Global trade transactions account for trillions upon trillions of dollars each year, and this number is expanding as we forge into the future. Additionally, it is becoming more complex to manage US and international regulations.

Yet, despite these factors, compliance departments remain woefully underfunded and understaffed. According to our export compliance research, 14.6% of compliance professionals believe that their company’s executive management is not aware of trade compliance.

How do you get executive level cooperation and sponsorship of your initiatives?

Join American Shipper and Management Dynamics for an upcoming educational webinar, “Bringing Compliance into the Boardroom.” This webinar, featuring a panel of global trade experts, will discuss how to get your voice heard when speaking to your c-level executives about enhancing your trade compliance operations.

In this trade compliance webinar, our expert panelists will discuss:

• Pain points of each member in the boardroom
• How these points relate to compliance issues
• Key messaging to use when speaking to each board member
• Tools to use in your presentation, such as quantifying compliance and its effect on the bottom line
• How automation can contribute to your efforts by adding value and saving money

Speakers:

	Virigina Thompson Director, Import/Export Operations & Global Trade Compliance Crate & Barrel
	Nathan Pieri SVP Marketing & Product Management Management Dynamics, Inc
	Beth Peterson President BPE

Register Today for “Bringing Compliance into the Boardroom!

In advance of the webinar, the webinar organizers ask that you please tweet your questions to Management Dynamics or World Trade on Twitter so they can be sure all questions are included.

From the WorldTrade Magazine description:

“Earlier this year, the world’s largest retailer announced projected cost savings of 5 – 15% by product category with an expanded direct import program.

While retailers, consumer goods companies and most global manufacturers have been importing for years, there is renewed interest in understanding all of the elements of a direct import program and the opportunity areas that can drive new supply chain efficiencies and boost product profitability.

The Direct Import Webinar will take a look at the foundation technologies for a direct import program, explore the implementation options by working with a global logistics provider, and discuss a number of successful case studies.

During this webinar, you will hear from a panel of industry experts to better understand how to:

• Optimize sourcing strategies across procurement, logistics and trade  compliance
• Better manage compliant orders with suppliers and plan shipments
• Coordinate origin logistics and reduce transportation spend
• Automate pre-clearance and reduce delays through Customs
• Monitor and manage global fulfillment issues to accelerate cash-cash cycles”

Click here for more details and to register for the webinar!

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, January 20, 2010 — Management Dynamics, a leading provider of Global Trade Management solutions, today announced the release of End-Use Manager, an on-demand solution that generates end-use surveys for parties involved in any cross-border transaction.

The new solution allows a trade compliance team to comprehensively survey and collect end-use statements from customers, suppliers and employees, establishing a standardized process for managing and ensuring compliance with international trade regulations.

“Companies that manufacture and export licensable goods must ensure that their customer and the intended end-use are approved and in compliance with export regulations.  However, today this is largely a manual process that is difficult to administer, especially across a global enterprise,” said Adrienne Braumiller, Partner, Braumiller Schulz LLP.

Image by Anonymous9000

“Management Dynamics’ End-Use Manager provides companies with the tools necessary to ensure that their shipments are delivered to the approved trade party and destined for friendly end-use.”

End-Use Manager can be flexibly deployed as a Web-based portal across any global enterprise and configured to meet the specific requirements of different business units.  Surveys can be developed by business unit, transaction type, origin country and destination country, and populated with a pre-configured list of questions.  In addition, all parties to the transaction are screened against the major sanctioned party lists.

Management Dynamics’ End-Use Manager offers the following key capabilities for companies to simplify trade compliance around product use and related professional services:

• Enterprise Deployment – Implement an end-use process by geography, business unit, or product family with a flexible multi-organization deployment model and manage users with role-based security.
• Survey Configuration – Develop a comprehensive repository of questions and manage assignment rules to dynamically assemble a complete survey for end-use statements by customers, vendors and employees.
• Restricted Party & Critical Country Screening – Automatically screen each party to the transaction against a comprehensive list of restricted parties and embargoed countries.
• Generate & Distribute End Use Statements – Dynamically generate end-use statements based on all associated questions as well as the results of Critical Country and Restricted Party Screening in a PDF format for easy distribution via email.
• Review Audit Trail – Audit each transaction with complete visibility to the user and all survey questions and answers.

