EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, August 10, 2010 — Management Dynamics, a leading provider of Global Trade Management solutions, today announced the release of Trade Planner 3.0, a scenario-based planning tool that helps supply chain teams quickly and accurately evaluate alternative sourcing and distribution strategies to optimize total landed cost while assessing the impact of trade regulations.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, companies import nearly $2 trillion worth of products annually from over 150 countries, a number that is expected to triple by 2015. With the increasing pressure to cut costs, accommodate new trade regulations, and take advantage of new preferential trade agreements, businesses need planning tools to improve the design of their global supply chains.

“Companies today are moving beyond sourcing decisions based on the lowest product invoice and are evaluating multiple dimensions including transportation costs, duties and taxes, regulatory compliance, and other country risk factors,” said Janet Suleski, Research Director, Gartner.  “Scenario-based planning solutions provide key players across sourcing, logistics and compliance with the ability to make faster, more accurate sourcing and distribution decisions.”

With Management Dynamics’ Trade Planner solution, users can quickly and easily compare the costs of sourcing and distributing one or multiple products from multiple locations to identify the optimal decision.  Trade Planner allows users to import product descriptions, classify products and store classifications by country in a product repository.  Trade Planner is fully integrated with Management Dynamics’ Global Trade Content and supports classification by the Harmonized Schedules and Export Control Numbers for over 122 countries, and identifies all applicable embargoes, prohibitions, license requirements, and other product specific barriers to importing and exporting.

“Businesses are increasingly global in scope and need new planning tools to continually monitor total landed cost, model the cost reduction opportunities of shifting a supply base, evaluate new preferential trade agreements and assess the impact of new trade regulations,” said Nathan Pieri, SVP Marketing & Product Management, Management Dynamics, Inc.  “Today, some of the world’s largest companies in retail, food service, electronics, and apparel, are utilizing Trade Planner 3.0 across the enterprise to collaborate and make better sourcing and distribution strategies by considering both cost and associated risks.”

Trade Planner 3.0 is an on-demand application that can be quickly and cost-effectively deployed – typically in a few days.

For Additional information:
Make better-informed sourcing and distribution decisions. Maintain import and export compliance with on-demand access to the most comprehensive source of global trade content in the industry. Learn more at Trade Planner.

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 trade 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.

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!

The GPS satellite tracking on the container has been intermittent and for periods of the year, we have had to manually track the position of the Box, though not nearly as frequently as we would have liked.

Additionally, the box sat vacant for several weeks after suffering from effects from the global recession. The company that transported the box, NYK, lost $350 million dollars and 8,000 jobs.

• More info on the decrease in trade and its effect on the box at “Box’s Journey Dogged By Financial Crisis.”

Now, the box will be headed on one last trip: To Capetown, South Africa to be converted into a soup kitchen for schoolchildren and AIDS sufferers.

Our project partners NYK have generously agreed to donate the container for charitable use and they will transport it to Africa where it will be refitted as a permanent soup kitchen for some of those people who have been worst affected by the global recession.

To read the post-trip summary of the box, including a BBC News video, visit BBC News: Lessons Learned as the Box Returns.