Oracle bullish on trade

“Managing the different regulatory requirements of importing and exporting countries is an extremely expensive and time consuming process that can ultimately impact the efficiency of the overall supply chain,” said William McNeill, Senior Research Analyst, Gartner.

But he feels that Oracle’s recently launched Transportation Management and Global Trade Management platforms can streamline the process.

According to McNeill, shippers and logistics service providers need to be able to automate compliance processes and easily integrate them with both their supply chain and broader enterprise application suites.

Oracle agrees.

“To align business processes, optimize execution and expand global reach, shippers and logistics services providers need to be able to effectively manage global transportation and trade compliance processes,” said Derek Gittoes, Oracle Vice President, Logistics Product Strategy.

“With the new releases of Oracle Transportation Management and Oracle Global Trade Management, we are able to optimize those processes by offering an unmatched breadth and depth of transportation and global trade management functionality on a single system.”

The real question that remains to be answered, however, is whether companies are willing to spend money on new “solutions” when still reeling from the recent recession. Most of the industry events we attended last year suggest that the ROI expectations will remain high in the shipping community.

But with the new emphasis on exporting, perhaps U.S. manufacturers will be willing to embrace more risk. If that happens, can new hiring be too far off?

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