ISLE of MAN, September 2017 – Seaboard Overseas Limited, a division of Seaboard Corporation has successfully completed the implementation of the Fendahl Fusion CTRM, after a 4-month software implementation project.

Seaboard Overseas is a global trader of; wheat, corn, soybeans, soybean meal, mill feed, rice, pulses, milk products, sugar, food oils, and other protein meals. Seaboard sources, transports, and markets over 9 million tons of commodities each year. In addition, Seaboard operates a fleet of company owned and chartered bulk freight vessels, delivering commodities to in-house and to third-party customers around the world.

Seaboard replaced a legacy CTRM system that had been used to manage trade and risk management business processes for several years. This system was simply not able to support the way that Seaboard does business. The out dated design of the existing system made it inflexible, forcing Seaboard to perform many business processes manually which increased costs and operational risk.

To address these issues Seaboard has now implemented Fusion CTRM, a flexible next generation CTRM solution that provides rich agricultural commodity functionality, and provides the flexibility needed to support Seaboard’s specific business processes.

Seaboard is well known for delivering high levels of customer service to counter parties. The flexible new CTRM system allows Seaboard to automate existing manual business processes and implement new service offerings to further increase customer service while also reduce operating costs and risk.

The implementation of more than 90 end users across 5 offices across the world was completed on schedule and on budget. The project progressed smoothly without any issues.

“We are very happy with our new Fusion CTRM solution and the performance of the Fendahl professional services team. Fendahl have been a reliable and responsive partner throughout the implementation.” Sandy McKelvie, Project Director, Seaboard Overseas Limited

Focusing on delivering superior customer service while consistently maintaining low costs will help Seaboard to accelerate growth and increase profitability. Fendahl Fusion CTRM will enable Seaboard to achieve these objectives.

“Fusion is a flexible and modern CTRM system that supports the way we do business. We believe that partnering with Fendahl will help us to continue growing our business profitably for years to come” Gail Cummings, Executive Vice President, Seaboard Overseas Limited

Fendahl International is pleased to announce that Bluequest Resources has become the latest refined metals and metal concentrates trading organization to choose the Fendahl Fusion CTRM solution.

Bluequest is a large refined metals and metal concentrates trading house headquartered in Baar, Switzerland with a global reach via offices in New Jersey, USA; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Santa Cruz, Bolivia and Shanghai, China. Founded in 2004, Bluequest has become a significant presence in the global commodities market.

Bluequest currently uses a mixture of CTRM systems to support its business. However, continued rapid growth means that the existing CTRM systems infrastructure is no longer fit for purpose. As a result, Bluequest ran a competitive CTRM system evaluation process with several leading CTRM vendors.

After the evaluation process was completed, Bluequest selected the Fendahl Fusion CTRM solution for Metals and Minerals. Bluequest chose the next generation Fusion solution because Fusion offered a superior level of flexible refined metals and metal concentrates trading functionality, a mature and feature-rich CTRM application, a fast timeline for selected new developments, and a low long-term cost of ownership.

Dubai, UAE 06/02/19 – Fendahl is proud to announce that its Fusion CTRM Software has achieved SAP certification as integrated with SAP S/4HANA®. The integration helps trading organisations to streamline the generation of month-end accounts and helps remove IT issues arising during the reporting period. Having certified integration reduces the implementation risk in a critical business process and decreases the customers IT overhead of supporting bespoke non-standard integration.

The SAP® Integration and Certification Center (SAP ICC) has certified that Fusion CTRM integrates with SAP S/4HANA using standard integration technologies. SAP S/4HANA is the next-generation ERP, built for the SAP HANA platform, with on-premise and cloud deployment options. It is designed to act as the digital core, helping customers drive digital transformation across their entire organizations, taking advantage of the award-winning, role-based user experience of SAP Fiori®.

“We are delighted to announce that SAP has certified Fendahl’s integration solution between SAP S/4HANA and Fusion CTRM. The certified integration means that customers can deploy Fendahl’s industry leading Fusion CTRM solution secure in the knowledge that Fusion CTRM will work smoothly with SAP S/4HANA,” said Matthew White, Chief Executive Officer, Fendahl.

Smaller trading businesses often initially manage their trading and finance requirements manually in spreadsheets and an “off the shelf” accounting solution, but as they grow these initial quick fixes begin to fall apart. Several pressures begin to appear:

• Overall business process complexity.
• Increasing trade volumes.
• Complex logistics chains.
• Regulatory reporting requirements.
• Financial reporting and lending regulations.
• Errors in manual data entry.

CTRM solutions that resolve these issues are often judged on past perceptions by small to medium sized trading business to be costly solutions for large organisations, requiring lengthy resource intensive implementations and costly integration with a finance/ERP solution. So, the immediate response to these pressures is often to hire more resources to prop up manual processes and to implement several small third-party software solutions to cover individual business processes. The result is an expensive web of disconnected business processes and additional human resources built up over time to meet individual issues.

