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Saw Ken Wye, CEOTo revive its economy, the Singaporean government decided to speed up and streamline the processing of import and export permits and create a new ‘special vehicle platform.’
Being a global hub with trade volumes triples the nation’s GDP, the government contracted Singapore Network Services (SNS) in 1988 to implement this ambitious project. Collaborating with IBM, SNS conceptualized and implemented TradeNet—a one-of-a-kind IT-based trade document administration environment for the city-state of Singapore. In only a year after its conception, TradeNet became the world’s first Single Window for trade.
It cuts down permit processing time from 2-7 days to less than a minute and condensed document requirement from 35 to just one electronic form. The solution was such a breakthrough that Harvard Business Review published a case study on its development, titled: “Singapore TradeNet: A Tale of One City.”
In 1994, SNS would venture beyond Singapore and form a joint venture in Mauritius to provide similar TradeNet solutions. The company, now reoriented for the global market, is known as CrimsonLogic Pte Ltd and has expanded its business footprint in more than 40 countries, via offices in 19 countries. They have implemented over 60 trade-related projects pertaining to Single Window Administration, Customs Management, and Digital Port systems.
MODERNIZING FRAGMENTED TRADE ECOSYSTEMS
Government-imposed lockdowns in the wake of the pandemic have exposed the immense inefficiencies of paper-based processes in cross-border trade as well as the security and risk concerns that threaten trade and supply chains. The exacerbation of production issues and traffic congestions in ports across the globe resulted in issues such as freight delays and container shortages, impacting the global supply chain. The pandemic has also fueled the rapid growth of e-commerce, forcing governments and businesses to revamp tech adoption in the supply chain.
Evidently, government and private organizations need to accelerate the digitalization of supply chains to build resilience in the global trade ecosystems and future-proof trade. Here, the traditional way of working in silos and legacy systems has to be imperatively replaced with a more seamless and digitalized trade solution.
With most existing solutions in the market, there are no global standards and protocols for interoperability, nor is there any clear legislation recognizing digital evidence.
CrimsonLogic has identified these pain points and focuses its fresh lens and extensive trade domain expertise to spur total trade platform solutions—the CALISTA and Trade Facilitation Platforms (TFP)—and services. Their goal is to optimize trade facilitation and augment supply chain ecosystems, bringing about a seamless trade experience for governments and businesses.
“We have more than 30 years of experience in Global Trade Management (GTM) systems, and have implemented over 20 national Single Window and GTM systems globally. We are backed by a Singapore-based global port operator PSA, and Enterprise Singapore, a government agency,” states Mr. Saw Ken Wye, the CEO of CrimsonLogic.
POWER PACKED GTM SOLUTIONS
CALISTA is a global trade management platform that serves shippers and logistics stakeholders in enabling the orchestration of logistics, compliance, and financial requirements of trade and supply chain seamlessly, smartly, and securely. It leverages blockchain and AI/ML to transform traditional trade-related processes and improve transparency and trust between logistics stakeholders, businesses, and governments.
Using CALISTA, stakeholders can benefit from streamlined trade and supply chain processes, optimal data reuse, connectivity across multiple customs nodes, improved authenticity of data flow, and access to accurate and up-to-date status visibility.
"To Increase Our Competitiveness In This Current Environment, We Are Expanding Our Focus To Digital Ports To Provide An Even Better Integration Within The Supply Chain Ecosystems"
On the other hand, CrimsonLogic’s TFP is a government-centric, internationally accredited GTM solution that facilitates faster, more transparent and more efficient cross-border trade. TFP offers agile and user-friendly implementation options for users. It is more flexible, cheaper, and faster in terms of deployment and requires less maintenance. TFP is also extremely versatile. It can be used as a Single Window solution, providing an intelligent one-stop facility for information exchange between traders and government agencies involved in cross-border trade.
