Powered by the SAP NetWeaver technology platform, SAP GTS provides companies with a holistic approach to managing global trade activities across their heterogeneous technology landscapes. This new release also offers tight integration with the business intelligence capabilities of SAP NetWeaver to offer customers added flexibility with reporting and new business insight. Developed with the services-based approach of SAP's Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA) strategy in mind, SAP GTS sits on top of a company's existing IT environment and pulls data from underlying systems and applications to complete and close the loop on import and export processes. Helping Companies to Achieve Regulatory Compliance The new capabilities of SAP GTS were developed to help companies leverage the benefits of trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the ones that the European Union (EU) has concluded with other countries and groups of countries. Established to spur growth, the trade agreements provide companies with reduced rates on customs duties or exemptions based on established rules. While the benefits are numerous, the process is highly complex and time consuming due to the need for written declarations from suppliers regarding product origin, accurate calculation and determination of preference eligibility, and the fulfillment of document requirements such as movement certificates as the goods pass through customs. SAP Risk Management, the latest component to be released within SAP GTS, now automates the entire process, including requesting vendor declarations from suppliers, calculating and publishing eligibility information in sales documents, and providing detailed reports. These new capabilities help companies comply with regional trade agreements, eliminate risks through documentation and audit trails, and ensure competitiveness through reduced duty rates their customers can claim. SAP Risk Management ties together these new capabilities along with the existing SAP GTS components, including SAP Customs Management, which helps customers expedite the clearance of goods through customs at import/export time, and SAP Compliance Management, which helps companies mitigate risks while trading across borders. "Globalization is not an emerging trend; it's a business reality," said Adrian Gonzalez, director, Logistics Executive Council, ARC Advisory Group. "What's changed is the increased level of complexity and risk associated with moving goods across borders, especially after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Technology is the key enabler of any global trade management strategy and companies must take a broader perspective and view their entire enterprise software platform as a GTM solution. SAP shares this perspective and this latest release further strengthens its value proposition to clients." Growing Customer Adoption Worldwide Looking to automate and streamline trade compliance processes across its global business units, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a leading designer and producer of innovative microprocessors, chose SAP GTS. With this packaged composite application in place, AMD is able to standardize its export processes to support a secure supply chain, ensure regulatory compliance and increase productivity across the enterprise. AMD is using SAP Compliance Management, a component of SAP GTS, to proactively screen business partner data and documents along the order-to-cash process. This component helps AMD check up-to-date sanctioned party lists published by governments and helps mitigate the potential risks of non-compliance. As AMD manufactures products that require proper export licenses, SAP GTS also helps automate license determination, track value and quantity limits and exception handling process to drive new efficiencies. SAP GTS replaced manual and legacy system export processes in existence at various AMD locations worldwide. "We worked closely with SAP to have the GTS solution up and running in a matter of weeks and successfully met our tight deadlines," said Judy Studebaker, senior export compliance specialist, AMD. "We chose SAP GTS to create a standardized export process, with appropriate regulatory checks that will diminish compliance risks and help us best serve the needs of our customers." A semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Veldhoven, Netherlands, ASML has manufacturing sites and research and development facilities located in the US and the Netherlands. "We are committed to providing the highest quality of service to our customer base worldwide," said Eric Vennekens, director, International Trade & Customs, ASML. "In order to deliver top-quality service, we rely on an efficient export management system of our products from our headquarters in the Netherlands and the US to customer sites worldwide. We implemented SAP GTS to help us standardize our trade compliance process across the entire company and help us to meet the latest trade regulations to mitigate the risk of regulatory violations." The Teekanne Group, a tea trading company headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany, chose SAP GTS, which is accredited by the German customs authorities, to support the company's participation in Europe's New Computerized Transit System (NCTS). With production facilities and branches in eight countries around the world, plus distribution partners in many different countries, The Teekanne group is leveraging SAP GTS to support its participation in this new system alongside other member states of the EU. "We implemented SAP GTS in the beginning of 2004 to enable us to participate in Europe's New Computerized Transit System, a system that is used to monitor undeclared goods during transport," said Ronald Kloust, CIO, Teekanne Group. "It took only seven weeks to implement and easily integrates with our existing heterogenous IT landscape. We are really satisfied with how smoothly SAP GTS is running and how it has helped us streamline our customs-related processes." "SAP continues its strong commitment to delivering packaged composite applications, including SAP GTS, that enable businesses to more easily and rapidly adopt technology solutions that solve real-world business challenges like global trade management," said Shai Agassi, member of the executive board, SAP. "Leading companies around the world are realizing competitive advantage by leveraging SAP GTS to proactively manage the complexities and risks of today's global trade."