“Today many companies rely on an inconsistent and, often inaccurate, manual process to administer end-use surveys to determine if the intended use of their shipped goods is in compliance with export controls,” said Nathan Pieri, SVP Marketing & Product Management, Management Dynamics, Inc.

“Our new End-Use Manager product makes it possible to manage the process centrally and distribute via a simple web-based solution for employees that must interact with customers, suppliers and contractors.”

About Management Dynamics, Inc.

Management Dynamics is a leading provider of global trade management solutions that improve the performance of global supply chains for importers, exporters, logistics service providers, and carriers.  The company’s solutions synchronize the flow of information among trading partners, optimize supply chain execution decisions, and streamline import and export processes to ensure regulatory compliance and minimize cost and risk involved in cross-border transactions.  Management Dynamics’ time-proven solutions are used by more than 14,000 global users at some of the world’s most successful 3PLs, carriers, manufacturers, retailers, and high technology companies.

For more information:

• Call us at (201) 935-8588,
• Email us: Solutions@ManagementDynamics.com
• Join the Discussion on Twitter: @GTMBestPractices
• Visit our website: www.ManagementDynamics.com

• AberdeenGroup: Global Trade Management in Retail and Consumer Industries: Reducing Total Landed Cost:
  In this research report, Aberdeen analyzes data collected in five cross-industry enterprise surveys conducted over 18 months to reveal key pressures, challenges, and business and technology solutions used by the retail and consumer industry companies with global supply chains.

• American Shipper: ISF Benchmark Study: From Concept To Compliance:
  This study takes the pulse of Importer Security Filing (ISF) compliance initiatives, reviews the challenges, and offers actionable guidance for importers wrestling with the new Customs 10+2 regulation.

• Webinar: Key Strategies for Establishing an Export Management System:

  Small to medium-sized companies represent 97% of all US exporters, but don’t always have the resources to keep up with the constantly changing landscape of export regulations and cannot afford the business risks of non-compliance. This webinar, hosted by World Trade Magazine, addresses key findings from an industry survey on how companies manage export compliance and highlights a number of best practices for your company to consider when implementing an export management system.

• Video: Strategic Opportunities that 10+2 Presents:

  The need to comply with regulations such as the Importer Security Filing (aka ISF or 10+2) can drive investment in Global Trade Management technologies and generate a number of additional benefit areas by viewing compliance as a strategic initiative. Elements of 10+2 filings are the same for other import documentation. Leverage the former and reduce data inaccuracies- learn more in this video from SupplyChainBrain.com and Management Dynamics.

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What is Global Trade Management?

Global Trade Management is what we call the systems and processes to manage the transfer of goods across international borders. Companies who import and/or export many items need a way to ensure they are complying with local and international laws and regulations, and desire advanced visibility and performance metrics into their shipments. Global Trade Management solutions help businesses achieve these goals by electronically unifying, automating, and streamlining the process.

More information on the webinar, from American Shipper:

“This summer, AMR Research and American Shipper surveyed, retailers, manufacturers and third party logistics providers on their global trade management systems (GTM).

Our expert webinar panelists will discuss:

• Are users satisfied with their Global Trade Management?
• Will GTM spending change in 2010?
• What are the drivers and inhibitors of GTM adoption?
• Is there a role for GTM as a supply chain risk manager?
• Are users getting close to a true understanding of total landed costs?”

Register Online for the Webinar: Mitigating Risk through Global Trade Management.

More about Global Trade Management from Google.

The ability to ensure regulatory compliance, conduct landed-cost comparisons with multi-country sourcing scenarios, and reduce duty payments almost anywhere in the world gives BD a decided competitive advantage, said Director of Supply Chain Management, Asia-Pacific Warren Cohen

Global organizations face challenges in their operations as trade regulations and customs requirements can vary dramatically across regions. Keeping these laws straight it of utmost importance, especially for a company like Becton Dickinson who researches, manufactures, and distributes highly-regulated medical products.

BD embarked on a trade compliance initiative to ensure trade compliance among their business units as well as on-boarding companies which they acquire.

The first step was to conduct an audit of existing processes, followed by benchmarking against other companies. BD then formed a GTM team that prepared a value-stream map for each region and developed new trade compliance processes. After selecting a software package, the team implemented formal trade-compliance training and a reporting structure for each region. The software itself is being rolled out in phases, starting with restricted-party screening.

Read the complete article at DC Velocity: Consistent trade compliance, step by step.

On October 22-23rd, trade compliance experts in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industry will gather in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia for updates and best practices for importing and exporting their products while remaining compliance with CBP, BIS, and the FDA.

