Chemicals companies must ensure that raw materials and their products are handled and transported safely and immediately to enhance process efficiency and maintain a good business image and reputation. To achieve this, chemicals companies and third-party logistics (3PLs) must remove the roadblocks that can get in the way.

So what are these obstacles, and what solutions do you need to address them effectively?

1. Unexpected events

In recent years, global logistics organizations have encountered unforeseen events (from Brexit to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukrain-Russia conflict), which resulted in shore congestions and truck driver shortages, among other logistics challenges. The members of the National Association of Chemical Distributors, for one, said they have experienced “severe delays, skyrocketing costs and outright order rejections” during the global health crisis. The majority (82.1%) reported average delays of 11 or more days, while half said they encountered delays of more than two months.

Although unexpected events can be difficult — or nearly impossible to — predict, chemicals companies can alleviate the risks using logistics solutions that allow them to obtain real-time data and insights from reliable sources and make data-driven decisions.

2. Freight and Shipment Management Challenges

Chris Jones, EVP, Industry and Services at Descartes, told Inbound Logistics that the “biggest” supply chain silo is transportation — and we agree. The silo problem is more severe when chemicals companies use a combination of air, ocean, intermodal, and over-the-road transportation where many third-party players are usually involved. It can get worse if there is no means of obtaining a holistic and end-to-end view of the entire freight and shipment ecosystem.

Silos lead to costly supply chain/freight transportation issues that can gravely impact operations. Here are some of the impacts, according to an American Chemistry Council survey:

• Lost production and shipping delays (94%)
• Shortages of raw materials (94%)
• Increased transportation costs (93%)
• Additional costs of $100,000 to $250 million (93%)
• Force majeure (more than 30%)

The truck driver shortage is another key freight/shipment roadblock, which we think can be solved by enabling visibility into the entire logistics and freight ecosystem.

3. Stockouts

Logistics organizations are responsible for ensuring the availability of raw materials needed in production. They need to prevent stockouts, which can have a rippling impact on the entire supply chain process.

But stockouts happen due to various factors, including unexpected events and shipping delays. According to the June 2021 survey of members of the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD), due to shipping delays, 84.5% percent of companies reported being out of stock of at least some imported products, up by almost 47% in March of the same year. More than 90% said they were close to running out of stock, and more than half said they lost more than $100,000 in revenue due to delays and stockouts.

The Solution You Need

If you have been in the industry for so long, you may agree that these problems are not new. Yet, that is why many chemical companies and 3PLs are at risk of using old approaches to solving problems — solutions that they think still work because they still give positive results, even though they give diminishing returns.

But what if there is a better way to approach the problem — a modern approach that lets your logistics teams digitally collaborate on an open network for greater trust, efficiency, transparency, and sustainability?

At Ropaar, we help companies across all industries overcome logistics and other supply chain challenges by implementing the most reliable and advanced solutions, including SAP Logistics Business Network (SAP LBN).

SAP Logistics Business Network (LBN) offers various advanced capabilities to empower logistics organizations to:

• Intelligently sense and respond to unexpected events using the SAP LBN Intelligent Insights option, a data visualization and reporting platform that provides real-time insights and graphic visualization of supply chain events.
• Digitally govern the end-to-end freight order lifecycle and effectively manage appointments through “contractless” transactions and real-time connectivity and visibility.
• Easily track and trace materials and assets using product genealogy and graphic visualizations of ERP processes, milestones, and locations to prevent stockouts.

Your SAP LBN success, however, depends on how you implement it. As McKinsey puts it, “Modernizing can make supply chains more resilient and efficient. But it’s a major investment—and success isn’t guaranteed.” To ensure success, look to a reliable partner to help you implement SAP LBN and achieve your desired results.

Get Started

Ropaar can help you implement SAP LBN seamlessly and achieve anticipated business outcomes.

Using our TradeBlazers approach, we will help you devise a strategic implementation and integration roadmap, seamlessly implement and integrate SAP LBN options, and integrate SAP LBN with other SAP and non-SAP solutions to maximize its benefits. We will also provide scalable solutions and services to cater to your ever-changing and ever-growing needs.