TFP’s Customs Management System electronically manages all aspects of the customs process, such as importing, exporting, transshipments and transits, in accordance with the associated legislation. It facilitates risk assessment, speeds up customs
clearance, and strengthens the governing authority’s ability to collect tax and duty payments. The platform’s Free Trade Zone Management System component is used to enable the electronic exchange of information between the Free Trade Zone authority and traders operating within the zone. It also facilitates the digital submission of declarations to Customs. The solutions’ Permits and Licenses component offers a cutting-edge solution for traders and OGAs to electronically submit, process, and issue trade permits or licenses, certificates, and others (LPCO).
EXEMPLARY SUCCESS STORIES
CrimsonLogic’s solutions help governments and businesses establish customs compliance, streamline the flow of goods, and secure cross-border trade. They facilitate enhanced information sharing between multiple agencies and authorities and allow for collaboration in identifying risks and increasing responsiveness.
CrimsonLogic’s performance with SAB Express in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a perfect example of their capabilities. As the licensed clearing agent for FedEx and its subsidiary in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for more than 30 years, SAB Express had to be up to date with and interpret customs requirements correctly, which required significant time and effort. Even the smallest misinterpretation would result in rejection of the declaration, which could delay the clearing of physical cargo. SAB Express needed an intuitive solution for customs declarations.
Needless to say, they on-boarded CALISTA for a more intuitive trade compliance solution. With customs connectivity at 61 nodes, CALISTA was integrated with Fasah, the local customs declaration system.
The result was that the system was able to process declarations that adhere to relevant business rules and the latest customs submission requirements, assuring SAB Express that their declarations would be successful when submitting via CALISTA. The system has been a grand success, optimizing operations with zero downtime or failure.
JOURNEYING AHEAD, WITH A RECORD FOR SUCCESS
In yet another instance, CrimsonLogic worked with the Kenyan government to create the Kenya Trade Network Agency (KenTrade), Kenya’s National Single Window System. The system was launched with great success, as Kenya TradeNet became the first comprehensive Single Window system in the East African Community and one of the very few in the world that integrates a complex heterogeneous government agencies ecosystem onto a single common platform, streamlining the clearance process for sea, air, and land cargo. Today, as Kenya’s annual trade volumes exceed US$22.4 billion; Kenya TradeNet is a flagship project under Kenya’s Vision 2030 program to position the country as a key trading hub in Africa. The implementation of the Kenya TradeNet is timely as the system is expected to reduce cargo dwell time at ports and improve the ease of doing business. In light of that success, CrimsonLogic has signed an MoU with the government to enable KenTrade’s adoption of Big Data and Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing (BIDW) analytics solutions.
We Have More Than 30 Years Of Experience In Global Trade Management Systems and Have Implemented Over 20 National Single Window & GTM Systems Globally
Scripting many success stories, CrimsonLogic continues to be focused on shaping the future of trade and supply chain with its innovative use of technology and deep G2B and B2B domain expertise. By orchestrating logistics, compliance, and financial requirements of trade and supply chain in a seamless, smart, and secure way, the company enables global trade to be more accessible, predictable, and easier to fulfill.
Currently, CrimsonLogic possesses linkages to more than 60 customs nodes, 90 ocean carriers & NVOCCs across the world, with more than 175,000 connected parties and conducting more than 40 million transactions annually. The company continues to be passionate about making continual improvements in its products and services and instilling an innovative mindset in their people to be enthused with incorporating the latest technologies, such as blockchain, AI/ML, and predictive analytics, as well as the convergence of IoT and AI and ML.
With a penchant for customer centricity, CrimsonLogic is always listening to their stakeholders, who enable the solution provider to adapt to their pain points, allowing the company to develop the right solutions to address challenges. Together with CrimsonLogic’s domain expertise in trade, they strive to bring greater value to their customers.
“Our focus remains on trade, and we understand that with today’s global supply chain, supporting our customers with our know-how on their digitalization journey is important. To increase our competitiveness in this current environment, we are expanding our focus to digital ports to provide an even better integration within the supply chain ecosystems,” concludes Mr. Saw Ken Wye.
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