Focus on the Workplace

Attunity improves trade profitability for Balli

In common with many other commodity traders, Balli Group wanted to improve the profitability of trades and reduce risk by providing traders with a single real-time view of trades. By deploying Attunity InFocus in its London office, Balli was able to give its traders immediate visibility and access to data held within internal and external sources, and the opportunity to evaluate, discuss, share and act upon such information appropriately. Ultimately, Attunity InFocus provides Balli with a platform to improve the profitability of its trades and competitiveness in this fast-paced market sector.

Challenge

Solution

· Attunity InFocus, a flexible management workplace application platform to improve the overall profitability of Balli’s trading deals

Benefits

· Single real-time view of trades
· Reduced risk exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations
· Management by exception
· Minimized administrative load
· Single real-time view of the client’s universe
· More time to spend on innovative deal structuring
· Leverages existing investments in business intelligence, data warehouses, enterprise applications, service oriented architecture and web services
· Very fast implementation and ROI

Balli Group

Balli Group is one of the largest privately owned independent commodity traders in the world. Headquartered in the UK and operating through a global network of offices, Balli trades in steel, non-ferrous metals, chemicals and agricultural products. The Group has consolidated sales of more than $1 billion.

Improving response rates and competitiveness

Commodity trading is a fast-paced sector in which success is reliant on the visibility of information and the ability to respond quickly to changes in the market. As such, the capability to track, monitor, assess and act on trading and other information in as close to real-time as possible has a direct impact on overall profitability and, ultimately, competitiveness.

Complex algorithms and calculations show the real value of each transaction and the possible profit rates prior to transaction. Then as the trade takes place, the initial calculations are compared to actual results, for example with spot foreign-exchange rates. Without the ability to drill down into each deal and correlate the various levels of information, managing profitability becomes unpredictable.

Yet making that goal a reality is challenging, especially within commodity trading where the data volumes can be vast, critical information is stored in disparate systems and speed means the difference between a profitable trade or not. Ensuring the right information is evaluated, a full picture of the trade is understood and previous experience and knowledge are used often requires complex assimilation of data from many sources. This can be both time-consuming and difficult to trace, which can result in misjudged and potentially unprofitable trades or transactions based on incomplete or incorrect data.

This was the challenge Balli’s commodity traders faced. What they needed was immediate visibility and access to data held within internal systems – such as data warehouses, financial systems, spreadsheets and email trails – as well as external sources – such as the Internet, foreign exchange services, interest rates and other information from banks or subscription services. Equally important was the ability to evaluate, discuss, share and act upon such information appropriately.

Rapid roll-out producing rapid results

Balli turned to Attunity, a leading provider of solutions in the new and fast growing workplace applications market, to help tackle the problem. “Balli selected Attunity following a rigorous assessment phase with the goal of improving further the performance of the organization,” recalls David Spriddell, group finance director at Balli.

Attunity worked closely with the trading company to implement Attunity InFocus, its flexible management workplace application platform and improve the overall profitability of Balli’s trading deals. A close working relationship enabled the team to implement and integrate the solution with Balli’s existing systems across its London site in a matter of weeks. In addition, the solution is highly scalable and has been designed to meet the evolving demands of the organization.

Attunity InFocus enables Balli’s commodity traders, treasury, shipping and management teams to work on a single platform that enhances visibility, effectiveness and analytical capabilities of its trading environment. This provides them with the information they need to take proactive decisions as and when needed, improving the performance – and, ultimately, profitability – of the company. “We are using Attunity InFocus as a platform to innovate our organization by providing us with the capability to track, monitor, assess and most, importantly, act on information in real time, subsequently improving the profitability of our business,” explains Spriddell.

Improving profitability while reducing risk

Key to Balli’s selection of Attunity InFocus was its ability to enable traders to see quickly and easily the variables that might affect a trade alongside other relevant information in one view. Another benefit is the opportunity for traders to share information between teams and departments, and take immediate action in response to changing variables where necessary. Furthermore, it provides a proactive, productive and effective method of monitoring and assessing each deal against pre-defined targets and trading limits, thereby reducing the overall risk of each trade.

In summary, Attunity InFocus offers commodity traders:

· Deal visibility and control – early potential problem identification and exception management; greater understanding of overall commitments; risk exposure and resolution;
· Enhanced agility – proactive tracking and monitoring of real-time information and subsequent actions; faster response to changing market conditions;
· Increased effectiveness – focused and contextual deal-centric information; faster trader review of forward book, positive and negative amendments, exchange rates and so on; management of subsequent actions taken.

Spriddell concludes: “This project has demonstrated that by careful selection of an experienced implementation partner who has a heritage in data integration, the choice of robust and flexible software, a concise project methodology and most importantly, a ‘can do’ attitude throughout the project team, it is possible to deliver successfully to a very rapid timeframe.”

To find out more, please contact diana.tucker@attunity.com