World Trade - February 2009 - (Page 19)

Viktoriya Sadlovska at Aberdeen Group identiﬁes a key innovation in the ﬁeld. While still emerging, buyers and suppliers in many cases now enjoy on-demand access to supply chain ﬁnancing, which “helps reduce the ﬁnance costs embedded in their supply chains and improve their long-term working capital management.” Furthermore, SCF technology that brings in thirdparty finance allows suppliers to get paid earlier “at better rates,” while the financial institutions “use a potentially higher credit rating of the buyer” and thus help the supplier reduce its prices (instead of adding in higher credit costs). Integration and ﬁne-tuning The seamlessness of supply chain ﬁnance keeps getting more seamless, as experience brings adjustments. One visible change can be found in corporate culture: increasingly, executives from sourcing and logistics, as well as ﬁnance, units now have a role in SCF, and communicate regularly about it. Departments other than ﬁnance often play a part in the decision to sign up with a technology ﬁrm. And, as automation and visibility have shortened the supply and payment cycles, buyers can now arrange smaller shipments and shorter lead times. “In the old paper world, buyers made bigger orders and larger shipments,” says Kurt Cavano at TradeCard. With smaller orders, monthly decisions become bi-weekly and weekly, a big change. And the shorter lead “reduces working capital requirements,” he added. Or, as Sue Welch at TradeStone Software puts it: Retailers can now offer purchase orders in much shorter cycles, so “the product can be deﬁned at the last possible time, reﬂecting more precisely what the market wants.” Meanwhile, a growing part of supply chain ﬁnance is to view the entire chain as a single strategy. “It’s a holistic approach, to view the entire operation from design to delivery,” says Welch, and that has led to the use of costing software and programs that consider ﬁnance as part of a much larger activity. In addition, new ﬁnancial resources are being brought into the field by the technology groups. The latest is The Receivables Exchange (New Orleans HQ), recently launched, which brings in a potentially huge additional funding capability. The Exchange offers an automatic trading platform in which investors (lenders) can buy accounts receivables, including cross-border receivables. Who does what Despite its dynamism, the major players in SCF remain a handful of global banks and a handful of technology ﬁrms. The ranks of the latter may grow, as new entrants from telecom groups, software and systems integrators put their oars in the water. Banks have natural advantages in the ﬁeld, including a large existing customer base and international networks, From Logistics Professionals to LTL Heroes To their shipper-clients, the carrier procurement professionals at Unyson Logistics are LTL heroes. They’ve harnessed the power of SMC 3 Bid$ense ®, the only strategic LTL bid tool that leverages their expertise to far exceed their clients’ cost-saving and service-level goals. You too can be an LTL hero: • Save time and guesswork during bid preparation • Distribute your bid package quickly and confidently • Conduct sophisticated, lane-by-lane carrier response analyses • Spot opportunities to increase efficiency and reduce transportation costs Be an LTL Hero. Go to www.smc3.com/go/2bahero to view real business case studies and download the free “LTL Purchasing Best Practices” white paper today. Or give us a call at 800.845.8090, ext. 5588. http://www.smc3.com/go/2bahero http://www.smc3.com/go/2bahero

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Trade - February 2009

World Trade - February 2009 Contents Taking Stock in America Confronting Corruption in Latin America Supply Chain Watch Tradewinds Where's the Goods? Where's the Money? Hope on the Horizon Managing Fleets in Turbulent Times The Impact of China's Economic Slowdown on U.S. Supply Chains The Fuel Volatile Supply Chain Getting the Most from On-the-Fly Transactions Managing Supply Chain Risk by Managing China Sourcing Capacity OECD Global Economic Outlook for 2009 'Natural' Agricultural Monopolies No More

World Trade - February 2009

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