At Zepol, we are often asked how companies use our United States trade data. Since we have been providing many of the largest and most important companies involved in international trade the information they need for over five years, we have learned a multitude of ways that companies increase revenue, cut sourcing costs, cost effectively analyze their markets, and stop counterfeiters of their brands. Our experiences have shown that the uses of our trade data are endless.

To help the trade community to have a better understanding of how trade data can be used in their companies, we have developed several case studies based on our customers' experiences. Please download and read the case studies below or visit our case studies page on www.zepol.com.

• Competitive Intelligence for Importers
• Lead Prospecting at Transportation Companies
• Supplier Sourcing for U.S. Manufacturers
• Market Analysis of International Environments
• Legal and Brand Protection of International Intellectual Property

By reading these cases, many companies have begun to see how this information can help in their organizations. However, every situation is unique and this is why Zepol works closely with all of our customers to understand their needs and find solutions for both their trade data needs and their trade related problems.

On October 5th, Zepol completed the data for September in our U.S. Customs trade data tool, TradeIQ. September's results show that imports declined from August, marking the end to three straight months of growth. Furthermore, total shipments are down 10.13% from September 2008.

Below is a table showing the port regions of the world where shipments last departed before reaching the United States:
Worldwide, ports are coping differently. Of the top ten ports by shipment activity for the last twelve months, only one experienced any growth; this was Ning Bo with an unimpressive 0.29% growth rate. Given the current state of the world economy, this is not surprising. However, given the growth of the last three months, the steep decline in trade with Singapore, Kao Hsiung, and Antwerp from August is noteworthy.

Below are the top ten international ports by U.S. import shipment count:
Zepol's U.S. Customs trade data is taken from Bills of Lading entered into the Automated Manifest System. The information represents the number of House manifests entered by importers of waterborne containerized goods. This indicator is the earliest data available for the previous month’s trade activity.

Zepol is pleased to announce that we will be a regular guest blogger at 3PLwire.com. This relationship will provide an opportunity to showcase some of the United States trade information that Zepol provides and also participate in the regular discussions about international trade topics.

3PLwire.com has been discussing topics about third party logistics since 2007 and is recognized as a leading voice in this industry. They touch on a variety of logistics and supply chain management related topics including freight forwarding, logistics news, supply chain security, 3PL trends and others. The goal of 3PLwire.com is to provide meaningful up-to-date insights into the world of logistics and help keep readers on top of the latest happenings in global trade.

Please click here to see our first contribution to 3PLwire.com.

Amongst competitive and business intelligence professionals, one of the biggest problems they face is presenting their findings to stakeholders in their organizations. The Outward Insights Competitive Intelligence blog posted a great entry to this effect on September 28th, in which they discuss some of the methods that the professionals in this industry find most effective for showcasing their findings to others in their companies.

Outward Insights came to the conclusion that executive briefings are the most effective way to get executives to pay attention to and internalize the findings that CI professionals have spent time investigating and creating. These briefings are an important factor in getting the information needed to make decisions and strategies in the decision and strategy makers’ hands.

However, I think it raises a greater point that service providers in the CI community need to consider. Whether you are a business intelligence consultant or a competitive intelligence service provider like Zepol, how you present the information to your users is of great importance. Users should be able to visualize changes in their environments easily and within the user interface. For Zepol, this means providing trends and graphs of aggregate trade information that can easily be exported for the reports that CI professionals will eventually use for hand offs. Even in a face to face situation, stakeholders need quality information to take with them and cement the findings they heard.

If your company is evaluating competitive intelligence service providers, make sure the tools go beyond just searching and exporting data. This is just data and brings nothing to the stakeholders in your company without extensive analysis on the user’s part. Using next generation tools that expose trends and visualize what is happening in your market, turns the data into information, and exposes actionable intelligence that can help drive your company forward.