Amphora
Simplifying Physical Supply Chains

In the complex world of energy trading and logistics, linking multiple leg deliveries is an intricate process,” begins Vincent Cortes, VP of Product & Solutions, Amphora. “Companies deploy a gamut of solutions to optimize their scheduling and logistics operations.” However, the deployment of software does not solve all problems, and calculating freight rates and managing the massive volume of logistics movements remains an uphill task. “There is an increasing desire in the market to determine how freight and handling costs are reflected and optimized in the profit and loss statement,” states Cortes. In such a scenario, Houston, TX based Amphora emerges as a clear leader by empowering the trading community with the most robust, user-friendly, enterprise-wide products that respond to dynamic market demands while also addressing customers’ needs.

In its pursuit to empower clients with advanced solutions, Amphora offers Symphony—a scalable, end-to-end multi-commodity trading and risk management solution. Amphora’s leading Cloud and API technologies enable Symphony to function in complex business environments. “Our APIs facilitate seamless data integration to interface with pipelines, terminals, and other facilities. They also automate the process of cost management and eventually contribute in mitigating losses,” states Cortes. Amphora’s cloud deployment platform addresses various operational requirements while minimizing costs and expediting return on investment. “Operational scalability is at the heart of our product that manages increased volume of logistics movements in a sustainable manner,” says Cortes. “Subsequently, more volume translates into exponential profits.” Symphony streamlines operations and manages financial and physical transactions in a straight-forward manner.

“Symphony’s in-built operations dashboard is designed to minimize clicks for scheduling deals, performing updates, and automating as many calculations while offering views of probable profit and loss,” states Cortes. Amphora recognizes the significance of data security and thus secures data flow through robust security mechanisms and secure user management.

Symphony’s feature rich operations dashboard with built in work flow tools was designed by schedulers to simplify complex operations by minimizing the number of steps to schedule deals, perform updates, and display accurate real time actionable information

With the flagship product Symphony, the firm not only empowers its clients with a holistic solution but also provides additional powerful modules such as Risk Manager. “Risk Manager helps traders to discern not only their risk exposure but also their trading positions in a detailed manner with real time information,” says Cortes. To address complexities in trade execution, Amphora bestows the traders with its product Trade Confirmations Manager. “Trade Confirmations Manager simplifies the process of document generation and a clear understanding of document workflow,” states Cortes.

In one of the implementation highlights, one large customer sought a unified view of operations into export of U.S. crude to the other regions of the world. The client had to perform the logistically complex trade to leverage price differences in global oil markets. After deploying Amphora’s CTRM platform, the client could gain clear visibility of railways, barges, pipelines, trucks and ship-to-ship transfers. The product streamlined the logistics activity and enabled the client to facilitate the delivery within pre-defined deadlines while maintaining deal profitability. Symphony was used by the client to enhance trade profitability while overcoming challenges such as expensive ship-to-ship transfer, and transport and storage costs.

“We create success stories due to our focus on our core strength: gaining deeper functionality in our vertical,” says Cortes. For the customer-centric Amphora team, clients are members of its family. “As a company, we take pride in service that is not only simplifying every logistics task but also empowering clients to triumph over everyone else in the business,” concludes Cortes.