Newsletter
TradeCard News April 2005
Financial Supply Chain Automation - The Hosted Way To Procure-To-Pay
Welcome to TradeCard's monthly e-mail newsletter - a summary of the latest news from TradeCard.
To read this newsletter in other languages, please click here:
CHINESE
KOREAN
JAPANESE
In our eighth installment of "Principles of Global Trade," we discuss "Optimizing through Outsourcing".
We'd love to hear from you. Send trade tips, suggested topics, or questions for our management team to
sales@tradecard.com.
- NEWS: FRENCH BANK CALYON TO SELL TRADECARD PLATFORM
- NEWS: TRADECARD RELEASES NEW WAREHOUSE RECEIPT AND CHARGEBACK FUNCTIONALITY
- NEWS: TRADECARD LAUNCHES WEBSITE IN CHINESE, KOREAN AND JAPANESE
- NEWS: SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE NAMES TRADECARD CHAIRMAN AND CEO A 2005 "PRO TO KNOW"
- PRINCIPLES OF GLOBAL TRADE: OPTIMIZING THROUGH OUTSOURCING
- HEADLINES: RECENT ARTICLES THAT HAVE FEATURED TRADECARD
- EVENTS: UPCOMING TRADESHOWS, CONFERENCES, WEB SEMINARS AND MORE
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NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS *
FRENCH BANK CALYON TO SELL TRADECARD PLATFORM
Calyon, Credit Agricole S.A.'s corporate and investment banking subsidiary, will be the first financial institution to sell the TradeCard Platform and provide customer service to customers across Europe. Calyon will also leverage its global network to sell both the TradeCard Platform and Calyon's financial services to its exporter customer community in other regions of the world. Corporate customers will benefit from lower costs, simplified strategic purchasing across borders, improved risk and working capital management and major business process efficiencies. To find out more, click here
TRADECARD ANNOUNCES NEW GOODS RECEIPT AND ADJUSTMENT MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONALITY
TradeCard's latest release of its platform adds two landmark capabilities, making it the first technology to automate adjustment management and warehouse reconciliation.
Adjustment Management
A collaborative approach to adjustment management can produce time and cost-savings for buyers and suppliers. The key is a common point of reference.
Now, adjustments can be entered, negotiated and tracked electronically on TradeCard, rather than processed on paper or disjointed systems. Buyers also have the option to link adjustments to line items on other documents, such as a goods receipt or invoice. That way, suppliers know the reasoning behind adjustments, as well as the orders to which the adjustments relate.
These capabilities reduce time-consuming inquiries into the buyer's organization, and improve suppliers' visibility into cash flow.
Warehouse Reconciliation
Many buyers use manual processes to identify discrepancies between what they ordered, what they were billed for - and what they actually received. This time consuming and often error-prone task is known as warehouse reconciliation.
TradeCard can streamline the process through its automated "goods receipt" functionality. A goods receipt is a document that notes which goods a buyer has received from a supplier - through to line item details, if necessary. The receipt can also include information on the quality of the shipment.
Buyers can now create these documents on TradeCard - and then automatically reconcile them against the purchase order and the invoice to identify discrepancies.
Suppliers benefit, too. They gain visibility into the source of discrepancies, which reduces time-consuming inquiries into the buyer's organization.
TRADECARD LAUNCHES WEBSITE IN CHINESE, KOREAN AND JAPANESE
TradeCard's marketing website is now available in Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
The three site urls are
Chinese: http://ch.tradecard.com
Korean: http://kr.tradecard.com
Japanese: http://jp.tradecard.com
SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE NAMES TRADECARD CHAIRMAN AND CEO A 2005 PRO TO KNOW
Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine has named TradeCard's chairman and chief executive officer, Kurt Cavano, to its 2005 Provider Pros to Know list. The list honors executives who use deep domain knowledge and innovative thinking to equip supply and demand chain professionals with the proper tools. According to the magazine, Cavano was recognized for applying the "on-demand approach to the financial supply chain to help buyers and their suppliers manage international trade transactions over the Internet."
Read more at
http://www.tradecard.com/news/pressreleases/sdc2005ProsToKnow.html
PRINCIPLES OF GLOBAL TRADE * PRINCIPLES OF GLOBAL TRADE *
This is the eighth installment of our ten-part series.
Principle 8: Optimizing Through Outsourcing
Processing trade documents adds five percent to global trade's total costs, forcing companies to re-evaluate the efficiency of their order-through-payment cycle, also known as the financial supply chain. Many, in turn, are looking to outsource.
Outsourcing the financial supply chain can lower a trading company's costs and allow its finance executives to focus on strategic issues, like stabilizing cash flows and minimizing working capital requirements. If you're considering outsourcing, here are three tips for making the right decision -and delivering the right value.
