Selecting the right CTRM software is a strategic decision that requires careful consideration of various factors. By focusing on your specific business needs, integration capabilities, usability, risk management features, customization, cost, support, and security, you can make an informed decision that drives efficiency and growth in your operations.
In today’s digital age, ensuring data security and regulatory compliance is crucial. Does your CTRM software adhere to industry-standard security protocols and regulatory requirements? To secure your data but also ensure legal compliance? Agiblocks does.
There are my reasons to go for Agiblocks for your daily CTRM needs. For instance, Agiboo is part of the Cultura Technologies family. Leveraging Cultura’s collaborative environment, deep expertise in agribusiness and global reach allows us to take the next step in our continuous effort to improve our flagship software solution. We’ve partnered up with CommodityAI to integrate their next level AI platform – unlocking a myriad of fresh advantages for the commodity trading industry at large. And did you know Agiblocks integrates well with all the major ERP systems?
Another rather important one, and the point of this article in fact, is that Agiblocks comes with complete document trail control for all your compliance needs.
Regulatory compliance
One of the biggest challenges associated with CTRM for soft commodities is the complex supply chain involved in their production and distribution. Unlike more traditional commodities like oil or metals, soft commodities are typically grown and processed in a variety of different locations around the world. This can create a number of logistical challenges when it comes to tracking inventory, managing transportation and storage costs, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
Failing to comply with these obligations can result in severe penalties and reputational damage. A robust CTRM system simplifies compliance management by offering built-in features that ensure adherence to regulatory standards. From automating trade documentation and reporting to providing audit trails and compliance monitoring tools, a CTRM system helps navigate the complexities of regulatory compliance efficiently and accurately. This not only saves time and resources but also safeguards your business from potential legal and financial risks.
You might have missed it, but the 4.0 version of Agiblocks saw the arrival of huge improvements to the document trail front, that allow for easy and hands-on control of ongoing processes, whether it be for oversight and regulation or for a clear and quick understanding of the current status of any shipment or delivery. Of course, we’ll be focusing on that first one here: oversight and regulation.
Document trail
The world of commodity trading is fast-paced and unpredictable. Luckily, we are ready and able to overcome any challenge. For instance, Agiblocks allows configuring a set of “events” on each delivery, to track what was done, when, and by whom. Examples are status, transport, counterparties, delivery lines, and so on. Agiblocks users might need to present proof to their respective governments for all those steps, which should lead to a visible trail. Following a shipment from here to there, actual delivery, fees, taxes – et cetera.
These step-by-step menus can now be used to track associated documents.
For instance, you can search by certificate, and check whether the required document is already added, or perhaps still missing. Filters allow finding deliveries with missing documents. What’s more, you can now enforce that checked documents become a required field. Other configurable behaviors can be linked to it as well (e.g. to block the next step until the proper document is presented / uploaded). We can easily add new rules / pull-down functionality as well. For instance, you can create that ‘for X to occur’, ‘Y must occur first’.
Configure as you go
What’s more, you can build in that kind of configurable behavior too. ‘Execution’ (delivery has taken place) can only turn ‘green’ if certain other conditions are also green (or aren’t). As such, it’s not an automation of the document trail, but rather a way to automate the control of that trail in an effort to eliminate human error.
In the trade industry, as much as half of a given commodity company’s workforce is dedicated to logistics and operations, thanks to the complex nature of managing shipments. What’s worse, is that up to two-thirds of the budget is allocated to administrative paperwork. That’s hundreds of processes, emails and phone calls and a labyrinth of documents – which is then multiplied by the number of actual shipments. That’s a lot of potential for human error – which was also why we started thinking about integrating the specific skills of CommodityAI. “Our goal is to take the number of manual processes within a commodities shipment all the way down to 0,”, explains Philip Koenig – “transforming the way companies manage their operations.” You can read more about that here.
Continuous effort
Overall, it’s an ongoing development to support and optimize processes. You can color in the needs as you build on, especially of larger companies, for example in the area of process control or in the case of staff shortages, where [new] employees do not know everything. The collective memory is slowly transferred to a piece of software. It becomes a specific process in which step by step the rules of the program must be followed. It kind of forces users into patterns, but in a good way, as the desired, optimal path can be shown.
Of course, flexibility is desirable with respect to all the dynamics of the industry, but it’s good to have structure as well. At any rate, Agiblocks has become that little bit more supportive of your daily needs, once again, with a hefty dose of added functionality, that can be tweaked and adjusted to taste, preference and organization necessity to boot!
Agiblocks to the future
From validating logistics data, determining the optimal path along the supply chain and forecasting deliveries, to improving regulatory compliance, tackling imbalances and calculating complex (future) prices – we are very excited that the future is here. Agiboo is ready for it, as the 4.0 version of Agiblocks is uniquely equipped to match all that potential.
