Shipping goods across multiple geographies is a complex process. In this QAD Precision Report we look at why multinationals benefit from integrating their global trade and transportation operations.
Geopolitical relations have always had ramifications for how and where companies can trade. As a result, companies that manufacture from multiple sites, or ship products to and from multiple geographies, are subject to a host of compliance challenges. When political changes occur — such as the recent sanctions on Russia — businesses must respond accordingly.
As we have seen in recent weeks, regulation can and does change at a rapid pace. In addition to sanctions, businesses must comply with ever-changing lists of denied or restricted persons and entities with whom it is illegal to trade.
Denied or sanctioned party lists are issued by governmental and international bodies. These are subject to frequent changes. This makes manual checks and compliance a difficult task for companies that do business across multiple geographies.
Nevertheless, global shippers must adhere to current regulations, no matter how complex or onerous due diligence may be. Violations can have serious consequences — up to and including jail.
Automating Restricted Party Screening
Global enterprises that ship products from and to different parts of the world often lack standardized procedures. Very often, this can be the result of challenges presented by doing business across different geopolitical or regulatory regimes. Equally likely, is that each location has its own company culture, legacy systems and local guidelines. This is especially true for companies that have grown through acquisition.
While there certainly are benefits to tailoring your business procedures to the local context. However, lack of corporate-wide standards to ensure ongoing compliance can result in regulatory exposure. This can be due to poor or incomplete processes, employee missteps, negligence or lack of formal procedures.
Automated trade compliance software is an effective way to mitigate the risk of violations. In addition, automation reduces the time and effort needed to ensure compliance. Manual processes that would take hours can be done in a matter of minutes, with minimal risk of errors. Furthermore, using a software solution creates detailed audit-ready reports.
Standardized compliance processes are particularly critical for global companies with decentralized operations and where subsidiaries work independently. Enterprises that standardize trade compliance policies and systems and leveraging shared data, reduce risk, and expedite processing time.
Integrating Compliance and Transportation
Integrating compliance with your transportation systems creates efficiencies for companies. This allows them to leverage a single solution for all global logistics operations.
For global shippers, automated compliance checks should be performed at the beginning of the export sales process. This ensures that the sale can proceed.
Integrating compliance checks with transportation execution saves time and reduces the possibility of errors. There is no need to switch applications or rekey data. An integrated solution will also identify license and permit requirements and exceptions. As a result, all the documentation needed to complete a shipment is automatically created and included.
The international transportation of goods requires a lot of paperwork. Automated documentation production significantly reduces the time needed to process a shipment. The documentation required for global shipments may include any or all of the following:
- Commercial invoices
- Accredited carrier labels
- General purpose shipping labels
- Address labels
- Packing lists
- Bills of lading
- Dangerous goods notes
- Driver manifests
Goods sent with incomplete documentation or without the necessary licenses are likely to be delayed or returned.
How QAD Precision Can Help
Global enterprises must ensure that shipments reach their customers reliably and cost-effectively. In addition, multinationals need to mitigate compliance risks and control shipping spend.
If you export goods, an integrated solution simplifies every step of this process. With QAD Precision’s integrated solution, all major functions — compliance checks, trade documentation, and shipping — are done through the same solution, using the same software and data. Due to this integrated system architecture, 95 percent of the information needed for each shipment transaction is automatically provided. This significantly improves productivity and streamlines the shipping process, as well as reduces errors.
From the beginning of the export process, QAD Precision vets the transaction. When needed, the solution alerts the appropriate personnel to take action. As a result, all critical export shipping and/or regulatory controls are met, including export screening and license determination.
QAD Precision also automates documentation production and customs reporting. Therefore, all of the documents needed to complete a shipment are prepared correctly and presented in the right format and language. This includes export documentation, transportation documentation and carrier compliant labelling.
An integrated shipping solution with standardized processes also makes it easier to manage carriers, compare prices and organize critical paperwork. With QAD Precision, you can automatically compare rates, routes and service levels to find the best carrier for your needs. Alternatively, by using QAD Precision’s routing guide and your own business rules, carriers can be automatically selected depending on the characteristics of a shipment.
With QAD Precision’s integrated global trade and multi carrier transportation solution, enterprises can:
- Automate compliance and documentation
- Minimize shipping costs
- Optimize first and last mile deliveries
- Increase logistics ROI.
