Over the years, there has been a growing realization that building a commodity trading and risk management (CTRM) solution is not a trivial task. Indeed, quite the opposite. It is a hugely complex piece of software that can never seem to meet all the varied needs of all the different types of companies buying and selling commodities around the globe.
Vendor-provided software has, by necessity, to be even more complex since it requires significant configurability to be built in to it to cater to sufficient users to make it economic for the vendor. It has therefore always been an expensive enterprise – not just in terms of the license or usage fees – but also for upgrades, enhancements, and integration. It is a truism that most CTRM solutions are, in reality, a poor fit to requirements, as evidenced by the plethora of spreadsheets and other tools needed to support the business.