Automate your financial processes - whether you outsource or not.
The greatest cost-savings are consistently found in services or technologies that automate the order-through-payment cycle, particularly if your business is growing. Automation prevents re-keying errors and other mistakes from disrupting the flow of goods, while providing finance with sharper visibility into payables or receivables.
There are a number of ways to automate the financial supply chain including EIPP, electronic letters of credit and full financial supply chain automation. All involve replacing paper with electronic information.
Collaborate with trading partners, and find more time and cost savings.
As in physical supply chain management, collaborating with suppliers is also key in financial supply chain management. The challenge is determining which provider delivers the right level of collaboration.
There's the electronic data interchange (EDI) approach, which has been available for over a decade. It enables different vendors to exchange data, even across ERP platforms. However, trading partners that use different ERP systems have to customize their communication channels to accommodate EDI, which becomes cost-prohibitive if you have numerous trading partners using different systems. In contrast, the Internet provides a universal platform for real-time electronic data management. One good approach is an Application Service Provider model that connects trading partners access over the web. Different data formats can be exchanged, and any financial process can be carried out at any location.
Maintain real-time visibility into your data. It's the key to working capital management.
Automation should provide you with a faster, more detailed understanding of your working capital requirements. You'll know what accounts need to be paid or received on what day in what currency - far in advance of when manual processes could indicate. Many companies use this approach to cut down on short-term borrowing, or to free up cash for growth.
Automating financial processes also enables access to cost-cutting financial services that stabilize cash flows.
HEADLINES * HEADLINES * HEADLINES * HEADLINES * HEADLINES * HEADLINES
Recent TradeCard headlines with some article excerpts:
- A Tale of Evolution - Trade & Forfaiting Review, January 2005
This article is about the latest developments in web-based solutions.
TradeCard was among the vanguard of companies in the 1990s pushing importers, exporters, banks, transport companies and insurance agencies - in short, just about every part involved in a global trade transaction - to automate their piece of the payment process. That battle, of course, is now over with TradeCard et al the clear winners.
"Now, the question is not if we should do it, but how we should do it," TradeCard president Guy Rey-Herme says. "Adoption grows every year; in 2004 we more than doubled our volumes and we expect doubled volumes again in 2005."
- Pushing Paper Aside - March 2005, Global Finance Magazine
Article explores how the Internet is enabling adoption of electronic processing of invoices and payment
For the past 20 years, technology vendors have tempted companies with the promise of the 'paperless' office. Most companies strived to achieve this paperless nirvana using EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) to exchange trade documentation such as invoices electronically. But "for most companies [EDI was] cost-prohibitive and difficult to implement," notes Elizabeth Robertson, an analyst with TowerGroup. And while it may have worked with one or two suppliers, for most companies it was difficult to extend the benefits of EDI to the whole supply chain. The advent of the Internet changed that, promising ubiquitous connectivity and a more cost effective alternative for companies that could not afford the upfront investment in EDI.
US-based TradeCard, a financial supply chain automation company that links buyers and sellers, grew its network by initially focusing on vertical industry sectors such as footwear and apparel. "Once we got critical mass, adoption became easier because buyers were saying to their suppliers they wanted to do this," says Kurt Cavano, TradeCard's CEO. Cavano says the companies that get the most value from its platform have 80% of their suppliers on board. "It doesn't make sense to do it with one vendor unless they are your main supplier. So once you get critical mass, you start to reap the benefits," he says.
Other TradeCard headlines included:
- The "TradeCard Experience": New financial platform may bring a business opportunity of USD 7 trillion - Management Magazine (Taiwan), March 2005 (in Chinese)
- Internet and Technology - Investor's Business Daily, April 7, 2005
EVENTS * EVENTS * EVENTS * EVENTS * EVENTS * EVENTS * EVENTS * EVENTS
In the coming months, TradeCard will participate in:
Miami, Florida, April 26-28.
Kurt Cavano will speak about "Trade Finance: Finding a Partner and Tools that Work" at the Eurofinance conference Treasury Management in Latin America.
London, April 25-28.
Guy Rey-Herme will speak about "Offshoring" at the International Payments 2005 conference organized by Informa UK.
Hong Kong, May 27.
A speaker from TradeCard will present at the ERP Solution Day organized by GS1HK (former Hong Kong Article Numbering Association).
Shanghai, June 21-22.
TradeCard will participate in a panel discussion on "Making the Most of China Trade Opportunities" at the Export Group conference China: Trade & Export Finance Forum 2005. For more information or to register, please go to http://www.gtreview.com/conference/show_conference.php?List_ID=46
Be sure to check our web site for updates on where we'll be next.
If you have any questions about TradeCard or the above, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@tradecard.com.
This newsletter can also be viewed at the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce website at
http://www.chamber.org.hk/hknewsletters/
