SUEK automates coal sales

Without such system, traders maintained offers and calculated transactions in Excel, while all approvals were made by email. Due to the lack of a systematic approach, the process was not transparent, and the price calculations were often not optimal in terms of price history, market indices and the overall transaction profitability. The objectives of the project are to reduce the risk of pricing errors, to decrease the number of transaction calculation and closing mistakes, to use the optional functionality, as well as to reduce high labour costs. An additional implementation incentive is the need to support the maintenance of offers and their coordination from anywhere in the world.

The new platform will allow traders to independently enter all the information for checking and approval into the system through the user-friendly Fiori interface, specially configured to quickly generate offers. After approval, the offers are automatically converted into transactions and supplemented with the data necessary to calculate economic indicators and compare these with the traders’ offers. In addition, the risk analysis related to entering into transactions and the generation of current reports will be performed without the participation of SUEK’s line personnel. In general, the benefits of the project are the following: transparency in the preparation of offers and data on closed transactions, quicker generation of reports on agreed transactions, better efficiency of operating personnel and lower transactional risks.

‘For our company, the introduction of SAP Commodity Management is an important project, as SUEK systematically expands its sales markets and customer base. The new system will help traders not only close transactions, but also evaluate their profitability and determine how to adjust the conditions so that everyone is happy. Moreover, the solution allows the calculation of various risks in order to take into account all parameters when preparing and closing transactions. We plan to replicate the solution in all SUEK’s international offices,’ Vadim Pestun, Information Technology Director of JSC SUEK, said.

‘Specialised SAP tools for purchasing and selling raw materials give our customers an additional competitive advantage. This is, in particular, due to an end-to-end value chain management from production and sales to product delivery to end users in a single SAP ERP management system. With this set of solutions, SUEK will get significant economic advantages and reduce the risk of revenue losses when entering into stock-exchange transactions,’ Alexei Leontovich, Deputy CEO of SAP CIS, noted.