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Document Management
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Document Management
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Document Management Issues and Challenges
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Although many governments now encourage electronic filing of global trade
information, data is still largely exchanged in the form of "documents" and
digital and paper-based. Filling out forms has always been an exercise in
collecting the right data and putting in the format required by the
recipient. Although paper has largely been eliminated, PDFs have taken its place.
Importers have the responsibility
to generate and transmit forms to freight forwarders, customers and appropriate
government authorities. Each transaction may have several associated documents
that must be sent to different parties. Once those documents are sent, they may
need to be revised and they ultimately need to be stored with the transaction
for audit and reference purposes.
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Challenges include:
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Identifying the documents needed to
satisfy the governments and agencies regulating the transaction |
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Producing the documents needed by
forwarders, customers and brokers |
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Managing the revision, transmission, and
storage of documents |
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Tracking document requirements, such as
notarization or whether an official version is needed |
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Establishing and enforcing business
processes around document functions |
How Amber Road Can Help
Amber Road's import solutions use a document
generation system to manage the activities associated with document
determination, distribution, and storage.
An extensive set of configurable
business rules help determine which documents are required for the transaction,
based on criteria such as the transaction type, countries of import and export
and partner. The engine draws document requirements from the Global Knowledge®
system, which is updated daily by
Amber Road global trade specialists.
The system comes with numerous
document templates in multiple languages, and also provides a flexible document
design function for the creation of custom forms and templates. Documents are
also generated according to configurable business rules. Since some rules may
produce duplicate documents, there are consolidation and validation processes
where field data is checked and verified. Electronic signatures are supported,
where required on the forms.
Once documents are generated, they
can be distributed by email to the appropriate parties. Documents are then
stored in a centralized repository and associated to the transaction for
efficient search and retrieval.
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Features |
Benefits |
Document Determination |
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Analyze the required documents automatically for an import transaction
using sophisticated business rules and global trade data |
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Establish consolidation and precedence
rules in case of duplicates |
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Verify that document requirements are
satisfied |
Document Generation |
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Custom-design documents using an intuitive
interface to include system fields, set fonts and assign colors |
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Draw from extensive document templates,
such as commercial invoice (CI), shipper's letter of instruction (SLI),
packing list (PL), and bill of lading (BOL) to meet business and
regulatory requirements |
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Include an image to use as an electronic
signature |
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Choose when to generate documents based on
business rules |
Document Distribution |
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Create, modify and preview the list of
documents that will be sent for certain transaction types |
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Select a pre-defined list of recipients or
enter them manually; send to system users or outside email addresses |
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Configure the subject line and body of the
document email |
Document Management |
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Define document types in the system;
indicate their lead times and whether they require notarization,
signature or must be in official form |
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Display all documents associated with a
particular transaction |
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Upload new documents and associate them to
a partner or transaction |
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