SAP enhances trade services suiteout of new GRC business unit
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 9/1/2006 6:00:00 AM
With customers spread across continents, enterprise vendor SAP knows something about trade compliance—from its users. The fact is most manufacturers now find themselves pressed to meet ongoing waves of legislation, as well as customer and supplier mandates. And they are looking for solutions that lead to standardized processes for regulatory compliance and reporting.
Built atop the SAP NetWeaver middleware platform, Global Trade Services (GTS) suite version 7.0 is the first new release from the recently formed SAP governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) business unit announced at the Sapphire user conference this past May. Released in June, the suite includes functionality for automated letters of credit, customs warehouse management, regional trade agreement management, and multiple languages.
"GTS helps companies ensure global trade compliance and speeds the flow of goods in the supply chain," says Neetin Datar, director of product marketing for GRC.
Applied Biosystems—an international supplier of life sciences products with U.S. headquarters in Foster City, Calif., and a GTS user since 2005—is looking forward to rolling out GTS 7.0 to facilities in Singapore, the U.K, the Netherlands, Australia, and Japan. "GTS 7.0 provides Japanese language support, so we'll be able to extend GTS in that country as well," says Leighton Yates, Applied Biosystems senior manager for global trade compliance.
With earlier releases, Applied Biosystems saw a 55-percent to 90-percent improvement in document compliance. "The big attraction for us with GTS 7.0 is that we'll be able to implement a virtual customs warehouse in the Netherlands, where we will store shipments without paying duties until we decide whether they'll enter the European Union or other markets," explains Yates.
Customs warehousing is an interim step for many importers/exporters, whereby goods in transit are temporarily stored in warehouses that postpone duty payment until final disposition is decided. One common problem associated with the practice has been loss of visibility to those goods while they're in storage.
"We've automated that function so companies know the duty status of goods at all times, which optimizes duty payments," Neetin says.
Applied Biosystems' Yates says release 7.0 also will enable the company to synchronize reporting across its supply chain, leading to better planning capabilities.
New automated letter of credit generation functionality in GTS 7.0 was developed in response to customer requests, Neetin says. Letters of credit guarantee sellers will receive payment for goods shipped when they submit proof of delivery to the bank that issued the letter.
"Statistics reveal that 70 percent of all letters of credit submitted to banks are rejected on first submission due to incorrect data," says Neetin.
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