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The challenge
This global Fortune 500 leader produces differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used across most major industries. Products are manufactured in North America, Europe and Asia, and exported worldwide under letters of credit, documentary collections and open account.
Their trade data and documents were being managed by a third-party freight forwarder — a company whose expertise was arranging freight transport, not creating and delivering payment documentation.
Because the forwarder relied on manual data entry and couriered paper documents, the client faced delayed presentations, repeated errors and high discrepancy rates.
There was no visibility into upcoming key dates, amounts or transaction status. And no automated way to coordinate business units, the forwarder, other third-party providers and international trade banks.
The Solution
The client needed to standardize and streamline how accurate letter of credit and trade documents were created and delivered across global divisions. They needed technology that let business units, freight forwarders and third-party providers collaborate. They needed visibility, control and predictability of payment for their U.S.-based trade finance team. And they needed their international banking partners connected to the process.
We put our Tech-Enabled Trade Services to work, powered by TradeSharp™, managing their end-to-end trade data and document process.
Document requests now arrive digitally and are reviewed by our Tech-Enabled Trade Services team for feasibility and consistency. A transaction record is created on TradeSharp™, giving the client 24/7 visibility of shipment dates, expiration dates, key amounts, reference numbers and all documents — including third-party ones.
We coordinate directly with the freight forwarder ahead of shipment. Once goods ship, we gather compliant bills of lading, inspection certificates and insurance policies, working from templates generated automatically from the SWIFT-advised letter of credit.
Final document sets are reviewed and approved, then delivered online to the negotiating bank, which retrieves and examines originals through TradeSharp™ — no courier required.
Every date is tracked. Once payment lands, it's recorded to close out the record and feed Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) tracking. Key dates and turn-around times are measured for every shipment, buyer and country, exportable to Excel or XML.
The Impact
Trade Technologies now manages document presentations across multiple international business segments.
The client's global teams have complete real-time visibility into transaction status, upcoming dates, key amounts and reference numbers.
Their global treasury group has control and predictability of payment — and has eliminated the internal overhead of cash forecasting and accounts receivable reconciliation.
$568
Per transaction saved on average
↓20 days
Reduction in Days to Present (letter of credit and other trade documents)
↓94%
Reduction in courier costs
↓94%
Reduction in bank discrepancy fees
- Standardized document creation across global divisions
- Real-time visibility of transaction status, dates, amounts and references
- Control and predictability of payment for the global treasury group
- Internal cash forecast and AR reconciliation overhead eliminated
- Trade data exportable to Excel or XML for any period, shipment, buyer or country
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