Featured speakers include:

• FDA Address - FDA Perspective on Importing Products in 2010
• Domenic J. Veneziano, CDR, U.S. Public Health Service, Director Division of Import Operations and Policy, Food and Drug Administration
• Keynote Address – Global Trade Compliance and the ‘Trusted Trader’ Concept”
• Marianne Rowden, President & CEO, American Association of Exporters and Importers (AAEI)
• Bradd M. Skinner, Director, C-TPAT/ Industry Partnership Programs, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
• Craig Thurber, Section Chief, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, IPR Center, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

For additional information and to register, please visit the Center for Business Intelligence, who is hosting the conference.

You can also get additional details in their press release.

Leading Medical Technologies Company Automates Trade Compliance

A leading medical technologies company ships products from over 145 locations and faced an increasingly complex supply chain spanning international borders, time zones and multiple regulatory environments. And with subsidiaries, suppliers, distributors, manufacturing facilities, carriers, brokers, and customers located all over the globe, operations were fragmented and difficult to manage.

By automating trade compliance, the company:

• Streamlined its global trade compliance process
• Minimized fines by improving licensing accuracy and efficiency
• Reduced cycle time by preventing shipment delays
• Increased visibility and availability of data between trading partners and business units
• And, reduced risk by complying with country specific regulations

Learn how this Fortune 500 company achieved these results.

Get to Know Management Dynamics

Jurors found Bourke conspired with Czech expatriate Viktor Kozeny to bribe to Azerbaijan leaders including former President Heidar Aliyev to spur the sale of the state-owned oil company.

Bourke was accused of conspiring to violate the FCPA, conspiring to violate money-laundering laws and lying to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was acquitted of money laundering. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said she won’t impose the 10 years prison sentence that prosecutors said Bourke faced.

Bourke, a Greenwich, Connecticut, entrepreneur who launched startups in the home-building, accessory and biotechnology industries, denied knowing of the bribes. His lawyers said Kozeny stole more than $180 million from Bourke and other investors including the hedge fund Omega Advisors Inc. and the insurer American International Group. A Bourke investment vehicle put up $8 million in the deal.

The alleged co-consipirator, Viktor Kozeny, also known as the Pirate of Prague for his underhanded dealings in the Czech Republic during privatization of industries there in the early or mid-1990s. He is currently a fugitive living in the Bahamas.

This conviction is significant, as the US ramps up enforcement of the FCPA. This also sets a precedent for future cases, as charges for violating the FCPA have not led to many convictions in the past.

Read the complete article at Bloomberg News.

Thomas Thwaites is an artist currently working on sourcing and creating all the components to build his very own toaster – retail price approximately $8. This includes copper for the wiring, oil for the plastic, iron for the heating element. He is traveling the world to find small-scale sources of these materials which are generally only available industrially.

The artist says:

“The project won’t be a ‘how is it made?’ industrial promo or an anti-industry tirade either. It’s about scale, the total inter-reliance of people and societies, the triviality of some (anti-)globalisation discourse, what we have to lose, and DIY.”

The project really connects with a lot of themes in import compliance and low-cost country sourcing.

• Economies of scale – mass producing toasters allows consumers to toast hundreds of slices of bread for just $8. I’m guessing Thomas will prob only toast a few and at a cost in the thousands of dollars when you consider his travel expenses.
• Specialization – By specializing in certain components and materials, we have higher-quality parts to our toasters. Thomas’ toaster is going to be functional but probably not durable or up to consumer standards- (in toasting terms and in safety terms.
• Globalization – Thomas is unable to source all components of the toaster from his native country, the UK. He has plans to visit Finland and the North Sea to bring back just enough material for one toaster.
• Efficiency – How long has this project taken so far? I am not sure. But it’s probably less time than it takes for a factory to import their materials and assemble the toaster.

Special thanks to Freakonomics for highlighting the Toaster Project.

For more on the project, including a cool photo of what happens to iron ore inside  a microwave, visit We Make Money Not Art.

Video: Automating the Import Supply Chain

Sourcing your own raw materials and building a toaster from scratch certainly doesn’t look easy – but neither is keeping up with new customs compliance regulations and managing your supliers.

Fortunately with the most complete “raw data material” of global trade regulations from over 120 countries, Import Compliance Software can make this easier. Learn how an import compliance system works in this 4 minute video.