What is global trade management?
Applications offered by TradeCard, PrimeRevenue and other providers such as TradeBeam, Bolero and Vastera (now acquired by JPMorgan Chase) fall under the software category called global trade management (GTM). If youve never heard of GTM, that is because it has only recently been coined, says C. Dwight Klappich , a software analyst at Gartner Group, a global consultancy. This is a unique market in that it is very mature in one sense and very immature in the other. Pieces of global trade management, such as the automated letter of credit or an export customs clearance engine, have been in existence for several years, he explains. But very few of these vendors have tried to incorporate the three essential functional pillars trade finance, logistics and compliance in one platform to form a true GTM solution. There is no single vendor that does it all, he says, although some come close. TradeBeam is one example, so is Vastera. There are signs that the market is slowly moving in this direct
