ION Aspect Generating Significant Sales Across the Industry
Recently, I had a demonstration of Aspect by ION. Aspect has apparently been selling extremely well across an array of commodities including oil, metals, concentrates, ores, and so on, and I wanted to see why. Sources had told me that Aspect had sold in double figures in 2022 and, in just a single month in 2023, it had been sold 6 times. I hadn’t seen a demonstration of Aspect in several years dating back to prior to its acquisition by ION, but I was surprised by how far it has come since then. Aspect is now a solution that can handle many of the detailed complexities of things like concentrates and ores, while offering an improved and intuitive UI, extensive reporting and, of course, scripting for basic, as well as advanced, customization.
I can well see why this solution is doing well on the market right now, particularly as it is a SaaS cloud-based solution. One of the key selling points is undoubtedly that everything in the solution is ‘live’ including P&L, cashflow, VaR and other measures of exposure. It has standardized and customizable workflow, covers an extensive array of different transportation modes. ION has expanded Aspect’s commodity coverage from oil, coal, and freight to now include LNG, uranium, freight, battery materials, scrap metals and, it has tons of configurability to boot. Aspect has evolved into a competent multi-commodity CTRM while keeping its implementation cost in check, and its popularity has never been higher it seems.
ION has been making a lot of moves in the CTRM software markets of late. For example, it launched Aspect Carbon Zero, a trading and inventory SaaS solution for carbon credits and renewables certificate management that I was told allows the trading and risk management of all certificate types, leverages data on over 6000+ global carbon projects, and interfaces with registries. It also manages approvals and compliance workflows, analyzes carbon portfolios with a range of customizable reports, and calculates and forecasts carbon offset obligations, ION said.
ION also enhanced Aspect with ‘out-of-the-box’ LNG capabilities that can handle the full trade lifecycle across liquefaction, transportation, and regasification. Metals is another area of focus with Aspect diving deeper into recycled metals and modelling metals assets and related operations.
Separately, ION launched its FEA Analyzer in 2022. FEA Analyzer collates and analyses complex business data, enabling informed, real-time decision-making while maximizing profits across the value chain. “The solution is ideally suited to model optionality and run scenario analysis on complex structured deals, such as PPAs and long-term delivery LNG/Gas contracts. These were among several other key innovations made recently by ION,” I was told.
ION now supports over 1,200 energy and commodities businesses and 30,000 users globally. Last year it upgraded over 120 ION Commodities customers who implemented the latest version of its ETRM/CTRM solution, they told me. Many customers have apparently also used this opportunity to migrate to the ION Cloud. It does seem that ION Commodities has increased its focus by leveraging its comprehensive multi-brand portfolio and got on with creating a product strategy for growth in the last few years and, Aspect appears to be a key component in that strategy.
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