Contact us to learn more.

Global trade is now more relevant than ever in supply chain management as the world becomes progressively interconnected. Nowadays, both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) customers are searching for products on a global scale. They are constantly on the lookout for the best prices and deals that they can find. With this, many companies have opened their doors to global exporting. A 2020 report by Statista shows the United States as the third-largest global merchandise exporter in the world, accounting for 8.1 percent of our total export trade.

Global Trade Compliance and SAP GTS

The most pressing issue for vendors and customers alike is global trade compliance. Adherence to differing laws and regulations per country proves to be a challenge as it causes delays in delivering products around the globe. In turn, this obstructs a supply chain’s ability to meet global consumer demand and impairs customer experience.

SAP Global Trade Services (GTS) is a helpful solution in mitigating global trade compliance issues. It streamlines global transactions by allowing supply chain leaders to automate, standardize, centralize, and manage global trade compliance requirements. These, in turn, help maintain consistency across global operations, advance global trade within the supply chain, automate trade compliance, and boost bottom-line profitability.

The Cost of Efficiency

While SAP GTS offers substantial advantages for global trade compliance, it requires a heavy investment – particularly with licensing and implementation. A common concern among supply chains is that they work within tight means, and solutions such as SAP GTS are characterized by a costly and upfront acquisition. As a result, some supply chains cannot simplify global trade compliance and make transactions smoother and faster.

An SAP GTS Subscription Model

To address budget concerns with investing in SAP GTS, a subscription model serves as a compromise between cost and functionality. An SAP GTS subscription allows supply chains to avail of its complete services with smaller, recurring payments as opposed to a heavy upfront investment.

Customer-centric partners such as Ropaar offer subscription packages to empower supply chains to experience the full benefits of SAP GTS cost-effectively. Ropaar’s SAP GTS-as-a-service offers a secure and cloud-based service that accelerates the implementation of SAP GTS without major costs, while simultaneously reducing risk, lowering the cost of ownership, and increasing SAP GTS usage value. Through this, supply chain leaders are assured of:

• Availability on multiple public cloud platforms, which makes SAP GTS accessible and functional when needed
• Multiple solution-related services such as SAP GTS implementation, GTS AMS Functional Managed Services, and technical support services with enhanced SAP prebuilt GTS bundles on a 3-, 5-, or 7-year subscription basis
• A fully managed SAP GTS cloud service, coupled with enriched SAP solution components (Fiori/HANA) on a single vendor experience – enabling true cloud and BPO benefits

Ropaar’s SAP GTS-as-a-service is where cost-effectiveness meets efficiency as it provides its customers with a fully managed cloud service, enriched SAP GTS solution, single-vendor experience, and true cloud and BPO benefits. Through this, supply chains now have the ability to trade globally with confidence and productivity.

Interested to know more about Ropaar’s customer-oriented SAP GTS-as-a-service offering?

With today’s global trade businesses slowly returning to normal, the rising difficulty linked with moving goods across borders has made handling business processes extremely complex. This is mainly due to changing trade regulations, foreign policies, and constantly changing customs rules and procedures. And while most enterprises have some systems in place, confronting compliance with constantly evolving regulatory filings concerning security and customs is particularly challenging.

Leveraging global trade solutions can help enable automated trade compliance. If business leaders fail to properly oversee this complex area of trade compliance appropriately, they could face higher costs and greater risks thus, putting them at a competitive disadvantage.

Bring Value to Your Supply Chain with SAP GTS

Enterprises having global trade operations must stay on top of their foreign trade laws and customs regulations. If applicable regulations are not implemented correctly, products may not be procured or delivered on time or if there are oversights in export controls or customs declaration, it can result in sanctions, penalties, and fines. This is why it is crucial to have an integrated approach to your global trade strategy instead of numerous solutions catering to various operational departments such as purchasing, manufacturing, warehousing, and sales.

