Reinforces management of trade compliance and helps make trade processes more efficient
Tokyo — SAP Japan Co., Ltd. is to release a Japanese-language version of SAP Global Trade Services 7.1, the new version of SAP Global Trade Services (SAP GTS), which reinforces management of trade compliance and helps make trade processes more efficient. SAP GTS is one element of SAP Solutions for GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance), a suite of solutions that solve various compliance issues, notably J-SOX compliance. This is the first upgrade of SAP Solutions for GRC since it was released in May 2006.
Currently, trade processes are among the day-to-day transactions of many businesses, and constitute an important part of the value chain. On the other hand, they also pose business issues regarding language and customs, as they necessitate compliance with legislation in each country or territory amid drastic changes in political affairs. In particular, recent drastic changes in international politics have required businesses involved in trade processes worldwide to strengthen their trade security control. In addition, expansions or amendments of trade agreements are promptly applied to businesses, making it important for businesses to optimize their operations by incorporating the merits of such agreements.
In response to such issues, SAP has upgraded the trade management capabilities of mySAP ERP (including SAP R/3 4.0B and later versions), and developed SAP GTS, a solution that combines high-precision compliance with more efficient trade processes. SAP GTS integrates all kinds of trade management data and their processing, and enables system coordination with all parties involved in transactions, including customers, suppliers, logistics providers, and customs. Through this means, costs and errors resulting from manual operations in trade management processes, including trade security, customs clearance, bonded inventory management, and credit management can be eliminated, as well as making work more efficient. In addition, SAP GTS minimizes the risk of legal violations by implementing legality checks at all stages of the import/export process.
Since the first version of SAP GTS was released in 2002, it has been installed by more than 250 companies in various industries, notably high-tech, life science, and chemical companies, in 18 countries.
The new version, SAP GTS 7.1, not only reinforces various European and American import/export process capabilities, but helps to meet Japanese requirements by offering an add-on capability adapted to the low-value exemption for exports of regulated products(*). In addition, each process has been made easier to operate compared with the previous version.
SAP GTS has the integrated platform SAP NetWeaver as its technology infrastructure. This provides customers with an all-round approach to unified management of international transactions in IT environments that include not only SAP ERP, but other vendors’ ERPs and current legacy systems as well. SAP GTS was developed using a service-based approach, under the enterprise SOA strategy advocated by SAP, which enables seamless integration of data with infrastructure systems and applications as well as compatibility with businesses’ current IT environments.
SAP GTS is also one element of SAP Solutions for GRC, which resolves various compliance issues. SAP Solutions for GRC also includes basic capabilities for IT control, notably Virsa Compliance Calibrator for SAP, which helps to reinforce SoD (segregation of duties) in IT systems, and business applications that are closely integrated with SAP GTS and other compliance solutions.
To support speedy installation by customers, SAP Japan will deploy consultants specifically for GTS. If the backbone system environment consists primarily of mySAP ERP (including SAP R/3 4.0B or a later version), a SAP GTS system can be constructed in the short time of 6-8 months.
(*Note) This capability is scheduled for provision as a support package. Please ask SAP Japan for details.
