CTRM Subject Matter Expert

A few hours per week — typically concentrated around data-model reviews, validation checkpoints, and gap-analysis sessions. 

Drawn from a small agreed monthly bucket of hours, used flexibly as the engagement requires rather than on a fixed daily schedule. 

Effort is heaviest during the data architecture and entity-mapping phase, and again at gap analysis and roadmap stage; lighter at other times. 

Fully remote, with sessions scheduled around the engagement''s checkpoints. Suits an experienced practitioner or consultant working alongside other commitments. 

Potential to extend into subsequent modernization phases if the engagement progresses. 

Validate the canonical data model for the selected module (e.g., product / lot) against real metals-trading semantics — material grades, assays and quality specs, lot and heat identification, units of measure and conversions, and inventory states. 

Map the physical and contractual trade lifecycle — sourcing/procurement, logistics and warehouse movements, weights and measures, title and risk transfer, hedging exposure, and settlement — onto the client''s modules to surface gaps. 

Assess inventory & warehouse management — receipts, put-away, location and bin management, lot traceability, stock reconciliation, shrinkage/loss, and physical-vs-book positions — against current system capabilities. 

Identify process improvements the current system cannot support, feeding the modernization roadmap with prioritized, business-justified recommendations. 

Advise on proof-of-concept module selection — which module offers the clearest business value and the cleanest validation of the coexistence approach. 

Hands-on experience with CTRM/ETRM systems for physical commodities — trade capture, position management, physical logistics, and settlement workflows. 

Deep understanding of the physical commodity trade lifecycle: procurement, contracts, pricing (including formula/index pricing and premiums), logistics, invoicing, and settlement. 

Familiarity with mark-to-market, position and exposure tracking, and the basics of hedging for physical trading books. 

Understanding of trade documentation and title/risk transfer (Incoterms, warehouse receipts, bills of lading, certificates of analysis). 

Direct operational experience in metals & minerals trading — base or precious metals, ferronon-ferrous, ferroalloys, concentrates, ores, or minerals. 

Familiarity with metals-specific concepts: grades and assays, quality/spec tolerances, lot and heat tracking, provisional vs final pricing and weights, quotational periods, and treatment/refining charges (TC/RCs) where relevant. 

Understanding of exchange and pricing references relevant to metals (e.g., LME-type benchmarks) and how they flow into trade and inventory valuation. 

Operational expertise in inventory and warehouse management for physical commodities — receipts, put-away, location/bin management, and dispatch. 

Lot and batch traceability, serial/heat tracking, and units-of-measure handling (including conversions between traded, stored, and invoiced units). 

Stock reconciliation, cycle counting, shrinkage and loss handling, and reconciliation of physical vs book positions. 

Familiarity with warehouse receipts, third-party/bonded warehousing, and in-transit inventory. 

Eka / Quoreka — commodity management across metals & mining. 

Fendahl Fusion — CTRM purpose-built for metals and metal concentrates (base, refined, ferrous, non-ferrous, scrap). 

ION Triple Point (CommodityXL) — widely used for metals and concentrates trading and risk. 

Brady — established metals and recycling/scrap trading and risk platform. 

Commodities Engineering (BALSAMO) — raw materials, concentrates, refined and scrap metals; trading, logistics and financing. 

CTRM Next — dedicated base/precious-metals and concentrates capabilities (LME mechanics, warehouse, blending). 

ION Openlink (Endur), ION RightAngle, ION Allegro (Horizon), ION Aspect — the ION family of enterprise CTRMs. 

Other notable platforms: Molecule, Quor, Agiblocks, SAP S/4HANA Commodity Management, and FIS commodity solutions. 

Highly relevant: experience designing, specifying, or heavily configuring a home-grown or bespoke CTRM — not just using a packaged product — since the client''s system is custom-built and the roadmap points toward a custom, module-by-module (strangler-pattern) rebuild. 

Ability to translate trading requirements into data-model and business-rule specifications a build team can implement. 

Having lived through at least one CTRM implementation, migration, or major re-platforming — and able to speak to what makes them succeed or fail. 

Comfortable reviewing and critiquing data models — entities, attributes, relationships, and reference/master data — from a business-correctness standpoint. 

Able to translate trading and inventory operations into data-model requirements and business rules. 

Helpful (not mandatory): exposure to legacy ERP modernization, IBM i / AS-400 environments, or master-data and canonical-model design. 

Able to distinguish system limitations from process choices — knowing which gaps are technology-driven and which are operational. 

Strong stakeholder-facing skills — credible with both business/trading staff and a technical delivery team. 

Able to run and document structured discovery sessions, and to distill findings into clear, prioritized recommendations. 

Comfortable in a remote, time-boxed advisory engagement with a fast discovery cadence. 

Precise and business-justified in recommendations — every proposed improvement tied to a clear operational or commercial benefit. 

Assessment report — the business-process and data-model validation sections, and the catalogue of identified gaps. 

Modernization roadmap — the business-process re-engineering recommendations and their prioritization. 

Proof of concept — sign-off that the canonical data model for the selected module is business-correct for metals & minerals trading and inventory.