SAP Global Trade Services (GTS) simplifies your trade compliance for smoother and faster global transactions. SAP GTS is a complete suite of solutions for global trade management that empowers you to automate, standardize, centralize, and manage global trade compliance requirements.

By utilizing SAP GTS, enterprises can trade globally with confidence by having an:

• Adaptive Export and Import Management
• Automated Trade Preference Management
• Compliant Automated Restricted Party Screening
• Frictionless Customs Management

With SAP GTS, you get a comprehensive set of capabilities for integration with core supply chain / financial systems to promote full compliance with international trade regulations.

Implement A Fully Managed SAP GTS with Ropaar

Get the full benefits of SAP GTS in a convenient and cost-effective subscription package. Ropaar’s SAP GTS-as-a-Service allows customers to upscale their global trade operations and simplify compliance without having to commit to the hefty upfront investment it usually entails.

Ropaar offers a secure, cloud-based offering that helps accelerate the adoption of SAP GTS without the massive implementation costs while at the same time reducing risk, lowering the cost of ownership, and speeding up time to value with SAP GTS usage. Moreover, Ropaar can bundle the implementation and AMS services in a subscription model, enriching the SAP application and enabling a true SaaS consumption model over 3, 5, and 7-year terms.

Let Ropaar be your TRADEblazing partner, so you get a fully managed cloud service, enriched SAP GTS solution, and true cloud and BPO benefits all with a single vendor experience. To learn more about how you can get a fully managed, cost-effective SAP GTS solution, contact us today!

SAP Global Trade Services (GTS) helps enterprises worldwide automate international trade processes, manage partners and compliance-related documents, and ensure that the company monitors and complies with the ongoing revisions and amendments to international legal requirements. With SAP GTS implemented, a company can flexibly adapt and meet region-specific customs requirements, increase visibility into global transactions, standardize and automate processes, and minimize delays and contain costs.

If we look closely into all the capabilities that SAP GTS provides companies with, we can further break it down into the following benefits:

• More streamlined and accelerated import/ export processes
• Reduced IT maintenance costs
• Business risk mitigation
• Compliance with trade regulations
• Better supply chain management
• Enhanced communication between stakeholders
• Reduced shipment delays
• More efficient customs clearance processes
• Fewer compliance issues
• Faster audit process
• Quick setup with an ERP system for handling trade issues

Reaping such benefits is indeed possible through the implementation of SAP GTS.. However, many startup companies and even established ones who want to reap the full benefits of SAP GTS but are concerned about having to shell out a huge capital investment turn to third-party vendors for support and implementation needs. (Companies can implement it themselves, but that requires knowledge and experience.) Third-party providers such as Ropaar can help companies implement SAP GTS for a fraction of the costs through our uniqueSAP-GTS-as-a-Service model.

How SAP-GTS-as-a-Service Is Done

In an SAP-GTS-as-a-Service setup, SAP typically provides a BYOL model for the end customer. BYOL stands for Bring-Your-Own-License, a licensing model where companies let you use their license flexibly — whether on-premise or in the cloud. Providers like Ropaar then align with the SAP Account Team, SAP Executive Leadership, SAP Globalization, and SAP Solution Management, so this setup is seamless, completely compliant, and risk-free.

In fact, Ropaar’s approach suggests the customer purchase a license directly from SAP. Then,, Ropaar conducts the SAP GTS implementation, application management, and support services. In return, you as the customer get a fully managed cloud service, enriched SAP GTS solution, and true cloud and BPO benefits all with a single vendor experience.

Ropaar’s SAP-GTS-as-a-Service is available on multiple public cloud platforms based on the customer’s preference — be it AWS, Azure, or GCP. This enables an agile infrastructure and scalable functionalities when needed.

Implement SAP GTS with Ropaar

While implementing SAP solutions might sound like a lot of work, companies like Ropaar can assist you and guide you through your journey. At Ropaar, we have helped various companies from across different industries to deploy \ SAP GTS ensuring that the implementation project is aligned to their specific foreign trade goals and overall business objectives.

