Management Dynamics Releases New Solution to Capture the Cost Savings Opportunities of Free Trade Agreements

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, May 29, 2009 -- Management Dynamics, a leading provider of Global Trade Management solutions, today announced the release of Trade Agreements 14.5, an enterprise-class application that allows businesses to efficiently manage a portfolio of free trade agreements (FTAs) to generate significant cost savings through duty reduction. With over two hundred active trade agreements around the world (source WTO), this new release helps companies to achieve higher landed cost savings while maintaining compliance with each agreement’s governing rules of origin.

Management Dynamics’ Trade Agreements solution eliminates much of the manual effort of administering a supplier solicitation, maintaining certificates of origin and qualifying bills of material (BOMs). A new Web-based portal provides a complete campaign management environment to organize solicitations and manage supplier responses. Suppliers collaborate on the portal to update requests, use workflow tools to clarify responses and generate certificates. . Without rekeying any data, supplier certifications are maintained by part and product classification for use in the qualification process to determine the FTA eligibility of a given finished good. The rules of origin for all subscribed trade agreements are “plugged in” to automate the qualification process and allow companies to qualify a BOM for preferential duty status without human intervention.

“The real power of the Trade Agreements module comes from its ability to manage an entire portfolio of trade agreements from campaign management, to supplier solicitation through BOM qualification to capture all of the duty savings opportunities in a global supply network,” says Greg Aimi, AMR Research Director. “Management Dynamics' Trade Automation Suite can help companies automate a tedious process and by doing so, enable them to be more cost-effective at global trade.”

Management Dynamics’ Trade Agreements 14.5 delivers these unique capabilities:

-- Campaign Management - automates the process of developing campaigns to solicit suppliers and manage the process of certifying the country of origin for all purchased parts.

-- Supplier Solicitation Portal - a portal for suppliers to identify origin content by part, interact with the importer to clarify issues and complete all required trade program certifications.

-- Multi-FTA Qualification - a qualification engine integrates with a customer’s order management system and rule of origin trade content to determine if a given bill of material qualifies for preferential treatment. The engine also supports “What If” analyses to identify critical originating components.

-- Trade Content – Rules of Origin content is maintained and delivered by innovative Content Plug-ins that eliminate the need to upgrade software to take advantage of a new trade agreement. Content Plug-ins are available for NAFTA, US-Australia, US-Singapore, EU-Mexico among others.

“In these economic times, all multi-national businesses are looking for opportunities to reduce costs and improve compliance of their global operations,” says Jim Preuninger, CEO of Management Dynamics. “Our new Trade Agreements solution offers a powerful cost reduction value proposition by allowing companies to leverage a portfolio of FTAs and reduce duties across their supply network; all without having to increase staff or outsource to third parties.”

Trade Agreements is fully integrated module of Management Dynamics’ Trade Automation suite, which completely automates import and export compliance including product classification and admissibility, trade party screening, license determination and management, document generation, Customs filing, and audit trails. The solution maximizes opportunities for reduction of duties, costs, and fees while allowing businesses to move goods across borders legally and efficiently to eliminate delays, costly fines or loss of trade privileges.