As the world has shrunk and companies have largely moved their presence online, global trade management (GTM) has become a major factor in supporting eCommerce.

A majority of executives are not investing in trade compliance training, despite potential fines, substantial penalties, and jail time, according to survey results released today from Amber Road's Global Trade Academy.

The survey of 300 U.S.-based global companies across a range of revenues and industries found that 56 percent of executives at the companies surveyed are not investing in trade compliance training, even though 28 percent of those companies had already been fined or warned by government agencies for noncompliance.

And while the vast majority (73 percent) have a stated trade compliance plan, 46 percent of surveyed companies didn’t require any training for employees and 28 percent require less than 11 hours of training – leaving a gap between having a plan and the ability to act on it. Furthermore, 55 percent had not standardized their global compliance training and 33 percent do not have a budget for trade compliance training, which opens the door to noncompliance risks as a result of untrained staff.

Amber Road is partnering with the UK Government’s Exporting is GREAT initiative to help small and medium sized businesses in the UK jumpstart and expand their success in overseas markets.

Exporting Is GREAT aims to significantly increase the number of UK businesses selling internationally by providing support throughout all stages of the exporting process, from identifying opportunities through to winning international contracts. The initiative is part of the international GREAT Britain campaign and is scheduled to run through 2020.

As the prime GTM partner to join the initiative, Amber Road will provide key trade related content, Global Knowledge, for participating companies. Working with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), the government department that helps UK-based companies succeed in the global economy, Amber Road is collaborating on a dedicated interface for trade management information, guidance and critical information. Amber Road aims to enable companies to quickly and easily evaluate the trade regulation aspects of an export opportunity, including the destination import customs requirements and potential beneficial trade programs, and guide them on the documentation requirements.

As globalization continues to cause the world to "shrink" and eCommerce rapidly spreads into every retail category, the requirements to source and manage a global supply chain also increase. Whether as part of its strategic direction or in order to keep up with the competition, there are few companies that do not have some type of eCommerce presence.

Siemens AG has selected Amber Road’s China Trade Management solution to centralize and automate Customs and China Inspection and Quarantine (CIQ) procedures for all of Siemens’ China- related import and export activities.

Amber Road's proprietary process for collecting, translating, interpreting and updating country-specific trade regulations has achieved ISO 9001:2008 recertification.

Amber Road commercialized trade content under the trade name Global Knowledge^®. In 2014, Global Knowledge was updated with over 13 million new records, with trade content sourced from government agencies in over 145 countries. Global Knowledge provides the intelligence to power Amber Road's GTM solutions.

The ISO 9001:2008 is an internationally recognized set of standards for quality management systems developed and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Both the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) in the United States and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) independently verified Amber Road's ISO 9001:2008 compliance.

With the rise of multi-national commerce, global trade is growing in importance. However, friction between borders is an obstacle that often slows the pace of trade. To ensure compliance, companies must successfully use software and global trade content in a dynamic world to adapt to these changes. This requires the use of metadata in the content and adaptive rule engines.

Minimizing duties, taxes and tariffs is one of the fastest and easiest ways to squeeze significant financial returns out of a company’s global supply chain. Yet, according to a recent SCM World Survey, most companies “only became aware of the opportunity as a result of problems that emerged as their companies increased international sales and found new sources of supply.” The result is that few companies use these tactics in making supply chain design decisions.

Today’s Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO) faces pressures on all fronts, not the least of which is how to address new B2B and B2C direct-to-consumer flows in a profitable manner. Aberdeen recently introduced a Prescriptive Model for Optimization that both defines and describes what leading companies are doing to reengineer inventory and fulfillment flows from source to end consumer. This framework requires a move from current state descriptive analytics to analytical optimization that applies prescriptive and predictive intelligence during both planning and execution phases.

In May, Amber Road’s Global Trade Academy broadcasted its first webinar, How to Create a Trade Compliance Training Program for Global Professionals. Our presenters, Suzanne Richer and Jean-Pierre Geronimi, discussed how creating an atmosphere and culture of strong expertise in trade regulations can drive value in the international supply chain.