Import Management
The appeal of sourcing low cost goods from foreign markets and balancing supplier risk has bolstered imports around the world. Along with these advantages, however, come a host of challenges.
Importers must collaborate with extended trading partners (suppliers, brokers, carriers, freight forwarders, etc.) to ensure complete and accurate information accompanies inbound shipments and documents, and that other information is readily available to the parties that need it. Companies must also stay abreast of dynamic country-specific import regulations to avoid regulatory violations and penalties. Poor planning and execution leads to delays at Customs and increased costs.
The nature of global trade makes it nearly impossible to manage imports manually, even for smaller and mid-size companies.
The Amber Road Solution
Amber Road’s solutions automate import activities and provide critical information for decision-makers, including the data needed to measure key performance indicators. With these capabilities, importers can adopt best-practice trade processes on a global level, have a centralized view of import compliance, and better manage a diverse product portfolio.
By analyzing a purchase order and associated product information, our import solutions perform vital compliance, import control, and business rules validations for each line item. A supplier portal facilitates communication between parties throughout the entire purchase order and shipment process. Following the creation of a shipment transaction, all necessary information is collected and consolidated for efficient transmission to the broker. The broker can then submit this “broker packet” to Customs without the delays and errors associated with rekeying the data. This ensures there are no surprises and no missing information when the shipment reaches Customs - dramatically reducing cycle times.