Column Edo Bosga: Dream about permanent trade compliance

It is not that surprising that I had this dream. Recently I presented Pincvision’s vision regarding permanent trade compliance during the Pincvision Optimizing Supply Chain Event. This vision is based on the latest IT developments, years of experience and the desire to enhance the quality of trade compliance and strive to lower the costs and lead times of getting into this phase. The answer will be facilitated by IT technology as this will shake up nearly every process in doing business. Meeting trade compliance obligations at the end of a business process will be history, old-fashioned. Making use of the data that is already available, combined with ‘big data’ will accelerate the development of the trade compliance process significantly. The term ‘big data’ is used in the context of the use of the mass amount of external data that is freely available. This can be data shared by authorities, logistics service providers, other companies, etc. The added value of external data can be huge e.g. compare HTS codes for a particular product to be imported with HTS codes used by others for a similar product.

To be future proof, organizations have to heavily invest in IT technology and expertise. As software solutions are based on ‘old’ designs and starting points, the answer to make use of the nearly unlimited possibilities can only be found in investing in new technology solutions. These will only work if trade departments are seriously expanded with IT experts. These organization developments will not easily be granted by senior management. Trade compliance is and will not be a core process for any organization. This is why Pincvision is developing its services in that way; we are heavily investing in the latest software solutions and our team is expanded with senior IT experts. Now that we follow this path for more than one year already at Pincvision, more and more I believe that some dreams do come true………