ComFin Came to Visit
It’s not very often I get visited in my hometown of Brno, Czechia by a client. In fact, I can count this rare occurrence on one hand and must give honorary mention to Shaun Ankers, CEO of Energy One and Simon Wheeler who have visited me here twice – Shaun from Australia no less. However, last week, I had a visit from Gerald Neher, Managing Partner of ComFin and his business partner – Gunther Dauner. We met in town at one of my favorite coffee shops to catch up a bit and discuss ComFin. ComFin Software provides what it describes as “cost competitive, full-featured trade administration and risk management software applications (categorised as CTRM) to the global commodity and energy industries.”
One item of great importance to Gerald and Gunther was to ensure that the market was fully aware that they had acquired the business at the end of 2018 and had been running it successfully ever since. For them, this change in ownership marked a significant shift in corporate strategy and culture and they felt that in some quarters, this news had been somewhat overlooked.
ComFin is based in Vienna and it utilises local staff and it sees their development and well being as key to adopting a good working environment in which customer service ranks highly, they told me. “We don’t outsource development or support and we don’t use cheaper resources based in low cost locations and different time zones,” Gerald told me. Gunther explained how it took pride in supporting staff in various outside activities and pursuits believing that this added to the company’s culture.
Another point they were keen to share was that they do not see the market as a classical packaged software market with a one-sized fits all product. Rather, they build a quality core solution that can and should be configured and customized for the customer. They see this as a key and important differentiator especially when combined with their account management and support strategy in which each customer has a named go-to employee to help them with any issues. ComTech has long talked about the CTRM market as being a custom software market masquerading as a packaged software market and sees this as one of the key issues and impediments often facing fast growing vendors in the space. Plainly, there are several strategies that vendors can use to thrive and ComFin has taken the customisation of a standard configurable solution path. As its website states – “In the dynamic world of commodities, the ability to adapt and respond to changing market conditions is critical. Customisation in CTRM solutions plays a vital role in improving operational efficiency and effectiveness.” Comfin also offers source code licenses to customers. “This goes well with customisations, as our clients would have the option to customise the system themselves. Also, some larger companies are interested in source code licences for compliance reasons: they want to see the algorithms and ensure that the software is safe,” Gerald told me.
We also spent time discussing trends in the commodities space and how that impacted software vendors and users alike. We agreed that geopolitics has taken over as one of the main trends adding uncertainty, volatility and shifting requirements to the mix. Again, they see this as supporting their customisation approach and believe that it will bring them greater opportunity.
It was fun to sit face-to-face with a vendor as opposed to the computer screen on Zoom or the like. It felt like the old days especially in Texas when almost everyday I had a lunch appointment or a meeting downtown. I think Gerald and Gunther enjoyed visiting Brno too….
Keep in touch and sign up to our Newsletter
