number of available commodity software platforms in the market today, it was clear that Brady was an appropriate solution for our business said Nick Madden, Vice President, Global Procurement & Metal management, Novelis
TURNING DATA INTO DECISIONS
In order to keep pace with the new commodity trading environment, businesses need to unlock their business information and intelligence. That means breaking up existing data silos and deploying the tools necessary to capture, access and share data accurately, efficiently and in real-time right across the value-chain. A common set of information must be accessible to everyone right through from the execution of each trade to the shipping, receipt and delivery of commodities, including those responsible for managing credit, market risk and controlling the finances. Achieving this involves real-time, straight-through-processing, all the way from the front to back office. That means using highly integrated and scalable systems that are capable of seamlessly managing physical operations, scheduling, financial trading and corporate compliance issues for multiple commodities that have the analytical, business modelling and reporting tools necessary to support intelligent decision-making at every step of a trade s life cycle. And this is where Brady can help. With it s market leading, integrated supply chain and risk management software solution for producers, consumers, financial institutions and trading companies involved in the commodities markets, in particular metals and minerals. From mine to market, Brady s solution is able to handle all stages of the transaction including pre-deal analysis, trade capture, foreign exchange, credit risk, logistics, cash management, physical operations, back office financials, settlement and much more. Brady s robust risk engine and Brady s expertise and experience in providing specialised tools for trading and risk management of base metals will provide us with a solid foundation for the continuing development and growth of our business. Bernhard Uldrian, Head of Strategic Metals, Prysmian S.p.a.
THE COMPLETE, INTEGRATED COMMODITIES SOLUTION Brady s comprehensive functionality and straight-through processing capability addresses the trading requirements for purchase and sale of all refined metals and minerals, including ores and raw materials, as well as associated foreign exchange and money market, in a single application. Brady s solution can be seamlessly integrated with other best of breed business applications, such as SAP and Oracle based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and accounting systems, in order to enhance existing operations by providing much higher quality data input. This approach also provides the flexibility to rapidly extend Brady s functionality, as requirements change or new features and tools are made available, without impacting on any other operations significantly reducing lost opportunity cost. Proven and tested in some of the most demanding business environments and regularly enhanced in line with both the latest industry standards and the evolving needs of our customers, Brady provides a highly flexible and cost-effective framework for the proactive management of all aspects of commodity trading: Physical Material Management With its complete supply chain management capability, Brady can be used to control the movement of a wide range of physical and financial instruments. In particular, it: captures information about physical commodity purchase/ sale contracts, including deal pricing and credit line controls identifies and accrues costs associated with contract fulfilment, inventory management, stock allocation, multi-modal transportation and scheduling logistics manages payments through partial and final invoicing. Used to manage physical purchases and sales by: Mining companies Trading companies Fabricators. Sales and Contract Transportation and Material and Global Trade Procurement Planning Management Scheduling Resource Management Management Physical Material Management Supply-demand forecasting Trade analysis Account Management Deal Pricing Stock allocation Brady explorer Sales and Purchase contracts Product quality data adjustments QP Price fixings Hedge contracts Freight costing Load and discharge confirmation Schedule freight Document centre Transport tracking Inventory management Exchange receipts Weight fixing Stock audit Partial allocations from shipments Logistical expense tracking Position Management Risk analysis Credit line control Payments Provisional and final invoicing In what was a great team effort Global Markets, Financial Control, Risk, Business Systems and Technology, EDS and Brady combined to deliver successfully under budget Commonwealth Bank of Australia
FINANCIAL AND HEDGE TRANSACTION MANAGEMENT
Financial and Hedge Transaction Management Brady s solution is a powerful and flexible market leading solution for derivatives trading and risk management. In particular, it: proactively tracks the lifecycle of each transaction provides easy to use tools for secure data input, processing and analysis supports pricing models that are either industry standard or user-defined Used to manage financial transactions, including derivatives positions, by: Banks Brokers Trading companies Mining Companies Producers. Used to manage financial hedge transactions by: Mines Trading companies Fabricators and end users Treasury Management In addition to managing your physical and hedge commodities trades Brady s wide-ranging Treasury trading, risk management and settlement functionality addresses the requisite foreign exchange, money market and securities market requirements. These functions can be used stand-alone, but offer major benefits as an integrated tool when used with other areas of the system. In particular, it: seamlessly integrates with Physical Material Management and the Reuters Dealing 2000 system for maximum efficiency achieves straight through processing, from the dealer in the front office, through