Triple Point Launches Commodity XL Strategic Planning and Procurement 8.0

WESTPORT, CT--(Marketwired - Jun 13, 2013) - Triple Point Technology, the leading global provider of on-premise and in-cloud Commodity Management software, announced today the availability of Commodity XL Strategic Planning and Procurement™ (SPP) 8.0. This new release of Triple Point's award-winning Commodity Management solution enables food and beverage, process and industrial manufacturing, and consumer products (CP) companies to mitigate commodity risk and improve earnings with sophisticated new tools and analytics that manage raw material procurement.

Volatile commodity prices cause fluctuations in the cost of raw materials, packaging, and energy that affect profit margins. Food and beverage, manufacturing, and CP companies are often ill-equipped to address cost volatility because they don't have the software solutions to manage the commodity market risk inherent in the hundreds of items they buy from a multitude of suppliers -- all of which may have different cost component models. SPP 8.0 mitigates commodity price risk by enabling companies to view, aggregate, and evaluate all cost models and conduct real-time, forward-looking scenario analysis as plans change and markets move.

SPP 8.0 includes powerful new market-based analytics and risk management capabilities that deliver a significant competitive advantage. The solution delivers enhancements in the following areas:

• Procurement: Mitigates commodity risk associated with the purchase of raw materials by providing pricing formulas that deliver highly accurate cost forecasts for all commodities such as wheat, barley, maize, sugar, aluminum, pulp, bunker fuel, diesel fuel, electricity, and natural gas. Fully supports cross-hedging, which enables coverage calculations for commodities where the hedged commodity differs from the forecast commodity. For example, beverage companies often hedge glass bottle prices with natural gas futures and need to understand the ratios and coverage provided by the hedges.

• Risk Management: Enables management to assess the performance of commodity procurement and hedging strategies at-a-glance on an intuitive, graphical dashboard. Provides key performance indicators (KPIs) including performance versus market, performance versus plan, performance versus forecast, and coverage by category. KPIs are continuously updated, enabling management to take proactive, corrective action instead of having to wait for periodic, retrospective reports.

• Business Intelligence: Facilitates smarter, faster decisions by providing customized views of material and commodity coverage and exposure for functional groups including procurement, risk management, and finance. Enables companies to understand and analyze the "true" P/L of finished products by mapping hedge gains, losses, and costs to raw material purchases.

"Long term, systemic commodity volatility means that Procurement organizations must either put the technology solutions in place to effectively manage price risk, or fall behind the competition," said Michael Schwartz, senior vice president, chief marketing officer, Triple Point. "SPP 8.0 uniquely provides the advanced analytics and intelligence required to optimize profitability and mitigate commodity price risk in today's unpredictable market."

Commodity XL Strategic Planning and Procurement is the leading commodity and enterprise risk management solution for achieving balance between profitable purchasing, coverage requirements, supply chain movements, risk management policies, and accounting regulations in today's volatile and complex environment. Market-leading companies using Triple Point solutions for commodity and raw material procurement include General Mills, Heineken, Unilever, Petra Foods, Mercon Coffee Corp., and Armajaro Trading.

For more information, visit tpt.com/spp.

About Triple Point Technology
Triple Point Technology® is the leading global provider of on-premise and in-cloud Commodity Management software that delivers advanced analytics for optimizing end-to-end commodity and energy value chains. The company provides innovative solutions for managing all aspects of volatile commodity supply chains: trading, procurement, enterprise risk management, logistics, scheduling, storage/inventory, processing, settlement, and accounting. Over 400 customers in 35+ countries across industries including energy, metals, minerals, chemicals, agriculture, shipping, consumer products, food and beverage, retail, and manufacturing depend on Triple Point solutions. Triple Point was named a "Leader" in Gartner's ETRM Magic Quadrant in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. The company employs over 850 staff in 15 offices and support centers worldwide. www.tpt.com.