The supply chain will reign as 2011’s primary issue, with its security dominating societal and media concerns. No longer a behind-the-scenes business necessity, the supply chain is at once critical to worldwide economic recovery and a major threat to public safety. Stakeholders will require better, more precise information sooner. Making information available, while retaining the confidentiality of sensitive supply chain data, will be key challenges for companies trading globally and their software vendors.
New data requirements will emanate on multiple fronts, creating demand for enhanced ways to input, verify and retrieve data. Outside the U.S., new compulsory compliance initiatives, such as the Import Control System and the Excise Movement and Control System, will impact firms trading with and throughout the European Union.
Within the U.S., accelerated modernization of the Automated Commercial Environment will offer enhanced capabilities, such as automated manifests and Participating Government Agencies submissions. New Importer Security Filing data requirements and an extended Importer Self-Assessment program will add to an already formidable reporting burden, but all are crucial for homeland security.
Nevertheless, this focus on security can offer distinct business advantages. Companies can leverage the trade facilitation benefits, especially faster commodity throughput, accorded to members of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and similar programs worldwide.
While the trend is toward mutual recognition of trade partnership programs, securing a company’s supply chain in accordance with multiple requirements will generate considerable volumes of data, prompting even greater analytical reporting and event management needs.
Foreign trade zones will garner renewed interest in 2011 as a major way to preserve business capital. Exacting their business benefits, while keeping compliant, creates different, but important, business challenges in an uncertain economy.
Constant change and new requirements will push companies and software vendors to the limit, but the environment will undoubtedly spur ingenuity and creativity as it solidifies security.