Combined, JPMorgan and Vastera promise to deliver a holistic approach to global trade management; however, it may not be the one and only option for international traders. TradeBeam Holding Inc. is also vying to create an integrated physical and financial supply chain. Its solutions aim to streamline global trading processes for enterprises and their partners, including import and export compliance and global trade finance solutions, like open account and letters of credit (LC) management. It also offers solutions for inventory management, shipment tracking, and supply chain electronic management (SCEM), and has over 3,000 customers, and users in over 100 countries worldwide. At the end of 2004, TradeBeam announced that it acquired the assets of Open Harbor, a leading provider of international trade logistics solutions (ITL).The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 1999, Open Harbor possessed deep expertise in trade compliance, including a comprehensive centralized repository of global trade content. This harmonization engine contains millions of trade rules from more than sixties countries, in a one-to-one relationship. The company was also considered a leading player in the landed cost management arena, and customers have leveraged its technology and experience to gain crucial accurate pricing for international orders based on an aggregate of product cost, shipping costs, and fees charged by the exporting and importing countries. However, based on its solution sets and market demand, Open Harbor has not seen the level of success that is should have. Its failure was primarily caused by poor management
Conversely, TradeBeam has focused more on the application side of trade management, such as creating shipment tracking, insurance, event management, and other applications central to the actual movement of goods. Because of the market demand for experts in trade regulations interpretation and application, Open Harbor became a logical acquisition choice for TradeBeam, thus the acquisition bid was made and accepted.
TradeBeam believes that Open Harbor will bring a logical extension to its current offering, since customers will now have enhanced access to the latest global trade content for more than 60 countries and to landed cost management. The move is a continuation of TradeBeams' strategic expansion of its product footprint, which covers the entire life cycle of global trade across order, logistics, and financial settlement activities. There should also be a complimentary vertical focus, since Open Harbor had developed solutions and attracted clients in the hi-tech and automotive markets.
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