Bespoke Software

BRIDGE – Fuel Trading

The Brief

We were tasked to develop a bespoke business system to enable our client to grow their international marine fuels business. This involved a lot of complex analysis, the development of algorithms and the integration with 3rd-party software systems. With critical functions such as credit control and vessel sanction checking also involved, a constant process of testing and improvement has resulted in a market-leading solution. Every good system needs a name! From the bridge of a ship, whether at sea or in port, the crew are always in complete control of their vessel. The name "BRIDGE” perfectly embodies the business control system our solution has become. “BRIDGE” allows fuel traders, accounts personnel and managers to always have complete control of the business and to “view to the horizon” when necessary.

What Does The Solution Do?

CRM

With a growing list of clients, our customer needed to keep on top of new leads and existing customers to ensure that they can make the most of every opportunity. With regular tasks, email integration and much more we have built a rugged system that will ensure good customer relations for many years to come.

Vessel Management

A key component of BRIDGE is the ability to manage vessels. Vessel management involves knowing the many technical attributes of a vessel all the way up to its current financial status. BRIDGE brings together all this key information which allows Credit Control to make intelligent decisions regarding the secure trading with any particular vessel.

Sanctions Listing

BRIDGE allows industry experts to maintain a list of sanctioned countries. This list is used throughout the system to ensure that no deals can take place in ports where sanctions are imposed. BRIDGE also feeds the custom-built algorithm that manages vessel tracking.

AIS Vessel Tracking

Using the marine Automatic Identification System tracking service, (AIS), BRIDGE checks the movements of all vessels on the system every time a user adds one to an enquiry. BRIDGE analyses the last 6 months of port calls for a vessel, stores the results, and then checks against the sanctions database. The trader is instantly notified of any port calls that might raise concerns in respect of trading with that vessel.

Credit Control

BRIDGE holds several levels of automated credit control. Through a combination of accounts API integration, customer settings and an intelligent market condition tool, traders get an instant review of the customer's credit worthiness based on their current balance and a multi-level credit scoring system.

Unit Conversions

To save traders having to manually calculate costs, pricing and margins, BRIDGE uses live FX rate and unit conversions to allow users to view and set margins based on a single unit and currency: USD$ per Metric Tonne. These values are also saved so that analysis can always report in the one unified rate, which make the analysis module simple and clear to comprehend.

Global Reach

BRIDGE has the capability to operate all over the world. We have ensured that the system allows for multi-region and multi-time-zone use, ensuring all data is synced to English and the GMT Time-zone. The multi-office approach to the development has allowed our client to operate the system from its current international offices secure in the knowledge that other offices can be quickly added at any time.

Working Together

BRIDGE allows traders to share enquiries with each other and split commission. This feature allows traders to combine their skills and local knowledge of ports to achieve the best outcome for their customers. All sales analysis automatically takes these splits into account when reporting on trader performance.

Accounts API Integration

Using the API for XERO, our client's accounts system, BRIDGE continuously reports on all customer's balances. This automates a traditionally laborious task of credit control. BRIDGE also produces purchase orders, delivery documentation and invoices. These invoices and supporting documentation are attached to an email and sent to the customer moments after their creation.

Automated Supplier Quotes

The supplier module in BRIDGE allows traders to send out their enquiries to all suppliers in a port with the click of a button. This generates and emails a secure link to all of the contacts in the specified suppliers. When the supplier receives the link they can use any device to view the enquiry and submit their quote. When a supplier submits their pricing, the trader is informed of the submission and can use the price analysis screen to help decide which pricing to propose to the customer. This intuitive dashboard shows a full breakdown of costs, automated currency conversions and credit costs calculations. The supplier quotation module has allowed traders to work more enquiries each day by allowing the system to take the strain of gathering quotes and comparing costs.

Automated Conversions

BRIDGE uses a custom-built algorithm to save traders having to manually calculate costs, pricing and margins. More importantly, BRIDGE uses live FX rates and unit conversions to allow traders to view and set margins based on a single fuel density and currency: USD$ per Metric Tonne. The same custom-built algorithm also alerts Credit Control to any potential financial risks associated with every trade. These values are auto saved which make the analysis module simple and clear to comprehend.

AIS Tracking

Given the financial pitfalls of trading with vessels that have visited sanctioned countries, BRIDGE uses the marine Automatic Identification System tracking service (AIS), coupled with a system-maintained sanctions database, to ensure that traders are instantly shown any sanction violations for the vessel they wish to trade with. The act of sanction checking, especially on a new vessel to the fleet, has been reduced from several hours down to a few seconds. This process provided by BRIDGE is a crucial tool when working on time-limited trades.

Market Phase Control

International marine fuel trading is a dynamic and volatile marketplace, so it is critical for fuel traders to immediately react to changing economic conditions. BRIDGE maintains a system wide set of trading parameters, referred to as a “Market Phase,” which dictates all company trading. Crucially, the current Market Phase can be “re-set” within seconds which ensures potentially risky trades are not entered into.

Admin Saved

50%

Taking into account the automated sanction checking, credit control integration, the use of live FX rates, the standard USD$ per Metric Tonne reporting as well as the auto-production of purchase orders, delivery documents and invoices we believe that BRIDGE has reduced manual administration tasks by more than 50%.

Message From Our Client

We are an International marine fuels supply and trading company, running a global multi-office business with high turnover and low % margins, operating in multi jurisdictions, in different currencies and with different units of measurement. As such every facet of our business needs tight control in terms of process and risk management as one small error or gap can be very costly. Having efficient, easy to use, informative and tight systems is therefore crucial to us. We started the laborious task in 2019 of scouring the market for an appropriate ‘off the shelf’ software solution. After many frustrating months of realising that the off the shelf solutions are not as ‘off the shelf’ as they appear, usually don’t give you everything you need, and can be very expensive per user in licence fees, it was recommended that we speak with Foursquare Solutions, which we did in the beginning of 2020. We decided very quickly to go down the route of bespoke development.

It was such a relief to find a company dealing in software solutions that truly ‘get’ the commercial aspects of what business owners & managers need to make their companies successful, especially in terms of what needs to be controlled and managed tightly. Being able to speak to software experts who can talk in business terms and truly understand what you are trying to achieve made the design and planning process relatively easy. I have had several past experiences to the contrary. Our project, aptly named ‘Bridge’ was a full new package starting from a blank canvass. From the outset Foursquare provided the full detailed and easy to follow spec so it was made easy for non I.T. people to grasp and understand. The whole experience has been as good as could be expected, or better. This was a 1 year project which has at every step been delivered on time, on budget and always exceeding initial expectations. I have been constantly impressed by the close communication we have enjoyed and attention to detail, user friendliness and aesthetics of all aspects of the system. As I write, we are about to embark on planning for phase 2 and have lots more plans ahead including systems for another company we are involved with, so we envisage working with Foursquare for many years to come.

It goes without saying that we unreservedly recommend Foursquare Solutions for the quality of their work, their care and attention to give the client what they need, and especially the integrity and commitment to deliver above and beyond what they promise, and all in the timeframe promised. A rare thing these days to be able to say this, well done!

Robert Thompson
Managing Director
Propeller Fuels Ltd

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