By leveraging Ropaar’s years of experience in supply chain management, you can be confident that your organization can overcome current and future trade compliance and supply chain challenges. Contact us to learn more about our solutions and services.

The cost of paper-based business workflow is enormous. Business users may spend about 30 to 50 percent of their time looking for information, due to a lack of an integrated data source, which in turn leads to the inability to find the proper data to perform the task. That’s roughly $14,000 worth of productivity lost per employee annually.

At Ropaar, we’ve come up with a list of five paper-based logistics processes that are significantly contributing to process inefficiency and productivity loss. This list includes user onboarding, safety and QA, compliance and audit, data entry, and the ordering process.

User Onboarding. From filling out health insurance and emergency contact information forms to bank information and deposit slips, a new user’s onboarding process is paper-intensive or manual, or both. This process is tedious, and it takes a lot of time. Not only does it affect your new user’s productivity, it also has a great impact on your HR department’s productivity. They end up spending a lot of time on paperwork, instead of focusing on other and possibly more important tasks.

In this digital age, new user data can be collected using electronic means. The resulting information can be used for new user onboarding — across all documents — while automating delivery to all necessary departments. This is beneficial for both the new user and HR for them to avoid tiresome paperwork.

Safety and quality standards. There are several procedures and features integrated into safety and quality management systems. One of these is document control. Companies must create detailed documentation of their procedures, which must be strictly followed, as well as constantly updated and maintained for documentation purposes, including making some information obsolete to certain users.

Having paper-based documentation materials puts your company at the risk of confusing your employees about which document versions are the latest. Needless to say, searching through drawers, folders, and files is a cumbersome task; using the wrong documentation can greatly impact quality and safety. A secured central document repository ensures that your users access only the latest documentation in place.

Compliance and audit. A relevant process to safety and quality standards is compliance and audit. As your company aims to comply with standards, such as ISO International Standards and other certifications, be it optional or mandatory, the auditor will look into your documentation processes. Any sign of non-conformance will put your compliance certification on hold. This not only impacts productivity but also your company’s stability and overall image. Your departments and their staff must then redo the audit process, going through the hassle all over again. This kills productivity and increases costs.

Moreover, auditing alone is time-consuming. Auditors know what they want to see — and how. A paper-based process may require you to travel to an off-site facility for the customer- or process-related records. Electronic document management eliminates this need as files can be stored electronically.

Data entry. Paper-based data entry poses many risks, including the risk of data discrepancies and inconsistencies. In a research study published by BMC — paper-based data collection can lead to a great number of data discrepancies, 64 percent of which were due to data omissions and 77 percent of which were among categorical data. These discrepancies can happen twice as often in paper-based processes than in electronic form.

The same can be applied to enterprises and organizations that collect data through paper-based means. While companies have certainly started collecting data since time immemorial through paper-based means, WorldBank.org has long since believed that data collected in paper form will need to be digitized to help eliminate data errors and inaccuracy — all of which eat up employee productivity. Digital data collection enables multiple people to do the same thing and consolidate the information into a single electronic form and a more seamless workflow.

Ordering. For large enterprises, the process of ordering supplies and other goods is certainly laborious. Policies mandate that only authorized personnel are allowed to create purchase orders to buy a certain good or supply for a specific purpose. And these purchases also require approval. If a process like this is more paper-based in nature paper, chances are there can be last-minute purchase order searches while a frustrated vendor waits. Additionally, there are chances for occasional calls discussing a missing purchase order approval, and delayed or even failed deliveries.

Digitizing the ordering process can bring plenty of benefits to your company. It simplifies the process through, for example, a procurement system, which automatically generates and sends purchase orders — and all records are securely saved in electronic form. There’s no need to search for missing purchase orders. Plus, going paperless reduces the risks of discrepancies between purchase orders and invoices as they can be detected automatically in most cases.

Digitize Paper-based Processes with SAP and Ropaar

To avoid unnecessary costs and productivity loss due to paper-based processes, companies should look to industry experts who can help them implement new-age solutions. Solutions like SAP help companies go paperless by providing:

• Faster access to historical records
• Search and find information ability across departments
• Automated processes
• Mobile access to documents and data
• More efficient virtual collaboration

While implementing SAP solutions might sound like a lot of work, companies like Ropaar can assist you and guide you through your journey of going paperless. At Ropaar, we have helped various companies from across different industries to digitize their paper-based processes. We have helped them assess their unique landscape and implement cutting-edge SAP global trade solutions to help them execute in the digital age.

By leveraging Ropaar’s years of experience in foreign trade, you can be confident that your organization can overcome current and future global trade challenges. Contact us to learn more about our solutions and services.

Global trade is in a current state of turmoil. And it is made even more complex and challenging by factors such as increased cross-border regulations, extensive filing and documentation requirements, and the fluctuating cost of international transportation. With strict compliance to global trade regulations continuing to be a barrier to meeting customer demand, companies must leverage a technology-based solution that can flexibly adapt and meet region-specific customs requirements.

Roadblocks to Trade Compliance

As customers originate from different geographies, companies need to quickly catch up on country-specific requirements. Several of these pain points demand consideration.

• Complex regulatory environment

  
  Each country has specific requirements. Some of them can be complex and ambiguous which if not understood clearly can result in penalties and fees and compromise market reputation.

• Closer scrutiny on customs declarations

  
  Failure to comply in providing complete import information on customs declarations can result in costly delays and even loss of import/export privileges.

• Inadequate visibility

  
  Limited visibility on the import and export scene of a particular country can compromise compliance and hinder you from effectively managing trade activities such as supply chain disruptions, penalty assessments, and inventory management.

Removing these roadblocks is critical to maintaining your competitive advantage in the global trade landscape.

Leverage a Cutting-Edge Global Trade Management Solution

Ropaar is an expert in implementing SAP Global Trade Services (GTS) projects. With SAP GTS, your company can trade globally with confidence:

• Next-Generation Export and Import Management

  
  You can take advantage of automation and direct filing to effectively manage export/import compliance, minimize logistics and brokerage charges, and improve product classification.

• Simplified Trade Preference Management

  
  You can strategically leverage free trade agreements, maximize eligible products through preference determination, and efficiently manage vendor declarations.

• Adaptive Customs Management

  
  You can leverage FTZs, support region-specific duty minimization, deferral and avoidance regimes, and meet Intrastat and Excise movement requirements

• Data-Driven Restricted Party Screening

  
  You can optimize the screening of denied or restricted parties to avoid global trade violations and delays.

Let Ropaar help you navigate new trade regulations and region-specific trade policies and regulatory frameworks with SAP GTS. Drop us a line today!

Importing and exporting can help small and medium businesses as well as established enterprises expand their presence and market reach on a global scale. However, there are rules and regulations in this sector that importers and exporters must be aware of. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) outlines this basic information on importing and exporting.

When importing, the CBP outlines specific tips for new importers — foremost of which is remembering that certain types of goods and services mandate a license or permit to import. Exporters, meanwhile, are given tools, assistance, and knowledge by the International Trade Administration to help them grow in the global marketplace. Just like in importing, exporters may be required a license or permit to export from the U.S., depending on the type of products or services.

In all of these, there’s a catch. Adhering to these guidelines is easier said than done. Importing and exporting may face customs-related problems such as:

• Misclassification
• Higher-than-anticipated duties
• Labeling issues
• Inadequate documentation
• Import-packing regulations issues
• Health, safety, and sanitary issues

Sometimes, customs won’t clear the shipment to your buyer or importer due to any or a combination of these issues, resulting in rejections. Rejections can be governmental — which means the government rejected the importer’s country and may have banned the importation of that specific good. There are so-called importer rejections, too, which may be due to the exporter, shipper, or importer.

Exporter origin reasons may involve the importer rejecting the goods due to mistakes by the exporter, such as wrong or defective goods or improperly packaged or labeled goods. Shipper origin reasons result from the rejection of damaged or delayed goods. Lastly, importer reasons may include a sudden change of mind or that they ordered the wrong goods.

To avoid any of these scenarios, companies must have a dedicated team or department overseeing all export shipments, working with the freight forwarding company. For rejections of importer origins, it’s very important to conduct proper inspection and screening of buyers. Meanwhile, minimizing damage during shipment is the responsibility of the exporter through proper packaging — guidelines provided by the freight forwarder.

In this process, the U.S. customers collect broker fees on most shipments entering the country. It’s calculated at “0.3464% of the entered value (the cost of the merchandise…), with a minimum of $27.23 and a maximum of $528.33.” But a lack of accurate and systematic process in importing and exporting can cost you company so much more than that — especially when importing or exporting a significant amount of goods — and it is in this point that many different risks may arise, such as:

• Unclear logistics planning
• Inexperience with border control and distribution
• Financial risks and currency exchange rates
• Not having a diverse and trained workforce

How an American Food Company Eliminated Broker Fees with SAP GTS

McCormick & Company — which manufactures, markets, and distributes condiments, seasoning mixes, spices, and other flavoring products to food manufacturers, retail outlets, and foodservice businesses worldwide — was able to eliminate unnecessary broker fees by streamlining its foreign trade processes using SAP GTS Import-export Self-Filing. Through such implementation, it has enabled import self-filing in the United States to the U.S. Customs, allowed for Import in Great Britain, and implemented electronic Import filing through a broker in many other countries.

McCormick & Company partnered with Ropaar, thought leaders in the world of Global Trade, to implement SAP GTS and remove manual and costly import filing processes. Using its TradeBlazers’ Approach, Ropaar helped the client enable import self-filing to eliminate broker fees and increase regulatory confidence. The project was seamlessly and accurately completed, allowing McCormick to quickly realize a substantial ROI for this project.

As a result, McCormick & Company became the first U.S. ACE self-filing implementation for U.S. Imports using SAP GTS. They were able to eliminate their existing cloud-based U.S. import-filing software, and they now self-file 90 percent of their volume into Europe through Great Britain, eliminating broker fees altogether.

Implement SAP GTS with Ropaar

While implementing SAP solutions might sound like a lot of work, companies like Ropaar can assist you and guide you through your journey. At Ropaar, we have helped various companies from across different industries. We help you assess your unique landscape and implement cutting-edge SAP global trade solutions to help you execute in the digital age.

By leveraging Ropaar’s years of experience in foreign trade, you can be confident that your organization can overcome current and future global trade challenges. Contact us to learn more about our solutions and services.

The COVID-19 crisis has reshaped the global economy and has shown the world how vulnerable world trade and global supply chains can be. It has become evident that conditions that prevailed pre-pandemic are not going to work anymore in the new normal. Subsequently, the new normal will require supply chain leaders to reset their strategies and establish solutions that will build resilience in their supply chain network going forward.

Businesses will have to face these new-normal foreign trade scenarios:

Global value chain reconfiguration

The over-reliance on a single nation or a few key suppliers has caused major problems during the pandemic. To reduce further risks from global exposure, many companies are thinking of diversifying their sourcing with new local and regional suppliers. This arrangement can shorten supply chains as well as reduce transit and customs clearance times.

Logistics and transportation disruptions

The pandemic has caused costly delays due to travel restrictions and border closures. Many logistics providers and freight forwarders also suffered reduced business hours due to lockdowns and social distancing protocols. Logistics companies experiencing operational constraints are likely to sustain delivery delays, congestion, and higher freight costs

New trade restrictions and agreements

The effect of the pandemic brought on new customs and international trade compliance and management measures. There are also talks of imposing additional customs duties caused by pressure to increase revenue. Moreover, in some countries, exports of essential goods are put under restraints such as outright bans, export quotas, and export license requirements.

New sustainability issues

The goal is to decarbonize the global economy to mitigate the effects of climate change – and the agenda is to reduce the global greenhouse-gas emissions to net-zero by 2050.

Governments and business leaders have now realized that responding to COVID-19 and addressing sustainability issues can go hand-in-hand by aligning their policies to this agenda. But the introduction of a differently designed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) might lead to severe distortions in the international trading system and inhibit efforts to mitigate climate change.

Digital trade implications

The pandemic has accelerated supply chains’ digital transformation, with companies leaning toward adopting digital trade. Also, the implication of a smarter border—minimized physical customs and border formalities by electronically transacting before and after the goods cross a border—is already gaining ground in several governments.

Adopting a digital supply chain in the new normal can significantly enhance trade facilitation, streamline border procedures, and boost transparency for trade. But, to thrive in the new normal, it is not enough to just embrace digital transformation; foreign traders should innovate their international trade management strategies and approaches.

Use a next-generation foreign trade solution engineered by a reputable vendor.

SAP’s proven on-premises and cloud solutions can help address businesses’ unique foreign trade challenges:

• SAP Global Trade Services (GTS)
  A complete suite of solutions for global trade management that empowers you to automate, standardize, centralize, and manage global trade compliance requirements for smoother and faster global transactions. With SAP GTS, you can drive consistency across global operations, elevate global trade in your organization, automate trade compliance, and drive bottom-line savings.
• SAP Transportation Management
  Offers holistic and innovative transportation management and comprehensive process and multimodal coverage. With SAP TM, you can optimize order management, freight planning, freight monitoring, and execution.
• SAP Logistics Business Network
  Allows logistics organizations to digitally collaborate on an open network to accelerate and simplify logistics processes. SAP LBN leverages advanced technologies such as Cloud and Blockchain to optimize traceability and freight collaboration.
• SAP International Trade Management
  Empowers businesses to ensure legal compliance, manage International Trade activities integrated into the supply chain, and reduce work effort through automation. With SAP International Trade Management, businesses can optimize on-time delivery performance, reduce compliance, and risk management costs, and minimize overall supply chain planning expenses.
• SAP Watch List Screening
  A robust cloud-based application that streamlines and automates the end-to-end screening process using the most updated, correct, and complete information. With SAP Watch List Screening, you can optimize screening compliance, reduce supply chain disruptions and delays, and minimize the cost and effort of third-party due diligence.

Ropaar has been helping companies transform their supply chains into an intelligent value chain. Part of our TradeBlazer’s Approach is helping businesses determine the right mix of digital solutions to address unique foreign trade problems

We help our clients accelerate time-to-value and maximize their SAP investments by ensuring that the implementation project is aligned to their specific foreign trade goals and overall business objectives, simplifying the integration of SAP solutions with their existing on-premises and cloud infrastructure, and providing training to ensure high user adoption and successful change management.

Let Ropaar help you integrate these SAP solutions into your arsenal so you can thrive in the new normal. Request a demo today!

The U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported that in their 2020 fiscal year, they had processed 32.8 million import entries and seized $1.3 billion worth of products with intellectual property rights violations. It should be underscored that every shipment that is imported to the U.S. is required to have a Manufacturer Identification Number (MID). Though MID is a universal number for all imports, CBP felt that it lacks the data quality, data richness, and uniqueness required by the U.S. Government to equip their supply chain with accurate insights.

In a move to minimize risk management challenges, the CBP is introducing a Global Business Identifier (GBI) Initiative.

What is the Global Business Identifier Initiative?

According to the CBP, the GBI Initiative is an interagency trade transformation project to establish a single identifier solution. This is a unique identifier that will capture the complete shipper/seller and manufacturer information and will eliminate the matter of having multiple companies being assigned the same MID.

Its objectives also include identification of high-risk shipments and facilitation of legitimate trade, creation of a “common language” between the U.S. Government and Trade, and improvement of data quality and efficiency for identification, enforcement, and risk assessments.

From more than fifty unique entity identification systems used by the U.S. Government, there are three globally used identifiers being considered for the GBI solution:

1. Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) – a 20-digit alphanumeric identifier with inherent reference data elements unique to a legal entity.
2. Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) – a 9-digit numeric and non-indicative identifier that records unique business establishments with a library of over two hundred reference data elements.
3. Global Location Number (GLN) – a 13-digit numeric identifier with varying sets of underlying reference data elements that are customizable to location, function, and operations.

These global identifiers will distinctly identify the main legal identity and ownership, specific business and global locations, and supply chain roles and functions. Additionally, it will be evaluated for the eight GBI core competencies, namely: globally unique, separate legal entities, location and function-specific, tracks supply chain roles, managed for accuracy, oversight and governance, data sharing, and internationally recognized.

Initially, the CBP will assess the proposed solution with an Evaluative Proof of Concept (EPoC). This will require every volunteer trade participant to submit all three identifiers (LEI, GLN, DUNS) for the manufacturer/producer, seller, and shipper. And it will cover shipments from countries of origin specifically from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and then from other countries of interest such as China, France, Mexico, Vietnam, Italy, and Singapore. The EPoC also comprises six groups of commodities, such as alcoholic beverages, medical devices, personal items, seafood, toys, and U.S. goods returned.

The CBP’s GBI Initiative could prove to have an enormous impact on organizations that have existing master data for hundreds of vendors in their customers’ SAP GTS systems. If this is the case, some third-party providers can help in simplifying things that involve integrations, SAP deployments, and mass updates.

Your Trusted “TRADEblazing Partner”

The success of your SAP GTS project depends on who your implementation partner is. As your SAP GTS implementation partner, Ropaar will help tailor-make the right SAP GTS project approach to align with your unique supply chain challenges. We will continuously innovate your Global Trade Management as your business needs change.

To learn more about our services, talk to our team of SAP experts today!

Today’s market trends are volatile with the entire supply chain being disrupted by various events such as COVID-19, political unrest, emerging technologies, and changing customer expectations. Leading industries such as CPG, chemicals, manufacturing, food production and processing, and oil & gas are plagued by uncertainty and disruption, especially about its logistics network. These industries are under a lot of pressure to deliver their goods faster and provide better service at the minimum cost possible.

Thus, the shift to digitalization is crucial to improve the capacity to move goods across transportation networks. Digitalization can greatly help track shipment in real-time and lead to faster, better-informed decisions.

Optimize Speed and Traceability with Minimum Costs

Various constraints such as great distances between supply chain partners, shipping lead time, and its associated costs can upset suppliers relating to service levels with its customers. To optimize speed and traceability while containing freight costs, you need a best-in-class solution that can:

• Seamlessly integrate core supply chain and business processes

Utilizing integrated solutions via digital workflows that can collaborate and connect with partners to see across the network can be game-changing.

• Automate and standardize order management and transportation planning

Automation eliminates manual processes in collecting and processing data. Additionally, the use of automated shipping and tracking solutions is essential in finding optimal routes for shipment. This can reduce fuel costs and provide efficient ways to consolidate exports/imports at customs

• Obtain end-to-end visibility into transport activities

Using sensors and connected devices for tracking deliveries and monitoring assets are vital in gaining end-to-end visibility into transport activities. Barcodes and RFIDs are used to track and trace shipments while GPS trackers, IoT sensors, and smart pallets are increasingly being utilized in combination with data analytics to enable access to the location and condition of the shipment in real-time.

SAP Transportation Management (SAP TM) offers holistic and innovative transportation management and comprehensive process and multimodal coverage. With SAP TM, leading industries in need of logistics can expect improved on-time delivery and get real-time visibility into global and multi-modal shipping. Its powerful analytics capabilities empower companies to maximize asset use and control freight costs without negatively impacting the customer experience.

Implement SAP TM with a Trusted TRADEblazing Partner

Let Ropaar be your implementation partner that will help tailor the right SAP TM solution approach that is aligned with your unique logistical challenges. Our services include:

• Automated Order Management
• Data-driven Transportation Planning and Execution
• Strategic Freight Costing and Settlement
• Real-time Analytics and Reporting

To learn more about how Ropaar and SAP TM can optimize speed and traceability while containing your freight costs, request a demo today!