Global trade has never been as ubiquitous as it is today. Technology of all kinds – from transportation tech like containerization, cargo aircraft, and supermax vessels all the way to the digital global e-commerce marketplace – facilitates an unprecedented flow of products around the world. At the same time, tariff and sanction shifts have become the main enemy of the supply chain manager, who relies on consistency and certainty to plan and execute global trade.

Next week's webinar on February 14 seeks to answer the question: How can we leverage technology to overcome emerging and enduring global supply chain management risks? Amber Road and AAEI conducted a survey of supply chain professionals involved with global trade in order to gain a clearer picture of the primary challenges facing the community, and how their companies are using technology to address these challenges.

Supply chains are running at full steam in 2019 as some economies boom, while others take hits from obstacles to open commerce and trade. From protectionist trade policies to ever-increasing costs to product recall challenges, Amber Road’s subject-matter experts provide some revolutionary best practices in a range of industry publications to help companies keep the wheels of trade moving.

Now that glasses have finished clinking and the confetti from New Year's Eve has been swept away it's time to focus on making this your supply chain's most efficient year yet. It's a new year and that means that you can expect some new changes and challenges to impact your supply chain. Amber Road recently published The Top 6 Global Supply Chain Expectations for 2019, which includes the six biggest predictions to help you prepare for this new year. 

Shippers everywhere are feeling the pressure to increase their products' speed to market. In a world where consumers have become used to expedited shipping and new items on store shelves every week a higher speed to market can be a great competitive advantage. 

That competitive advantage begins with having greater efficiency within the supply chain, but if you're like most of the shippers polled by Sourcing Journal in the report Digital Aspirations, Blind Spots & the Transparency Divide then you may not be sure where to start.

Supply chain technology and automation – these are the gifts that keeps on giving this holiday season -- and beyond. And there is something under the tree for every link of the chain from sourcing to shipping. Here’s a recap of published articles from industry publications authored by Amber Road’s subject matter experts who provide some transformative best practices across the supply chain.

A great supply chain partner is one who knows exactly what ingredients a company needs to make their operations successful — and those that can be skipped. As a software provider, it’s critical that the functionality and tools support the marketplace, across all industries and company size. To highlight companies that possess these important characteristics, SupplyChainBrain has announced the 100 Great Supply Chain Partners of 2018 and Amber Road has emerged as one of those highly-valued companies.

Autumn is here, which means the holiday shopping season is just around the corner. The store shelves are already stocked with some Christmas holiday goods, which signals that the products are already sitting in the local DCs and stores. Companies aren’t wasting time to get the holiday shopping season underway, and better inventory management will give them some extra advantages this season. It’s also important to understand why product testing matters in today’s complex safety and compliance world, and how to keep from being blindsided by custom laws and regulations. Amber Road’s subject matter experts provide best practices across the supply chain in a range of published articles from industry publications. 

As global supply chains become more and more complex - and as international shipping costs continue to rise - you know that digitizing the data and collaboration tools in your supply chain is more crucial than ever. The companies that are truly thriving these days have something significant in common: a digitized supply chain. Leveraging structured data can help ease external pressures while also providing high levels of visibility, improved efficiency and minimized risk. 

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has long been an advocate of transparency and risk reduction in global supply chains through the Customs-Trade Partnership against Terrorism (C-TPAT), a voluntary cargo security program for global transactions. Since its inception in 2002, C-TPAT has been the basis of how the government manages and monitors cargo security. 

The security threats the nation faced in 2002 are vastly different from today’s security and terrorism concerns. Each day brings a new cargo security concern based on more complex supply chains, and greater risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks. Changing players in company supply chains can also impact cargo security and put companies at risk.

To address today’s risk, CBP has released a more comprehensive cargo security program, with the support of the trade, to mirror the threats now prevalent in global supply chains. The newly released Minimum-Security Criteria (MSC) replace the previous Minimum-Security Guidelines (MSG), changing the landscape of the program for current members, and future volunteers to the program.

Imagine you're planning a potluck. Each friend is assigned to bring their specialty - a tasty homemade dish, the centerpiece honeybaked ham, their secret-recipe apple pie - and you, the host, need to coordinate it all. Thing is, one of your friends is in Vietnam. The other is on a cargo ship in the North Pacific. And the only tools you have at your disposal are a fax machine and an Excel spreadsheet that no one else can see. How is your potluck going to be a success?

Of course, that's not how anyone plans a party these days. Individuals can easily communicate and collaborate across borders to share plans and ideas instantly. But creating a digital model for your company's global supply chain is a lot more complex than simply downloading Venmo. You'll need to transform your entire ecosystem and technology stack - no simple task.

Who should be included in your new digital model of your supply chain, what will they contribute and how will that be shared and consumed? What are the benefits?

It's just like a potluck, only a lot bigger. And more complex. 

Join ARC Advisory Group and Amber Road for a webinar to discover how you can begin to build a truly digital supply chain.

Webinar: Building a Digital Supply Chain is Like Hosting a Potluck:  What You Need to Know

Wednesday, October 24, 2018 at 2PM EDT