to the risk manager in the middle office, to the financial controller in the back office is a unified trading system that includes deal capture, decision support and risk management. Used to manage treasury transactions by: Banks Brokers Trading companies Producers Financial Transaction Management Pricing Screens Trader Tools OTC and Capital Markets and Deal Support and Analytics Exchange Products Deal capture screens Swap and Option pricing models On-screen trade blotter Strategy generator Limit monitoring Delta position card Stress testing Option Greeks Brady explorer Funding gap analysis Real-time market feeds OTC and FX options calculator Futures and options pricing (all major exchanges) Interest rate swaps LME sword warrant interface Money Market instruments FX swaps calculator Loans and deposits Interest accruals Treasury, Risk and Contract Management Pricing and Middle Office Cash Management Risk Management Operations Transaction Capture Management Pricing screens On-screen deal blotters Commodities Foreign exchange Money markets Fixed income What if Scenario Brady explorer Deal modelling Revaluation methods Exchange clearing services Confirmations Margin calculation Asset and liability management Treasury accounts Yield curve management Payments and settlements Market and credit data Static data modules VaR Historical date portfolio rollback Regulatory and compliance reports Mark-to-Market P/L Administration tools General ledger interface Reconciliation Security and audit Functions Report generation
WHY CHOOSE BRADY? By combining management of the physical supply chain with market-based financial valuations and corporate treasury requirements in a single, fully integrated and scalable platform, Brady s solution enables businesses to progress from simply tracking contracts to managing the associated risks, identifying new opportunities and enhancing profitability: Risk management Brady provides the knowledge and tools, including what if scenarios, necessary to track, measure, evaluate and manage all forms of risks: Credit risk Market risk Price Risk Operational risk Regulatory risk Operational and productivity efficiencies Brady maximises efficiency, improves processes, saves resources and enables proactive decision making: Captures data accurately, efficiently and makes it available to everyone in real-time, so errors are reduced and there is only one version of the truth Reduces reliance on disparate data sources such as spreadsheets, databases and key personnel Cuts the cost per trade by consolidating and streamlining the management of systems, processes and data across the supply chain Simplifies complex workflows in order to improve resource usage and workload efficiency Compliance and regulatory reporting Brady provides a framework to support regulatory and accounting compliance for enhanced business control through advanced tracking and auditing facilities and sophisticated reporting tools: Sarbanes-Oxley ( SOX ) regulation of financial practice and corporate governance Basel II risk and capital management requirements Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) 133 International Accounting Standards (IAS) 39 Mark-to-Market ( MTM ) valuation Value at Risk ( VaR ) calculations Timely monthly and quarterly financials and Comprehensive internal and external reports LME Regulatory Reports FSA Regulatory reporting Seamless Integration Commodities trading is becoming more electronic providing the opportunity to automate much of the trade lifecycle. Brady provides: Connectivity with electronic Trading platforms Seamless connectivity to exchanges and other market infrastructure Fully automated trade processing with minimal manual intervention Processing by exception only Real time connectivity to other in-house systems
About Brady Brady has been at the forefront of commodity trading solutions for the metals and mining sector since 1985. This has provided us with an unrivalled level of market knowledge and expertise. People Our project consultants and development team are highly skilled in unifying the mission critical supply chain and risk management needs of organisations and delivering the sophisticated system features that are essential to effective trading in the metals and mining industry. Knowledge Our knowledge collectively spans every aspect of international trade in commodities and software development and each of our dedicated professionals brings direct industry knowledge and experience of working in banks, producers and trading companies. Experience Brady has a proven track record of successfully delivering highly tailored solutions to a wide variety or organisations that have resulted in dramatic performance improvements, as well as reduced the risks and costs of commodity trading. A global customer base Brady Solutions are used by over 150 customers worldwide, including a wide range of producers, fabricators banks and trading companies involved in the international trade of metals and mining commodities, encompassing clients from all 5 categories of LME membership. Brady s system handles our Metals derivatives activities and is very flexible and robust. The system provides the best risk analytics in the market place and is both used globally with our traders and integrated with our back-office systems Jeremy Weir Head of Base Metals, Trafigura
Head Office 281 Cambridge Science Park Milton Road Cambridge CB4 0WE United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1223 479479 Fax: +44 (0)1223 472510 London Office Tel: +44 (0)20 7002 1068 Fax: +44 (0)20 7002 1100 New York Office Tel: +1 (212) 331 1225/6 Fax: + 1 (212) 331 1106 Philadelphia Office Tel: +1 (610) 660 7797 Fax: +1 (610) 667 8174 Geneva Office Tel: +41 (0)22 869 1000 Fax: +41 (0)22 869 1010 Bergen Office Tel: +47 55 30 28 00 Fax: +47 55 30 28 01 Singapore Office Tel: + 65 6725 6503 Fax: +65 6725 6504 Paris Office Tel: +33 145 26 59 37 Amsterdam Office Tel: +31 20 491 9395 Fax: +31 20 491 9399 www.bradyplc.com email: info@bradyplc.com 03/10