Terrorist Avoidance for Global Software Manufacturer

Following the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, U.S. Customs enacted the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) legislation to increase security at the borders of the United States. Although industry participation is voluntary, our client had just-in-time inventory requirements that could not afford the delays associated with increased inspections and waiting times at U.S. borders. Plus, they did not want to risk negative customer perceptions caused by unexpected non-compliance.

With a vendor network including operations in over 100 countries, complying with C-TPAT was a major hurdle for this global software manufacturer. What attracted this client to FreightWatch Group was our international footprint—our company has offices that span the globe, giving us the expertise to understand the complex hand-offs in multinational supply and distribution chains.

Over the course of one year, FreightWatch helped the client implement audit standards that were consistent across all regions, effectively eliminating inconsistencies and subjectivity in operational reports. FreightWatch's involvement helped this client gain complete visibility of their supply chain—not just the transit segments their partners allowed them to know about. This knowledge helped our client ensure that unmanifested materials from terrorist sources were not being surreptitiously introduced into their supply chain.

Since FreightWatch Group served as the sole provider for this project, we were able to help the client's regional operations leverage each other's experience with the C-TPAT program. The result? FreightWatch Group enabled best-practices to be shared across the client's worldwide infrastructure. And with streamlined billing to a single cost center, we helped our client simplify its internal financial operations with regards to the global C-TPAT project.