Global Tech Company Breaks Down Compliance Bottlenecks to Scale for Growth

• Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
• Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms

• Consumer Goods
• E-Commerce
• Software

• Business Operation
• Logistics & Transportation
• Quality Assurance

• Process Control & Optimization
• Regulatory Compliance Monitoring
• Supply Chain Visibility

• Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
• Software Design & Engineering Services
• System Integration

As global demand for their data processing services grew, it became mission-critical to quickly set up data centers in many markets around the world. Yet there were complex trade compliance questions around exporting and importing that the company needed to answer — plus customs filings to prepare and submit — for each transaction. Many of the company’s products are subject to stringent U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR) with particularly complex licensing and documentation requirements. In addition, when exporting, they must screen against restricted parties in order to meet sanctions requirements from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). When importing, the company must ensure they meet the entry requirements and have all necessary trade documents ready for each existing country of operation and each new market. The company consolidated much of this required data when they exported goods, but because compliance personnel did not have a single system to work from, they had to assemble the same data a second time for import filings. They already had a process to perform export compliance checks; however, the process was manual and slow. With rapidly increasing demand, it would lead to customs delays. The company realized an entirely different set of capabilities was needed for the next stage of growth. With these objectives in mind, a group was set up within the company specifically to handle compliance responsibilities globally. Their first step was to identify the best way to automate import and export processes to reduce bottlenecks and enable the new growth opportunities. The new system would have to automate both the compliance screenings and the export and import filings as much as possible. For efficiency as well as data reliability, it was essential that all these steps take place on a single platform.

Based in the United States, this multinational, Fortune 500® technology company provides a wide range of electronics, software and internet-related services for consumers and businesses. It operates across multiple e-commerce channels, serving millions of customers around the globe and generates annual revenues of more than $100 billion. The company uses cloud computing infrastructure— such as hard-drives, workstations, processors, server racks and cooling towers — at its data centers to provide online services. Recently, they began offering innovative consumer electronics for personal productivity, communication and entertainment. With these initiatives vital to the company’s growth, the ability to move various types of technology hardware around the world quickly and efficiently became a top priority.

The company recognized this was a strategic decision that would impact the speed-to-market of new products. Their expectations were high, and the successful partner had to showcase wide-ranging experience in successfully serving the world’s largest and most complex technology companies. They also wanted a partner that would align with the company’s vision and values, such as a commitment to the highest forms of data protection. The company’s legal team had used compliance software from e2open for many years to address regulatory questions on a case-by-case basis. However, due to the need for much broader capabilities, the company launched a competitive request for proposal (RFP) that required solution providers to work through use cases, demonstrate significant automation capabilities and provide positive feedback from existing clients. E2open was selected for two reasons. First, e2open was the only vendor capable of automating compliance screenings for tens-of-thousands of products and over 120,000 import and export transactions annually — across every target market. Secondly, because all e2open’s applications operate on a single platform, the company could seamlessly use its export data to quickly prepare all required import documentation. No other vendor could offer this depth and breadth of compliance risk management, nor the high levels of automation required to continuously reach growth targets. Before the rollout, e2open’s professional services team worked closely with the company’s engineers to ensure that all requirements for world-class data protection, security and rigorous, industry-specific compliance standards were met. This thorough vetting would enable the company to integrate and run the applications directly from their global cloud platform.

• The company now automatically reviews every transaction, screening for any potential sanctions violations and seamlessly determining import and export license and trade document requirements.
• Deep trade automation capabilities allow them to remove nearly all manual compliance steps. For example, the system handles most steps to manage licenses, collaborate with freight forwarders and brokers, as well as self-generate customs and shipping documents for the company to file with government agencies.
• This has led to notable efficiency gains and time-savings due to a reduction in manual tasks.

• Automating compliance screenings for tens-of-thousands of products and over 120,000 import and export transactions annually.
• E2open Global Knowledge houses the export and import regulations of more than 180 countries, including each of the more than 40 countries the company was targeting.