Document Management

Export Document Management Issues and Challenges

Although many governments now encourage electronic filing of global trade information, and partners are connected through networks, data is still largely exchanged in the form of "documents". 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.

Exporters have the responsibility to generate and transmit forms to their 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.

Challenges include:

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Identifying and completing all 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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Distributing the correct documents to each appropriate party

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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 Export Management solution uses 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 extensive 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.

Features	Benefits
Document Determination	▪	Automatically analyze the documents required for an export transaction using sophisticated business rules
	▪	Automatically determine which documents are needed for different legs of multi-leg shipments
	▪	Establish consolidation and precedence rules in case of duplicates
	▪	Verify that document requirements are satisfied
Document Generation	▪	Custom-design documents using an intuitive interface to include system fields, set fonts, and assign colors
	▪	Draw from numerous included 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
	▪	Include an image to use as an electronic signature
	▪	Choose when to generate documents based on business rules
Document Distribution	▪	Create, modify, and preview the list of documents that will be sent for certain transaction types
	▪	Select a pre-defined list of recipients or enter them manually; send to system users or outside email addresses
	▪	Configure the subject line and body of the document email
Document Management	▪	Define document types in the system; indicate their lead times and whether they require notarization, signature, or must be in official form
	▪	Display all documents associated with a particular transaction
	▪	Upload new documents and associate them to a partner or transaction

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