Fendahl is changing these perceptions by offering trading businesses an all in one solution with pre-built integration adapters and certified integrations with several leading accounting/ERP solution providers. One of these solutions is Microsoft Dynamics NAV/Dynamics 365 (MS NAV). Fendahl has worked in partnership with a leading Microsoft partner to develop pre-built integration adapters with MS NAV. A combined Fusion CTRM and MS NAV solution meets the challenges of a growing trading business and delivers the following benefits: –

Fendahl’s Fusion CTRM solution has successfully gone live at Partners Network, one of Europe’s largest traders of fresh produce. Based in the Netherlands, Partners Network trades poultry, fish, beef, pork, fruit, vegetables and dairy products on a global basis. Partners Network has offices in the Netherlands, Brazil, Mexico, China, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Russia, the Philippines and the USA.

After a competitive CTRM selection process, involving leading CTRM vendors, Partners Network selected Fusion CTRM. Partners Network chose the next generation Fusion solution because Fusion offered; superior trading functionality, a low long-term cost of ownership, enabled remote working for employees though workflow and task management, and a variety of mobile applications.

A key part of Partners Network’s selection process was Fusion’s extensive integration capabilities. Partners Network simultaneously chose to replace their existing finance system. Partners Network selected Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Fendahl successfully integrated the two systems. Fusion’s pre-built Microsoft Dynamics 365 adapters mean that integration is straight forward and risk free.

Partners Network also required integration with the INTTRA container booking and tracking solution, as part of the project Fendahl incorporated container booking, tracking and management into the Fusion CTRM solution via INTTRA’s web services.

Remotely Delivered Project – Due to Covid-19 the project was successfully delivered on a remote basis, with the Fendahl project team spending zero days on-site. Fendahl and Partners Network’s project teams worked closely to deliver the project within budget.

Throughout 2021, Mieco carried out an extensive and highly competitive CTRM evaluation process which resulted in the selection of Fendahl’s Fusion CTRM solution to meet Mieco’s commodity risk management needs.

Some of the key decision factors that resulted in the decision to select Fendahl included: –

• Fendahl Fusion provided a close fit to Miecos required functionality. This good functional fit was further reinforced with Fendahls extensive commodity trading and risk management expertise and a detailed knowledge of industry business best practices.
• Fendahl was able to reference a highly satisfied customer base, providing confidence in Fendahls’ ability to deliver and meet customers’ expectations.
• An ability to integrate with legacy systems.
• A highly adaptable, modern, cloud-based solution enabled by the use of a modern micro-services based architecture.
• Fendahl offered a commercial structure that was closely aligned to a successful delivery.

Having concluded contractual negotiations in December 2021, Mieco and Fendahl commenced implementation of refined petroleum products in January 2022 with natural gas expected to follow later this year.

 Fendahl announces that Dairy Products, Inc. (DPI), an industry leader with a long history of supplying premium dairy ingredients, specialty services and risk management solutions, has selected the Fusion CTRM Solution program to manage its trading and risk requirements. 

Founded and headquartered in Minnesota, DPI has provided high quality service within the dairy industry for nearly 30 years on both a national and global scale. DPI specializes in trading dairy products such as butterfat, milkfat, milk and whey powders, and cheese, along with offering clients risk management solutions.

“Implementing Fendahl’s state-of-the-art Fusion technology program will assist us with streamlining our internal processes and managing our CTRM to efficiently serve our clients,” said Mark Welch, CEO of Dairy Products, Inc. “DPI is excited about the opportunity to work with Fendahl’s best in class experts and a company that shares our passion for providing exemplary service.”

Striving to enhance customer service and innovation, DPI embarked on a selective process with various CTRM vendors to replace its legacy system. Following a thorough evaluation, DPI chose Fendahl Fusion for several key reasons: 

Cometa’s core business is commodity trading, focusing on thermal coal, using its expertise to leverage the sought-after opportunities to fulfil global demand.

During the second half of 2022, to better manage the risk associated with a growing commodity trading business, Cometa carried out a highly competitive Commodity Trading Risk Management (CTRM) system evaluation process. This detailed process resulted in the selection of Fendahl’s Fusion CTRM solution to meet Cometa’s commodity risk management needs.

Some of the key decision factors that resulted in this selection included:

• Fendahl presented a close fit to Cometa’s required functionality. Additionally, Fendahl demonstrated vast commodity trading and risk management expertise and a comprehensive knowledge of industry business best practices
• Fendahl demonstrated a track record of successful implementations for similar commodity types
• Fusions modern interface and inbuilt, easy to use reporting capability
• Fendahl provided quality references from existing clients, providing confidence in Fendahls’ ability to deliver and meet customer expectations

Having started implementation work in November 2022, Fendahl and Cometa are working towards a go live at the end of January 2023.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CTRM (Commodity Trading and Risk Management) software both serve the needs of commodity trading organizations but have different primary focuses.

ERP systems are more broadly focused on overall business operations and management, including finance, procurement, and supply chain management. CTRM systems, on the other hand, are specifically designed for the commodity trading industry, with a focus on trade management, risk management, and market data analysis.

In terms of suitability for commodity trading organizations, it often depends on the size and complexity of the organization, as well as its specific needs.

When it comes to managing the business processes of Commodity Trading and Risk Management (CTRM), organizations must choose between deploying Enterprise Resource Planning solutions (SAP, Oracle, MS Nav, etc.) or specialist CTRM solutions.

While ERP solutions offer a comprehensive suite of enterprise software that can support a wide range of business processes within multiple industries, it may not be the best choice for organizations that are heavily focused on commodity trading and commodity management. Here are a few reasons why: