Newsletter
TradeCard News -
July 2004
Financial Supply Chain Automation - The Hosted way to Procure-To-Pay
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to TradeCard's monthly e-mail newsletter - a summary of the latest news from TradeCard.
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NOTES FROM THE ROAD: JON WOLK,
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, TRADECARD TALKS ABOUT EXTENDING PAYMENT TERMS
NEWS:
GARMENT MANUFACTURER TRISTATE GROUP ADOPTS TRADECARD AS STANDARD
NEWS:
KURT CAVANO LISTED AS ONE OF THE "WORLD TRADE FABULOUS 50 PLUS 1" IN
WORLD TRADE MAGAZINE
HEADLINES: RECENT ARTICLES THAT HAVE
FEATURED TRADECARD
EVENTS: UPCOMING TRADESHOWS, CONFERENCES,
WEB SEMINARS AND MORE
NOTES FROM THE ROAD * NOTES FROM THE
ROAD * NOTES FROM THE ROAD *
This month, Jon Wolk, TradeCard's
CFO, covers extending payment terms - a sensitive topic for buyers and sellers.
Last
week, I met with a mid-size retailer's CFO. His key Q3 goal is to push payment
terms from 30 to 45 days. The challenge? Getting suppliers on board.
This
situation sounds like the prelude to a tug-o-war, but innovative early payment
programs can make it a win-win.
Financed via third-party financial institutions,
these programs use a buyer's good credit to pay suppliers on day one, less an
early payment discount - instead of waiting until the end of the newly extended
payment term.
Suppliers benefit because they receive their cash sooner and
more predictably, reducing their DSO and their financing requirements. Meanwhile,
buyers also realize a cash flow benefit from the terms extension, while the early
payments are made on their behalf by a third-party finance provider. Many cash-rich
buyers are also funding these programs themselves to reduce the cost of goods.
Two
TradeCard members - a top sporting goods brand and a specialty retailer - just
implemented this approach using our platform. Many of their suppliers were excited
to enroll because the TradeCard program terms beat their existing factoring or
export financing deals hands down.
No matter which provider you choose,
a good program should provide shared online visibility into procurement processes
for buyers, suppliers and third-party financial institutions as well as offer
flexibility in structuring terms that allow both sides - buyer and supplier -
to benefit. Knowing the status of a transaction or the location of goods lowers
the risk of extending financing, which is the key to competitive rates.
You
can learn more about TradeCard's program - Automated Supply Chain Financing -
Click here.
NEWS * NEWS
* NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS *
GARMENT
MANUFACTURER TRISTATE GROUP ADOPTS TRADECARD AS STANDARD
Hong Kong-based
Tristate Group, one of the largest garment producers in Asia, has adopted TradeCard
to streamline vendor management and drive procurement process efficiencies. Transactions
managed by TradeCard include accessory and material purchases from suppliers.
In order to improve business processes, Tristate Group and TradeCard have jointly
worked to integrate TradeCard with Tristate Group's current ERP system, enabling
full automation of the transaction process from purchase order management to Account
Payable management. Read more at http://www.tradecard.com/news/pressreleases/tristate.html
KURT
CAVANO IS ONE OF THE "WORLD TRADE FABULOUS 50 PLUS 1"IN WORLD TRADE
MAGAZINE
Kurt Cavano, TradeCard's Chairman and CEO, is named as one
of the "World Trade Fabulous Fifty Plus One" in the August issue of
World Trade magazine. He also appears on the magazine's cover.
The Fabulous
Fifty is a prestigious list of people, places and organizations that are driving
major change in the global supply change. Cavano is listed alongside such luminaries
as Thomas Friedman, the famed New York Times foreign affairs columnists, and Fred
Smith, founder and CEO of FedEx.
To read the full story, please go to http://www.tradecard.com/languages/EN/news/articles/WorldTradeMagazine_082004.pdf
HEADLINES * HEADLINES * HEADLINES * HEADLINES * HEADLINES * HEADLINES
Recent
TradeCard headlines with some article excerpts:
- You Have a
Problem With Wombat Socks? - June 22, 2004, The New York Times
Kurt
Cavano, Chairman and CEO, was interviewed for the "Frequent Flyer" section:
"With a New York office, five offices in Asia, and customers in
more than 20 countries, I take about 100 trips a year. Even though I'm a frequent
flier, I'm still slightly superstitious before flights.
Years ago when
I moved back to the United States from Australia, some Australian friends gave
me a pair of socks with wombats on them to remember the country. I wore them home
on the flight and started wearing them on every flight after that for good luck.
I probably wore them for 10 years before I had to throw them away." To read
the full article, please go to http://travel2.nytimes.com/mem/travel/article-page.html?res=9400E2DD1339F931A15755C0A9629C8B63 - Playing
TradeCard Well - April 2004, Clevel Asia
Raymond Tang of Atico International,
a full-service import trading company, explains how the company has reaped whopping
time and cost savings when managing shipping documents and invoices:
"For over a year now, Atico International has been using the TradeCard system
to initiate, track and settle its business transactions with US retailing chain
Kmart. The experience has given the company a taste of the advantages and benefits
of a fully-automated financial supply chain (FSC). "The main benefit for
us is on the invoicing part. Instead of having a large pile of shipping documents
and sales invoices, we only have to input the shipping and the invoice information
into the system. So far, we can quantify that we save at least 10 percent to 20
percent of our costs in terms of bank charges, courier charges and manpower costs,"
said Tang. To read the full story, go to http://www.tradecard.com/languages/EN/news/articles/CLevelAsia_April2004.pdf - Lost
in the Machine - March 2004, CFO Asia
The article explains that
as Asia's economy surges, working capital is growing at the same rate as sales,
which is a problem. As an intermediary between a supplier and a buyer, banks can
build a lending mechanism into the equation that presents new options to both
parties. But other companies, like TradeCard, are offering alternative services:
"Indeed, new challengers are trying to take pieces of the bank
business away. One is TradeCard, ubiquitous in automated trade financing transactions,
which has proven popular for companies that are trying, like Payless, to get away
from expensive letters of credit. But now TradeCard is offering vendor financing,
too. TradeCard has enough of a 'critical mass' of transactions, according to its
CEO Kurt Cavano, going between buyers and vendors that it has struck a deal with
GE Capital to pool the transactions and set up a lending mechanism.
"What I want to do with all this," says Cavano, "is do for global
trade what the credit card has done for shopping." To read the full story,
please click on http://www.cfoasia.com/archives/200403-06.htm - 2004
Supply & Demand Chain 100 - June/July 2004, Supply & Demand Chain Executive
Enterprises are ready to invest in technologies and services to improve their
supply and demand chains. This article offers a guide to enablers and service
providers ready to lend a hand. One of these service providers is TradeCard. To
read this article, please click on http://www.isourceonline.com/article.asp?article_id=5761
Other
headlines:
- TradeCard in new supply chain strategic alliance
- June 2004, Trade Finance
- Why did the APEC Forum pick Yantai? - June
20, 2004, Da Zhong Daily (in Chinese)
- Factories Moving Offshore Stress
Financial Supply Chain Management - June 20, 2004, Economic Daily News (in Chinese)
EVENTS * EVENTS * EVENTS * EVENTS * EVENTS * EVENTS * EVENTS * EVENTS
In the coming months, TradeCard participates in:
TAIPEI,
September 14. Asia PKI-Forum - Carl Wegner from TradeCard Taiwan will present
a customer case study.
HONG KONG, September 22. Kurt Cavano will give a
talk at the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
TAIPEI, September 21.
TITAS, Taiwan International Textile and Apparel Show 2004
SHANGHAI, October
19. Business Week CFO Forum.
Be sure to check our web site for updates on
where we'll be next.
This newsletter can also be viewed at the Hong
Kong General Chamber of Commerce website at www.chamber.org.hk/hknewsletters/
