Trade Compliance Automation - It’s a Team Sport
Anyone else have a bit of AI fatigue? It’s all the rage and the use cases vary widely, some good, some not so good, some great. The key is defining accessible trade compliance automation that fits your company goals and budget, it doesn’t have to be complicated, feature rich, and expensive right out of the gate. A clear map of your current processes, focusing on bottlenecks and manual workarounds is a great place to start. These are the leftovers from your optimization exercise. The misfits.
Okay, we’ve got our virtual clutter pile, now what?
The most important step in automation is understanding the “why” behind the current process. Why do we or don’t we have an automated process? Take the time to do these 3 things to arrive at your automation priority list:
Crowd Source - Invite stakeholders from impacted teams to weigh in, collect each perspective and identify overlaps. This will help in prioritizing which projects get moved to the top of the list. See where I’m going, the more impact the inefficient process has on the business the more weight it gets when determining what takes priority.
Monetary Impact - Identify areas where manual processes or lack of process results in extra cost or missed opportunities (e.g., Duty Recovery, Free Trade Agreements). In trade compliance, there are very specific rules on how you execute these programs, which makes automation a great fit not only for optimization, but also to reduce risk of manual compliance errors. Remember, if it takes money away from the government it is a target. Getting it right is critical.
Alignment - Determining automation opportunities that bring value to another key department or function within your organization is the connection to getting budget approval for trade compliance enhancements. Trade compliance tends to be reactionary, only getting attention when something bad happens, or there’s a perceived risk strong enough to attract leadership's attention. Piggybacking on existing processes through cross-departmental collaboration gives stakeholders a greater sense of ROI. It’s a win|win.
Conclusion:
Trade automation is a vital tool in navigating today’s complex and evolving global trade environment. Whether your company is ready to leverage advanced technologies or are looking for an assessment of how your business can automate compliance processes, streamline customs operations, and ensure accurate reporting, Evolution Trade Solutions, LLC. is ready to help.
