Expanding into the Renewables Market for a Global Commodity Brokerage

How we built a platform for growth with app development, optimised back office operations and an updated brand.

Industry:

Oil & Gas

Challenge:

As an established global commodity brokerage operating in the fuel and petrochemical markets across Europe and the Middle East, RPB Index was looking to digitally transform its back-office prior to launching an app and expanding into the renewables sector.

How We Helped:

Having captured the requirements of both the front and back office, we designed the system architecture to roll out the new operating model onto the Salesforce Sales Cloud, Communities and Mobile Publisher platforms.

Over multiple phases of deployment, this led to an increased amount of optimisation and automation streamlining various workflows, benefitting both customers and the internal RPB team alike.

Once the foundation had been built, we overlayed a new brand and website, integrating the HubSpot CMS platform with Salesforce to provide a stable, secure and compliant operating base for this multi-national company.

NEW BROKER APP LAUNCHED IN UNDER 12 MONTHS

Outcome:

The multi-year partnership has enabled RPB Index to transform itself digitally, thereby by allowing increasing data insight and reporting internally to drive even tighter operational control and compliance. From sales through to billing, the secure environment has reduced the operational risk associated with managing complex deal negotiation and management in this fast paced industry.

With regards to the front office, the automation of the daily reporting process for clients (both sign-up and end-day sending), has sped up and improved the customer experience. The nature of the way the platform has been designed however has allowed the even more time sensitive live market data to be presented to customers vis a proprietary app. The way in which new product families, products and markets can be added is a deliberate design factor, enabling new regions and products to be integrated within the platform with ease.

Key Learning Points:

  • 1

    Spend time getting to understand daily and hourly work patterns

  • 2

    Capture requirements in writing

  • 3

    Deploy updates in a phased approach to maintain momentum

  • 4

    Roll out proof of concept version to test market feedback

  • 5

    Plan for longer than expected period before inflow of new revenue

We initially engaged Winshaw to undertake a tactical market research project to evaluate the potential size of our target markets in the UK Public Sector. Based on the quality of the report, we commissioned the team to deliver a more extensive programme of work over a 12-month period to support our corporate strategy. The system and supporting processes we deployed worked so well we decided to replicate these within our global go-to-market strategy.

—  Alex Wadsworth,
International Financial Director, General Dynamics IT

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